14 DAY TRIAL // Opera has been one of the most active browser developing companies in the market lately and after launching a built-in ad blocker and VPN service, the firm is now back to introduce a new power saving mode in its application.
Just as its name suggests, this new feature is specifically introduced to help users on laptops and tablets benefit from longer battery life and according to Opera’s own figures, the first results are impressive to say the least.
Specifically when compared to Google Chrome, Opera can provide up to 50 percent longer battery life when this mode is enabled. Whenever this feature kicks in, a battery icon shows up in the browser next to the address bar, turning off a bunch of settings to extend autonomy.
For example, background tabs are suspended, so auto-refreshing no longer takes place in the background, and it optimizes video and audio playback. Plug-ins that aren’t being used at the moment are also paused, while frame rate is reduced to only 30 frames per second.
Test performed on Windows 10
The 50 percent improvement in battery life was performed on a Lenovo X250 laptop running Windows 10 and equipped with an i7 processor and 16GB of RAM.
“We used Selenium WebDriver loading 11 popular websites including YouTube. Each page was opened in separate tab, without closing previous ones, and was scrolled 5 times, then left alone for a minute. The test was repeated until the laptop ran out of battery completely. While testing the battery life with the power saving mode enabled, the ad blocker was on, too,” the company explained.
The new feature is currently available in the developer build of Opera browser and automatically prompts you to enable it when battery level drops below 20 percent. Of course, results can vary depending on your configuration and usage patterns, but Opera guarantees that no matter what, an increase in battery life should be anyway experienced.
