Microsoft Edge gets big speed boost -- is it time to ditch Chrome?

Microsoft Edge
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has been in the spotlight due to its series of epic fails, like the nasty Windows 10 update that's deleting files, but its new Chromium-based Edge browser has brought nothing but good things. And now the browser is even faster than before.

Microsoft said that it introduced new optimizations in order to make Edge faster. The company showed off benchmark results that revealed a 13% improvement.

Microsoft detailed in a blog post that it used the Speedometer 2.0 benchmarking utility to test the speed difference (it simulates realistic web usage). Apparently a new toolchain optimization gives Edge a "substantial performance improvement in general browsing workloads."

In this test, the company is comparing the 64-bit Windows 10 Microsoft Edge build 81.0.389.0 against the 79.0.309.71 build of Edge. These benchmarks ran on "Windows 10 1909 (OS Build 18363.592) on a Microsoft Surface Pro 5 (Intel(R) i5-8250U CPU 1.60GHz and 8 GB RAM), with no other applications running and no additional browser tabs open."

On the Speedometer 2.0 benchmark, the 79.0.309.71 hit 84.85 (higher is better), while the 81.0.403.1 version rose to 95.6 and the 81.0.410.0 version of the browser nailed 96.15.

Every time the new Microsoft Edge browser gets a little bit faster is a step toward beating Chrome. If you're interested in trying out the new browser yourself, you can download the preview versions of the build on Microsoft's insider website.

Rami Tabari
Editor

Rami Tabari is an Editor for Laptop Mag. He reviews every shape and form of a laptop as well as all sorts of cool tech. You can find him sitting at his desk surrounded by a hoarder's dream of laptops, and when he navigates his way out to civilization, you can catch him watching really bad anime or playing some kind of painfully difficult game. He’s the best at every game and he just doesn’t lose. That’s why you’ll occasionally catch his byline attached to the latest Souls-like challenge.