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Microsoft Edge Review: Best Browser for Windows Users?
The release of the New Microsoft Edge browser in January 2020 has attracted the windows user like never before. The new Edge browser is entirely different from its old version and released for Windows and Mac OS. It is a chromium-based browser and comes with many unique and useful features.
From 1995, the release of Internet Explorer as a default browser for Windows Microsoft hasn’t come up with any new and handy browsers for their users until now. With the release of all-new Microsoft Edge also called the “Legacy Version” of Microsoft Edge, Microsoft is providing an alternative to its users.
In this article, we are going to take a brief look at the Microsoft Edge Chromium Browser and see what we are getting from it as a default browser especially windows users.
Page Contents
Interface
The most crucial and vital aspect of the browsers is it’s easy to navigate user interface. The interface is so important for any web-app that it plays an important role in deciding whether the user is going to stick with or leave.
Microsoft Edge comes with a neat and clean user interface with an address bar on the top left and your favorite and frequently visited sites section at the bottom. It comes with a basic Light and dark theme and others to make your browsing more convenient.
Microsoft comes with different templates to provide additional boost to the better user interface.
Extension
In terms of extension, the only drawback of Edge Browser is that it lacks the extension support as Microsoft fails to attract creators to create Edge extensions for its older version. But this jump of Microsoft to chromium platform had opened an ocean of extension for Edge to help their users.
Now you can use all chromium based browsers extension from the web store to the Microsoft Edge, for that you have to enable the “Allow Extension from other Store” from the settings. Now visit the web store and search for the extension by name or by scrolling, click the add extension after finding the right one and the extension will be added to the Edge Browser.
Speed / RAM Usage
Microsoft Edge is considered as a light browser compared to other browsers out there in the market. From Microsoft Edge RAM analysis, it uses less RAM than any other browser, which makes it efficient for those users who have lower system specs.
While determining the speed of any application the RAM Uses plays an important role, means the lesser the use of the RAM the faster the browser. As the Microsoft Edge uses 13% to 15% less RAM then Chrome it is fast and Reliable.
One of the common problems faced by users with most of the browsers is that, as the number of open tabs increases the speed decreases and the surfing the internet becomes sluggish. But from my observation The Microsoft Edge lacks this problem. So in simple words the Microsoft Edge Browser provides us the faster and cleaner experience then many other browsers present in the market due to its less RAM uses and less data uses.
Privacy / Security
The most demanded feature of any browser is how they are going to protect us from any kind of harmful and unwanted elements present out there on the internet. So let’s talk about how this new Microsoft Edge browser is protecting us with the danger.
Security
Security is the most important and demanded feature from all the users as they are concerned about their privacy. To help their users and stop the unwanted website trackers which track your activity on their site and collect information on that, the Edge browser comes with Tracking Prevention through Microsoft Defender SmartScreen System. The tracking preventions are “Basic”, “Balance” and “Strict”. The default tracking prevention is Balance.
Basic
The basic tracking prevention allows most trackers from all sites which are tracking your activity. The displayed ads will be normal and personalized which will be based on collected information. It will only block known harmful trackers.
Frankly speaking, this tracking prevention has no use to most of the users. I don’t know why they have provided it in the Edge. Anyway moving to the next one
Balance
This tracking prevention option states (recommended) and selected as default. What it does is that it blocks trackers even from the site you haven’t visited. Which in turn affect the display of ads that is, they will be less personalized. Balance prevention comes with inbuilt Basic prevention.
Strict
It includes all the features of Basic and Balance tacking preventions and in addition it blocks the majority of trackers from all the sites making your content and ads less personalized.
Edge also provides a tabular view of the blocked trackers from the sites you have visited and allows you to choose from which site you want to be tracked. This means you allow the trackers to track your activity for individual sites.
It also comes with an enable and disable option for using “Strict” tracking prevention while browsing InPrivate.
InPrivate Mode
The Microsoft Edge browser refers to incognito mode as InPrivate mode which lets you surf the internet without saving any information about your activities, trackers from the sites will be blocked and no information is collected and sto
Edge Developers Tools
Apart from all the other features a web browser has, the most important features for the developer are the Developers Tools. Although the Edge Browser comes with all the basic features and provides good support to the developers, it still lacks some features and supports which need to be added and fixed.
Feature List of Microsoft Edge
Immersive Reader
One of the unique features of Edge is its Immersive Reader which eliminates all the unwanted elements from the article and provides the user the main content.
The immersive reader is also supported by the Read Aloud feature which will read the article for you word by word. You can customize the voice and speed of this feature and choose the theme which suits the best for your reading.
PDF Viewer
This is also the common feature found in all the browsers but here it is slightly better than other because the Edge Browser has the inbuilt PDF viewer and even lets you make changes and save it.
Password Manager
Additional yet important feature for those who have the habit of forgetting important account passwords. The Edge browser will manage your passwords for you.
Page Layout
As most of the browser comes with a single new tab page layout, Edge Browser comes with three types of page layout: “Focused”, “Informational” and “Inspirational”.
Edge Collection
The Edge Browser comes with Edge collection features which let you save web pages in groups. At the time of need you can open these pages by going to the Edge Collection at the upper right corner of the window.
Pros and Cons of Microsoft Edge
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Save battery in case of windows OS | default Bing search engine |
| Better features for pdf reading | lot of promotional stuff on homepage |
| Good for productivity |
Battery Saving Options
If you use Windows, Microsoft Edge is installed by default and cannot be uninstalled, so I used it for a few days and discovered It is an excellent browser for Windows users because it uses little battery power and integrates well with the operating system.
Not only that, but you can enable efficiency mode when unplugged or when the battery is low, or you can set it to always, which will automatically put tabs that are not in use in sleep mode to save system resources and give you much faster speed.
Microsoft Edge Browser App
The Edge Browser app is available for both Android as well as IOS platform. It provides the same and equivalent feature as its desktop version. It has a neat and clean interface and comes with features like the immersive reader, read aloud, and many others.
As its desktop version it also uses less RAM than any other browser which makes it faster and more efficient to those having less system specs.
It also provides different new tabs layout like its desktop versions and provides you with the personalized news feed for you to help you stay updated.
The Edge collection here in this app is called the Reading List which will include all the articles you have saved for later reading.
FAQs
Is the Edge Browser any good?
Yes, the Edge browser is a good browser in comparison with many others in the market. The Edge comes with many useful features like immersive reader, Read aloud etc which are surely going to help you with your work while browsing.
Has Microsoft Edge improved?
The all new Microsoft Edge is an entirely different browser from its older versions. Microsoft has eliminated many unwanted features and even changed its core to Chromium which makes it more better then it other versions.
Should I switch from chrome to Edge?
Microsoft Edge is no doubt a good browser in many aspects but still it lacks some of the useful customization tools if that doesn’t bother you, then you should switch to chrome.
Conclusion
The all new Microsoft Edge Browser is a good browser compared in many aspects and comes with many useful features which surely going to give you a touch of satisfaction. Microsoft had kept their user liking very nicely by providing different layouts for the different tests.
It had also shown the concern towards the privacy of their users by providing Tracker Preventions for the safe browsing. To help its users Microsoft Edge comes with lots of useful features and extensions which make it a good browser.
