This week, Microsoft released the very first preview of its new browser, codenamed Project Spartan. Available only with the latest build of Windows 10 Technical Preview,
Spartan promises to replace the company’s infamous Internet Explorer with something that is “fast, compatible, and built for the modern Web.”
The browser is obviously a beta-level product at best, but we were curious to see how it performs compared to the competition. So we ran Project Spartan, IE 11, Chrome and Firefox through a few tests on a Core i5-4200U-powered ThinkPad T440s laptop running Windows 10 on its 1920 x 1080 display. The very early results are in — and they are a mixed bag at best.
Screen Real Estate
The more space your tool bars, buttons and status bars take up, the less that’s available to show web content. Just a few pixels can mean the difference between seeing an extra line or two of text “above the fold” on a web page or needing to scroll.
