Mobile app testing is crucial for ensuring quality, but choosing the right testing approach can be tricky. Should you invest in a fleet of real devices or rely on emulators and simulators? This definitive guide examines the pros and cons of real devices, emulators, and simulators, along with best practices for balancing mobile test strategies…
Key Research on Defect Detection Rates
Recent studies have shown significant differences in defect detection rates between real device versus emulator testing:
- A 2022 study by TestLodge found 30% more serious application defects were detected through real device testing compared to emulators.
- Software Testing Help‘s annual mobile testing surveys indicate that over 35% of respondents have encountered issues in production that they didn‘t find during emulator testing.
Why does real device testing find so many more bugs? When looking at the accuracy of hardware emulation…
Real Device Capabilities Emulators Struggle to Simulate
Emulators attempt to model real device behavior, but cannot match the fidelity across areas like:
- Interrupt Handling: Real devices mirror the complexity of radio interfaces, sensor inputs and interrupt prioritization. These are hard to emulate.
- Memory Management: With GBs of RAM, emulators mask problems that manifest on memory constrained phones.
- Power Simulation: Battery drain, heat dispersion and throttling effects are real issues no emulator truly simulates…
This leads to real differences in defect detection rates, but emulators still have an important role…
Expert Views on Shifting Left Testing Strategies
Leading voices recommend leveraging both real devices and emulators, with careful management of testing scope across them:
- As James Bach advises: "Use emulators for sprint-style exploratory testing to evolutionarily grow an understanding of the product."
- Meanwhile, transition regression suites to real devices to validate product readiness through comprehensive test passes.
The consensus agrees that starting testing on emulators enables faster debug cycles early on. Teams can shift testing left before requiring physical devices. However, emulators alone cannot replicate real-world usage at scale across the countless device variations…
A Showdown of Popular Android Emulators
The ecosystem of Android virtual devices continues to grow more robust. Comparing the emulation capabilities of leading solutions:
[Table comparing Android Studio emulator, Genymotion, Xamarin Android Player on metrics like hardware supported, network simulation features, etc]
As shown above in the emulator showdown, solutions have different strengths…
Real-World Bugs Revealed on Devices and Not Emulators
While emulators aim to model device behavior, real differences manifest in issues like:
- Memory leaks creeping in over days of use: Emulated device memory remained stable for the same test.
- Cell signal drops crashing an app‘s network call: Hard to simulate radio interrupts accurately.
- Battery overheating causing CPU throttling: No thermal simulation in emulator.
These examples demonstrate the value of real devices for catching issues emulators may mask…
Smart Strategies for Real Device and Emulator Testing
So when should teams utilize real devices versus emulators?
[Insert testing strategy decision flowchart graphic]
As a rule of thumb:
- Start testing on emulators for faster initial cycles
- Transition to real devices as code stabilizes to catch errors under real-world conditions
- Balance investment based on risk profile – more devices for business critical flows
Other best practices include…
Tips for Building an Effective Device Lab Program
Managing a fleet of test devices effectively is key to maximizing real device testing. Useful approaches involve:
- Budget for 3 devices per major OS version under test as a minimum to cover variations
- Prioritize devices popular in target markets for your user base
- Partner with OEMs for device loans and beta testing opportunities
There are also alternative services that provide shared access to an extensive device lab network on-demand…
Cloud Device Labs Bridge Gaps Between Emulators and Dedicated Rigs
Recently, services have emerged offering on-demand access to vast networks of real mobile devices for application testing purposes. Some examples include:
- AWS Device Farm
- Google Firebase Test Lab
- Xamarin Test Cloud
These cloud device labs act as an intermediary between pure emulators and fully managing your own device test lab with racks of phones and tablets. The services offer extensive hardware diversity targeting various markets to validate your app against…
An Integrated Approach Combining Strengths
Based on the pros, cons, expert guidance, and real-world considerations covered here, we can conclude:
- Emulators and simulators enable rapid test iteration, especially early in development cycles
- Real devices allow comprehensive validation against true usage conditions
As such, an integrated testing strategy leveraging both emulator and real device testing is best. The keys are determining at which test phases to emphasize real devices versus emulators based on risk profile, test objectives, and budget considerations…
In Closing: Balance Virtual and Real Testing
Testing mobile apps requires minimizing gaps between the emulator and real-world device environments. Carefully mapping test cases to available lab resources – both virtual and physical devices – is imperative. Integrate these techniques for efficient defect detection across the test spectrum from unit to exploratory to field testing. Maximizing coverage while balancing speed and cost constraints makes for an optimized mobile verification approach resulting in higher quality apps.
