Norwegian browser developer, Opera has just introduced the
energy saving mode for its desktop application. The new mode that's available
for the developer version will significantly cut the battery consumption so the
battery life will increase up to 50% when compared to the older versions or
other browsers such as Google Chrome.
To prove it, Opera did comparisons against older version of
Opera and Google Chrome which were running on Windows 10 laptops. The test was
done by visiting 11 popular sites, where each page was opened in a separate
tab, without closing the previous tab, and scroll up to 5 times, then left for
one minute. This test was repeated until the laptops were completely running
out of battery. When testing was done, the battery saving mode and ad blocker
was also activated. As a result, the latest version of Opera developer was able
to run three hours longer than the two compared versions or 49% longer.
In a press release, Opera explains how the power saving mode
works in its browser. It's described that the power saving is achieved by a
variety of optimizations, including by reducing the activity in a background
tab, the video playback parameter adjustment and a more optimal page-redrawing
frequency setting.
The power saving mode is also supported by ad blocker
feature that has been launched recently. According to Opera, the ad blocker can
reduce memory consumption by 47% thus it's contributing to an increase in
battery life.
Opera also provides instruction on how to use this
power-saving mode. When the power cord is removed from the laptop, the battery
icon will automatically appear in next to the search box and address bar in the
Opera browser. Users can simply click on the icon to activate the power saving
mode. To warn if the users forget, the Opera browser will give advice to
activate the power saving mode when the laptop’s battery capacity is thinning.