Microsoft as of late has been operating under the assumption that battery life in a mobile computer is of the utmost importance. If you share those same sentiments, the results of Redmond's recent browser efficiency testing may be of interest.

Using three identical Surface Book laptops running Windows 10 build 16299, Microsoft recently conducted tests to see how long it would take the systems to deplete their batteries while streaming HTML5 video in fullscreen mode using the latest versions of today's most popular web browsers.

According to Microsoft, Edge 16 bested the competition across the board with an average normalized runtime of 16 hours and 41 minutes. That's 29 percent longer than Chrome, 40 percent longer than Opera and 79 percent longer than Firefox.

Although consistent across each test platform, Microsoft's methodology may not jive with most real-world scenarios. For example, the volume was set to mute, Bluetooth and location settings were turned off and the ambient light sensor was disabled. Full details on the first-party battery testing can be found over on GitHub.

Microsoft staged a similar test in April 2017, again to highlight the superiority of Edge over the competition as it relates to battery life. Those claims were put to the test by Linus Tech Tips a few months later with the publication coming to a different conclusion.