Our phones these days do so much and pack so much hardware that, at best, you can expect a full day’s use. A friend gave me a tip on improving my battery life by uninstalling a single app. My battery life felt better after that, but I had to verify the difference by actually testing it.
Chrome Is a Battery Killer on iPhone
My friend’s recommendation took shape when she caught me using Chrome on my iPhone. She said I should switch to Safari because Chrome drains battery. At the time, I was unhappy with my battery life, but I hesitated because I liked having my browsing data synced across devices. Still, the possibility of better battery life was too hard to ignore.
After a week of using Safari, I was absolutely sure it made a significant difference. I was pleasantly surprised by how much longer my battery lasted throughout the day.
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It does make sense when you think about it: Google owns Android and Chrome, Apple owns iOS and Safari. There’s a natural expectation that the native app, written by the same company that makes the operating system, will be more tightly integrated and therefore more efficient. This is also whyGalaxy phones work better with Samsung’s Internet browser than with Chrome.
Whether it makes sense on paper or not, I know you won’t just take my word for it. So, I devised a little experiment to prove it.
The Most Boring Battery Test Ever
I wanted a fair way to gauge battery drain on both browsers, but it was not straightforward. I considered using Chrome for an entire day and then Safari for another and comparing usage levels in the Apple battery settings, but there were too many uncontrollable variables.
The websites I visited on one day might be heavier than on the other, or I might browse more on one of the days. Splitting each day in half and using each browser for identical tasks was another idea, but it was impractical.
I finally settled on running a test over an hour of continuous web browsing. More specifically, I set up a bookmarklet script that perpetually scrolls through a website. You cansee the code for it on Pastebin, if you’re curious about the technicalities. It may sound simple, but it’s ideal for a consistent and repeatable test.
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How Much Juice Does Safari Actually Use?
I began with Safari. I closed all running apps (iOS still lacks the Android featureto quick-close all apps), disabled background app refresh, and restarted the phone to give Safari a clean slate. I turned my screen brightness to maximum, disabled auto-lock so the phone wouldn’t turn off, and visited MakeUseOf’s homepage. I activated my bookmarklet, which made the page scroll nonstop.
After an hour of this continuous scrolling on Safari, I closed the tab. My battery was sitting at 90% when I started. How much do you think Safari consumed on full brightness scrolling through our homepage for an hour? No, seriously. Take a guess.
By the end of the hour, it had dropped to 87%. Safari only ate up 3% of my battery in an hour under those conditions—I found that shockingly efficient. I’d assumed that keeping the phone unlocked for an hour would consume far more power, even without browsing.
To be fair, our homepage doesn’t bombard the phone with constant new content. It’s a fairly static and well-optimized page with some images and a scrolling carousel on top. Under heavier or more graphics-intensive sites, Safari would probably guzzle more juice. Still, I kept these factors in mind and pressed on with the experiment.
Okay, but What About Chrome?
Then it was Chrome’s turn. I charged my phone a bit so that when I started at 88%, I was certain it was not closer to 87% (88.9 vs 88.1). Once I confirmed a solid 88% reading, I repeated the exact same routine. I closed all apps, restarted the phone, opened MakeUseOf, and activated my perpetual scroll script.
One hour later, I checked the battery: it had dropped to 83%, meaning Chrome took up a full 5% over the course of that hour.
What That Tiny Difference Really Means
The difference wasn’t massive. Chrome used 5% while Safari used 3%, which is only a 2% gap in this test scenario. Both results are pretty good when you realize that the screen was set to maximum brightness and actively scrolling the entire time. I could attach the iPhone battery report, but it wouldn’t give much. Instead, I graphed it below.
I took an hour-long break between the tests to answer some calls and take screenshots.
Some people might shrug off a mere 2% difference per hour. However, if you break down the numbers proportionally, Chrome used around 60% more battery than Safari. That difference can become a big deal when you extend it to heavier usage over longer periods. If Safari drained 30% in a hypothetical scenario, Chrome would drain 50%.
Of course, battery consumption doesn’t always scale smoothly. A single hour of mild scrolling might not directly translate to your daily combination of streaming, messaging, and gaming.
Still, this test gave me concrete numbers hinting that Chrome is less efficient on an iPhone. Given that Safari already handled my needs—and that importing history from Chrome was easy—I realized I had little reason to keep Chrome installed.
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Give Chrome the boot; I know I am.
I’m not out to vilify Chrome; it remains my go-to browser on my computer. But on an iPhone, battery life is everything. Gaining even a few percentage points can save me from that dreaded midday scramble for a charger. If I can extend my phone’s life by switching browsers, that’s a trade-off I’m happy to accept.
Safari isn’t missing any features I truly need on iOS, and the performance boost has made my phone feel more dependable throughout the day.
