Latest news with #EnergySaver
Hindustan Times
22-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Stop your browser from killing your laptop battery - Easy fixes you need now
Laptop batteries drain fast, often when you least expect it, like during a crucial meeting or a tight deadline. While many factors contribute to battery drain, your web browser stands out as a major power consumer. Since browsers run constantly as you load pages, watch videos, or switch between apps, they use up significant energy. However, by adjusting a few settings, you can reduce this drain and extend your laptop's battery life. Here's how to make your browser less demanding on your laptop's battery: Chrome has a built-in Energy Saver mode designed to cut power usage. To activate it, click the three dots at the top right, go to Settings > Performance, then turn on Energy Saver. You can set it to work whenever your laptop is unplugged or when the battery falls below 20%. Also, enable Memory Saver to put inactive tabs to sleep, which further reduces Chrome's resource demands. These changes lower energy use with minimal effect on browsing speed. Also read: How to quietly limit someone on Instagram without blocking, unfollowing, or causing drama Edge offers Efficiency Mode to optimise power use. Access it by clicking the three dots, selecting Settings > System and Performance, then enabling Efficiency Mode. You can choose when it activates and adjust how long tabs remain active before sleeping. Setting Efficiency Mode to maximum saves the most battery, but may slightly slow page loading. Opera includes a Battery Saver feature that can add about an hour to your laptop's runtime. Click the red Opera button, then go to Settings > Features, and enable Battery Saver. Set it to activate automatically when unplugged or at a specific battery level. Enabling 'Snooze inactive tabs' also helps cut down power use. Also read: How to easily compress data on your iPad to save storage space Dark mode can reduce screen power consumption, especially on OLED or QLED displays, where dark pixels use less energy. Firefox users can activate dark mode via the menu under Settings > Appearance. Chrome, Edge, and Opera typically follow your system theme by default. While the battery savings vary by screen type, dark mode remains a quick way to conserve power. Also read: AC buying guide: 5 things to know before get a new air conditioner Each browser tab uses memory and processor resources, adding to battery drain even if you're not actively using it. Managing tabs by closing those not needed or using extensions like OneTab (for Chrome and Edge) or Tab Stash (for Firefox) can consolidate open tabs into a list and cut energy use. Reducing tabs is often the most effective way to lower browser power demands.
Tom's Guide
21-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
Your browser is draining your laptop battery — here's how to stop it
We've all experienced that moment of panic, watching your laptop battery percentage plummet during an important meeting or work session, with no power outlet in sight. While many factors affect battery life, your web browser is likely the biggest power drain on your device. As the application you probably use more than any other, browsers constantly consume resources as they load content, run scripts, and manage multiple tabs. Fortunately, major browsers now include built-in features specifically designed to reduce their energy footprint. With just a few minutes spent adjusting settings, you can extend your laptop's runtime, depending on your usage patterns. These simple tweaks balance performance with power efficiency, ensuring you can work longer without sacrificing essential functionality. Here's how to stop your browser draining your laptop's battery. Chrome is notorious for being resource-hungry, but Google has added a dedicated Energy Saver mode that can make a significant difference. To access it, click the three dots in the top-right corner, then navigate to Settings and Performance. Toggle on Energy Saver and choose when it activates — either whenever your laptop is unplugged or when battery drops below 20%. While you're there, enable Memory Saver too. This feature puts inactive tabs to sleep, further reducing Chrome's system demands and indirectly improving battery life. The combination of these two features can dramatically improve Chrome's efficiency. The performance impact is minimal for most everyday browsing, though you might notice a slight delay when switching back to tabs that have been inactive for a while. If you use Microsoft Edge, you can save battery with its Efficiency Mode, which helps the browser use less power by managing system resources more smartly. To turn it on, click the three dots in the top-right corner, go to Settings, then open System and Performance. Switch on Efficiency Mode, and choose when you want it to kick in. For the best battery savings, pick Maximum savings — just keep in mind that websites might load a little slower. You can also change how long Edge waits before putting unused tabs to sleep. This helps save power without slowing you down if you often jump between lots of tabs during the day. Opera might not be as popular as other browsers, but it has one of the best features for saving battery life. The browser says its Battery Saver mode can make your laptop last up to an hour longer. To turn it on, click the red Opera button in the top-left corner, then go to Settings and click Features. Switch on Battery Saver, and set it to turn on automatically when your laptop is unplugged or when the battery drops below a certain level. While you're there, also turn on Snooze inactive tabs to help Opera use even less power. Most browsers now offer dark mode, which can help reduce screen power usage and b extend battery life. For Firefox users, click the three-line menu button (or Firefox menu on Mac), select Settings, and choose Dark under the appearance options. Chrome, Edge, and Opera users can also enable dark mode in their settings, usually following the system's theme by default. Dark mode can help extend battery life, but how much it helps depends on your screen. OLED and QLED displays tend to use less power with dark mode because they don't need to light up dark pixels as much. On other screens, like LCD, the savings aren't as big — but dark mode can still make a difference. It's a simple way to squeeze out a little more battery, especially when paired with other power-saving tips. The single most effective way to reduce browser battery drain is simply opening fewer tabs. Each tab consumes memory and processor resources, even when not in active use. If you struggle with tab management, consider trying browser extensions like OneTab (Chrome and Edge), or Tab Stash if you use Firefox. These extensions can transform dozens of open tabs into a single list, dramatically reducing browser resource usage. Many users don't realize just how much each additional tab impacts system resources. Having lots of tabs open can quietly drain your system's resources and battery. Even with tab sleeping features enabled, the browser still needs to maintain some information about each tab. The bottom line is the more tabs you have open, the more energy your device needs to keep up. Now you've learned how to stop your browser from draining your laptop battery, why not take a look at our other useful guides?For Windows 11 users, check out this feature that lets you force an emergency restart. To make your virtual meetings better try these 7 Zoom tips. And you can give your old PC a second life with these 7 practical uses you might not have considered. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
WIRED
17-05-2025
- WIRED
How to Reduce the Battery Drain Caused by Your Web Browser
May 17, 2025 8:00 AM Your browser can suck up a lot of battery life if you're not careful. Tweak those settings to surf on your laptop longer. Photo-Illustration:When you're using your laptop away from its charging cable, every bit of battery life matters—it can make the difference between just managing to finish that important email or essay, or not. One of the ways you can make sure you eke out as much time between charges as possible is to look at your browser settings. The web browser is most probably where you're going to spend most of your computing time, so any battery life savings you can make here will quickly add up. There are a number of tricks to try to reduce the energy demands from loading up all those web pages, videos, social media feeds, and web apps. Applying just one or two of these tricks—together with some more general battery-saving tips—can give you a significant boost in battery life and make sure you get to the end of the working day without needing a recharge. Google Chrome You can enable Energy Saver in Chrome's settings. Courtesy of David Nield Google Chrome comes with a dedicated Energy Saver setting, which turns off some background tasks to reduce the load on your laptop. Browsing might be slightly slower in some circumstances, but there's a positive trade-off in battery life. Click the three dots in the top-right corner of any Chrome tab, then choose Settings > Performance. You can toggle the Energy Saver feature on and off from this screen. You can also instruct Chrome to turn it on automatically, either whenever your laptop is unplugged or whenever your laptop's battery life drops below 20 percent. There's another toggle switch here: Memory Saver. Enabling this reduces the memory load of inactive tabs until you switch back to them. While it's not as directly related to battery life as Energy Saver, it can also reduce the demands of Chrome on your system. Microsoft Edge You have two levels of Efficiency Mode to choose between. Courtesy of David Nield Microsoft Edge has something similar to Chrome's Energy Saver in the form of Efficiency Mode. Its primary function is to snooze inactive tabs that you've haven't visited in a while, which then means Edge is hogging fewer system resources, and from there drawing less energy from the battery. Click the three dots in the top-right corner of any Edge tab, then click Settings. Open the System and Performance tab, and you'll see an Efficiency Mode toggle switch. Alongside it are some related settings, including how long Edge should wait before putting tabs to sleep, and whether or not you want Efficiency Mode to kick in automatically whenever your laptop is running on battery power. There's also a Maximum savings option you can switch to, if you want to prioritize battery life savings over everything else. Edge doesn't specify exactly what additional actions are taken, but notes that "you may experience some visible slowdowns" when browsing if you turn on Maximum savings. Opera Opera comes with a built-in Battery Saver feature. Courtesy of David Nield The Opera browser isn't quite as well known as Chrome or Edge, but it does offer plenty of useful features, including a handy Battery Saver mode. With this mode enabled, the browser is more selective when it comes to allowing background tasks to run. Opera says you can expect up to an hour of extra battery life with Battery Saver enabled. You can find it on Windows by clicking the Opera button (a red O) in the top-left corner of the browser, then choosing Settings. On macOS, open the Opera menu, then pick Settings. The Battery Saver toggle switch is under the Features tab, and you can also opt to have the mode kick in automatically whenever you're on battery power, or whenever your laptop's battery drops below a certain point. Farther down the same settings screen is a Snooze inactive tabs to save memory toggle switch: While this isn't strictly part of the Battery Saver feature, it can help reduce the demands of the browser a little more. Other Browsers You can also turn on dark mode for certain browsers, including Firefox. Courtesy of David Nield There are no dedicated battery saving modes in the other popular web browsers—perhaps their developers would rather not fess up to the issue of significant battery drain—but there are still a couple of ways you can maximize battery life while navigating the web, and they apply to pretty much any browser you might use. First and foremost, keep your open tabs to a minimum. Every tab your browser has to open adds to the work it has to do and the demands on your laptop's battery. If you find you're not great at managing this yourself, enlist the help of an extension to organize your tabs: something like Tab Stash for Firefox or OneTab for Chrome. Switching to dark mode in your browser can also help cut down on the energy use of your display. By default, browsers will usually follow the lead of your operating system when choosing how to display content, but several browsers have a separate setting too. In Firefox, for example, click the three-line menu button (top right) in Windows or the Firefox menu in macOS, then choose Settings to find Automatic, Light, and Dark options.
