Nash David

Yes, you read that right. After years of ridicule, Microsoft has claimed its latest browser Microsoft Edge is faster than Chrome and Safari in their own benchmark tests! Not Microsoft benchmarks, but benchmarks created by Apple and Google teams. With the latest near-final version of Windows 10 released, Microsoft is adding finishing touches to the launchpad, and getting ready to ‘celebrate’ what is their biggest launch ever.

Microsoft Edge is blazingly fast

In a blog post on the Windows blog, Gabe Aul, Head of the Windows Insider program took the opportunity to announce performance findings from the latest Windows 10 build. He added:

"The Edge team has been continuing to optimise performance since first adding the new browser to Windows 10. In this build, Microsoft Edge is even better and is beating Chrome and Safari on their own JavaScript benchmarks:

On WebKit Sunspider, Edge is 112% faster than Chrome

On Google Octane, Edge is 11% faster than Chrome

On Apple JetStream, Edge is 37% faster than Chrome

We’re really pleased with those performance gains and we hope that you’ll enjoy faster browsing with Microsoft Edge along with the many great features we’ve added over the last several builds."

If these are true, then it's the best thing to happen to the browser space. If anything it’s best for the browser ecosystem that Microsoft, otherwise known for Internet Explorer has spruced up its browser performance with a more efficient EdgeHTML engine than the dominating WebKit. We’re sure this will boost further optimisation and innovation in other browsers.

For those unaware, the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark is developed by the Apple Webkit development team. Although intended for the iOS, Mac, and Windows versions of Safari, which are powered by the Webkit engine, it is popularly used to benchmark browsers across platforms.