Opera Browser Power Saving Mode
 

I've used Opera on and off through the years but never saw any reason to use it exclusively. I've downloaded the developer version and am trying it again to see if these claims are supported: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/...r-saving-mode/.

Props to you. ^

I'll be keeping my eye on Opera over the next few months.

Initial impression: Opera may work as claimed or could be cooking the numbers (Volkswagen, anyone?). Relying solely on Windows 10 power reports is a risky business although I've come to the conclusion that a lot of reviews and tests of laptops do exactly that, extrapolating the results from a short test (hey, I've been using it an hour and I'm only down to 90% so this battery must last 10 hours!).

On an Asus T100TAF with Windows 10, I normally get about 7 hours of battery life, running screen brightness at about 25% and using a browser (Firefox or Chrome normally), Word, a PDF viewer, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking. With Opera running currently, Windows is reporting that I have 87% battery capacity after about 1.5 hours of use with 7.5 hours remaining, but as is normal for many battery meters, the readings have fluctuated--at 95% capacity, I was informed that I had 10.5 hours of battery remaining.

Opera tells you that the power saving mode is off by default, but it's simple to turn on. In addition, you must run the included ad blocker to get the full savings, but I have no problem doing that. As you might expect, using the blocker means pages load pretty quickly.

To do an honest report, I'm going to have to run the computer solely with Opera to depletion, then repeat with FF and Chrome. That will take some time, and I'm not absolutely certain I have the patience to surf the web for that long a time at any one sitting so I'll probably take a week or so before providing a full report.

Any suggestions on refining my testing methodology are certainly welcome.

So, after a week of testing, here are the results. And you won't be surprised to learn that Opera's claims appear to be advertising puffery.

I modified my testing to run each of the three browsers, Opera, Chrome, and Firefox, with a full battery to 50% rather than to 0%. I quickly realized that trying to drain the battery to zero would extend my testing to two weeks (or more given that I have a busy schedule this coming week) while hitting 50% with all three browsers seemed a realistic compromise that would avoid the pitfalls of a shorter test duration. Each test was done in three segments: 45 minutes, 45 minutes, and 2 hours 15 minutes. Why? That's just the way my testing with Opera was structured given my schedule and I adopted it for the other two browsers. In addition, I did mostly light browsing with little video other than that embedded in sites like Facebook, the Washington Post, and the New York Times--no Netflix, no YouTube marathons. Three or four tabs open at most at any one time. All three browsers had ad block software running.

And there was absolutely no detectable difference in power usage amongst the three browsers. Each ran the battery down to 50% after 3 hours 45 minutes of usage, which was consistent with my previous experience regarding the power usage of my computer. In addition, Opera's "power saving mode" doesn't remain on when you close the program, and you must remember to reset it each time you start the browser. I also noticed that it appeared inconsistent as to whether it worked when a new tab was opened--sometimes it remained turned on and sometimes it didn't. Of course, given the results, inconsequential but irritating nonetheless that I had to monitor something that should have been made permanent in the settings. You might also note that in comparison with my early results with Opera, my savings diminished over time.

Given no discernible power savings advantage and the clunky interface to activate the power saving mode, there's nothing about this new "feature" that should make you want to use Opera. Power savings are probably solely related to the use of ad block software. There may be other reasons to use Opera, but not this one.