Developing Android Applications requires running the Application, either on Physical Hardware or Using An Emulator or Simulator . Using Hardware is the best Approach, but Not Always the most practical. In many Cases, it can be simpler and more cost Effective to Simulate/Emulate Android hardware using one of the Emulators described below.
what is Emulator:
In Computing, an Emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system called "HOST" to behave like another computer system called "Guest". An Emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peripheral devices designed for the guest system.
Emulators allow users to continue Our on discontinued consoles. Suppose, we are developing an application, once the application is ready, we need to test the application to check whether its working as expected with all the majorly used devices like Android phones, iOS, Blackberry phones, and other different types of devices like tablets or iPads.
Now in order to check, our application is working in all devices, we need to get these all devices and check our application. But it looks like really expensive to procure such a large number of Mobile devices and carry out testing. So, is there any smart alternate available?
The Ans is "YES". We can use Mobile Simulators and Mobile Emulators. these are primarily software programs designed to provide simulation for important features of a smartphone. They are very similar in nature, so sometimes, they are used interchangeably.
Let's compare how testing on an Emulator/Simulator is different from testing on a real device.
| Features | Real Device | Emulator/Simulator |
|---|---|---|
| Price: | Getting Real Devices will cost you a lot. | It is almost freely available, we just need to download and install them. |
| Processing Speed: | It has faster Processing. however Network latency may be Normal. | It is slower as compared to actual devices. It has observed less latency than real devices connected to the local network or in the cloud. |
| Debugging: | Debugging is not that easy. | It provides step-by-step debugging of an application. also, it provides an efficient way for capturing screenshots. |
| Web-App Testing: | Web applications can be tested in a normal way. | Testing a Web Application is Much Easier. |
| Reliability: | Testing on a Real Device has a Major advantages that it always gives accurate results. | It can't simulate all types of user Interactions. Hence it may lead to false results sometimes. so it scores low when it comes to reliability. |
There are specific difference between Emulators and Simulators. The following table list the major difference between a simulator and an Emulator.
| Features: | Emulator | Simulator |
|---|---|---|
| What it Mimics? | » Mobile Device Software. » Mobile Device Hardware. » Mobile Operating System. | » Internal Behaviour of the device. » It does not Mimic Hardware. |
| How to get it? | It is Generally Provided by the Device Manufacturer. | It is Generally Provided by the Device Manufacturer or some Other Company. |
| Internal Structure: | It is written in Machine-Level assembly language. | It is written in High-Level Language. |
| Debugging: | It is more Suitable for Debugging. | It is Not suitable for debugging purpose. |
| Performance: | Emulators are really slow. Emulating the actual hardware usually makes the software run slower that it would natively. | Faster than emulators. |
| Example: | Google's Android SDK. | Apple's iOS Simulator. |
Emulator Choices:
Many emulators have already been released under General Public License GNU. So, what is the best choice for mobile testing? Best practice indicates that, while actual development is in progress, we should use an emulator or simulator. Before finalizing the product, there should be a sanity check with chosen real devices.
For Example, there are huge number of Android smartphone users, so the smart choice is to have a sanity check for the latest android device and regression can be conducted over simulators. In next tutorials, we will discuss about...
