Browser Battery life duration. Edge vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Opera Tested

Which internet browser provides the best battery life? I tested Microsoft Edge 38, Google Chrome 53, Firefox 49 and Opera 40.

The test explained:
-New Windows 10 Pro x64 installation B1607 fully updated
-1 local account
-firewall, defender, update, cloud services and real time protection disabled
-50% screen brightness
-time taken between unplugging at 100% battery and black screen
-Windows batterysaving off
-Forced 1080p playback
-Browsers: Microsoft Edge 38, Google Chrome 53, Mozilla Firefox 49 and Opera 40
-No browsers plugins installed/enabled
-No logged-in accounts
-No notifications

Microsoft's videos:

Google's video:

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[dennisgarber]

You will need to update the video. Currently, Opera claims Opera gx beats Edge in battery life. GX is the gaming version, which likely sleeps background tabs. Of course, the great suspender successor might, per my theory, also add battery life to any browser where it is used. So, you would need to do a second test with a tab suspender on each browser to see if that makes any difference. Your current test doesn't have many open tabs, each running java (java timer settings might matter). Also, I can't imagine that a compression proxy and surfing without mutiple tabs without scripting turned on, would not save some battery time.

Back before 2010, Opera didn't open 50 sub instances, which meant it used less battery and memory. Chome decided it needed 100 open chome.exe processes to run its browser, just to save the rare browser crash (now you get tab lockups that take 10 minutes to realize the tab is not working and needs closing). They assume a browser that uses 4 plus gigs of ram (chrome has poor user cache control too) is perfectly acceptable, which it really isn't.

[johnchen]

so if I watch a lot of youtube videos, I should still use edge for battery performance?

[nynra]

it has been few days that I am trying out Chrome. And started to notice how cpu hoggy it is. changing tab causes 5-10 seconds of page freeze. Cpu usage is 30-50%.

[m.m..]

Can you do this test on a mobile phone ?

[vittogol]

I use most browsers and computers. I don't like much win 10 but I have to say I love Edge Zoom and Scroll Smoothness, that is similar to safari on mac. Edge is also fast on rendering. I tryed extension on chrome not finding same results. So I use Edge but I have an annoying problem. I get an youtube message every time i change page on youtube to download and use Chrome. I tryed averything and it Always keep messanging on the top bar to download and use it. Also emulation mode F12 doesn't solve the problem. That's a pity edge don't remember or Google keeps ignoring that I have closed the request.

[hogohugo]

thanks for the the work.. i use chrome

[theskyspire]

Good effort in this review, I just want to add two things: 1) multiple tabs should be tested, even if it is running a play list on 4 tabs simultaneously. 2) Opera is pronounced "Ah-pera", not "Oh" - pera .. I think you are confusing it with Oprah Winfrey..:-D

[thelasaron]

what about battery Chrome vs Safari on mac?

[shadowstorm]

For ultrabook web browsing edge is frankly the best
It is smooth and fast
But if you have a gaming laptop with quad core i7 and 16gb ram then go ahead with chrome

[bhud]

It's pronounced Opera, not Oprah