Testing on devices is quicker than simulators and emulators, though there is more setup and connectivity involved for android devices (installing the device drivers from the device manufacturer on your computer, so your computer can talk to your device). I have certified software at a few companies, all of which have used real devices, though we often used emulators and simulators for developing test automation code. It is advisable to start with the most popular versions of devices, for example, the latest Samsung Galaxy phone and the latest Apple phone, unless you know your audience uses other devices because of a niche market sector that you're tapping into. Simulators and emulators are more convenient, so you might want to develop test automation against them but then make sure that the code works against at least one device before checkin. I have always found it useful to use my own phones for testing because I have lots of apps installed on them, which presents a better test bed for finding bugs but a dedicated company-sponsored phone that isn't someone's personal phone is more desirable for certification purposes.
Simulators/Emulators vs Real devices: Which one do enterprises prefer?
2 Answers
If you ask me this, It totally depends upon your testing requirement. I am not saying Emulators/Simulators are not good. But what if you have to test your websites, web apps battery usage, how you can test that your website is working in low network coverage areas or not, how your website or web applications is working when the storage is full. So for these kinds of test cases you need to test in Real devices. But testing on emulators is also good as it is :
1) Less latency than real devices hence faster testing process.
2) Developer/tester gets access to a detailed debugging information.
3) No cost incurred for sourcing the emulator.
4) If not accurate but still quite similar functioning as that of real device
Emulators/Simulators are inexpensive in compare to real devices. There are many companies providing Emulators/Simulators testing on clouds, among them LambdaTest offers the best testing experience accompanied by really brilliant pricing schemes. It is providing a pool of emulators/simulators in Cloud. If you are testing your websites, web app on emulators/simulators then go for LambdaTest.