The 2020 Browser Battle: Surfing With Speed
by Brett Howse on September 10, 2020 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Software
- Browsers
- Mozilla
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge
HTML 5 Compatibility
Finally, to see how many HTML 5 features are supported by each browser, each one was run against http://html5test.com/ which compiles a score out of 555, with scoring being based on how many HTML5 specifications, popular draft standards, and WebGL, and IndexedDB / Web SQL. A higher score means the browser supports more of the tests, which in theory means that the browser should be more compatible with more websites, although that is certainly not always the case.
Web Browser Battery Life
It would be hard to argue with how pervasive and important the internet is, so “browsing the web” is a critical function for laptops. Gone are the days of browsing static content on Geocities and instead the web is now the home to critical business applications, communication, and of course, entertainment. Finding a few more minutes of battery life just by using a different browser might be the difference between getting through a workday, and not.
To see how each browser performed, the Surface Laptop 3 15-inch had the brightness dialed into 200 nits, and each browser was run through our quite demanding web workload until the system turned off, and then the test was repeated to ensure there were no anomalous results. All the browsers were tested at least twice, with the exception of Internet Explorer 11, which was not tested, because you should really not be using it.
One of the biggest questions going into this was what impact Microsoft would see moving from their EdgeHTML and Chakra based browser in the classic Edge, to the Chromium version. Microsoft touted their battery life significantly when Edge was the new browser on the block, and for good reason. As you can see, classic Edge provided significantly better battery life than any other browser used. When your pool of energy is a fixed size, squeezing out extra runtime is not a trivial undertaking, and Microsoft has certainly given up some battery life to provide a more compatible browser.
Looking at the Chromium based browsers, which are the new Edge, Chrome, and Opera, and they all more or less fall in the same range, with only twenty minutes of runtime between the three, but as we saw with the scripting tests, Edge was able to provide just a bit more battery life than the others.
Firefox, while competitive, is over thirty minutes behind its closest competitor. It is likely not enough of a difference to spur anyone from moving away from Firefox if they are happy with its other features, but the Mozilla team is not quite up to par in terms of energy use.
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Tomatotech - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
Poor Fred. How is he nowadays?tipoo - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
On the street and dried up, apparently.Lezmaka - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
I'm guessing Chromium Edge is faster since it's not constantly sending every action to Google.PeachNCream - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
Yeah, Google is yet again in legal peril over non-consensual data collection in Chrome. There are lawsuits in Canada and the US over data collection while incognito and data collection without Chrome sign-in. Bottom line is that Google is a disgusting, filthy company with a business model that lives and dies on collecting, compiling, and mining your data across multiple products.Browser performance can climb into the back seat and get in a long line behind concerns about my browser not selling me out to revolting home invaders like Google and the other tech companies that present their products and services as oh-so-beneficial and helpful to me. I'll wait a few seconds for a tab to load if my browser isn't selling me off to the mothership.
eastcoast_pete - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
Appreciate that point, especially when running Linux, those can be reasonably snappy. But, as your comment also suggests, I believe those low-end laptops are a good testing platform for which browser is able to stay usable with many tabs open despite limited memory and computing power. Brett's test system is already quite well equipped with both of those, and unlikely to run out of either.sonny73n - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
You’re spot on about Google. Chrome automatic updates can’t be disabled in Group Policy or changed to manual. Goggle services constantly running in the background probably to collect your data. And when you uninstall Chrome, it would leave traces everywhere all over your system. They’re truly a disgusting and filthy POS. I’m glad that some phones are without Google services.sonny73n - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
Hey Google, I’m glad that you banned some Chinese manufactures from using your spying services. I’d rather have the Chinese spy on me. You’re the evil with no human decency, moral and ethic. You’re just a low life scum working for the Deep State mafia. Time to get rid of you.Lord of the Bored - Sunday, September 13, 2020 - link
Google didn't ban any chinese manufacturers from using their services. The US government did, and China banned its residents from using several more services because they weren't censored enough and contained factual information that made Emperor Pooh Bear look badimaheadcase - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
I never understood the whole best browser, it really just comes down to what you like best. On a normal PC it won't make one difference to a user anymore.heffeque - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
For some people it's a matter of which one makes you feel less of a product.Personally I switched back to Firefox after Google did something with Chrome which I very much disagreed with (I don't remember what anymore, but I remember that it was the last straw) and although it has a few quirks here and there (especially the Android's latest version) I'm happy to have done it. Google/Microsoft have too much power regarding the web browsing, and going Firefox is the best way to fight their supremacy.