14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows 10 Creators Update is here with lots of improvements, and Microsoft used the arrival of the new OS version as an occasion to show that its Edge browser is so much better than rivals Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox in a number of aspects, including battery life.
A research that the company performed on Windows 10 Creators Update shows that Microsoft Edge can last 77 longer than Firefox and 35 percent longer than Google Chrome when it comes to streaming a video from Vimeo in full screen.
The test was made on a Surface Book powered by an Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 2.4 GHz and paired with 8GB of RAM. The OS version was Windows 10 Pro 15063 (Creators Update RTM) and the tested versions were Microsoft Edge 40.15063.0.0, Google Chrome 57.0.2987.133 (64-bit), and Firefox 52.0.1 (32-bit).
To determine which browser provides longer battery life than the others, Microsoft configured display brightness to 75 percent, volume was set to mute, while location, Bluetooth, updates, and the ambient light sensor were disabled.
The Windows Battery Saver mode was set to activate at 20 percent battery and the devices were connected to the same wireless networks, with Windows Defender running up to date and cache cleared on each browser.
Similar tests performed on the Anniversary Update
This isn’t the first time when Microsoft performs battery tests for its in-house browser, and the company also compared the app with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when it launched the Anniversary Update last August.
Just as expected, Edge managed to win in that research as well, offering 43 percent longer battery life for web browsing.
In Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft Edge comes with a substantial number of improvements, starting with new features like setting tabs aside and tab previews and ending with more security controls like click-to-run for Flash Player content, which protects users against the common exploits found online.
