Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome By Over Three Hours In New Battery Usage Test (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: With the launch of the Windows 10 Creators Update and Edge 40 (EdgeHTML 15), Microsoft has released a new battery usage test that, naturally, trashes the company's competition. This new test shows that Edge uses less power than both Chrome 57 and Firefox 52, and is bound to draw a response from its competition, especially Google, who doesn't like it when Microsoft takes a jab at Chrome's efficiency. The same thing happened last year, in June, when a similar test showcasing Edge's longer battery life was met with responses from both Google and Opera.

The most recent tests were performed for the launch of Windows 10 Creators Update. Two tests were carried out until a laptop's battery gave out. For each browser, a minimum of 16 iterations were recorded per test. The first test measured normal browsing performance and the second ran a looped Vimeo fullscreen video. In the normal browsing performance test, Microsoft claims Edge used 31% less power than Chrome 57, and 44% less power than Firefox 52. In the second test, Edge played a looped Vimeo video in fullscreen for 751 minutes (12:31:08), while Chrome lasted 557 minutes (9:17:03) and Firefox for only 424 minutes (7:04:19). That's a whopping three hours over Chrome, and five hours above Firefox.

Comments

Nobody

[MightyMartian]

Nobody believes you, MS. And even if it were true, Edge sucks so fucking bad that I'd rather have a shorter battery life and a decent browser than that worthless piece of shit browser you've produced.

Re: Nobody

[MightyMartian]

MS's numbers are clear. I'm not really going to simply believe what MS says about their own browser. They've spent fifteen years exaggerating the wonders of their shitty browsers. As it is, unless battery life is your only concern, Edge just fucking sucks in every other way. The whole browsing experience in Edge just stinks, and the numbers don't lie there either, people simply don't use Edge.

Re: Nobody

[ArmoredDragon]

I actually just reformatted my daily driver desktop PC, installing the creator's update, and the new marketing pressure is real.

The first boot after install loads a cortana screen that doesn't go away until you click the mic mute button, with not one but three prompts to use a Microsoft account.

When you finally get to the desktop and use edge for the one and only purpose that most people use it for, it doesn't stop there. You type "Firefox download" in the search bar, and the first thing you get is a prompt to stick with edge. After you install Firefox and click to set it as default, the windows 10 default settings applet loads a blank screen (this repeated after multiple attempts.) So to change the default browser, you have to open that settings applet manually. Once you try to select Firefox as your default browser, you get another prompt telling you to try edge first, which you then have to dismiss to finally change the default.

Re: Nobody

[Anonymous Coward]

It wouldn't surprise me if MS has added code into Windows 10 to drain a battery faster if certain conditions are met.
Its not unusual behavior for MS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re: Nobody

[whoever57]

And yet the numbers are clear that Edge is superior.

... because Microsoft would never cheat? Microsoft would never pick a set of tests that favour its own browser, or even put code into its OS to make the competition less efficient?

Re:Nobody

[Tharkkun]

Nobody believes you, MS. And even if it were true, Edge sucks so fucking bad that I'd rather have a shorter battery life and a decent browser than that worthless piece of shit browser you've produced.

Actually Chrome is an abomination lately. It's a memory hog. Firefox is performing far better now than Chrome. Google is more worried about its performance in the mobile world and less on the PC. Hell they are the only browser that hasn't restricted javascript from launching in it's own tab. 2 years behind...

Re: Nobody

[imgod2u]

"Superior" is a subjective term not at all equivalent with "drains battery less". I do in fact acknowledge that for Vimeo video playback and a "normal browsing" set of tasks Microsoft has come up with, Edge drains less battery than Chrome.

That, in and of itself, doesn't automatically confer the label "superior" to Edge for me. As I value the usability features of Chrome much more than Edge.

Re: Nobody

[dszd0g]

Climate change is supported by hundreds of independent studies. There are also some studies funding by the oil companies that cherry pick the data to claim that climate change does not exist or is purely following the natural course of the planet. There are articles that show how the oil companies studies cherry picked data points and why the results are invalid.

This article is based on tests done by Microsoft on their own browser. That is much more like the oil company "studies" than the independent ones. The Microsoft test isn't based on any industry standard benchmark or anything; they designed new tests to show off their browser. If you don't think Microsoft designed the tests to show Edge in the best possible light and the other browsers in the worst; then you are naive. Microsoft has a long history of producing PR that doesn't stand up to independent testing and many articles cover this topic.

The facts here are that Microsoft designed 2 tests that makes their browser look good. I don't think anyone is denying that. The facts we don't know is whether independent testing will show the same results.

Re: Nobody

[rtb61]

No the numbers are a lie. Why are they are lie because edge is running all of the fucking time, whether you use it or not. So basically the fucking liars are comparing edge running in the background and foreground to edge running in the background and Chrome running in the foreground. A straight up marketing fucking lie. So yes, just running fucking edge uses less power than running edge and chrome, surprise, surprise, surprise. Want a real world comparison for edge versus chrome, compare edge on windows 10 to chrome on linux and then just for fun compare TCO, M$'s favourite total cost of ownership. So conduct a range of internet tasks and then look a data usage will edge on windows 10 not only consume more energy but also how much more network data will be wastefully created.

On Windows 10, the bulk of edge is now running in the background no matter what the fuck you do, you can not stop it wasting power, reducing performance and spying on you.

I believe it

[Anonymous Coward]

Since I never use Edge, I guess it'll never use the battery.

Great

[Opportunist]

So I can now spend 3 hours more using a browser that's unusable.

I kinda fail to see the benefit.

Screw with the numbers

[rahvin112]

I'm sure the test was perfectly fair and they didn't do anything like ensure Chrome was loading and running flash on a video loop while their own used HTML5 and refused to autoplay. No way Microsoft would be that underhanded.

Vendor Paid Test

[Luthair]

Favours vendor in a shocking twist.

Re:It's clear that Edge is better

[DickBreath]

Edge might be better. The problem is that I have so little trust for Microsoft that I would actually trust Google more. That says something. Microsoft spent three decades earning its bad reputation. They can't make it better overnight. Google spent more than a decade earning its great reputation. They can easily destroy it in a relatively short time. Trust is not easily earned, but is easily and permanently lost.