Apple Silicon M1 Power Consumption Deep Dive Part 1: Safari vs Chrome

One of the themes of my previous Apple Silicon M1 article - Apple Silicon M1: Black. Magic. Fuckery. - was the stupendous battery life offered by the new M1-based MacBooks. While unveiling the M1 chip, Apple touted the new M1-based MacBook Air and MacBook Pro’s energy efficiency with up to 18 hours and 20 hours of movie playback, 6 and 10 hours more than previous models.

These battery life advances are massive and typically once-in-a-generation improvements. These are made possible because of Apple’s focus on low-power design and decoding video using specialized hardware engines rather than relying on the general-purpose CPU. Decoding video using a chip built for the sole purpose of decoding video can dramatically affect power consumption, as you will see later in this blog.

This blog is Part 1 of a multi-part series of investigations into the actual power these M1 chips consume in some of the most common scenarios. This Part 1 focuses on one of the most critical Pandemic activities - streaming a video from YouTube or Netflix. The lower the power consumption, the longer your battery will last (if you’re not connected to the charger).

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