Microsoft has recently released the developer and cannery version of their upcoming Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.
In this article, we are comparing it with not only the existing Microsoft Edge browser but with Google Chrome as well, since it is-based on Google open source Chromium at Core.
We had already written in a separate article that the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser will be capable of running Chrome extensions, along with a host of other features as well.
Here, we are going to compare it directly and see how and what is all different in the Chromium-based Edge Browser, the stable version of which will soon be available.
As the developer and Cannery versions are available at the moment, we downloaded and installed the developer version, which is currently getting weekly updates for its improvements and bug fixes.
The process of downloading and installing the Chromium is browser is straightforward, we can go to this link, choose the browser version of your choice and then download it.
The developer version of Chromium-based browsers can be used alongside the existing Microsoft Edge browser, which enables us to compare them both side by side.
So I used the Windows 10 split screen mode how to open both the side of the browser by side.
Both the browsers are nearly identical when it comes to the user interface. But the start page of both the browsers is different. In fact, while setting up the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser, it prompted me with several options to choose the interface of the start page.
This can again be done by clicking on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines on the top right, in the left-hand side window).
The Chromium-based web browser shows the search bar, along with most visited websites (or the common ones when you launch it for the first time), followed by the regular feed from Microsoft portal, which starts right after the search bar in the current Microsoft Edge browser.
Chromium Edge browser vs Microsoft Edge Browser
Comparing how both the browsers render web pages, we opened our site on both the browsers, which looks almost identical, there is the same amount of space for the webpage to render on both the browsers.
The browser tabs on the existing Microsoft Edge browser are a bit rectangular, while the tabs on the Chrome vs Microsoft Edge browser look almost like the Google Chrome tabs with soft edges.
We opened two websites in different tabs on both the browsers along with the start page to see the resources used by both the browsers in the taskbar.
Surprisingly the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser was taking only 3% of CPU and 488 MB RAM, while the current Microsoft Edge browser was using 7% of the CPU usage along with 833 MB of RAM despite having one tab less opened.
The Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser might be the fresh Browser on my system but since I don’t use the current Microsoft Edge browser either, there are no extensions or any add-ons, bookmarks, search history added to it. And yet it takes double the number of resources on my PC.
Comparing Chromium Microsoft Edge with Google Chrome
Obviously, It wouldn’t be fair to compare the chrome-base Microsoft Edge with Google Chrome browser in terms of resource usage since Google Chrome is my default browser and there are a number of Chrome extensions in apps that run in the background.
Even in the image above we can see that there are 20 processes Google Chrome is running, most of them are in stealth mode they are not taking up CPU usage, butter using over 630 MB of RAM.
But if we have to look at the browsing area in both Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser in Google Chrome browser, where is the comparison of both the windows open in split screen mode on Windows 10.
Both the browsers have pretty much the same space for the websites to open. And since the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser supports Chrome extension, when I’ll add Chrome extensions to the Microsoft Edge browser, they will appear right next to the address bar just like it does in the Google Chrome browser.
Do More with Chromium Edge Browser
The Microsoft Edge insider has a dedicated page from where you can know more about the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.
The page shares some tips and tricks regarding the browser as to how you can make it better. It basically showcases is its capability and its shortcomings.
At the time of writing, there were a couple of things which were not available in the Microsoft Edge (Dev version), Such as, Spell Check, Smooth Scrolling, Translation, etc.
All of these features were under the coming soon section, which means the developer team is working on bringing the features including the dark mode as well.
Extension Support is a Big thing on Chromium Edge Browser
The big thing about Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser is that it supports extensions which one has the capability of a browser.
This is partly the reason why Google Chrome browser became so popular.
Microsoft has already started building the extension Store, and currently, there are over a hundred browser extensions you can add to the Chromium-based Edge browser.
While Microsoft may or may not be able to bring every Chrome extensions available on the Chrome web store to their own browser, they are allowing users to add Chrome extensions to the Microsoft Edge browser directly from the Chrome web store.
What this means is, excluding a few Chrome extensions that rely on Google services, almost every Google Chrome extension would be working on the Microsoft Edge browser.
It is a very bold step taken by Microsoft to allow Chrome extensions on their own browser, and it could mean that a lot of people would be shifting from Google Chrome to the Microsoft Edge browser.
I may not be that person, because I rely on Google services heavily, and use some of the Chrome extensions that require Google services which might not be present in the Microsoft Edge browser.
There would be a lot of people who are not tired to Google services as much as a power user is, for them it is great news that they can use a browser that supports browser extensions that can really in has the capability of the browser.
It is also great news for the existing Microsoft Edge users themes it is going to be a lot better in terms of performance, a little demo of which we have seen in this article above where the same amount of tabs word using almost half of the resources of the PC
You too can cry the developer version of the Chromium Edge browser if you are reading this article before the stable version gets released, go to this page who to download it. Currently, it is only available for Windows 10 but it will soon be released for Windows 7 and Windows 8 as well.
