The latest version of Google Chrome for macOS (110.0.5481.100) includes new optimizations that increase battery life on MacBooks.

Google’s tests on an M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro running macOS “Ventura” 13.2.1 provided generic internet browsing for 17 hours and YouTube video for 18 hours.

If Chrome is Energy saving is also enabled, browsing time on macOS can be extended by an additional 30 minutes.

Since Apple launched its own line of “Silicon” processors, it has revolutionized the battery life of Macbooks, leaving competition to Windows laptops. far behind on this front.

The reason why Google optimizes Chrome’s battery consumption on Macs is likely because users report that Safari performs much better on the system, causing them to use Apple’s browser instead.

Chrome’s latest improvements will also be felt by those using older Apple hardware, like Intel-based Macbooks.

Optimizations

Google says it introduced “a ton” of under-the-hood power consumption optimizations on the latest version of Chrome for macOS.

The first optimization highlighted is fine-tuning iframes, where Google engineers realized that many iframes only last a few seconds. This allowed engineers to fine-tune garbage collection and memory compression to reduce memory usage, thereby reducing power consumption.

The second optimization highlighted is adjusting JavaScript timers to reduce the number of times CPU cores are woken up, thereby reducing power consumption on Mac devices.

Some internal timers that were no longer needed were completely overridden, allowing the processor to sit idle, a mode it never entered in previous versions of Chrome.

Third, Google engineers optimized access patterns for data structures accessed more frequently with the same key, eliminating unnecessary repetition and streamlining their performance.

Finally, the latest Chrome for Mac has an intelligent redraw elimination system, quickly detecting avoidable redraws that have no visible impact and bypassing them.

“We navigated real-world sites with a bot and identified patterns of document object model (DOM) modification that do not affect on-screen pixels,” Google explains.

“We tweaked Chrome to catch them early and bypass unnecessary styling, layout, paint, raster, and GPU steps.”

A similar redraw avoidance system has been implemented on Chrome’s UI elements, reducing power consumption and extending battery life on Mac devices.

Google says these optimizations are just the start of their efforts to improve Chrome’s power consumption, with plans for additional improvements in 2023 and beyond.