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by TheCowboy 3970 days ago
I wouldn't be surprised either, but the methodology for the testing doesn't seem to be fully explained, so it might lack rigor. Is it a fresh install of the OS? Are all of the caches and histories clean? What plugins are enabled?

Performance can vary based on how you configure your browser and what extensions you have enabled. I get less battery using Chrome, but it's configured in a way that I think is a superior experience, and most of the time my notebook is plugged in.

There might be unsurprising trade-offs between speed and battery life. (And if you get things done faster, does that offset the drain?) For me, usually time, not battery life, is the most scarce resource. Obviously I'd prefer to have more of both.
2 comments
TD-Linux 3970 days ago
Yes, I'd also like to know the status of Flash in particular. However, they were pretty clear about the methodology of their test - their Macbook was factory-restored, they measured power using current measurement at the DC input and integrating over time, and all of the tests were automated usage. It's certainly the best power analysis that I've seen posted to HN in a while.

I'd love to see more of this in the future - a lot of tech gets thrown around on HN for its power efficiency, (GPU acceleration, media decoders, even different CSS animation types) and it would be nice to have actual numbers.

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daenney 3970 days ago
A little down the article:

> 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.

I'm pretty sure a factory resetted Mac is a fresh install and that it won't have any caches or history. And since they don't mention plugins I'm going to make a wild assumption here and say they didn't install any after having loaded up the browsers on the machine.

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TheCowboy 3970 days ago
Ah, I skipped down to "Testing Philosophy" out of habit when looking at benchmarks. It still doesn't say if the computer is rebooted fresh after each test, but I'd like give the benefit of the doubt on more obvious things like that.
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