The best browsers for Netflix and other video streaming sites.

Scott Orgera is a former writer who covering tech since 2007.

He has 25 years experience as a programmer and QA leader, and holds several Microsoft certifications.

Some web browsers are better equipped for streaming movies online than others.

Determining the best browser for streaming depends on which factors are most important to you, such as speed, battery usage, and support for high-definition (HD).

Interestingly, Google Chrome does not qualify here, although it is by far the most popular browser.

If youre viewing videos on a laptop, choosing between HD vs standard definition might not make much of a difference.

However, if you have an HD monitor, then you will want to use Edge, Explorer, or Safari.

It dominates the browser market, largely because of its minimalist design and superior speed in loading web pages.

That said, Microsoft Edge matches or beats Chrome in some performance tests, while Firefox and Opera lag far behind.

To promote the Edge browser, Microsoft conducted several web browser tests on battery usage.

If you can believe the results, Edge came out on top, followed by Opera, Firefox, and then Chrome.

For the record, Opera disagreed with the results, stating that the tests methods were not revealed.

Chrome continues to address this problem in updated releases, but its resource usage directly contributes to the speed of its browser, so tweaking Chromes use of resources is a balancing act for the company.

When it comes to streaming movies in HD, its hard to go wrong with Edge on Windows or Safari on Mac.

However, because all browsers continually roll out new updates, a new version could up-end previous benchmarks at any point.

Since browsers are free, you can easily switch from one to another for different purposes.

This decreases the load on memory so that your computer can focus on streaming.

The common 2.4 GHz frequency is used by household appliances, so it is more crowded.

If your ISP has promised you 5 MBps and you are getting only 1 MBps, make sure youre getting the internet speed you are paying for.

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