Efficiency mode in Microsoft Edge: Save even more battery life with recent updates

Note: We are in the process of deploying improvements to the feature. Look forward to seeing this soon on your device as we roll this out!

 

Have you ever been working away on your laptop, with a deadline looming, and suddenly, you realize you’re low on battery with your charger nowhere in sight? No one needs that kind of stress – so it’s a good thing Microsoft Edge can help with that.

 

Efficiency mode is designed to help extend battery life and we have made improvements to save you battery not only when unplugged and low on battery but also when just unplugged! The feature was originally released in Stable 101 and in initial testing on Surface devices, efficiency mode has been shown to save you on average 25 minutes of battery and with these new improvements, you can expect your battery life to be further extended. We stretch your battery life as much as we can by reducing your devices resource usage and that leads to less power being used. Benefits may vary depending on your device, applications, and individual browser habits.

 

With our latest improvements, when your laptop detects that you are on battery, efficiency mode kicks in, enabling power saving features when you’re both interacting and not interacting with the browser. There are multiple options for efficiency mode and each option will behave differently.

 

 

‘Balanced Savings’ - recommended option:

• When your device is unplugged but not low on battery -> Efficiency mode will take moderate steps to save your battery. Changes made to the browser will have little to no impact on your browsing experience.  
• When your device is unplugged and low on battery (on Windows, device enters battery saver mode, on Mac, device reaches 20%) -> Efficiency mode will take additional steps to save battery. The increased changes being made to your browser may have a visible impact on your browsing experience, for example, it may cause videos to be less smooth.  You will know when efficiency mode is taking these additional steps when the filled “heart pulse” icon appears in your toolbar.   

‘Maximum Savings’:

• When your device is unplugged and at any battery level -> Efficiency mode will take additional steps to save battery for the entire time that your device is unplugged. The changes being made to your browser will be the same as when additional steps are taken in ‘Balanced Savings’. The changes to your browser may have a visible impact on your browsing experience, for example, it may cause videos to be less smooth. 

‘Turn on efficiency mode when connected to power’:

• When your device is connected to power -> Efficiency mode will take moderate steps to save power if ‘Balanced Savings’ is selected and will take additional steps to save power if ‘Maximum Savings’ is selected.

We do our best to minimize efficiency mode’s impact to your browsing experience, but for scenarios where performance is important like gaming in the browser, we recommend excluding those sites from efficiency mode by adding them to the block list in edge://settings/system.

 

We are eager to get your feedback on efficiency mode. If you see an issue with this feature, turn off the feature to see if it fixes the issue and let us know through Microsoft Edge by pressing Shift+Alt+I on a Windows device or going to Settings and more … > Help and feedback > Send feedback.

 

You may see the newly updated version of efficiency mode in Microsoft Edge 106. If you see this feature while browsing, please join us here on the Microsoft Edge Insider forums or Twitter to discuss your experience or send us your feedback through the browser! We hope you enjoy these exciting new improvements and look forward to hearing from you!

 

- The Microsoft Edge Product Team