In today’s fast-paced software development landscape, creating quality applications that run well on multiple devices is more important than ever. The focus on delivering an excellent user experience has led to many testing methods, but the one method that provides the most realistic and valuable results is real device testing. While simulators and emulators serve their purpose of simulating devices, they will fail to reveal how your app operates in the real world.
This blog discusses why real device testing is an essential step. We’ll look at what real device testing is, why it is important, and how it compares to other testing, and then review how critical it is to providing inclusive, accessible and reliable digital experiences.
What Is Real Device Testing?
Real device testing means testing your software or your application on real devices rather than virtual environments. Therefore, your app is installed and runs on real smartphones, tablets, or your targeted devices in order to test its real-world performance. Real device testing is assessing how well your app performs in real-time and conditions, where you can pick up problems that you would not normally see in a simulator or emulator, such as performance issues, battery consumption, network fluctuations, etc.
These physical devices incorporate varying combinations of operating systems (iOS, Android), versions, screen sizes, hardware capabilities, and manufacturers. Because users engage with apps in highly varied scenarios, testing on real devices provides an ideal measure of the user experience.
Drawbacks of Emulators and Simulators
Simulators and emulators are frequently used in early development stages because they are readily available, low-cost, and quick. However, there are limitations:
- Hardware Limits: Emulators simulate device software, not hardware. They cannot simulate issues with the hardware, such as camera failures, GPS disorientation, or issues with sensors.
- Performance Disparities: Emulators are running on powerful computers, so it may not be easy to simulate problems due to lag or resource exhaustion.
- Network Conditions: Variances in the network, for example, are hard to simulate accurately (3G, 4G, 5G, drop in Wi-Fi).
- Touch Measures: Real touch gestures, such as swipes, pinches, or taps, will not be simulated in emulators sufficiently to produce accurate results.
- Battery Usage: Battery usage cannot be accurately measured using virtual devices. Thus, an app that seems energy efficient in an emulator could be detrimental to battery life in a real environment.
Simulators and emulators are useful for unit testing or early development, but they do not offer the complete picture. Real device testing is the only way to confidently assert how your application performs for end users.
Why Real Device Testing is So Important?
Real User Experience
Testing on actual devices allows your app to behave as the user expects it will on a variety of screens, hardware, and real-world situations. Specifically, this testing allows you to validate navigation, responsiveness, and performance as it is perceived by the non-developing user.
Real Performance Insights
Testing on actual devices can reveal problems, including crashing, slow load times, and lagging, that would not appear in an emulator. This is an especially important step for an app with heavy processing or graphics.
Finding Real Bugs
Some bugs only appear on specific hardware or sizes of devices. Testing on real devices can help with uncovering UI glitches, camera or microphone issues, or some other error specific to that device.
Improved Security Validation
Security behavior can vary on devices. Testing the app on a real device can help with locating OS and security vulnerabilities, and compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) or HIPAA
Device Diversity Coverage
With thousands of Android models and different iOS versions, testing solely on emulators does not accurately represent your app. Testing on real devices gives you confidence to ensure your app performs correctly in this vast ecosystem.
Role of Real Device Testing in Mobile App Success
Real device testing for mobile applications is not only helpful but mandatory for the following reasons:
- Fragmentation: The open nature of the Android ecosystem generates an extensive number of screen sizes, processors, RAM, and manufacturers. The only way to ensure your app works well within that fragmented ecosystem is to test on real devices.
- Updates and Compatibility: Operating systems will receive continual updates, and you will always have hardware variations. Real devices help ensure your app is still compatible and performing appropriately after every update.
- User Expectations: Mobile app users are very sensitive to app performance. Even a small performance issue can lead to a review or an uninstall. Real device testing can reduce the chances of these issues occurring by finding and fixing them prior to release.
Real Device Testing as Part of Your Accessibility Testing Strategy
Your moral and legal responsibility is to create accessible applications. But what does accessibility really mean?
Accessibility means making sure your app can be used by people with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments.
Real device testing is crucial to accessibility, as it allows for a real interaction with assistive technologies, such as:
- Screen readers (like TalkBack on Android and VoiceOver on iOS)
- Magnifiers
- Speech to text
- Switch access and other forms of alternate input
Simulators typically do not provide strong support for these assistive technologies, making it very challenging to properly validate whether your app is fully accessible. Real devices provide a venue to thoroughly test accessibility features.
For both developers and testers, the use of Accessibility Extension tools is a great way to audit web content and mobile views, though they tend to be more effective when you test them in the real world.
Cost vs. Quality: Is Real Device Testing Worthwhile?
Without a question, establishing and maintaining a real device lab comes with upfront costs. Devices need to be bought, maintained, and kept up to date. However, these expenses often pale in comparison to the hidden costs of poor app performance: user frustration, negative reviews, lost customers, and revenue decline due to buggy releases.
Thankfully, cloud-based GenAI-powered platforms like LambdaTest are redefining how teams approach testing. Instead of investing in costly real device labs, teams get instant, on-demand access to a vast pool of real iOS and Android devices. This means faster, scalable testing, seamless compatibility checks, and consistently superior digital experiences, all without the overhead of managing physical infrastructure.
When Should You Use Real Device Testing?
While real device testing should be a part of your QA processes, it is critical to have it during these stages:
- Pre-release Validation: Make sure to thoroughly test your application on real devices before it is available for public use.
- Regression Testing: After updates or bug fixes, real device testing does the job to ensure nothing has broken.
- UI/UX Testing: Any changes to the UI or design must be tested on real devices to validate touch behavior, screen rendering and technical flow through the application.
- Network and Connectivity Testing: Evaluate how your application performs under various network tests, such as limited connectivity and no internet.
- Geolocation Testing: If your application relies on GPS, the only accurate testing is on a real device.
Best Practices for Testing on Real Devices
For best results of real device testing, keep these best practices in mind:
Device Selection Methodology
Select devices in accordance with your target audience. Device selection is based on popularity, operating system versions, screen sizes, hardware capabilities, and geographical location or demographics.
Use Automation When Possible
Use automation frameworks for repeated regression testing. Real device testing is still mostly going to be manual; however, there are some parts that can be automated to make testing easier.
Integrate into CI/CD Pipelines
Continuous Integration & Deployments (CI/CD) pipelines are good for catching bugs early. By using real device testing as part of CI/CD pipelines, you will have an extra quality check at every step.
Testing Under Real World Conditions
Take the time to recreate real-world conditions to see if the behavior of the app is the same, such as low battery, incoming calls, switching between multiple apps, and network switching.
Include Accessibility Testing
Regardless of your app’s accessibility features, they must be validated in real devices that include any assistive technology. Use accessibility testing tools and also manually validate to account for the highest potential of barriers.
The Future of Real Device Testing
As technology evolves, the demand for increasingly more accurate testing will undoubtedly increase. Emerging technologies such as foldable phones, wearables, and IoT devices introduce new challenges that require physical validation.
In addition, with 5G, AR/VR, and voice interfaces now expanding the landscape for software development, the scope of testing on real devices will only expand. The combinations of all of these new technologies through user and software interactions cannot be effectively simulated through virtual environments. Real devices will continue to be the benchmark for the best quality assurance.
Conclusion
Real device testing is a must-have. Real device testing provides the best representation of how a user would experience your app. Testing on real devices contributes depth and assurance to your QA process; this includes identifying performance issues, finding device-specific bugs, ensuring accessibility, and ensuring cross-device compatibility.
We are in an age where the user experience makes or breaks your success. If you are able to spend the money, then investing in real device testing should not even be a question of whether you should do it, but rather how you can do it.
Whether you’re building a small app or a large digital ecosystem, make sure you budget for real devices in your testing lifecycle. You will develop better software, gain user trust and build long-term success.
