Real device testing is a crucial phase of the mobile app development process. It enables developers and QA to test the app’s performance, functionality, and usability on real, physical devices. It helps to uncover issues that might not be noticeable during testing on emulators or simulators.
In this article, we will explore everything you need to know about getting started with real device testing.
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What is a Real Device?
A real device refers to the actual physical device an end user uses to run an application in real-world scenarios.
For mobile applications, real devices are the consumer mobile phones, tablets, and wearables that everyday users carry and interact with. Testing software on real iPhone, Android, and iPad devices provides insights into the genuine hardware, operating systems, screen sizes, and chipsets that customers experience. For specialized industrial, scientific, or medical monitoring software, it’s the actual monitoring device.
Using a diversity of real mobile devices during testing allows issues that may only appear on specific device models or platforms to be caught. Testing on real devices provides the most accurate test scenario compared to simulators and emulators.
What is Real Device Testing?
Real device testing, also called local device testing, is the process of running and evaluating mobile apps on real devices instead of emulators or simulators. This testing involves installing the app on various mobile devices with different operating systems, screen sizes, resolutions, and hardware specs.
The goal is to ensure that the mobile app functions appropriately and provides a consistent user experience across the myriad of devices that customers will use. To perform adequate testing on real devices, test engineers need access to diverse physical devices or cloud-based services that provide remote access to an extensive catalog of real devices.
The engineers will execute various tests during testing, including functionality, performance, usability, compatibility, and security. Thorough mobile device testing identifies issues and defects that may not surface during simulator testing. Testing on real devices ultimately validates that the app is high-quality and ready for release across the targeted mobile platforms.
Why Use Real Devices to Test Mobile Apps?
Real device testing provides more accurate and comprehensive app evaluation compared to emulators or simulators. By testing apps on actual user devices, developers can identify issues that may go undetected in simulated environments.
Following are some advantages of real device testing:
- Accurate Testing Environment – Local devices offer a precise testing environment that accounts for varying hardware specifications and real-world network conditions. This allows developers to assess performance factors like battery drainage, device heating, lagging interfaces, and crashing apps.
- Comprehensive Testing – Testing on real devices facilitates more thorough testing across app functionality, usability, reliability, and security. Real device testing data exposes flaws that may cause apps to crash or malfunction over long-term use.
- Better User Experience – Testing apps on target user devices provides contextual insight into real-world UX pain points. Testing via emulators fails to replicate nuances of actual user workflows, gestures, and ergonomics. Real device testing surfaces these issues.
- Improved Reliability – By identifying and fixing issues impacting real device reliability, developers can improve app stability and prevent crashes. Real device testing thereby ensures apps function smoothly for end users.
- Access Specialized Hardware – Certain devices offer unique hardware functions unavailable on standard emulators. For example, testing apps on devices with satellite connectivity, custom controllers, or vehicle integration kits requires real devices.
When to Test Mobile Apps on Real Devices?
Mobile testing on physical devices should be done at various stages throughout the mobile app development process. Here are some instances when mobile testing on real devices is particularly important:
- Initial Development – Early real device testing surfaces bugs missed in simulators relating to system conflicts, battery drain, lagging interfaces, and device heating. Addressing such issues from initial builds saves significant QA time down the line.
- Pre-Launch – Rigorous real device testing is indispensable right before public launch to evaluate real-world app performance. Testing across diverse user devices identifies adoption-blocking issues emulators cannot reveal.
- Post-Updates – Whenever substantial updates or changes are made, comprehensive real-device testing must follow to catch any new bugs affecting app stability. Since updates risk breaking existing functions, diligent testing prevents disruptions.
- Platform-Specific Testing – Apps built for specific platforms like IoT, vehicles, or industrial systems must be tested directly on those devices pre-launch. Unique hardware and connectivity must be validated with real-world testing.
- New Feature Validation – Real device testing ensures smooth integration and prevents functionality gaps with each new feature. New features often carry compatibility risks, making local testing critical.
Real Device vs. Virtual Device Testing
Here is a comparison between real testing devices and virtual testing devices:
| Criteria | Real Device Testing | Virtual Device Testing |
| Cost | More expensive to purchase and maintain device inventory | Minimal cost to install emulators/simulators |
| Reliability | Provides the most accurate real-world testing conditions | Cannot fully replicate real devices and hardware/software configurations |
| Processing Speed | Testing is faster due to running on actual device hardware | Slower speed due to simulating hardware and binary translation |
| Debugging | Can be more difficult to debug apps on real devices | Built-in controls and visibility aid debugging |
| Cross-Platform Testing | Requires purchasing different device types and platforms | A single machine (PC) can simulate multiple device types |
As mentioned earlier, virtual device testing cannot replicate real-world scenarios, so testing on real devices is important to get accurate testing results for real-world conditions. However, real device testing often has limitations, particularly scalability and reliability issues. Let’s discuss some of those limitations.
Limitations of Real Device Testing
Following are the limitations of real device testing:
- Demanding Maintenance: In-house device labs call for round-the-clock upkeep – installing updates, replacing damaged units, and onboarding new devices. As collections grow, labs become resource-intensive to manage. Neglecting maintenance risks outdated, non-representative test devices.
- High Costs: Procuring and maintaining devices is expensive, especially with frequent hardware and software updates. Budgets must account for routine replacement of legacy units. The cost is a crucial barrier for many test teams.
- Scalability and Reliability Issues: When it comes to scalability and reliability, the challenge arises when trying to scale device labs because it puts a lot of pressure on the existing tools and resources. As you add more devices and configurations, the whole process becomes very complicated. This complexity can slow testing speed and efficiency, impacting how quickly and effectively testing can be done.
- Limited Device Diversity: In reality, it’s nearly impossible to have every possible device type that your users might use in a testing lab. Countless variations are based on the device’s make, model, screen size, operating system version, and chipset. This means that specific important segments of devices are likely to go untested due to the sheer diversity and permutations in the market.
- Time-Consuming: Testing on actual devices takes more time compared to using emulators. As the number of devices and test cases increases, the testing time also increases. This can lead to stretched schedules and increase the risk of project delays, making the testing process more time-consuming and potentially impacting overall project timelines.
To avoid these challenges, a feasible option is to choose real device cloud platforms. Let’s see how to perform real device testing.
Getting Started with Real Device Cloud
Now, let’s look at the steps to get started with a real device cloud for mobile app testing:
- Define Testing Goals and Strategy: Before starting real device testing, you must clearly define your mobile testing goals and build a comprehensive test plan and strategy.
- Establish a Testing Environment: An adequately controlled testing environment is vital for generating high-quality, reproducible test results during real device validation. The environment must connect all aspects of devices under test, network constraints, test tools and analytics, and external equipment for holistic, reproducible mobile testing.
- Select a Real Device Testing Platform: Real device testing platforms have emerged to simplify and scale access to a vast array of real mobile devices hosted remotely in cloud data centers. These platforms allow enterprises to bypass many headaches of procuring and managing local device labs, which are time-consuming, capital-intensive, and geographically constrained.
- Test Execution: Access the cloud platform using their real device testing features and run your tests. Preferred cloud platforms like LambdaTest provide extensive device access on-demand while handling provisioning and orchestration, which helps reduce the time required for testing.
- Monitor and Analyze Test Results: Monitoring and analyzing test results is crucial for understanding how applications behave on different devices and configurations, identifying defects, and improving quality engineering. When running automated tests, the system should generate reports that automatically flag test failures on specific device models and operating systems. Usually, cloud-based testing offers analytics or an intuitive automation dashboard to track test results.
Performance analytics can also reveal speed, memory, or power efficiency issues compared to higher-end devices like premium phones and tablets on lower-tier hardware profiles.
- Iterate and Update: To conduct proper testing on real devices, it’s essential to iterate and update your testing strategies as new mobile technologies become viable. Every new smartphone release has improvements in display technology, processors, and cameras.
Real device testing strategies must continually expand and evolve to keep up with these changes, driven by market dynamics rather than remaining static.
Conclusion
Real device testing is critical for enterprises to ensure their mobile apps and websites work reliably across the diverse range of real-world mobile devices employees and customers use.
As new mobile devices and platforms continue to evolve, companies must adapt their testing methods to address these moving targets. There are many hardware, software, and usage variations that can impact compatibility. This guide has covered why real device testing matters, its challenges, and actionable steps to get started. The ultimate goal is to guarantee apps function consistently on the many different real customer and business devices in use.
Using actual phones and tablets to test apps might not work well enough with how fast everything moves now. Instead, real device cloud testing gives businesses more flexibility and lets them test apps on a big scale. It’s a way to test on lots of different devices and screen sizes without needing the actual devices. This helps companies keep up with the pace and ensure their apps are as functional as can be across all types of phones and tablets people use.
So, real device cloud testing is the way to go these days for testing mobile apps thoroughly but quickly. It gives businesses what they need to stay on top of things in such a growing, fast-changing market.