Back in December 2018 Microsoft said that their Browser Edge will be build on Chromium. The same code base as Google Chrome, Opera and Brave. This week a leaked version of chromium edge could be downloaded. I have tested the browser and this is my opinion about it so far. Keep in mind that this is only a alpha so thing will likely change.
How does it perform?
So far it is as stable as it should be. Sites like Youtube even load faster then on the original version of edge.
You can now also see the icon in the topbar that has you microsoft account image. In this build that doesnt work yet.
The settings screen is redesigned but the settings in it are limited at this moment. There is no dark mode yet for example but that will likely come in the live build.
You are now also able to install chrome extensions for edge. This greatly increases the amount of extensions for edge.
The Design
The current design used for Chromium edge looks much like Google Chrome.
I personally don’t like the style Google Chrome has today. I liked the old Chrome style though.
I do like the design in the live version of Edge. The transparent top bar makes it look a bit more modern and the hover effects are really nice.
It is unclear or Microsoft will re use this design in their Chromium version of the Edge browser. On the other hand Opera also is a Chromium browser but it doesn’t look like one so i hope that Microsoft will keep the old Edge design like Opera did when they switched to Chromium.
If you want to test the chromium build of Microsoft Edge you can sign up for the insider Program.
