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Ditching Chrome for Opera can increase your laptop battery life by 50%

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 9:17PM EST
Opera Browser Download

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Chrome didn’t take very long to become one of the most popular desktop web browsers in the world, and it stole users away from Internet Explorer and Firefox by addressing common pain points users had with these two top browsers. Now, Opera is making waves by stealing a page from Google’s playbook. The company recently announced the addition of free and unlimited VPN to the developer preview version of its desktop web browser, and now Opera is back with a new announcement. The latest build of its pre-release browser includes a new power saving mode that can increase a laptop’s battery life by 50% or even more.

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Google makes it difficult to ditch the Chrome browser. It’s lightning fast, quite sleek, and it keeps all of your data in sync. But if ever there was a reason to bail on Chrome and switch to Opera’s desktop web browser, the prospect of increasing your laptop’s battery life by 50% is probably it.

Unlimited free VPN is great, but we already told you how to add the same great privacy feature to Chrome for free. Power saving mode, however, is something that Chrome simply cannot match.

So how exactly does Opera’s new power saving mode work? The company outlined the new feature’s main components in a recent blog post:

  • Reduced activity in background tabs
  • Waking CPU less often due to more optimal scheduling of JavaScript timers
  • Automatically pausing unused plug-ins
  • Reduced frame rate to 30 frames per second
  • Tuning video-playback parameters and forcing usage of hardware accelerated video codecs
  • Paused animations of browser themes

Power saving mode can be enabled at will in Opera’s most recent developer preview. Or, like the low power mode in Apple’s iOS 9 software, Opera will issue a pop-up and suggest that you enable power saving mode when your laptop battery reaches 20%.

The Opera developer preview build that includes power saving mode is free to use, and you can download it right here.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.