8 Things You Didn’t Know About Mobile Device Testing Labs

Mobile device testing labs enable quick and quality releases of mobile apps to users. But what’s the best way to leverage them and which testing challenges do they answer? To answer these questions, let’s take a look at eight facts about mobile testing labs facts you may not have known. But first, let’s clarify what a mobile device testing lab is.

What are Mobile Testing Labs?

Mobile testing labs are centers that provides testers, QA, developers, and DevOps with all the mobile devices, operating systems, and browsers they need for efficient and agile mobile testing.

Through the device testing lab, testers can automate their mobile testing and run tests while simulating real user conditions. As a result, they can improve the speed and quality of their mobile software delivery.

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Without a mobile test lab, developers would be releasing applications to users without ensuring they function and operate as expected, which could lead to a poor user experience and customer churn. Here are 8 things you might not have known about mobile testing lab services:

1. Mobile Device Testing Labs Increase Testing Coverage

Mobile testing enables you to confidently deliver applications to your customers. But with so many new devices, operating systems, screen sizes, resolutions, and PPIs available for users, how can you ensure you’re testing for all possible scenarios and use cases?

To make things more complicated, new devices are being frequently released, while older devices are still in use by customers. Ensuring device coverage is becoming more and more challenging.

A mobile device lab takes care of this challenge for you. A mobile testing lab compiles all types of devices - new and old, and of any resolution, screen size, etc. - and makes them available for testing. As a result, testers and developers can feel confident that they get complete platform coverage.

2. They Free You from Building Your Own Mobile Device Farm or Lab

Sometimes organizations prefer building their own mobile device farm or lab. This is not impossible. To set this up, such an organization would need to build, maintain and orchestrate the following components: mobile devices, machines, network, automation testing software, storage, and infrastructure. It would also need human talent to operate this project.

This begs the question: is building your own testing farm the most efficient use of your and your developers’ time?

Testing your application through a professional mobile testing lab frees the organization’s talent from figuring out how to build a solution, manage devices, maintain and fix issues, attempt to get their hands on the latest devices (are they even willing to sleep in front of a store before a device release?) and from pouring over spreadsheets attempting to understand the data.

In other words, your developers can spend their valuable time coding and contributing to your product, while the labs manage and maintain devices end-to-end and provide clear reports and analytics.

3. You Can Choose Your Own Cloud Infrastructure: Public or Private

Choosing a cloud-based testing lab doesn’t mean you don’t have options. You can choose to test on the public cloud and enjoy on-demand access at a lower cost. Or, you can choose to test on your own private cloud option and enjoy even more security and customization. In both cases, you can still take advantage of the benefits of the cloud.

By choosing a mobile device testing lab in the cloud - either public or private - you gain scalability, quick access to updates and new devices, remote access across global teams, and 24/7 availability. These capabilities are not available when maintaining an on-premises lab.

4. Mobile Testing Labs Take Security Off Your Hands

The scope and sophistication of cybersecurity attacks have grown since 2020. With security shifting left, do you feel comfortable taking ownership of the security of your own mobile device lab?

A mobile device testing lab provides enterprise-grade security, especially through private clouds. This is the recommended approach for industries that need to meet compliance regulations, like finance or insurance.

5. They Ensure Access to Anyone, Anywhere, at All Times

Mobile testing centers that are set up and managed locally are only accessible to testers who are physically near the center, during office hours. But with globalization, digital transformation, and remote work adoption, global teams need to be able to access the mobile device lab, at all times.

Mobile device lab availability is essential for efficiency, agility, and cross-team collaboration. A cloud-based mobile testing lab enables just that!

6. Mobile Testing Labs Simulate Real-User Conditions

“But it works on my machine” is a good developer joke, but it’s no joke if a user can’t use your mobile app due to bugs. A mobile device testing lab simulates real user conditions like battery level, network latency, call interruptions, and more, to ensure that even amongst chaotic conditions, they still get the best user experience you can provide.

7. Test on Both Real and Virtual Devices

Testing on both real and virtual devices enables increasing testing coverage. Testing on virtual devices is recommended earlier in the cycle, for unit testing and integration testing, for example.

Then, for later-stage testing, like some of the integration tests and UI tests, real devices are recommended. A mobile device testing lab offers you both options. Read more here.

8. They are Cost-Effective 

To sum up, mobile device testing labs increase delivery confidence, prevent regressions and provide an end-to-end automated testing solution for developers. As a result, they are more cost-effective than building a device testing center, or not testing at all.

Get Started With the Leading Mobile Device Testing Lab

Perfecto’s device testing lab offers:

• Mobile devices and browsers for testing.
• Same-day support for new devices and beta versions.
• Unshakeable enterprise-grade security.
• Extended test coverage.
• Elastic scaling of your tests.
• 24/7 access to the cloud.
• Robust test analytics.
• Support for both real and virtual devices.

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