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reignofMO

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2017
2
0
I have a mid 2014 MacBook Pro - Wondering what is the best browser as far as security and battery saving.
 

TonyK

macrumors 65816
May 24, 2009
1,032
148
What flavor of macOS are you running? Newer versions, coupled with Safari are supposed to be outstanding for battery life. I'm still using FireFox personally but may end up switching.
 

Nilhum

macrumors regular
Dec 20, 2016
210
309
Safari. Speed and battery life.

Chromes uses up battery so quickly that it's not worth using unless plugged in. That said, I can do everything on Safari that I can do on Chrome. Some website work better on chrome but it depends.
 

Trey M

macrumors 6502a
Jul 25, 2011
964
331
USA
I agree with the others-- Safari is likely your best bet for battery life and speed.

The only thing Chrome has over Safari is better overall support for webapps across the internet. For business, I actually do use Chrome. But for surfing and personal stuff, I always use Safari. Chrome will cause you to get horrendous battery life. Gogogle has actually improved it to some extent more recently, but it's been an issue for many years and it's still no where near as efficient as Safari.
 
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ZapNZs

macrumors 68020
Jan 23, 2017
2,310
1,158
I prefer Chrome because it has the extensions I use the most and like the most, especially HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin, uBlock Origin Extra, TrafficLight, Don't **** With Paste (yes, that's the name), **** Overlays (yes, that is also the name), Magic Actions for YT, a solid functioning OneNote Clipper, and the 1Password extension. With the crap ton of extensions I run, there is a significant battery toll!
 
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reignofMO

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2017
2
0
But Safari does not have all the extensions I use/need on my MacBook
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I prefer Chrome because it has the extensions I use the most and like the most, especially HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin, uBlock Origin Extra, TrafficLight, Don't **** With Paste (yes, that's the name), **** Overlays (yes, that is also the name), and the 1Password extension.
do you use uBlock Origin with Origin Extra?
 

torana355

macrumors 68040
Dec 8, 2009
3,627
2,712
Sydney, Australia
Safari by a long way. I gave up some of my extensions to move from Chrome to Safari and it was worth it, Safari is way better on battery and my MBA runs much cooler with the fans never coming on under the normal use.
 
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ResoluteBulldog

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2014
6
0
I prefer Chrome because it has the extensions I use the most and like the most, especially HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin, uBlock Origin Extra, TrafficLight,
Of course uBlock Origin (version 1.12.5) has now been forked to use on MacOS
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
On macOS - Safari.

Yep... for battery saving, Apple locks users into really using their default apps only. As any other app outside of Apple will be causing more CPU, or battery problems..

The only thing good abut using Firefox i like is the add-ons, and privacy. as I have not yet come to the conclusion about Safari yet. To me, a company who doesn't make the machine will always handle privacy better.... And it may take some time to convert me :D
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,335
3,012
Between the coasts
Yep... for battery saving, Apple locks users into really using their default apps only. As any other app outside of Apple will be causing more CPU, or battery problems..

The only thing good abut using Firefox i like is the add-ons, and privacy. as I have not yet come to the conclusion about Safari yet. To me, a company who doesn't make the machine will always handle privacy better.... And it may take some time to convert me :D

Battery utilization is within the control of the app developer, whether Apple or Google, or Mozilla. It's not that Apple locks its users in, but that each developer (or developer community) has chosen to differentiate its product in different ways. Google makes its money by presenting ads, so if they have to choose between being the best platform for their paying customers and being the best platform for energy efficiency... you get my drift. Also, both Mozilla and Firefox are written for Windows as the primary platform - code optimization for Mac is going to take a back seat. Apple has the luxury of building for a single platform.

For Apple, battery life optimization is critical - it affects their hardware sales. For the other developers, if they have to choose between features and battery life, they're likely to choose features, as features are what sells software.

And when it comes to security... I'm not sure how you can make a generalization as to whether a hardware maker or software developer has a bigger stake in security. It could go either way. Apple's position, of course, is that by tightly integrating hardware, OS, and software, they're better able to ensure security at all levels. All too often in these debates, it comes down to which company people trust, rather than whether that company makes hardware or software.
 
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dwig

macrumors 6502a
Jan 4, 2015
907
449
Key West FL
On macOS - Safari.

Agreed, but understand that Apple doesn't provide security updates for older versions of Safari (more than one or two versions) and you can't upgrade Safari to a new version except by upgrading the OS.

@OP - the consensus is Safari, but you should use it only if you are running macOS or one of the last versions of OSX.
 
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