Mobile Application Testing - Emulators Vs Simulators Vs Real Devices

A simple definition of mobile application testing would go like this “Mobile application testing may be a technique by that associate application code developed for hand-held mobile devices is tested for its practicality, usability, and consistency. Mobile application testing could also be automatic or manual reasonably testing.”

To go forward assuming to test a mobile application for an online flight ticket booking system we would take the following in note.

• Functional Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Localization Testing
• Laboratory Testing
• Performance Testing
• Stress Testing
• Security Testing
• Memory Leakage Testing
• Power Consumption Testing
• Interrupt Testing
• Usability Testing
• Installation Testing
• Uninstallation Testing
• Updates Testing
• Certification Testing

Mobile Testing - Emulator Vs Simulator Vs Real Devices

Suppose we have a tendency to developing an associate application for a flight price ticket booking system. Once the product is entirely developed, as vicinity of mobile application testing, we want to visualize if the application is functioning for sure with all the majorly used devices like automaton phones, iOS and alternative different types of tablets and iPads.

To do this type of testing, we want to acquire every device and so we will test if the applying behaves as per expectation. Affirmative!!! You thought right, as a product owner one can rebelliously notice this terribly big-ticket to obtain such an outsized variety of mobile devices and do testing. Thus is there any good alternative available?

The solution to the current drawback is to use Mobile Simulators and Mobile Emulators. These are primarily software programs designed to supply simulation for vital options of a smartphone. They’re terribly similar in nature, thus typically, they're used interchangeably.

Let’s compare however testing on associate Emulator/Simulator is totally different from testing on a true device –

	Real Device	Emulator / Simulator
Price	Getting real devices can value you a lot.	It's nearly free, we have a tendency to simply got to transfer and install them.
Processing Speed	It has quicker processing, but network latency could also be traditional.	It's slower as compared to actual devices. It’s discovered less latency than real devices connected to the native network or within the cloud.
Debugging	Debugging isn't that straightforward.	It provides a bit-by-bit debugging of the associate application. Also, it provides associate economical means for capturing screenshots.
Web-app Testing	Testing Web applications may be tested in a normal way.	Testing an online application is far easier.
Reliability	Testing on a true device includes a major advantage that it forever provides correct results.	It cannot simulate all kinds of user interactions; thus it's going to cause false results typically. Thus it scores low once it involves dependableness.

A simulator/emulator cannot mimic the subsequent options.

• Mobile device battery
• Mobile device’s camera
• Difficult to mimic interruptions like incoming calls and SMS.
• Not the most realistic simulation for mobile device memory usage.

Let us currently perceive a lot of regarding mobile emulators and mobile simulators. There are subsequent table lists the foremost distinction between a simulator and an mobile device emulator for testing.

	Emulator	Simulator
What it mimics	Mobile device software Mobile device hardware Mobile operating system	Internal behavior of the device. It doesn't mimic hardware.
How to get it	It is usually provided by the device manufacturer.	It's typically provided by the device manufacturer or another company.
Internal structure	It is written in machine-level programming language	It's written in application-oriented language.
Debugging	It is a lot of appropriate for debugging.	It’s not appropriate for debugging purpose.
Performance	Emulators are extremely slow. Emulating the particular hardware typically makes the software run slower than it would natively.	Quicker than emulators.
Example	Google’s Android SDK	Apple’s iOS Simulator

So, what's the most effective selection for mobile app testing? Best follow indicates that, whereas actual development is current, we must always use an associate emulator or a simulator for mobile testing. Before finalizing the product, there ought to be a sanity check from chosen real devices. As an example, there's an enormous variety of automaton smartphone users, therefore the good selection is to possess a sanity check for the most recent automaton device and regression may be conducted over simulators.

Also Read: Case Study on Cognitive Geofencing Mobile App Testing

Neha Sethi

Neha is a testing professional having diverse exposure in various projects and application testing with comprehensive understanding of all aspects of SDLC. She is well versed with Manual testing, Mobile application testing, performance testing, load testing, Web applications testing. She is able to create effective documentation issue report and also working with bug tracking software which is used to report the bugs. Highly motivated and excellent team player with strong interpersonal, analytical and communication skills.