Google Chrome is a hungry beast. It eats up memory, processing power, and battery life like no other browser. Fortunately, there are ways to optimize the browser, which is what I do to save hours of battery life on my laptops.
When I switched to a MacBook Neo, I noticed the battery life was significantly lower than advertised. Since I used it exclusively for work through Chrome, I suspected the browser was at fault, not the laptop. Sure enough, after adjusting these memory settings, my battery life leaped to the expected 11 hours.
Memory Saver saves hours of battery life when multitasking
But its effects are limited when fewer tabs are open
When working on my laptop, I tend to have at least 20 tabs open at any time. These are generally open to sites with a lot of embedded media, which consumes a lot of battery life when active.
When active, Memory Saver makes tabs inactive if you haven’t opened them in a while. This not only saves battery life, but also frees up memory and improves performance.
Returning to an inactive tab sometimes has a short delay as the tab activates, but I’ve never noticed a substantial difference with Memory Saver enabled or disabled.
The biggest impact is that I don’t receive notifications, so if I have the WhatsApp or Messages page open, I won’t get timely notifications of my messages.
By default, Chrome sets Memory Saver to Balanced. I switch it to Maximum every time I set up a new laptop.
A new laptop gave me a chance to test this feature fully. I tried each setting for two normal workdays. Performance varied, but I noticed roughly an hour of extra battery life between Moderate and Balanced, and the same between Balanced and Maximum.
However, I didn’t notice much difference between the Moderate setting and disabling Memory Saver. This is likely due to my laptop’s hardware.
Memory Saver doesn’t run on a set timer. Instead, it monitors RAM usage to decide when to make tabs inactive. If I run a few tabs with minimal demands, it may never trigger.
On an older laptop, the difference between settings will be bigger, since Chrome has less RAM to work with. But on a powerful device, Memory Saver won’t activate as much.
Nevertheless, an extra hour of battery life is nothing to scoff at. I tested the setting on my aging Chromebook and found a whopping two-hour battery life improvement between Balanced and Maximum.
Enable Memory Saver by following these steps:
- Click the three-button icon in the upper-right corner of the browser.
- Click Settings from the drop-down menu.
- Select Performance from the sidebar.
- Scroll down to the Memory heading.
- Toggle the Memory Saver switch on if it’s off.
- Select the Maximum radio button setting.
Memory Saver is a brilliant setting for any device, but it’s not the only Chrome setting worth enabling to save battery life.
Energy Saver is a vital setting for long journeys
I don’t wait until my laptop’s battery hits 20%
When I’m working from home, I keep my laptop plugged in. Why bother unplugging it when I can keep it topped up?
But when I’m traveling, I have Memory Saver set to Maximum and Energy Saver enabled all the time.
By default, Energy Saver triggers when the computer’s battery is at 20% or lower. It extends battery life by limiting background activity and visual effects like smooth scrolling, page animations, and high frame rates.
Like Memory Saver, Energy Saver stops intensive background tabs, except those that play audio or use video conferencing.
While browsing feels clunkier with Energy Saver enabled, I have it set to turn on when I unplug my laptop. I’ve found that it adds another hour to my laptop’s battery on an average workday.
Combined with Memory Saver, that’s two extra hours of battery life with no performance hit.
Enable Energy Saver by following these steps:
- Click the three-button icon in the upper-right corner of the browser.
- Click Settings from the drop-down menu.
- Select Performance from the sidebar.
- Scroll down to the Power heading.
- Toggle the Energy Saver switch on if it’s off.
- Select the Turn on when your computer is unplugged radio button.
Energy Saver can cause problems while streaming video. I’ve noticed higher buffering rates, but fortunately there’s a simple fix. Chrome displays a leaf icon in the taskbar when Energy Saver is enabled. Click it to disable Energy Saver for that session.
Chrome is easy to optimize
Chrome’s reputation as a resource-demanding browser is well documented, but enabling Memory Saver and Energy Saver can curb the worst of its excesses.
I keep these settings enabled on every laptop I own, and while the benefits vary, I expect a two-hour boost in battery life during regular work sessions.
It’s also worth noting that both settings improve performance on desktop computers. Unfortunately, there is no performance tab on the Chrome Android app, so you’ll have to use these tricks to improve battery life instead.
