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It seems (to me!) a very helpful preference for Low Power Mode would be auto-enabling on battery — much like the system level Battery-specific features.

Given Orion's claim to fame as the most efficient browser, I'd love a bit more granularity on optimising for performance/battery.

I could see an "Auto Low Power Mode" feature being exposed in a new "Performance" (or more generic "Optimise") preference pane along with a few of the Per-Site Features, like Blocking Web Fonts, Content Blockers and Javscript.

I guess the main complication here is one could see these as "just" performance settings that apply all the time, or the more advanced approach would be to mirror System Settings and offer "Battery" and "Power Adapter" toggles for these settings.

Finally, having a "Battery" specific preference pane would allow users to set the battery level Low Power Mode automatically kicks in (above the current fixed 10% threshold.)

An added benefit of promoting these features to Preferences would be increasing visibility of these features, thereby better promoting these "unique value props" of Orion.

WHY?

This may be less of an issue for  Silicon Macs, but my 6-Core Intel Core i7 has pathetic battery performance, and I'm tethered to a desk — so it'd be awesome to use Low Power Mode (and maybe Tab Groups) to dramatically lessen browser load I need open for work (Jira, Confluence + other docos, Miro, research, myriad other web apps.)

The ability to control these settings on Power Adapter could really help users of lower spec Macs or esp on slower networks.

Thanks for any consideration. 🙏 👍

  • Vlad replied to this.

    transeunt Thanks for suggesting this.

    Please be specific about what options would you like to see here. Do not let it to our imagination.

        Vlad I left it a bit open, not being sure of the relative performance / battery implications of some of these settings, but to take a stab (in the dark!):

        On Power Adapter (i.e. optimising for slower Mac or network)

        • Enable Content Blockers
        • Block Web Fonts
        • Enable Javascript
        • Enable Reader Mode

        On Battery
        As above plus:

        • Enable Low Power Mode
        • Enable Low Power Mode when battery reaches: (slider with battery levels in %)

        Finally, I guess an "extreme" setting to optimise for slow networks might be to block the loading of images, but that might be going too far…!

            Obviously if those (currently) per-site settings could be enabled Globally one would expect the Per Site settings could still allow you to over-ride (exclude) important sites.

            A further (possible) advantage I didn't call out earlier — promoting these settings on the Power Adapter settings pane would be more obvious to newer users in explaining the benefits of disabling these settings, and easier/quicker than the current process of going into Websites then progressively setting the relevant settings to "Default settings for all websites = Off".

            BUT — that raises the UI issue — how would these 2 means of controlling these setting interoperate…? 🤔

            • Vlad replied to this.
              9 months later

              @Vlad, I'm commenting here vs. opening up a new issue.

              It would be nice to have options for low power mode like we do in Microsoft Edge:

              Maybe house it under Preferences > General in Orion?

              • Vlad replied to this.

                Vlad Add an option to auto-enable Low Power Mode when on battery (and auto-disable when connected to charger).

                • Vlad replied to this.

                    yokoffing Please provide exact specification for this setting text, placement, available options and default value. Whenever possible, do not make us think 🙂

                    • eirk replied to this.
                        14 days later

                        I am commenting here as well. It shows that Orion is using a lot of battery power just watching a basic Twitch.TV live stream. My safari also seems to be same in terms of battery and speed. All the features mentioned above would help dramatically (MS Edge and macOS Battery features). I am not sure what else to suggest better than what they have already mentioned.

                          Vlad item in browsing category in settings
                          mockup with html:

                          makes sense for "Never" to be the default, and it should be topmost

                          "low battery" can be, say 20%

                              eirk Thank you this is very helpful!

                              It can be like this:
                              Low power mode: [Manual, Always, Unplugged, Unplugged and low battery]

                              What happens when Low power mode is to trigger, for example setting being Unplugged and they unplug? Any UI indication?

                              What happens if setting is Always and use manualy turns it off via Tools -> Low power mode?

                                  orion can send a normal macos notification saying "low power mode turned on/off", to notify the user, maybe with a description saying "batter percentage is low" or "device was plugged in"

                                  the option set in settings should be used as the baseline option, and then further configured through user's manual setting
                                  so, if the user wants to change the setting to what orion isn't supposed to be (as defined in the settings), warn the user if they try to turn it on/off when it shouldn't be, then do what the user wants to do. revert to normal settings next time orion starts, or if an event like plug/unplug affects it

                                    5 months later

                                    It would be nice to have this feature, similar to how Edge implements it. I think it would make a huge difference, especially on older devices.

                                      5 days later
                                      Merged 2 posts from "Low Power Mode" that automatically suspends tabs after X minutes and/or reduces motion to save battery life.
                                        2 years later

                                        Vlad I would like to add to this suggestion, that it would be a great feature for those with aging batteries. I am on an M1 MBP, and my battery life is in the 80's now. So, a full-charge doesn't last as long as it used.
                                        Knowing my browser will automatically go into low-power mode when I unplug would give an added peace of mind.
                                        Thanks, Dan.

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