Following years of criticism for its Internet Explorer browser Microsoft looks to have got things right with Microsoft Edge. In recent tests Edge beat both Chrome and Safari in JavaScript benchmarks created by Google and Apple.

In a recent blog Gabe Aul , head of the Windows Insider Program, wrote that Microsoft Edge is, “blazing fast”, adding that, “The Edge team has been continuing to optimize 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.” According to the blog Edge was as much as 112% faster than its competitors.

The results are as shows:

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

Of the results Aul stated, “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.”

More benchmarks

Webkit Sunspider is generally accepted as the most used benchmark for browser speed. However, when Ghacks.net used other various benchmarks with the most recent version of Windows 10 results showed that Edge was not out-performing its competitors across the field. The conclusion Ghack makes is, “Microsoft has improved the performance of the default Windows browser by a lot, but since Edge is not beating all browsers in all benchmarks, it cannot be said that it is the fastest browser on Windows 10.”

Speed will factor highly in what browser consumers choose – Chrome at the moment is the most popular browser in the US, followed by IE, Safari, Firefox – but Edge has more up its sleeve with digital assistant, Cortana integration, as well as an annotation feature and what Microsoft has called a safer browsing experience.

Internet Explorer has not given up the ghost as yet, it will play second fiddle to Edge in Windows 10.

Photo credit: Thomas Leth-Olsen via Flickr