Opera Software looks to be making some bold moves to regain precious OS X web browser market share in recent months. First, the Norway-based firm added a free VPN feature to its browser, now they added a new power saving mode, which is designed to extend battery life when used on the MacBook or Windows notebook computers.
According to Opera, the new power saving mode, which is available today in the developer stream, can extend laptop battery life by up to 50% compared to earlier versions of the Opera browser and to Google Chrome, giving heavy web users up to three hours of additional battery life. Opera’s testing was done on a Lenovo X250 with a Core i7-5600U processor and 16GB RAM running Windows 10, so it is unclear how much battery savings Mac users will see.
The feature works to optimize browser battery use by reducing the activity of background tabs, adjusting page-redrawing frequency, and fine tuning video playback options. The new power saving mode can be accessed when on battery power by clicking on a battery icon next to the browser’s address field. The app can also detect when battery power is running low, and will automatically offer an option to enable the power saving mode.
The new low battery mode is just the latest new feature to come to the Opera web browser, as just a few weeks ago, the firm announced the inclusion of a built-in Virtual Private Network (VPN) feature in the browser.
The VPN and battery saving features are currently available to Mac and Windows users via the developer version of the Opera web browser. The new version can be downloaded from the Opera developer website.
