Opera hits back at Microsoft over browser battery life tests

Earlier this week, Microsoft showed that its Edge browser consumed less battery life on laptops than rivals like Chrome, Opera and Firefox.

The company claimed to get between 36 and 53 percent more battery life with Edge in its comparison test. But Opera, which introduced a power saving mode in its browser last month, isn’t convinced.

The company said that Microsoft hadn’t revealed its test methodology and as such, it wasn’t able to replicate the experiment. It’s now compared battery life tests of its own and published both the steps and the results, and found Opera to come out on top.

Opera says that the developer version of its browser ran for 3 hours and 55 minutes, with the battery saver feature enabled. According to its tests, that’s 22 percent longer than Edge, which drained the battery after 3 hours and 12 minutes.

So which browser should you choose? Opera has a lot going for it, including built-in adblocking, the aforementioned power saver mode, and the ability to run Chrome extensions. Meanwhile, Edge is still in its early days and doesn’t yet have as many features or add-ons.

But one thing is clear: Chrome is terrible for battery life. If you’ve stuck with it all this while and can’t or don’t care to ditch it entirely, here’s a simple idea: use Google’s browser when you’re plugged into a power source, and keep a copy of Opera around for when you’re on the go.