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Chrome Browsers on Macbook Air 13"

Z

zulumonk

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 25, 2009
45
0
Hi,

I just received my macbook air 13" for Christmas and am currently using chrome as my browser. So far I haven't seen any poor performance but I am a little worried that chrome maybe draining my battery faster then safari would. I would really appreciate any comments from other air users who utilize chrome as their main browser.

P.S. My air is the 1.86GHz model with 4GB of RAM
 
Hey; I've been using Chrome for a looong time on a MBP, and it's a dream browser. The only thing is, with Macbooks, Flash drains battery like a leech - it's just even more unlucky that Google bundles it w/ Chrome. You should try and install FlashBlock and see if that helps Battery Life =)
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll install flashblock and use that all tomorrow to see if if my battery does any better. This is my first mac so I really appreciate your insight.
 
Flashback is always good for all browsers, so is adblock.

But Chrome does not drain the battery any more than Safari.
 
Thanks, I'm glad you guys recommended flash block. I never really realized that there were that many pointless flash based advertisements on my favorite sites.
 
Paradoxeon said:
Hey; I've been using Chrome for a looong time on a MBP, and it's a dream browser. The only thing is, with Macbooks, Flash drains battery like a leech - it's just even more unlucky that Google bundles it w/ Chrome. You should try and install FlashBlock and see if that helps Battery Life =)
Click to expand...
+1, open tabs that use flash will cause my battery to drain 30-40% faster
 
I use Safari on my 11". I tried Chrome out, and I like it on any other computer, but with limited vertical space on my 11" MBA, I decided to go with Safari because it has a narrower toolbar on top. On Chrome, just the URL bar and tabs take up more space that URL+tabs+bookmarks bar on Safari.

However, I didn't really notice any difference in performance or battery life. The determining factor for me was size. On a 13" I'd probably use Chrome.
 
Last edited:
zulumonk said:
Hi,

I just received my macbook air 13" for Christmas and am currently using chrome as my browser. So far I haven't seen any poor performance but I am a little worried that chrome maybe draining my battery faster then safari would. I would really appreciate any comments from other air users who utilize chrome as their main browser.

P.S. My air is the 1.86GHz model with 4GB of RAM
Click to expand...

I'm using Safari with ClickToFlash and AdBlock and all I can say, this is what you guys have been dreaming about :)
 
The General said:
I use Safari on my 11". I tried Chrome out, and I like it on any other computer, but with limited vertical space on my 11" MBA, I decided to go with Safari because it has a narrower toolbar on top. On Chrome, just the URL bar and tabs take up more space that URL+tabs+bookmarks bar on Safari.

However, I didn't really notice any difference in performance or battery life. The determining factor for me was size. On a 13" I'd probably use Chrome.
Click to expand...

Chrome does fullscreen where all the bars are hidden.
 
zulumonk said:
Hi,

I just received my macbook air 13" for Christmas and am currently using chrome as my browser. So far I haven't seen any poor performance but I am a little worried that chrome maybe draining my battery faster then safari would. I would really appreciate any comments from other air users who utilize chrome as their main browser.

P.S. My air is the 1.86GHz model with 4GB of RAM
Click to expand...

safari + adobe flash + clicktoflash = no probs, battery perfomance or otherwise.

chrome sucks :)
 
Personally I prefer using chrome than safari for it is much faster, flash ads are the ones that causes your battery to easily drain use flash block in order to bock these ads.
 
jazziethomas said:
Personally I prefer using chrome than safari for it is much faster, flash ads are the ones that causes your battery to easily drain use flash block in order to bock these ads.
Click to expand...


Agreed, chrome is my browser of choice. Of course like any browser it needs some plug ins as others have said.

Chrome + flashblock + adblock = great.

I really like the user interface of chrome and its fast!
 
poobear said:
Flashback is always good for all browsers, so is adblock.

But Chrome does not drain the battery any more than Safari.
Click to expand...
I like Chrome and use it as my primary browser, particularly because it does better memory management. Safari has memory leaks that over the course of weeks slowly consume all available memory.

However, I had noticed that somethings running in Chrome do consume more CPU than Safari and therefore drain the battery faster. In particular, flash content, Silverlight (Netflix) and even HTML5 videos have higher CPU utilization. I have the beta flash installed, perhaps its not being used within Chrome although I've attempted to disable the built in flash.
 
dmelgar said:
I like Chrome and use it as my primary browser, particularly because it does better memory management. Safari has memory leaks that over the course of weeks slowly consume all available memory.

However, I had noticed that somethings running in Chrome do consume more CPU than Safari and therefore drain the battery faster. In particular, flash content, Silverlight (Netflix) and even HTML5 videos have higher CPU utilization. I have the beta flash installed, perhaps its not being used within Chrome although I've attempted to disable the built in flash.
Click to expand...

I thought I had the built in disabled too, but then I found the real way (just fyi in case)

type in "about:plugins" in the address bar

click the "details" button over on the top right side, this will expand down the plugins info, disable the older version of flash and let the new beta run solely.
 
I substituted Chrome for Safari as my primary browser for my MBP almost a year ago and decided to stick with it on the MBA. As other posters have done, I added the FlashBlock and AdBlock extensions for Chrome for the MBA. It has worked well. I have also replaced Flash 10.1 in Chrome with Flash 10.2 beta. Doing so requires the renaming of some files but it isn't hard. I used this site as a guide. I should add that Flash is an industry standard and a solid product, Steve Jobs' claim to the contrary notwithstanding.

Chrome caused a couple of kernel panics on the MBP but hasn't given me any CPU or memory management problems whatever on the MBA. Thanks to FlashBlock, the only time I enable Flash is to see those Flash enabled sites I want to see. Otherwise, Flash stays out of sight and out of mind. Most of you already know that until and unless Flash is loaded in memory, it has no impact on CPU utilization, memory usage, or battery life.

The biggest problem I had with Safari arose when I first opened it after a reboot. It would require an inordinate amount of time, sometimes a couple of minutes, to open the first Web page. I finally got sick of that and shifted to Chrome, which has been faster than Safari was and has some other unique features as well. One of those features is its ability to save your user name and password for you on a given Web page. It's pretty slick.
 
gwsat said:
One of those features is its ability to save your user name and password for you on a given Web page. It's pretty slick.
Click to expand...

You may want to check out LastPass as an alternative, and would think it is a bit more secure. Up to you......

BTW - agree that Chrome is much better than Safari, for other reasons, like one's browser preferences can be synched to other computers when logged in.
 
Same here, I don't think it matter to be honest which browser drains the battery faster. Just again, make sure you have some sort of flash block. I've used both my 10hr macbook (my old laptop) and my 11.6 air, and don't notice a difference.

I love how well integrated search is for chrome so much that its much more convenient than the safari!
 
Chundles said:
The bars appear when you move your mouse to them, it's like hiding the dock.

Really nice on small screens, the content fills the screen and the bars are there when you need them.
Click to expand...

I wish there was a way to not really have full screen perse, but you can have the bar disappear no matter how large or small the chrome window is. Then the bar will show up when you move the mouse there !!!!
 
The General said:
I use Safari on my 11". I tried Chrome out, and I like it on any other computer, but with limited vertical space on my 11" MBA, I decided to go with Safari because it has a narrower toolbar on top. On Chrome, just the URL bar and tabs take up more space that URL+tabs+bookmarks bar on Safari.
Click to expand...
Then explain this picture http://i.imgur.com/YJnH0.png. The whole idea of having tabs where Chrome does is to get a narrower toolbar. (Note: Chrome is narrower even when the bookmark bar in Safari is turned off)

gwsat said:
I finally got sick of that and shifted to Chrome, which has been faster than Safari was and has some other unique features as well. One of those features is its ability to save your user name and password for you on a given Web page. It's pretty slick.
Click to expand...
Safari has done that for ages. Turn it on in Settings > Autofill.

ReelAction said:
You may want to check out LastPass as an alternative, and would think it is a bit more secure. Up to you......
Click to expand...
Explain why it is more secure that Chromes built in password manager then.

The General said:
That's even less useful.
Click to expand...
Explain why fullscreen is less usefull. With the release of Lion and Steve Jobs mentioning of fullscreen apps, Safari will most most likely gain fullscreen too.
 
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