14 DAY TRIAL // Power consumption is one aspect of technology where less is indisputably more. Less power consumption is synonymous with cut costs, reduced carbon emissions, and increased battery life. But while surfing the web with a power socket nowhere in sight, energy costs and the carbon footprint might just be the last things on a Windows PC user’s mind. Not the same is valid for battery life. A critical aspect of mobility being the ability to stretch battery life as much as possible, Internet Explorer 8 is apparently the best choice in browsers out of all competitive products when it comes down to eating the less amounts of energy.
AnandTech tested Apple Safari (Build 4.0.3), Google Chrome (Build 2.0.172.43), Firefox (Build 3.5.2), Internet Explorer (Build 8.0.6001.18813), and Opera (Build 9.6.4 and 10 Beta 3) in a measuring contest to see which browser consumes less energy. The conclusions of the study put IE8 firmly in first place, allowing end users to use laptops longer than any of its rivals.
On a Gateway NV52 laptop based on the AMD RS780MN platform, AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 (Dual-core, 2.1GHz, 2x512KB L2, 65nm, 35W, 667MHz FSB), with 2x2048MB DDR2-667 RAM, Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200, 15.6" Glossy LED-Backlit 16:9 WXGA (1366x768), and 320GB 5400RPM, running Windows Vista ("Balanced" profile), IE8 could be used for 175 minutes. On the same machine, Firefox and AdBlock consumed all energy in 168 minutes, Chrome 2 in 162, Firefox 3.5.2 in 161 minutes, Opera 9.64 in 157 minutes, Opera 10.0 beta 3 in 144 minutes and Safari in 4 in 131 minutes.
The next machine used was running an Intel CPU, namely Gateway NV58, with Intel's GM45 + ICH9M chipset, featuring Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 (Dual-core, 2.1GHz, 2MB shared L2, 45nm, 35W, 800MHz FSB), 2x2048MB DDR2-667 RAM, Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD, 15.6" Glossy LED-Backlit 16:9 WXGA (1366x768) and 320GB 5400RPM. It took Internet Explorer 8 227 minutes to drain the battery completely. Firefox with AdBlock did the same in 22 minutes, Chrome 2 in 218 min., Opera 9.64 in 212 min., Firefox 3.5.2 in 210 min., Opera 10.0 Beta 3 in 201 min., and Safari 4, once again the greatest energy hog, killed the laptop after just 184 min.
For the last computer tested, a netbook was chosen with the following configuration: Intel Atom N270 or N280 (Tested) N280: 1.66GHz, 512KB L2, 45nm, 667FSB, Intel 945GSE + ICH7MU, 1x1024MB DDR2-533 @ 4-4-4-12 Timings, Integrated Intel GMA 950, 10.1" Glossy LED-Backlit ~16:9 WSVGA (1024x600) and 10.1" Glossy LED-Backlit ~16:9 WSVGA (1024x600). This time around, it was Chrome to use less power, and survive for a full 454 minutes. IE8 was a close runner up with 441 minutes; Opera 9.64 came third with 439 minutes. Firefox 3.5.2 depleted the battery in 439 min., Firefox and AdBlock in 438 min., Opera 10.0 Beta 3 in 437 min., and the power hungry Safari 3 in just 332 min.
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).
Firefox 3.5 for Windows is available here.
The latest development milestone of Google Chrome is available for download here.
Opera 9.64 and 10.0 are available for download here.