Opera fires back at Microsoft’s battery claim

PanARMENIAN.Net - Microsoft made some pretty bold claims about its Edge web browser this week, claiming that competitors such as Chrome and Opera are lagging way behind when it comes to battery efficiency.

While Chrome users out there were probably already aware of the draining effect on battery life, Opera introduced a battery saving feature last month to improve things on its own browser, Digital Spy said.

As a result, they didn't take too kindly to Edge's claims.

Błażej Kaźmierczak, director of software development at Opera, offered this mic-drop response to the tech giants:

"Like most other engineering teams, we love it when someone picks a fight. If we get beaten in a test like this, we consider it a bug."

That wasn't the end of the fightback, though, with Opera re-creating a test which shows them outlasting Microsoft when using automation to simulate visits to popular websites.

Opera claims its latest Developer release (39.0.2248.0) with ad-blocking and power saver enabled can run 22 percent longer than Edge, and 35 percent longer than Chrome.

Opera has outlined its methodology in a blog post challenging Microsoft to do better.

"If Microsoft really wants to prove that its browser performs better than others (in any regard), the company should be transparent about its methodology so that others can replicate it," says Kaźmierczak.

But that wasn't the end of it, with Kyle Pflug, a Microsoft Edge program manager, throwing shade at Opera's response: "This test turned on an ad blocker, which is off by default. Not loading and rendering the same content in all browsers."

While time will tell if yet another punch will be thrown, both appear to have proven Chrome is the dud of battery efficiency, Digital Spy said.