While many praised Google Chrome as the best browser on the market in terms of speed and available features, it’s heavy battery usage has certainly been a drawback in the case of laptop users. Laptop users have reported that keeping Chrome open with more than a couple of active tabs has had a noticeable impact on battery life, in the sense that it completely drained it much quicker than expected. Google representatives have addressed this issue in the past, stating that they are fully aware of the drawbacks it presents, and vouched to improve upon it in 2017.
And, as it seems, they have kept true to their word. Google has identified that tabs running in the background, albeit unused, are responsible for a third of the application’s overall power usage. As of late, a new feature has been included with the launch of Chrome 57, the browser’s latest version. This feature is called “tab-throttling”, and its main goal is to reduce power usage for tabs running in the background. Tab-throttling will achieve power saving (and thus improve battery life in laptops) by limiting the timer fire rate for tabs that are using up too much power. This is certainly good news for laptop users, whose batteries will surely thank them for installing Chrome 57.
What is more, Google won’t stop at this. Due to the impact this issue has had on the browser’s reputation in the past, they have set out a goal to further improve upon this issue, until Google Chrome will become a power-effective app in its entirety. If all future updates and improvements will have the success of tab-throttling, Google Chrome is sure to regain its top position on the pedestal of Internet browsers. However, only time will tell.
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