With the rapidly increasing popularity and complexness of mobile apps, you need to make certain your app work as intend across various device model, operating scheme, and browsers. But with tens of thousands of mobile device models on the market and more being released every twelvemonth, how do you choose which devices to test on, and how many do you actually need to screen on for comprehensive examination coverage?

In this article, we ’ ll provide best practices for selecting mobile devices to test, as well as our recommended devices to test on by area and business size.

Manual Testing vs. Automated Mobile Testing

(MAT) is the process of testing mobile apps to ensure that mobile apps employment as intended on any device or browser. Wandering examination can be make manually on real device and or with automation.

Deciding between and is the first step in choose the right devices for testing. Manual testing is the most common form of mobile testing. It involves a multi-sensory approach that focalize on the user experience of your app. Humans use your app to test both how the exploiter interface (UI) looks and how the interactive components “ feel. ”

Automated testing is a single-sense approach where a mobile like,,, or runs trial scripts that appear for specific functional issues. is utile when you are running complicated, repetitive trial that are prone to error.

There are benefits to each essay method. While manual testing may be more time-consuming than automated examination, you can get more specific, detailed feedback on user experience-related matter like performance, battery life, and usableness. Humans are also better than computers at identifying certain issues, such as whether buttons on the blind overlap or are in the incorrect place. However, if maximizing efficiency and cost-effectiveness is significant to you, we advocate including test automation in your strategy. It will enable you to run tests more quickly and release new versions of your app more frequently.

Given the benefits and capability of each testing method, we propose you use an incorporated examination attack that contain both manual and automated tests. For the better results, automate 80 % of your test lawsuit while performing 20 % manually.

Good Practices for Choosing Mobile Devices for Testing

With so many mobile gimmick models and manufacturers in the marketplace, it ’ s no longer a safe bet to test only on Apple and Samsung devices. While iPhones are even the about democratic mobile phones in every region, maker like Xiaomi, Huawei, and OPPO are disrupting market in densely populated regions like China and India. Given the magnitude of possibilities, deciding which devices to test on can be overwhelming.

Luckily, we ’ ve done some of the heavy lifting for you. Below are the best practices to hold in brain as you optimize your nomadic gimmick testing strategy.

Best Practice # 1: Consider Your Target Users When Selecting Mobile Devices to Test

To ensure your screen coverage is as broad as possible, we recommend choose your devices based on the most important factors to your target users/region. Engineering, app ontogeny, and QA teams can collaborate with Marketing to good understand the user persona and usage design of your target hearing. If you don & # x27; t yet have decent exploiter datum, you can commence by looking at external data sources to assess which device are democratic in your intended region/market. Helpful information points to consider:

• Traffic mass

• Market percentage

• Recommended OS/OS version

• Screen sizes

• Popularity

• Region

• Industry

• Company size

And if this isn ’ t your initiatory rodeo, you can use the customer analytics/data from your app to inform your testing scheme and trial reportage..

Best Practice # 2: Select the Right Amount and Variety of Devices

To decide how many devices to examine on, you first have to deal the type of trial you ’ ll be running. Since manual tests are more time-consuming, we suggest using a modest selection (5-10) of the well-nigh popular devices for your target market/audience. For manual testing, it is also crucial to assess the risk of not quiz on all devices, and consider about a strategic mix of twist models that will ensure optimal coverage. [For illustration, imagine if the requirement is to validate the functionality and layout of your app for the iPhone 13/14/15. You could bound your testing to simply one of these device models, instead of testing on all three, as they all have no difference when it comes to screen sizing dimensions.]

With automated examination, you can afford to have a large and encompassing range of devices in your armoury. For public apps, we recommend running your machine-driven tests on 25-30 different devices.

Depending on your prey exploiter, a testing scheme that incorporates both Android and iOS devices is your better bet for comprehensive examination coverage. Companies should consider the optimal device number establish on the number/ size of teams involved in testing application. For instance, the 10-20 device bit generally run to serve client well when they have one or two teams prove the application. If there are more teams imply in testing early apps/ features, we recommend taking twist availability into story which is influenced by the number of shape, PRs and more. Foldables and larger screen device could also be considered for medium, fintech, or enterprise apps. In general, leverage internal analytics alongside information creature (Statcounter, DeviceAtlas) for data-driven twist selection.

Choosing devices for manual vs. automated essay

When selecting device for manual testing, a general topper practice is to include a high-end model, a low-end poser, and a tablet (count on your app) in your device mix. For iOS, this could look like testing on the chase: one high-end iPhone (e.g., iPhone 16), one low-end iPhone (e.g., iPhone 10), and an iPad. For Android, like with iOS, a good practice is to concentre on a popular twist brand like Samsung and start with a high-end and low-end device. To get better brand reporting, you could add other top brands like Huawei and Xiaomi to your device selection. Similarly, including Google Pixel devices can give you a head start with testing the up-to-the-minute Android beta versions.

For automated testing, you can use the like device strategy (low/high-end devices), but add a big mix of OS versions to get optimal coverage and ensure faster test executing.

Test speed vs. mealy device choice

Based on your need for fastness, it can also serve your team amend to focus on choosing the right device rather than the granular elements of screen size, OS, and others. However, to ensure sufficient coverage you should select the Android and iOS device that are used the most by your end-users. For representative: Using Android 14/1 onGoogle Pixel or the latest from Samsung, and on the iOS side, going with iOS 17/18 on the latest models from iPhone 15 or the new 16.

While electrostatic allotment allows you more fine-grained control over the device used in your tests, it can also cause delays in your test executing if that device isn & # x27; t available when you run your tests. Sauce Labs offers, to be used for all automatise mobile covering essay in CI/CD to grant you to move quicker with your tryout execution. It allows you to specify the basic parameters for the platform, operating scheme, and/or type of gimmick you want to use in your tests using veritable expressions (regex) to dynamically allocate a device with your specifications from our real device pond.
 

Recommended mobile device by society sizing

Using the factors and considerations supra, as well as other sources, here are some recommended mobile devices to choose from based on your organization size. Utile resources for researching and comparing mobile gimmick models, specification, and analyzing gimmick traffic includeGSMArena, PhoneArena, Statista.com, screensiz.es, gs.statcounter.com, and DeviceAtlas.

Startups:

• Focus on basic but strategic coverage to equilibrise cost with value.

• Select a small mix of high-end and low-end iOS and Android devices, include smartphones and tablets. Add the latest Google Pixel model to test Android beta versions.

SMBs:

• Expand reporting while remain efficient.

• Broaden your device reporting by contribute extra high-end and low-end iOS and Android models, plus early brands calculate on popularity, market share, and your prey market.

• Use real-world usage information from Statcounter, GSMArena, and other relevant sites.

• Prioritize OS version distribution and screen variety.

• Update every 6–12 month base on market trends.

Enterprises:

• Aim for comprehensive coverage across geographics, form divisor, and user segments.

• Include region-specific variants (e.g., Xiaomi in India, Huawei in China).

• Maintain a tiered twist pool: Include the most ill-used 10–15 device both globally and regionally.

• Update every 6–12 months based on marketplace trends.

Best Practice # 3: Periodically Reassess Your Device List

The mobile device market is constantly vary – new players will enter the market, established players like Apple will release their new devices p.a., and others ’ popularity may ebb and flow.

When planning your testing coverage, it ’ s important to consider current market weather as good as upcoming releases. You should reassess your prove plan quarterly or biannually to comprise new device that turn democratic while reduce the priority of (or removing altogether) device that are wane in popularity.

When select device adaptation, it ’ s helpful to look at the proficient specifications of similar models. For example, if two versions are fairly like, you can pick the late version.

For Android device, Google Pixel phones are always the first to back the latest version of Android OS. If you want to test your app on Android beta versions, Pixels are a good spot to start.

Top 10 Selling Smartphones of 2024:

• iPhone 15

• iPhone 15 Pro Max

• iPhone 15 Pro

• Galaxy A15 5G

• Galaxy A15 4G

• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

• iPhone 14

• Galaxy A05

• iPhone 16 Pro Max

• iPhone 16 Pro

Recommended Mobile Devices by Region

Given the good practices we provided, hither are some recommended mobile devices to choose from and add to your list.

Choose the Right Mobile Devices to Ensure Optimal Coverage

A mobile app testing plan that integrates manual and automated examination and includes both the right number and character of roving device will ensure your test reporting is comprehensive, efficient, and cost-effective.

allows you to test your wandering apps across the most comprehensive ambit of existent Android and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, Xiaomi, and more) to increase coverage and release with self-confidence.

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