Opera makes battery-saving feature for desktop browser

Browser maker Opera has made a feature for its desktop browser to save battery power. The feature is in the developer version of the Opera browser. In addition, the ‘browser vpn’ function can now only be used for private browsing.

Opera has taken various measures to save the battery. For example, it restricts browser activity on background tabs, schedules javascript timers more efficiently, and the browser automatically pauses unused plug-ins. Opera also limits animations from browser themes, drops the frame rate to 30fps and forces videos through hardware-accelerated codecs.

All this should lead to a laptop battery lasting longer when using the browser. In an indicative test, a Lenovo X250 with Core i7-5600U processor and 16GB ram on Windows 10 was used. The laptop with a 23Wh battery lasted almost two hours without the battery saver function, with the function on that was almost three hours.

The function is available when a laptop is not on the charger and can be switched on with an icon to the right of the address bar. Opera recently introduced a proxy function for the browser, which the company refers to as a ‘browser VPN’. From this version, it can only be used in private windows. Users had asked to enable or disable the feature per tab, but Opera found this solution easier.

The battery saving function and the proxy function are not yet in the stable version of Opera, but can be found in the developer version.