10 ms·

Microsoft Edge now gets even more out of your battery

98 points by technological 10y ago

tove 10y ago
By not using it because it sucks. Too much of what Microsoft puts into Windows is to spy on you.
- 0xFFC 10y ago
  Actually as person who spend all day reading PDF and non-native English talker, I must admit I abandoned chrome for edge because of one simple feature: "Ask Cortana". Chrome dev team has somekind of attitude ,"they don't give fuck about peoples feedback". And as person which English is not his mother tongue I know simple built-in universal look up is game changer. Apple is first. But since I am PC user , it is not an option for me.So I am going to definitely stick with Edge, because reading PDF in edge when you can simply lookup any word definition is absolutely a game changer for me.
  - JurisMucenieks 10y ago
    Cortana is a spy tool as well. Here's how to turn it off: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-turn-cortana-and-stop-personal-data-gathering-windows-10 http://www.windowscentral.com/how-turn-cortana-and-stop-pers...
  - wingerlang 10y ago
    What exactly does it do? In Chrome I use "google dictionary" and just double click any word in any language and it gives me translations, define and wikipedia stuff.
    - 0xFFC 10y ago
      Clearly you didn't read it carefully. Do chrome extension support PDFs ? no.
      - wingerlang 10y ago
        Fair enough.
    - omaranto 10y ago
      In PDFs too or just in HTML pages? The comment you replied to mentions PDFs.
pooper 10y ago
I run a virtual box VM provided by Microsoft to test my website on their new browser. It surprises me how much of a resource hog Windows can be... Is there really no way to turn off cortana and on access antivirus scan? I guess it is probably fine on a real machine but it sucks on a VM on a machine with a spinning disk where Windows is just a tenant among others.
- Yhippa 10y ago
  It's cool that Edge may be power-efficient but not cool that the underlying OS is a resource hog.
- UnoriginalGuy 10y ago
  > Is there really no way to turn off cortana and on access antivirus scan? Cortana is a new name for an old process. It is SearchUI.exe. You can disable most of Cortana's functionality, it is currently "suspended" on my machine and using 38 MB of RAM, with 5 seconds of CPU time. Pretty low utilisation. Here is a guide to disabling the anti-virus indefinitely: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defender-in-windows-10-permanently/ http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defe...
- WayneBro 10y ago
  - http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defender-in-windows-10-permanently/ http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defe... - http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-turn-off-cortana-windows-10 http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-turn-off-cortana-windo...
SmallDeadGuy 10y ago
> To validate our improvements and make sure we’re giving our customers the best experience possible, we monitor aggregated telemetry on power consumption from millions of Windows 10 devices around the world. I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, the telemetry data is obviously very useful and will allow products to be improved greatly. On the other hand, how many of the "millions" of people know the data is being collected? Did every single one of them click a button that said "I know what data you want to collect and I accept your request to take it"? Definitely not. To pull stunts like this, they need absolute transparency on the telemetry collected, the encryption/sanitation methods, how they ensure anonymity, the security of the protocols used for collection, and ideally be an opt-in not an opt-out. I don't care if they collect battery usage of my new laptop playing games, and anything important is disabled, but there's absolutely no way I'm upgrading my development PC to Windows 10 or ever installing a Microsoft product on my Linux install. I'm waiting for the inevitable day when Windows messes with other OSes that have been dual-booted. One day we'll log in and see a pop-up saying "We've detected you recently installed <Insert Linux Distro here> to <Insert Disk Drive here>! To provide the best service possible, we've installed a full Microsoft driver/software suite and changed the theme to something more Windows-like." Edit: As a fun side-note, when copying the quote to my clipboard it automatically appended "Read more at <link to article here." The joke about Microsoft pushing their products into Linux distros was exactly that: A joke. But secretly adding data (even harmless links) into local memory that could be unknowingly stored/put anywhere because the user has no idea is unbelievable.
cwyers 10y ago
So, I'm glad that Microsoft is focusing on a real-world pain point for people on Edge. I don't think people can be talked into switching browsers by stuff like the Cortana integration, but this might convince some. One problem is that Edge really isn't quite ready for primetime yet. There's a few sharp edges here and there that make using it about 90% pleasant enough and 10% really painful. Some of it is that I don't think the UWP is as fully-baked as the old Win32 ecosystem yet, and it makes weird compromises. The multitasking model of UWP seems to be phone-first, which is just out of place for me. When I have a desktop PC that's plugged in and has 16gb of RAM, my web browser should never just spontaneously CLOSE because I tab out to another window. I get why Edge does this, believe me. (I just got out of a two-week stretch of using a cheap Nokia Lumia as my smartphone because of problems with my main device overheating, and there's such a tension between being impressed at what Windows 10 for Phones or whatever the hell they're calling it now can do in 512mb of RAM and thinking that 512mb of RAM is incredibly frustrating to live with.) But it doesn't make sense on the majority of devices that Edge runs on. Leave my browser window open. I'm going to come back to it. Also, Microsoft really needs to break the link between Edge updates and Windows updates. This doesn't affect me much at home because I'm Fast Ring so I get Windows updates more often than I eat meals sometimes, but in general I don't think it's great for the ecosystem. Also, if by any chance someone working on Edge is reading this thread, can you make it so I can resize the text box for adding comments to Hacker News? Chrome lets me do this, and I would probably increase my Edge usage significantly with just that fix.
- coldpie 10y ago
  > The multitasking model of UWP seems to be phone-first, which is just out of place for me. When I have a desktop PC that's plugged in and has 16gb of RAM, my web browser should never just spontaneously CLOSE because I tab out to another window. I haven't used Windows in a decade. This really happens? UWP programs just spontaneously close on desktop computers? I really can't believe that.
  - DiNovi 10y ago
    I think he means it auto minimizes to the tray
tbrock 10y ago
What about vs Safari? That's the real gold standard for battery life.
- 0xFFC 10y ago
  That would be unfair comparison in this case, because they are talking about browser vs browser comparison.But for safari , since neither support others platform, that would be whole stack vs whole stack.
  - Spivak 10y ago
    Sure, it might be an unfair comparison, but the results will be far more meaningful to the end user. Take a Macbook Pro / Surface Pro 4 with stock settings, put Edge / Safari under the same paces and see which one uses more energy.
    - izacus 10y ago
      You're testing the hardware and software stack then. Those tests are a dime a dozen.
- mr_sturd 10y ago
  Is that the case on a Windows machine though?
amadeusw 10y ago
Since now Edge has the extensions now, I'll switching before upgrading hardware. I want to see how much longer my old battery would last.
- V-2 10y ago
  Mine doesn't. They're part of an update that won't reach everyone until November.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    It's pretty easy to get the update manually if you want it. Search for Microsoft's "Media Creation Tool" and run it. It'll offer to upgrade the PC you're on immediately, or download the installation media.
    - MLR 10y ago
      Alternately you can use the tool on this page, I think it skips some of the messing about you get with the other methods. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
pipio21 10y ago
Thank you Microsoft! That is what I wanted: Mandated Telemetry in everything I do so the mothership knows everything I do everytime from a product I supposedly bought. It is so great to know that today Microsoft and the US gobertment could use all this information to improve their products or directly control the people that use their computers.
- mSparks 10y ago
  Come on now downvoters. He could actually be serious. I mean, some (that silent majority of?) users must be happy with everything he said. Or else M$ and Google wouldn't be doing it. Right?
andrewvijay 10y ago
I don't use edge until now the only reason being no support for extensions. Since they are arriving soon it's very exciting. Finally to save some more hours on the battery!
- omaranto 10y ago
  Not "arriving soon", but rather "arrived very recently". I got them with the anniversary update.
  - andrewvijay 10y ago
    Oops gotta update
yodon 10y ago
I'm a huge fan of Microsoft, heavy Azure and .NET stack user, and I can't find a single nice thing to say about Edge. Yes, it crashes constantly, but it's the easy stuff that is hopelessly and inexcusably broken. Want a dozen tabs? No problem, just don't expect to be able to switch to the ones on the right because the hit boxes for selecting the tabs are hidden behind the hit box for minimizing the window. Want to resize the window? No problem, just don't try to do it by clicking on the top edge of the window because the hit box for resizing the window is hidden behind the hit boxes for selecting tabs. Want to set the default search engine to google or anything else? No problem, just don't expect to search for anything with a dot in the name because the unbelievably poorly written regex for detecting URLs overrides the search engine behavior in the address bar, preventing your search from hitting the search engine. The list of unbelievable simple, horribly frustrating usability issues is so long and so easy to encounter, I refuse to believe anyone on the Edge team actually uses this thing. Oh and it crashes constantly. Did I mention that it crashes constantly? Which is a shame because In my opinion it has the nicest developer toolset of any of the major browsers.
- mcbits 10y ago
  I will add: Want to click to select a tab using a pen tablet? No problem, as long as you have the hand of a surgeon. (It's far too easy to accidentally pop a tab out to a new window.) Though now that it supports extensions, I'm still giving it a try for a few weeks to see if it can replace Firefox, which has been going downhill for me lately.
  - MichaelGG 10y ago
    >hand of a surgeon This was always a huge issue on Tablet PC, and probably the number one usability issue from Microsoft. (The rest of the Tablet PC sinking was due to shitty OEMs.)
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  Are you using the Anniversary Update yet? Edge crashing was really, really bad in the 1511 build, but I've had almost no crashes on 1607. (Though in fairness, I rarely use browsers with more than five or six simultaneously open tabs.)
izacus 10y ago
Hopefully this pushes Chrome team to improve the terrible battery management across the board. Even on OS X, Chrome eats battery significantly faster than Safari. Which is becoming a larger and larger problem as apps are switching away from tiny efficient native runtimes to the Chromium driven Electron hogs :/
- Klathmon 10y ago
  They are pushing for it, but it might take some time. IIRC their new V8 architecture is going to bring some big memory and battery savings in that area, but that's not going to be done until next year at the earliest (complete guess on my part).
  - Andrex 10y ago
    The latest release uses 33% less power on Mac compared to a version from 2015: https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/09/chrome-faster-and-more-battery-friendly.html https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/09/chrome-faster-and-more...
- soperj 10y ago
  Same on Linux. Just chews through my battery, firefox is much better.
- masklinn 10y ago
  > Hopefully this pushes Chrome team to improve the terrible battery management across the board. Even on OS X, Chrome eats battery significantly faster than Safari. Why would this push them any more than Safari blowing them out the water on efficiency for years?
  - daenney 10y ago
    Because no one really cares about doing better than Safari, mostly because the amount of users is small and they all consider themselves better browsers. Apple or even Webkit never made any kind of waves about it themselves either. However, Microsoft is pretty big. Edge is the default browser on Windows, a platform that has a significant amount of users, and they're making quite some noise in the area. Others have taken notice and are at least ensuring they keep up. Which is good, we all benefit.
michaelcampbell 10y ago
Given that what's IN my battery is "power", that title could be taken in completely the opposite direction it's intended.
oz 10y ago
At home when I'm all plugged in, I have 3 Chrome windows, each with multiple tabs, spread across my PLP setup. Whenever I pop into a client, and awake from sleep, you can almost see the battery draining in real time. Edge to the rescue; and I'm glad they're putting the pressure on Google to do better. Pro Tip: You think Edge saves your battery? Sheeeeit....Try using the Movies & TV app vs VLC someday. M&TV is a certified power miser - I caught up on several TV shows plus The Martian on a flight from Montego Bay to Frankfurt a few months ago, using my Toshiba Encore 10" tablet that isn't exactly known for its battery life.
beezischillin 10y ago
Microsoft Edge: Now even more efficient at downloading Chrome
xutopia 10y ago
I never trust Microsoft benchmarks or studies they paid for. Why? Because they've lied so many times that it's impossible for me to trust them. Remember the TCO of Linux versus Windows? They used different machines AND tacked on thousands per individual in training if they used Linux. It was comparing apples and oranges. Who knows what they came up with to show off Edge here...
- hirsin 10y ago
  Why not find out for yourself? https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/BrowserEfficiencyTest/releases/tag/bloggedVersion https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/BrowserEfficiencyTest/relea...
  - tedunangst 10y ago
    Because if they're right I won't be able to hate them.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
muizelaar 10y ago
Unfortunately, Netflix uses DRM which limits Firefox's ability to have control over the better usage in this test. The video decoding and decryption is done by the Adobe CDM. It would be interesting to see a comparison without DRM'd video.
- gcp 10y ago
  Exactly! It's even worse because Netflix has specific deals with Microsoft/Edge that use a different DRM technique - they announced so publicly as a reason to restrict Chrome and Firefox to non-HD video.
youdontknowtho 10y ago
I like the text rendering in Edge, but its still pretty rough.
consto 10y ago
Now this is a competition I can get behind.
walter_bishop 10y ago
How does Microsoft tweaking the OS to make Edge use the battery more efficiently translate to industry-leading efficiency? A more reliable test would be to compare browsers on another Operating System.
bla2 10y ago
It's really cool that they published details on their measurement methodology and even made their webdriver code open-source (https://microsoftedge.github.io/videotest/2016-09/WebdriverMethodology.html https://microsoftedge.github.io/videotest/2016-09/WebdriverM...). Also cool that Chrome's energy use has been improving considerably in Chrome 53, and with this being a bit of a PR battle here's hoping that energy use of both Edge and Chrome continues to improve.
anjc 10y ago
I love Edge (and loved IE Metro). It's ideal for a device like the Surface.
extrapickles 10y ago
They must have carefully curated the "general browsing" to sites that do not cause it to crash, as it always seems to pull a vanishing act if the site isn't coded specifically to avoid known crash points. The most reliable way I've found to crash it is to use MutationObservers in a website. Even though Edge has support for them, I still have to pave over it with a JS version that doesn't cause the browser to crash after a few minutes of use. Something is wrong if emulating browser features in JS leads to a better experience than using the feature as built in. Having to do so probably eliminates any battery life gains they have made.
gnicholas 10y ago
Also super slow for JS. 1/5 the speed of Chrome working with our JS, which makes a huge difference in terms of usability and responsiveness. Hope this new version is faster, but if it's optimizing for battery life then maybe it'll be worse...
beezischillin 10y ago
sometimes I do wonder why Microsoft fanbois creep around in comment sections, downvoting everyone who doesn't fall to the ground at the amazing (not) quality of work Microsoft does

98 points by technological 10y ago

tove 10y ago

By not using it because it sucks. Too much of what Microsoft puts into Windows is to spy on you.

0xFFC 10y ago
Actually as person who spend all day reading PDF and non-native English talker, I must admit I abandoned chrome for edge because of one simple feature: "Ask Cortana". Chrome dev team has somekind of attitude ,"they don't give fuck about peoples feedback". And as person which English is not his mother tongue I know simple built-in universal look up is game changer. Apple is first. But since I am PC user , it is not an option for me.So I am going to definitely stick with Edge, because reading PDF in edge when you can simply lookup any word definition is absolutely a game changer for me.
- JurisMucenieks 10y ago
  Cortana is a spy tool as well. Here's how to turn it off: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-turn-cortana-and-stop-personal-data-gathering-windows-10 http://www.windowscentral.com/how-turn-cortana-and-stop-pers...
- wingerlang 10y ago
  What exactly does it do? In Chrome I use "google dictionary" and just double click any word in any language and it gives me translations, define and wikipedia stuff.
  - 0xFFC 10y ago
    Clearly you didn't read it carefully. Do chrome extension support PDFs ? no.
    - wingerlang 10y ago
      Fair enough.
  - omaranto 10y ago
    In PDFs too or just in HTML pages? The comment you replied to mentions PDFs.

pooper 10y ago

I run a virtual box VM provided by Microsoft to test my website on their new browser. It surprises me how much of a resource hog Windows can be... Is there really no way to turn off cortana and on access antivirus scan? I guess it is probably fine on a real machine but it sucks on a VM on a machine with a spinning disk where Windows is just a tenant among others.

Yhippa 10y ago
It's cool that Edge may be power-efficient but not cool that the underlying OS is a resource hog.
UnoriginalGuy 10y ago
> Is there really no way to turn off cortana and on access antivirus scan? Cortana is a new name for an old process. It is SearchUI.exe. You can disable most of Cortana's functionality, it is currently "suspended" on my machine and using 38 MB of RAM, with 5 seconds of CPU time. Pretty low utilisation. Here is a guide to disabling the anti-virus indefinitely: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defender-in-windows-10-permanently/ http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defe...
WayneBro 10y ago
- http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defender-in-windows-10-permanently/ http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/25/how-to-disable-windows-defe... - http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-turn-off-cortana-windows-10 http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-turn-off-cortana-windo...

SmallDeadGuy 10y ago

> To validate our improvements and make sure we’re giving our customers the best experience possible, we monitor aggregated telemetry on power consumption from millions of Windows 10 devices around the world. I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, the telemetry data is obviously very useful and will allow products to be improved greatly. On the other hand, how many of the "millions" of people know the data is being collected? Did every single one of them click a button that said "I know what data you want to collect and I accept your request to take it"? Definitely not. To pull stunts like this, they need absolute transparency on the telemetry collected, the encryption/sanitation methods, how they ensure anonymity, the security of the protocols used for collection, and ideally be an opt-in not an opt-out. I don't care if they collect battery usage of my new laptop playing games, and anything important is disabled, but there's absolutely no way I'm upgrading my development PC to Windows 10 or ever installing a Microsoft product on my Linux install. I'm waiting for the inevitable day when Windows messes with other OSes that have been dual-booted. One day we'll log in and see a pop-up saying "We've detected you recently installed <Insert Linux Distro here> to <Insert Disk Drive here>! To provide the best service possible, we've installed a full Microsoft driver/software suite and changed the theme to something more Windows-like." Edit: As a fun side-note, when copying the quote to my clipboard it automatically appended "Read more at <link to article here." The joke about Microsoft pushing their products into Linux distros was exactly that: A joke. But secretly adding data (even harmless links) into local memory that could be unknowingly stored/put anywhere because the user has no idea is unbelievable.

cwyers 10y ago

So, I'm glad that Microsoft is focusing on a real-world pain point for people on Edge. I don't think people can be talked into switching browsers by stuff like the Cortana integration, but this might convince some. One problem is that Edge really isn't quite ready for primetime yet. There's a few sharp edges here and there that make using it about 90% pleasant enough and 10% really painful. Some of it is that I don't think the UWP is as fully-baked as the old Win32 ecosystem yet, and it makes weird compromises. The multitasking model of UWP seems to be phone-first, which is just out of place for me. When I have a desktop PC that's plugged in and has 16gb of RAM, my web browser should never just spontaneously CLOSE because I tab out to another window. I get why Edge does this, believe me. (I just got out of a two-week stretch of using a cheap Nokia Lumia as my smartphone because of problems with my main device overheating, and there's such a tension between being impressed at what Windows 10 for Phones or whatever the hell they're calling it now can do in 512mb of RAM and thinking that 512mb of RAM is incredibly frustrating to live with.) But it doesn't make sense on the majority of devices that Edge runs on. Leave my browser window open. I'm going to come back to it. Also, Microsoft really needs to break the link between Edge updates and Windows updates. This doesn't affect me much at home because I'm Fast Ring so I get Windows updates more often than I eat meals sometimes, but in general I don't think it's great for the ecosystem. Also, if by any chance someone working on Edge is reading this thread, can you make it so I can resize the text box for adding comments to Hacker News? Chrome lets me do this, and I would probably increase my Edge usage significantly with just that fix.

coldpie 10y ago
> The multitasking model of UWP seems to be phone-first, which is just out of place for me. When I have a desktop PC that's plugged in and has 16gb of RAM, my web browser should never just spontaneously CLOSE because I tab out to another window. I haven't used Windows in a decade. This really happens? UWP programs just spontaneously close on desktop computers? I really can't believe that.
- DiNovi 10y ago
  I think he means it auto minimizes to the tray

tbrock 10y ago

What about vs Safari? That's the real gold standard for battery life.

0xFFC 10y ago
That would be unfair comparison in this case, because they are talking about browser vs browser comparison.But for safari , since neither support others platform, that would be whole stack vs whole stack.
- Spivak 10y ago
  Sure, it might be an unfair comparison, but the results will be far more meaningful to the end user. Take a Macbook Pro / Surface Pro 4 with stock settings, put Edge / Safari under the same paces and see which one uses more energy.
  - izacus 10y ago
    You're testing the hardware and software stack then. Those tests are a dime a dozen.
mr_sturd 10y ago
Is that the case on a Windows machine though?

amadeusw 10y ago

Since now Edge has the extensions now, I'll switching before upgrading hardware. I want to see how much longer my old battery would last.

V-2 10y ago
Mine doesn't. They're part of an update that won't reach everyone until November.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  It's pretty easy to get the update manually if you want it. Search for Microsoft's "Media Creation Tool" and run it. It'll offer to upgrade the PC you're on immediately, or download the installation media.
  - MLR 10y ago
    Alternately you can use the tool on this page, I think it skips some of the messing about you get with the other methods. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

pipio21 10y ago

Thank you Microsoft! That is what I wanted: Mandated Telemetry in everything I do so the mothership knows everything I do everytime from a product I supposedly bought. It is so great to know that today Microsoft and the US gobertment could use all this information to improve their products or directly control the people that use their computers.

mSparks 10y ago
Come on now downvoters. He could actually be serious. I mean, some (that silent majority of?) users must be happy with everything he said. Or else M$ and Google wouldn't be doing it. Right?

andrewvijay 10y ago

I don't use edge until now the only reason being no support for extensions. Since they are arriving soon it's very exciting. Finally to save some more hours on the battery!

omaranto 10y ago
Not "arriving soon", but rather "arrived very recently". I got them with the anniversary update.
- andrewvijay 10y ago
  Oops gotta update

yodon 10y ago

I'm a huge fan of Microsoft, heavy Azure and .NET stack user, and I can't find a single nice thing to say about Edge. Yes, it crashes constantly, but it's the easy stuff that is hopelessly and inexcusably broken. Want a dozen tabs? No problem, just don't expect to be able to switch to the ones on the right because the hit boxes for selecting the tabs are hidden behind the hit box for minimizing the window. Want to resize the window? No problem, just don't try to do it by clicking on the top edge of the window because the hit box for resizing the window is hidden behind the hit boxes for selecting tabs. Want to set the default search engine to google or anything else? No problem, just don't expect to search for anything with a dot in the name because the unbelievably poorly written regex for detecting URLs overrides the search engine behavior in the address bar, preventing your search from hitting the search engine. The list of unbelievable simple, horribly frustrating usability issues is so long and so easy to encounter, I refuse to believe anyone on the Edge team actually uses this thing. Oh and it crashes constantly. Did I mention that it crashes constantly? Which is a shame because In my opinion it has the nicest developer toolset of any of the major browsers.

mcbits 10y ago
I will add: Want to click to select a tab using a pen tablet? No problem, as long as you have the hand of a surgeon. (It's far too easy to accidentally pop a tab out to a new window.) Though now that it supports extensions, I'm still giving it a try for a few weeks to see if it can replace Firefox, which has been going downhill for me lately.
- MichaelGG 10y ago
  >hand of a surgeon This was always a huge issue on Tablet PC, and probably the number one usability issue from Microsoft. (The rest of the Tablet PC sinking was due to shitty OEMs.)
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
Are you using the Anniversary Update yet? Edge crashing was really, really bad in the 1511 build, but I've had almost no crashes on 1607. (Though in fairness, I rarely use browsers with more than five or six simultaneously open tabs.)

izacus 10y ago

Hopefully this pushes Chrome team to improve the terrible battery management across the board. Even on OS X, Chrome eats battery significantly faster than Safari. Which is becoming a larger and larger problem as apps are switching away from tiny efficient native runtimes to the Chromium driven Electron hogs :/

Klathmon 10y ago
They are pushing for it, but it might take some time. IIRC their new V8 architecture is going to bring some big memory and battery savings in that area, but that's not going to be done until next year at the earliest (complete guess on my part).
- Andrex 10y ago
  The latest release uses 33% less power on Mac compared to a version from 2015: https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/09/chrome-faster-and-more-battery-friendly.html https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/09/chrome-faster-and-more...
soperj 10y ago
Same on Linux. Just chews through my battery, firefox is much better.
masklinn 10y ago
> Hopefully this pushes Chrome team to improve the terrible battery management across the board. Even on OS X, Chrome eats battery significantly faster than Safari. Why would this push them any more than Safari blowing them out the water on efficiency for years?
- daenney 10y ago
  Because no one really cares about doing better than Safari, mostly because the amount of users is small and they all consider themselves better browsers. Apple or even Webkit never made any kind of waves about it themselves either. However, Microsoft is pretty big. Edge is the default browser on Windows, a platform that has a significant amount of users, and they're making quite some noise in the area. Others have taken notice and are at least ensuring they keep up. Which is good, we all benefit.

michaelcampbell 10y ago

Given that what's IN my battery is "power", that title could be taken in completely the opposite direction it's intended.

oz 10y ago

At home when I'm all plugged in, I have 3 Chrome windows, each with multiple tabs, spread across my PLP setup. Whenever I pop into a client, and awake from sleep, you can almost see the battery draining in real time. Edge to the rescue; and I'm glad they're putting the pressure on Google to do better. Pro Tip: You think Edge saves your battery? Sheeeeit....Try using the Movies & TV app vs VLC someday. M&TV is a certified power miser - I caught up on several TV shows plus The Martian on a flight from Montego Bay to Frankfurt a few months ago, using my Toshiba Encore 10" tablet that isn't exactly known for its battery life.

beezischillin 10y ago

Microsoft Edge: Now even more efficient at downloading Chrome

xutopia 10y ago

I never trust Microsoft benchmarks or studies they paid for. Why? Because they've lied so many times that it's impossible for me to trust them. Remember the TCO of Linux versus Windows? They used different machines AND tacked on thousands per individual in training if they used Linux. It was comparing apples and oranges. Who knows what they came up with to show off Edge here...

hirsin 10y ago
Why not find out for yourself? https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/BrowserEfficiencyTest/releases/tag/bloggedVersion https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/BrowserEfficiencyTest/relea...
- tedunangst 10y ago
  Because if they're right I won't be able to hate them.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

muizelaar 10y ago

Unfortunately, Netflix uses DRM which limits Firefox's ability to have control over the better usage in this test. The video decoding and decryption is done by the Adobe CDM. It would be interesting to see a comparison without DRM'd video.

gcp 10y ago
Exactly! It's even worse because Netflix has specific deals with Microsoft/Edge that use a different DRM technique - they announced so publicly as a reason to restrict Chrome and Firefox to non-HD video.

youdontknowtho 10y ago

I like the text rendering in Edge, but its still pretty rough.

consto 10y ago

Now this is a competition I can get behind.

walter_bishop 10y ago

How does Microsoft tweaking the OS to make Edge use the battery more efficiently translate to industry-leading efficiency? A more reliable test would be to compare browsers on another Operating System.

bla2 10y ago

It's really cool that they published details on their measurement methodology and even made their webdriver code open-source (https://microsoftedge.github.io/videotest/2016-09/WebdriverMethodology.html https://microsoftedge.github.io/videotest/2016-09/WebdriverM...). Also cool that Chrome's energy use has been improving considerably in Chrome 53, and with this being a bit of a PR battle here's hoping that energy use of both Edge and Chrome continues to improve.

anjc 10y ago

I love Edge (and loved IE Metro). It's ideal for a device like the Surface.

extrapickles 10y ago

They must have carefully curated the "general browsing" to sites that do not cause it to crash, as it always seems to pull a vanishing act if the site isn't coded specifically to avoid known crash points. The most reliable way I've found to crash it is to use MutationObservers in a website. Even though Edge has support for them, I still have to pave over it with a JS version that doesn't cause the browser to crash after a few minutes of use. Something is wrong if emulating browser features in JS leads to a better experience than using the feature as built in. Having to do so probably eliminates any battery life gains they have made.

gnicholas 10y ago

Also super slow for JS. 1/5 the speed of Chrome working with our JS, which makes a huge difference in terms of usability and responsiveness. Hope this new version is faster, but if it's optimizing for battery life then maybe it'll be worse...

beezischillin 10y ago

sometimes I do wonder why Microsoft fanbois creep around in comment sections, downvoting everyone who doesn't fall to the ground at the amazing (not) quality of work Microsoft does