Qwant vs Google: Which search engine is better for battery life?
Discover our lastest 2020 benchmark on search engines: the environmental impact of search engines applications
Today we look into mobile search engines. These everyday gateways to the internet are now mostly used on our mobile devices. We chose to compare two of the most popular but very different search engines.
One is a French search engine launched in 2013 whose values are the protection of the neutrality of the results as well as your private life: Qwant. The other is the most used search engine in the world, holding nearly 90% market share, having the ability to process a very large amount of data, you guessed it, we are talking about Google.
Browser searching consumption
We performed our measurements on a Samsung Galaxy S7 running Android 8 Oreo, using a Chrome browser, the most used browser in the world. Nevertheless, we advise you to opt for a browser more respectful of your device’s battery life like Brave or Firefox Focus.
The Qwant home page consumes slightly more energy than Google‘s (+ 6%). This is easily explained by the fact that an image is displayed by Qwant, as well as a quote at the bottom of the search bar, unlike Google which displays only the search bar.
However when you run a search, Qwant is the less consuming: its search results page consumes 3.30 mAh against 3.90 mAh for Google. This is a non-negligible difference of 15%.
What about the dark theme?
We have already wondered about the effectiveness of dark themes in a previous article focusing on Twitter app’s dark mode. Let’s check the impact of Qwant’s new dark theme.
Note: Google also has a dark theme available, but it’s pretty difficult to find, and much less obvious to configure by the user. Whereas Qwant offers an immediately accessible icon, in the case of the Google page, you have to perform a manipulation way too complicated, if you don’t know about it. This is why we chose not to test this configuration that seems reserved to advanced users.
Please note that we measured on a Samsung Galaxy S7 with AMOLED screen like most recent devices. This type of screen consumes a lot less battery when it displays dark colors.
Qwant’s dark theme reduces its home page consumption by almost 27% compared to its white-background “day” theme, and 24% for search results.
Conclusion
Qwant is an interesting alternative to Google in many ways. Our measurements show that it is also interesting if you seek to spare your battery power. If your smartphone is fitted with an AMOLED display, you’ll save your battery even more by activating Qwant‘s brand new dark theme. This will make a real difference on the battery life of your smartphone, especially if you’re the kind of user who searches the web a lot.
Kimberley DERUDDER has been digital marketing manager at Greenspector for more than 5 years. Kimberley graduated with a master’s degree in Marketing – Communication and specialized in Inbound Marketing after her first two years at Greenspector. Today in charge of the animation of the marketing, social media and lead generation strategy, she also takes care of app comparisons and battles.