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Battery drains fast on Orion browser in specific circumstances. I suspect it is due to the Bitwarden extension (from "Popular Extensions").

While it doesn't happen on every site, it seems to be prevalent in my regular use case; Orion is consistently on the list of Apps that use significant energy when I click on the battery icon.

For my test, I will use zyBooks as the control site.

Steps:

  1. Install extension (and login?)
  2. Navigate to a Zybooks assignment, this specific assignment is in a zyBooks Maintained Lab (web codespace with interactive terminal).
  3. Open activity monitor, wait (about a min) for energy impact to stabilize
  4. Compared same activity with Safari, Vivaldi (with similar extensions / parity)
  5. Tested Orion in compatibility mode

Extensions List:

  • Bitwarden (from Popular)
  • uBlock Origin (from Popular)
  • Sponsorblock (from Popular)
  • Dearrow (Chrome Webstore, enabled for yt.com only)
  • Auto Youtube HD (Chrome Webstore, enabled for yt.com only)
  • Unhook (Chrome Webstore, enabled for yt.com only)

Orion - All Extensions

Safari - All Extensions (some differences)

Vivaldi - All Extensions (exact same)

Why Bitwarden?

Orion - Bitwarden disabled, rest enabled

Results

  • Safari, similar extensions: low cost (100-150 energy impact)
  • Vivaldi, all extensions: low cost (80-150 energy impact)
  • Orion, all extensions: high cost (400-600 energy impact)
  • Orion, compatibility mode: low cost (80-150 energy impact)
  • Orion, only Bitwarden disabled: low cost (80-150 energy impact)

Tested with both Bitwarden from "Popular" and Bitwarden.app extension directly added from Safari

Expect Orion with Bitwarden enabled to have the same energy impact as Safari, Vivaldi for the same site.

Version 0.99.132.0.3-beta (WebKit 621.1.2.111.4)

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