Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser is now available for M1 Macs.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, you can now download Edge specifically for the new M1 Macs. When you head to the Edge website and click ‘Download for macOS,’ a pop-up notes that “Edge has been optimized for both Macs with Intel chips (most common) and Macs with Apple chips (some newer Mac models).”
Further, the pop-up includes download buttons for both versions and a link to instructions for checking which type of Mac you’re using.
If you’ve got an M1 Mac and like using Microsoft Edge, downloading the new M1 build should offer some significant performance improvements. The main difference between the builds is that M1 Edge should run natively on Apple Silicon instead of running through the Rosetta 2 translation layer.
The update comes after Microsoft pushed out a series of tweaks and features, including new themes, tab sleeping and more.
It’s nice to see M1 support finally come to Edge. Although turn-around was relatively quick — Microsoft released it in beta mid-way through January — it’s worth noting the company is far behind other browser makers. Google had an M1 variant of Chrome available relatively soon after the M1 Macs became available. Firefox rolled out native M1 support in December, while Brave got it in January.
If you’re interested in trying it out, you can download Edge for the M1 Mac here.
Source: 9to5Mac
