Choosing the Best Mobile Testing Option: Real Devices vs. Emulators

Anushree Chatterjee

Getting work done on the go has become very convenient these days, thanks to mobile devices. This rising adoption of mobile devices has also motivated businesses to host online stores through websites or mobile apps.

If you are someone who is working behind the scenes, you’ll know how cut-throat and rushed everything is. There’s always a better alternative to your product, so you need to always be on your toes. In such a fast-paced, agile world, you need to ensure that testing is being done thoroughly and quickly. This is where mobile testing comes into the picture.

What is mobile testing?

Mobile testing is the process of evaluating mobile apps on various devices and operating systems to ensure they function correctly, deliver a good user experience, and are free from bugs.

Through mobile testing, you can test an application in below areas:

• Performance
• Functionality
• Usability
• Compatibility
• Security

Types of apps tested

Mobile testing applies to all sorts of mobile applications, not just those available in app stores. Here’s a range of applications that undergo mobile testing:

• Native apps: These are apps designed specifically for a particular operating system (iOS, Android) and downloaded from app stores. They can use device-specific features like GPS or camera. Read: Mobile Testing Overview.
• Web apps: These are mobile websites designed to function like apps. They can be accessed through a device’s web browser and don’t require installation from app stores.
• Hybrid apps: These combine elements of both native apps and web apps. They’re built using web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) but packaged within a native app container, allowing access to native features.

Why do mobile testing?

Mobile testing has its set of advantages. Like any other form of testing, it is a QA mechanism to ensure that the product at hand is of the best quality.

• Ensures a flawless user experience (UX): Imagine downloading an app that crashes constantly, has buttons that don’t work, or takes forever to load. Frustrating, right? Mobile testing helps identify and fix these issues before they reach users, leading to a smooth and enjoyable experience that keeps them coming back. Read: UX Testing: What, Why, How, with Examples.
• Identifies bugs and crashes: Bugs can lurk anywhere in your app’s code, causing unexpected behavior or crashes. Mobile testing helps uncover these bugs across various devices and scenarios, allowing you to fix them before users encounter them in the real world. Know about Minimizing Risks: The Impact of Late Bug Detection.
• Boosts performance: Mobile testing helps identify performance bottlenecks that might slow down your app under certain conditions (weak network, low battery). By addressing these issues, you can ensure your app runs smoothly and efficiently on different devices.
• Improves compatibility: The mobile landscape is vast, with countless devices running various operating systems and hardware configurations. Testing across various devices helps ensure your app functions correctly and looks good on as many devices as possible, reaching a broader audience.
• Enhances security: Mobile testing can help identify vulnerabilities in your app that could expose user data or compromise its security. This is especially important for apps that handle sensitive information like financial transactions or private messages.
• Reduces negative reviews: A buggy, poorly performing app is sure to garner negative reviews, damaging your app’s reputation and potentially hindering future downloads. By investing in mobile testing, you can significantly reduce the chances of such negative feedback.
• Saves money in the long run: Fixing bugs after an app launch can be expensive and time-consuming. Proactive mobile testing helps catch and address issues early on, saving you resources and preventing potential revenue loss from a poorly received app. Read: How to Save Budget on QA.

Types of mobile testing tools

Due to the very nature of mobile devices and the associated complexities, you will find a variety of options that allow you to do this form of testing.

• Real physical devices: This is the most realistic testing environment, allowing you to see how the app performs on actual hardware and software combinations. However, they can be expensive to acquire and maintain a wide variety. Read: Comparing iOS Emulators/Simulators with Real iOS Devices.
• Emulators: Software programs that mimic both the hardware and software of a mobile device on your computer. Ideal for early stage development and testing, but it may not perfectly replicate real device behavior. Read: The 9 Leading Android Emulators for PCs in 2024.
• Simulators: Focus on replicating the software side of things, like the operating system and user interface. Generally faster to run than emulators but may not be suitable for testing hardware-dependent features.
• Mobile automation testing frameworks: These are frameworks that allow you to write test scripts and execute them across various mobile devices.
• Cloud providers (e.g. BrowserStack, Sauce Labs): Offer remote access to a pool of real mobile devices, enabling testing on a variety of devices without physically managing them yourself.
• Performance testing tools: Evaluate how well the app performs under varying loads and network conditions.
• Security testing tools: Identify vulnerabilities in your app that could expose user data or compromise its security.

Let’s examine real devices and emulators more thoroughly and assess how to adopt them for mobile testing.

What are emulators?

As mentioned above, an emulator is a software program that imitates both the hardware and software of a mobile device on your computer. It essentially creates a virtual version of a mobile device within your computer environment.

Benefits of using emulators

• Cost-effective: Emulators are free to use and readily available, eliminating the need to purchase a variety of physical devices for testing. This makes them ideal for startups and small development teams.
• Speed and convenience: Setting up and running an emulator is much faster than acquiring and configuring a real device. This allows for quicker iteration cycles and faster testing during development.
• Controlled environment: Emulators provide a controlled testing environment where you can easily replicate specific device configurations and software versions. This helps isolate variables and pinpoint the source of bugs.
• Wider device coverage: You can configure emulators to mimic a wide range of devices with different screen sizes, operating systems, and hardware specifications. This allows you to test your app on a broader range of virtual devices without the physical limitations.
• Early bug detection: Emulators are useful for identifying core functionality and UI bugs early in the development process. This helps catch and fix issues before they become bigger problems later.

Challenges with using emulators

• Limited accuracy: While emulators try to mimic real devices, they may not perfectly replicate hardware behavior. This can lead to discrepancies in performance or how certain features like GPS or cameras work in real-world scenarios.
• Potential for missed bugs: Bugs specific to real device hardware or a particular software version might be missed during emulator testing. Real-world testing is crucial to ensure functionality across various hardware and software combinations.
• Security limitations: Emulators might not replicate the exact security environment of a real device, potentially overlooking security vulnerabilities that could be exploited in the real world.
• Performance bottlenecks: Emulator performance may not accurately reflect how the app performs on real devices with varying processing power and memory limitations.

What are real devices?

Real devices refer to actual smartphones and tablets you can physically hold in your hand. They represent the real-world environment where users will interact with your app.

Benefits of using real devices

• Unmatched accuracy: Real devices provide the most realistic testing environment possible. You can see how the app performs with the exact combination of hardware and software it will encounter in the hands of users. This allows you to identify issues specific to device-software combinations that emulators might miss.
• Testing hardware-dependent features: Certain app features rely heavily on device hardware, such as GPS, camera, microphone, or sensors. Real devices are essential for testing these features and ensuring they function properly.
• Performance testing under real-world conditions: Real devices allow you to test your app’s performance under varying network speeds, battery levels, and device loads. This helps identify performance bottlenecks and optimize your app for real-world scenarios users might encounter. Read: 5G and Mobile Test Automation: What is the Impact?
• User Experience (UX) testing: Real devices let you assess usability and user experience in a realistic setting. You can observe user interactions and identify any pain points or awkward flows that might not be apparent in an emulator environment.

Challenges with using real devices

• Cost: Acquiring and maintaining a variety of real devices with different operating systems and configurations can be expensive.
• Setup time: Setting up and configuring individual real devices for testing can be time-consuming compared to quickly launching an emulator.
• Limited scalability: Testing on a large number of real devices simultaneously can be challenging due to logistical constraints.
• Limited control: You have less control over the testing environment compared to emulators. Factors like device age, pre-installed apps, and user configurations can vary and impact testing consistency.
• Time commitment: Setting up and configuring real devices takes more time than launching an emulator. This can slow down the testing process, especially during earlier development stages.

Real devices vs. emulators

Here’s a quick comparison of real devices with emulators to help you decide which to use:

Emulators are great for the initial mobile testing stages. They offer a convenient and cost-effective way to test core functionalities and identify basic bugs. However, for comprehensive testing before release, you should look to incorporate real device testing as well, to ensure a smooth user experience across different devices and hardware configurations.

Here are a few more considerations when going through choosing between real devices or emulators.

Cloud-based device testing

To address some of the challenges in this tug-of-war between emulators and real devices, you can consider using cloud-based device testing services. These services offer remote access to a pool of real devices, allowing you to test on a wider range of devices without the upfront cost and logistical hassle of managing them yourself.

Automated mobile testing

Just like most other forms of testing, you can use automation in mobile testing, too. The process becomes even simpler when you use modern test automation tools that provide ways to incorporate how a user interacts with a mobile device.

testRigor for automated mobile testing

Automating mobile testing has never been as easy as it is with using testRigor. This is a cloud platform that uses generative AI in all its forms to give you the smoothest test automation experience. With testRigor, you can test mobile apps for both Android and iOS, pure native apps, and hybrid apps easily, even if hybrid applications contain 2FA, iframes, pop-ups, and other functionalities that many other tools simply cannot automate.

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You can take a look at this video to see a demo of how to test mobile apps using testRigor. This intelligent tool offers many more features like cross-browser testing, email, SMS testing, audio testing, visual testing, etc., to name a few.

testRigor lets you seamlessly integrate with popular device farm providers like BrowserStack to expand your pool of devices further.

Conclusion

Mobile testing is an investment in the quality and success of your mobile app. It helps you deliver a polished, user-friendly experience that keeps users satisfied and returning for more. By avoiding potential problems early on, you can save time, money, and frustration in the long run.

The best approach often involves combining different tools and techniques based on your testing needs. For instance, you might use emulators for initial testing, then switch to real devices and cloud-based testing for more comprehensive testing before release.

Additional resources

• Mobile Testing: Where Should You Start?
• How to do mobile testing using testRigor?
• Top 10 Tools for Mobile Testing
• Why Using a Device Farm is a Good Idea for Mobile Testing
• Cross-Device Testing: Strategies and Tools

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

While emulators are great for testing application features and functionality, they may not provide reliable testing results for battery usage, camera functionality, and other device-specific features. Emulators also cannot replicate the exact rendering of graphics on real hardware.

The choice depends on factors like the testing phase, budget constraints, specific application requirements, and the criticality of the environment’s accuracy. Emulators are suitable for early development and functional testing, while real devices are better for final testing phases like system testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing.

Yes, a hybrid approach often yields the best results. Use emulators for early development phases to quickly catch major bugs and real devices in later stages to ensure the application performs well in real-world scenarios.

Emulators are generally more cost-effective as they reduce the need for physical devices. However, relying solely on emulators can lead to missed device-specific issues, potentially increasing the cost of post-release fixes. Real devices, while more expensive upfront due to the need to acquire various models, help ensure a higher quality, market-ready product.

Cloud-based device labs can be a good solution, offering access to a multitude of real devices over the cloud. This allows for testing on various devices and operating systems without the high costs associated with maintaining an extensive in-house device lab. Club it with an adept automation testing tool like testRigor, and you shall be able to automate mobile testing with ease.

“We spent so much time on maintenance when using Selenium, and we spend nearly zero time with maintenance using testRigor.”

Keith Powe VP Of Engineering - IDT