Real device
Also called: Physical device
A physical phone or tablet used for testing, as opposed to an emulator or simulator.
Definition
Testing on real devices shows how the app really behaves with actual hardware, sensors, network conditions, performance, battery and manufacturer customizations. Teams test on a selection of popular devices and may use cloud device farms for more coverage.
In practice
A scrolling list is smooth on the emulator but stutters badly on a real budget Android phone with 3 GB of RAM.
Learn it in context
Lessons that use this term.
Related terms
- EmulatorSoftware that imitates a real device's hardware and OS on your computer, like the Android Emulator.
- SimulatorSoftware that imitates a device's behavior on your computer, like Apple's iOS Simulator.
- FragmentationThe huge variety of device models, screen sizes and OS versions an app must support.