Microsoft Edge could go for rounded corners in a big way – but that might not be popular

Microsoft’s Edge browser could go big on rounded corners with another potential change spotted in (limited) testing right now.

Newwin (opens in new tab) reports that XenoPanther highlighted the potential change on Twitter, posting a screenshot from Edge Canary (the earliest test version) with rounded corners for the actual area of ​​the browser showing the web page.

Even the sidebar for scrolling down the web page is rounded at the top and bottom, and this is definitely a look that isn’t to everyone’s taste (we’ll get to that in a minute).

Note that as XenoPanther points out, there are other Edge testers – some of whom pick up on the Twitter thread above – who say they don’t see this change.

So it appears to be a tweak that has only been rolled out to a small number of testers (so-called A/B testing), and depending on how it goes, can then be pushed to more people (still testing, mind – to measure further response from a larger user base).

Analysis: Consistency first – but is this going too far?

There are some people who are really not thrilled with the new circular look for the central area where the web page appears in Edge. And the extra catch here is that the rounding is not only present when the browser is windowed, but also when it is made full screen.

The latter looks rather odd, we have to agree, and unpleasant when displaying video in full screen, for example – where you also lose a little bit of screen real estate for showing the video clip.

As one user put it to Microsoft on Twitter (expletive has been removed): “Stop giving everything around the corner!”

We get it, though: Microsoft adopted the round instead of the sharp edge as an overall look for Windows 11 and is just staying consistent. However, this might feel like a step too far, especially the full-screen aspect of the wrap up; but this is still early testing, and the idea will no doubt be refined (or maybe even ditched based on feedback).