> Maybe something like Vivaldi, which builds on top of Chrome’s rendering engine, could be the answer?
Not likely if the main complaint is power usage. The browser engine is likely to be the main driver there, and switching skins won't help, especially for an engine as tightly coupled to its shell as Blink is.
Just tried Vivaldi on Mac and it shows roughly about the same process and thread usage for tabs as Chrome so probably not the answer to battery life. It does feel quite snappy so I'll continue using it instead of Chrome for other reasons.
Generally I use Safari because it renders text better than Chrome (Yosemite) on external displays, but for developer tools still use Chrome.
Not likely if the main complaint is power usage. The browser engine is likely to be the main driver there, and switching skins won't help, especially for an engine as tightly coupled to its shell as Blink is.