In 2018, Microsoft ceased producing its own web browsing engine in favour of Google supported Chromium. The key differentiators between the new Edge and Chromium-based browsers are its user interface, smooth scrolling, a customizable start page experience, Collections, and transparent privacy controls.
Microsoft wants its Windows 10 customers to give Edge a chance and rather than merely using Chromium code, the company is making Edge browser even faster. The browser relies on Google’s Blink engine, which is also used in Chrome, but Microsoft has managed to improve Edge’s overall performance.
Microsoft says Edge is getting toolchain optimizations, a fundamental change that should improve the performance and general browsing workloads.
According to Speedometer 2.0 benchmark, Microsoft Edge’s new alpha version is 13% faster than the Microsoft Edge 79 (stable build). Microsoft says it has measured Edge browser’s performance jump by testing user interactions, DOM APIs, and popular JavaScript frameworks used by top websites.
The 13% performance improvement claim is based on tests that the firm ran on a Surface Pro 5 with Intel Core i5-8250U, 8GB of RAM, and Windows 10 version 1909 Build 18363.592.
Microsoft says users can test the faster Edge by downloading Canary and Dev builds. The company will also publish changes in Edge 81 beta, which will be released later this month.
It’s not clear when the stable build of Chromium Edge will gain performance improvements, but it should happen by summer.
In related news, Microsoft recently updated its roadmap for Edge browser, confirming Linux support and other new features. As per the roadmap, the browser will gain the ability to sync extensions across different devices later this month.
Microsoft is also considering tab preview feature, PDF file navigation, and Fluent Design for Edge. An option to set a custom photo as the New Tab Page background photo and support for read-aloud of PDF files are also planned.