Emulator/Simulator or Real Devices,The Real Spartan ?

Emulator or Real Devices, which is better?

Why we should abstain ourself from using simulators/Emulators for Automation testing or Manual Testing altogether like:

- Testing on real devices is the best solution for uncovering bugs (regression included) and getting accurate results.

- Sometime things may seem to work on the simulator but may fail to work on Real Device,this can easily be deduced from the ongoing Native/RN task which quite often fails to work on OEM's.

-  Testing is being conducted in an environment that is not real and we are utilizing System hardware which cannot be compared to the Mobile Hardware.

- Simulators are not reliable since hardware features like GPS, camera, etc (though we only use  GPS) are either simulated or hardcoded in them and they are slow for automation purposes.

This Blog beautifully explains why we should `not use the simulator as the only source of the test environment`
https://mobilelabsinc.com/blog/simulators-vs-emulators

Device Matrix for testing iOS,Android and Windows application as of 2021

Device Matrix for testing iOS,Android and Windows application as of 2017 

As we know we have clustered and segmented fragmentation of different OS and Screen size of device it's become impossible to test almost all types of device or OEM that is Original Equipment Manufacturer.

To an extent we have an streamlined fragmentation of iOS devices with iOS 11 being the latest version released at the time of writing blog with iOS X and iPhone 8 being the latest device released by Apple and same goes for Windows devices but for Android it's have a completely different picture which is having more OS versions like Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean,Kit Kat,Marshmallow ,Nougat and Oreo and multiple OEM like Samsung,HTC,Motorola,Lenovo,LG,Micromax etc.

The most problem we are likely to face because of device fragmentation are but not limited to:

1.     Crashes due to non customized system Library

2.     Memory Issue with low end devices.

3.     User Interface issue due to different resolution screen. 

Here is the compiled list of Device Matrix for testing iOS,Android and Windows application as of 2017 that I would prefer to test my application on:

OS	Device Name	Screen Size	Screen Resolution		PPI
iOS	Iphone X	5.8	1125x2436	458
	iPhone 8	4.7	1334x750	326
	iPhone6	5.5	1334x750	326
	iPad Air 2	9.7	1536x2048	264
Android	Samsung Galaxy Note 5	5.7	1440x2560	515
	Google Pixel	5.0	1080x1920	534
	Samsung Galaxy S6	5.1	1440x2560	515
	Google Motorola Nexus 6	6.0	1440x2560	515
	HTC one M9	5.0	1080*1920	440
	Samsung Galaxy S Tab	8.4	2560x1600	287
Windows	Microsoft Lumia 950 XL	5.7	1440x2560	518
	Nokia Lumia 720	4.3	480x800	217

For Latest android devices used widely we can take help from Android Dashboard.