We’ve seen before that changing from Chrome to Safari can make a big difference on your Mac’s battery life.
But if you haven’t switched from Chrome or Firefox to Safari yet, this fact might change your mind: If you’re a MacBook user, you’re losing an average of one hour of total battery life by using anything but Safari.
The battery experts at BatteryBox ran Chrome, Safari and Firefox through a series of tests to determine which browser was most battery-efficient:
We measured the power consumption of watching videos on YouTube, browsing Reddit, streaming on Netflix vs Putlocker, creeping on Twitter and FaceBook, composing emails on services like Gmail and Hotmail, and searching for stuff on Google, Bing (yup, surprisingly, it’s still used), and DuckDuckGo. We used a factory-restored MacBook Pro Retina 13” to test each website on one internet browser at a time. No programs other than the browser were open.
If you’ve read this far, you already know how the test ended up:
Averaging data from all websites tested, Safari won first place with 6hours 21min of total usage, Firefox second with 5hours 29min of usage, and Chrome last with 5hours 8min of usage.
Basically, if you simply switch to using Safari instead of Chrome, on average you could get an extra 1 hour of usage from your battery life.
As Apple pundit John Gruber notes:
This exemplifies what the “Safari Is the New IE” crowd doesn’t get — Apple’s priorities for Safari/WebKit are very different from Google’s for Chrome/Blink. Innovation and progress aren’t necessarily only about adding new features. 24 percent better battery life is huge.
What he means is that, for Safari, Apple’s priorities are as simple as making sure the browser runs as well on a Mac as possible. That’s why new versions of Safari for El Capitan contain the Content Blocker feature, which strips away Javascript and other advertising elements that cause long load times and huge battery drains.
With Chrome, though, Google wants its browser to be optimized to display ads, because Google runs an ad business. And Firefox also makes much of its money through search partnerships and ads.
In short? Switch to Safari if you have a MacBook. Your battery, and your web experience, will thank you for it.
Source: BatteryBox
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
68 responses to “Why you’re stupid if you don’t use Safari on your MacBook”
Wow, great way to call people stupid! Because battery life is obviously the only reason why anyone would choose a browser…
Battery life impact is not the only reason to avoid Chrome.
wait until the author discovers the power-saving power of the Lynx browser, then he’ll feel *really* stupid.
Lol taking us back to text-based browsing just to save battery life? No way haha
Brand new macbook pro 15 (mid 2015) – Chrome killed my battery in 3hrs. FF 4hrs. Safari 9+ hrs and no heating up. WTF. Safari may be less featured but damn is it the better browser.
Am I still stupid if my MacBook Pro is connected to an external monitor and is used as if it were a desktop (because it has enough editing power for photographers), therefore it stays plugged in? I love Safari, but right now I feel that Chrome offers me more options. I have been know to switch back and forth, but I use Chrome more often. I have to disagree with people’s intelligence being affected by making the choice of Chrome over Safari. I would have to make a bold statement in saying, a blogger would be STUPID to insult the intelligence of their readers because of his/her opinion.
I tried Chrome a while back, didn’t like it, and removed it. It took me a long time to figure out all of the crap that’s installed in the OS. I like some things about Firefox, but overall I don’t like it, but I’m just so used to Safari, that it’s my preferred browser. When I have Firefox and Safari set up the way I like, Firefox takes up more screen real estate than Safari so I can see more of the content.
I can really respect your reply… The point that you don’t like Chrome is a truthful reply. I don’t like Internet Explorer. From what I hear, Microsoft’s new browser is great. I am a fan of Safari and Chrome. I use them both. I use Chrome most of the time though.
I guess, I just don’t think I’m stupid for using Chrome.
If you don’t care about security at all and you want google to know EVERYTHING you are doing, then yes, by all means use chrome!
If you are on the internet and worried about what Google or any other internet driven business is seeing, then why be on the internet? I’m not doing anything that would make me afraid for Google to see.
If you don’t mind google feeding everything about you to the NSA, then that is certainly your right. Most people, like me, do. No offense, but your statement here makes it obvious that you don’t know a lot about this subject.
For instance, google does NOT get information on me. I have enough blockers set up on FIREFOX to keep that from happening. Along with countless other trackers, etc. Someone who is educated in protecting themselves online knows how to avoid most of the traps that 99% of internet surfers fall into.
I’ve been an internet user since I can remember. I’ve only been hacked once… ever. I’d say that is a pretty good track record. The NSA? lol Do you sell drugs? Are you doing anything illegal? Do you pirate movies or music? Do you hack banks? Is there something that NSA can take you down for? There is nothing that they can take me down for. There is nothing that they don’t already know about me. Name, age, social, address, etc. This info is already out there. Well… Not my social. Never had a problem with any of the identity stuff (I have protection for that). The Chrome browser is not going to make me a criminal. I’m a photographer/novice writer. I don’t think I have anything to worry about. With all your blockers set and firewalls setup, it can’t stop someone if they really wanted your info. If they are good enough, they will get it. I mean, more secure servers than your Firefox browser have been hacked. My whole point to commenting here was that the author called readers stupid for using Chrome. I’m very well educated. And, I have a great military background. I know a few things about blocking hackers or unwanted intruders. I guess I’m just not too concerned about the NSA planting chips in my arm. If you use a mobile phone of some sort, you don’t think THEY (whoever this “they” is that everyone is trying to stay secure from) know stuff about you? A browser choice is not going to prevent this type of stuff. Stop being so paranoid! The only thing I worry about is my business files. This is why I back everything up a few times. Legit paranoia…
I’m not stupid for using Chrome…lol
I never said you were stupid for using chrome. The whole stupid statement was made by the stupid writer of this stupid article, lol.
I too have been on the internet for many years myself. Since 1992 in fact. But started using computers in 1982. You ask am I doing anything illegal? In today’s society with today’s laws that are being passed faster than you could literally print them out on a printer, I”m quiet sure I am doing something illegal. Everyone is. And that’s the way the NSA that you obviously support wants it.
Besides whether someone is doing something illegal or not doesn’t matter. I’m not doing anything illegal when I screw my girlfriend, but I’m not going to send a video of it to the NSA!
Is there SOMETHING the NSA can take me down for? Lol, of course. And you too. They can take you down for whatever they wish. Put your ass in prison with no trial or even a phone call. You’re a writer? Better be careful what you write about online! If it’s against the government or an agency, you will get put on a list if you aren’t on one already.
As far as your social, yes, it’s out there. If you have ever once typed it into a website, then it’s out there for sure. If you haven’t, then it is still out there because companies like electric companies, phone companies, etc. share information of all kinds. They don’t mail it to each other in envelopes, lol. They send it via the net which malicious hackers can intercept.
I’m not going to write a mile long article here. But in short, having used computers for years or having a military background, etc. doesn’t mean you are internet security knowledgeable anymore than sitting in a garage makes you a car.
Many older people have been using computers for 15-20 years now. But the majority of them can’t do much more than send an email or surf the internet. The only thing I can do at this point is pretty much repeat what I already said. Which is if YOU don’t mind providing everything about yourself and not at least attempting to protect yourself, then that’s up to you. I can’t make you do what you should to protect yourself.
I could go into how the blockers I use also help to protect against the rampant malware, etc. that you can get just by visiting a website, but since you aren’t receptive to the common sense of protecting yourself online, I figure it applies to malware too.
As far as privacy in general, more and more people are getting tired of government snooping. If they want to know more about you, then it’s common sense to try to prevent that. The government is NEVER doing anything for the benefit of the people. Only themselves.
Just this week for the first time, they announced openly the existence of echelon. Which has been intercepting all communications for around 30 years. I first started telling people about that BY NAME starting in 1993 on prodigy forums. So telling me about echelon is like telling me you just discovered that new rock band called “Nirvana”, lol.
Back then, EVERYONE who debated it from your point of view were people who denied the existence of it altogether. Not a single person admitted the existence of it. In fact, they would say if it did exist, they would stand against it. Lol. Yeah right. 22 years later, the people who said that then are now the people like yourself. They have just accepted it as fact.
I was called paranoid as you have said here. I was called a conspiracy nut because they said the government didn’t care what we were doing online enough to intercept the info. Now we know that they do care and they are watching EVERYTHING.
So now, instead of people like yourself denying the existence of it which you can no longer do, you just say that you don’t have anything to worry about. I guess that’s the defense mechanism that mankind naturally uses in order to comfort themselves.
PS, things I do to protect myself is why I haven’t been hacked and you have been hacked “only” once as you put it, lol.
The author is just a stupid apple fanboy, period.
Seems smart to me – droid boy.
I haven’t used Safari in at least two or three years so maybe it’s changed, but the last time I used it, and I used only Safari on both Macs for years, I hated it.
Why?
Yeah, wow, how about insulting people who are smarter than you are and call them stupid? Firstly, as a Mac user, let me say, safari sux. It has problems even running certain major websites correctly. I won’t go into details there, but it’s ridiculous at times. If you don’t give a damn about security, then yes, safari is the browser for you.
Considering the endless list of exploits that are coming out almost daily, there are add ons for firefox that protects you from most of them. In safari, not so much. One of my pet peeves lately is the fact that anyone and everyone thinks they are professional writers now and they spout things that they are clueless about on blogs, articles, etc. Like this one.
Which REALLY complicates things for the vast majority who are barely smart enough to get online and send emails as it is, let alone understand security, etc. Articles like this lead them astray with misleading information. It’s an article by the simple minded for the simple minded.
So people are stupid because they don’t use safari on a macbook to save some battery life? If that is all that is important to you, then by all means, use safari. The reason why it doesn’t use as much battery life is because it has far less features. But if you want to protect yourself online and have countless more features, use firefox.
Obviously you’re not aware, but security is becoming more and more important for people these days. Even more important than battery life! If I wrote ANY article about web browsers, I wouldn’t consider it valid unless I discussed security as the main subject and anything else such as battery life as secondary. It’s a good thing I’m not the head guy at cult of mac, I would fire you over this article alone!
So you didn’t read the article, got it. Thanks for blasting your stupidity for all the world to see!
I read it just fine. What eternal wisdom did I miss? By the way village idiot, perhaps you didn’t notice, but the VAST majority of people on here are saying the same thing as I am.
So you’re as stupid as everyone else? Got it!
You seem to love the word stupid. MUCH like the moronic writer of this article. So, are you the writer of this article and you are using an alias? That’s the ONLY explanation for you taking my first reply so personally.
So your entire proof that you are right by declaring safari the best browser is because anyone who doesn’t use it is “stupid”? Wow, how old are you? I hope your parents figure out that you’re using their computer to start trouble online, lol!
So you still didn’t read the article. Work on your reading comprehension.
If you can’t answer any of the multiple questions I have already presented to you, then there is no need to keep asking me the SINGLE question that you keep asking that I have already answered. Obviously you ARE the writer of this article. I don’t blame you for not admitting it.
If I were silly enough to write it in the first place, I would probably use denial and an alias as plan B too, lol. In the very title of the article, you call anyone stupid who doesn’t use safari because it saves battery life. Then you wonder why you get backlash from it???
This article reads like something a 4th grader would write. It’s an embarrassment to cult of mac to have it on their site. You should give up writing and consider a career in fast food!
It’s a good thing you don’t make a living on reading other people because you suck at it. It’s also a good thing you don’t make a living writing like the author since you clearly suck at your reading comprehension. Try reading the article, and maybe looking up what a question is (hint: it usually has a question mark at the end).
Still, you don’t answer any of my questions. You speak of the writer of the article, but you don’t even deny that you are the writer. So obviously you are. I have now said that 3 times without you denying it even once. So I consider that one put to bed. The only question mark that I see toward the end is the one from this cut and paste
“In short? Switch to Safari if you have a MacBook. Your battery, and your web experience, will thank you for it.”
AGAIN, I ASK YOU, what am I missing??? Since I’m too “stupid” to see it for myself and you are the writer of the article, perhaps you can share some of your wisdom with me. Actually, don’t bother.
You have no wisdom to share. It’s a VERY short article and easy for any child to understand as easy as a child’s fairy tale. And much like a fairy tale, it just takes your mind off of reality for a short while, lol. Neither me nor any of the other people saying the same thing as I am on here need you to explain anything to us.
I have no interest in continuing this with you. Your replies are short and absent of any real facts or points. Much like this article that you wrote. The more you reply to me, the more you embarrass yourself. You’ve done that enough now and I see no need to continuing repeating myself.
I didn’t respond to that accusation because it’s irrelevant and shows you’re just pulling this argument out of your ass. If you MUST know, I’m not the author.
Yet, even I saw the point in that sentence because I actually read and could COMPREHEND the article! Safari is better for your battery life than either Firefox or Chrome. If you can’t understand that, maybe you should go to a site where you can understand the articles since Cult Of Mac is clearly over your head. I hear Sesame Street has some stuff even a simpleton like you can understand.
The embarrassment is all yours. I tried to let you figure it out on your own, but you’re clearly too retarded for things like this. As are the other idiots commenting on this article as you did. Stay in school, kid.
I hate your headline. Try and be a bit more professional and maybe I’ll actually read your article.
“Why you are stupid if you wrote this article” — Battery life ranks maybe 4th on my list of why I choose the browser I use.
This site just keeps getting worse and worse. Good bye
Good riddance! No one cares about your dumb opinion.
Awesome! Thanks! That seems likely. Its what happens in cults. Everyone who doesn’t bow down to the god they have created must be dumb! Perfect!
What are the first three reasons?
Functionality (extensions), rendering properly, speed, cross OS capabilties, and dev tools. So battery usage is actually 6th
Good list. For me, cross-OS capabilities is the only one you noted where I think Safari is lacking.
I don’t know. There’s so many great extensions that I use that only work on Chrome (Goodreads, netflix extender….), also some of the dev tools i work with only work in Chrome. I find the safari stuff really lacking there. And I do have rendering issues on some sites. Exepcially AJAX driven sites.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Great headline. Calling people stupid. Classy. I give it 5 years before all of the Internet forms into one giant asshole and all headlines and comments are simply “Fuck you”.
When Safari puts in an Ad Blocking app and other security features that Chrome and Firefox allow I will be more than happy to use it.
They are.
You’re missing out on the best ad blocking plugins you can get. Just look in the Safari menu… right up there on the left next to the Apple menu… and choose “Safari Extensions…” Poke around, and you’ll find various ad blockers (including AdBlocker) that are completely free, configurable, easy to use and work FAR better than anything built into Chrome or the bloated Firefox.
It’s not just Ad block, it’s No Script and a bunch of other apps I’m running in Firefox that allow me to “Run in Lock Down Mode” such as Https everywhere. And as the portable seldom lives up to its name battery life is not much of a concern. Also since the portable is running two hard drives, any savings using Safari would be trivial.
safari is garbage straight up. use it only for netflix streaming. i work at a youtube multi platform network, and using safari instead of chrome not only slows me down, but pisses off essentially my boss aka google
Safari fine *except* in these situations :
– lots of tabs : I open and use lots of tabs concurrently for work and Safari completely chokes where Chrome manages them just fine
– some types of sites : Google’s News, Facebook are just examples of content that Safari has trouble loading where Chrome does not – battery life doesn’t matter if it can’t handle the load.
False and false.
I use 12+ tabs (one of them being Facebook) constantly in Safari with no issues.
Neither thing you asserted is true. If you’re experiencing those problems, you need to do some troubleshooting regarding plug-ins and extensions.
No, it’s is true for me. Just because you don’t experience it doesn’t make it not true for someone else.
I’ve long tried to prove that somehow it couldn’t be true – on multiple machines it would still die under load. I stripped down to default config, no plugins and yet it’s true – for me.
In the end I gave up trying to figure it out and moved on. Still use Safari, just as a secondary browser; on the side.
Of course it is – I’m chiming with my experience so that others could read and offer theirs in common discourse. Just civilised discussion.
no he is not. safari blows, especially when it comes to multiple tabs
very on point. facebook runs so well on chrome; i love it. the multiple tabs thing is a nuisance on safari, and especially because a lot of my tabs have forum sites on them, youtube links, tons of analytics from google, gmail, as well as facebook my browser needs to keep up #teamchrome
So many people on here acting offended. It’s not the author’s fault you use an inferior browser!
I’d rather have half the battery and use a decent browser than Safari. It needs to die along with IE/Edge.
wish apple would buy chrome or at least forge a partnership so it is the default browser and the mobile platform is even better. only negative i have with chrome is on it runs on ios
“Why you’re stupid if you don’t use Safari on your MacBook”
Nice move, Brownlee, calling users (and readers) stupid. Niiiiice. Cult of Mac just continues to devolve. It wasn’t a long fall from mediocre to awful, but with the recent makeover, the fall is more apparent. Does anyone even pre-screen these insulting headlines and awful “articles?”
Get a life
I might have agreed with you if it wasn’t for this:Safari is a pain in the posterior. Why do I say that… Well, it constantly freezes, doesn’t play video on the BBC web site and on YouTube without Flash being installed, and even with QuickTime being shown as an option for play back it still won’t play the videos I removed Flash a few weeks ago as I finally got fed up with its constant problems. As much as I hate Google, I don’t trust them one bit, but I will suffer Chrome simply because Flash is built in and sandboxed and it doesn’t freeze, crash etc like Safaris does.
PS. Dear author, as an alternative, I am using Vivaldi as a secondary web browser. It’s still a work in progress as isn’t as good as Safari or Chrome but you should give it a look and report back on it
“13.6 reasons cultofmac allowed BuzzFeed to choose title of this article and why your children will probably be abducted because of it”
I use Safari for no special reason – I just do. Oh wait, I’m not stupid I use Safari – disregard.
I am so smart I am using Safari, have been for a long time, but now I feel so stupid reading all of these stupid comments. Back to square one.
:(
I have a lot of trouble loading certain pages like facebook and wordpress reader in Safari, sometimes it takes longer, sometimes (like tonight) they won’t load at all.
So according to the headline it would be *smart* to sit there and stare at the screen waiting for a page to load that never will.
safari sucks
if that is the case then how come when I use Safari, it hangs up on me :(
Too insult people for 1 hour doesn’t fly with me.
Besides, why would it be the number 1 reason too choose a browser over battery consumption?
There are far more interesting topic on why to choose a browser, and be professional, you’re headline is really childish.
What a stupid & useless article !
Love Firefox with all the plugins, private surfing and the availability on different platforms.
Call me stupid cause I’m a front-end developer and i use Chrome and Firefox to do my job, thanks a bunch
I’d say it’s pretty stupid not to take into account the possibility that some of us have work sites that are not Safari-compatible or are not ENTIRELY Safari-compatible. Chrome is not my favorite browser by a long shot. But it’s also a non-negotiable for at least a portion of what I have to do on my MacBook.
I stopped using Chrome a long time ago, when I realised just how “Nosey” it was. I’ve (rightly or wrongly) built an inherent distrust of Google, given that their whole business model is based on knowing as much about me as possible, so that they can sell stuff to me!
True, but chrome pushes trough websites that Safari cannot. Its a shame but its true.