Get the Most Out of Your Internal Mobile Device Lab

 How to Get the Most From Your Internal Mobile Device Lab

• Discover the advantages of effectively managing your internal mobile device testing lab.
• Maximize the return on your mobile device investment by providing access to all your employees, regardless of their location.
• Enhance the quality of your app through comprehensive testing using the devices you already own.

Mobile testing is more important than ever for companies worldwide because it’s an increasingly sizeable part of conducting business today. As mobile grows, so does the emphasis on the development and quality of mobile sites and mobile applications. 

End users expect sites and apps to run without glitches, making mobile app testing indispensable. The options for mobile, web, and hybrid testing can be overwhelming, from purchasing devices and testing internally to using simulators and emulators to leveraging real cloud devices when possible. In this guide, we unlock the benefits, challenges, and methods so that you can get the most out of your internal mobile device testing lab. 

Introduction to Mobile Device Labs

Empowering teams to test applications, websites, and other mobile services on various screens and hardware offers a better understanding of the user experience. A mobile testing lab is a dedicated space to recreate real-world scenarios that help identify bugs, measure performance, and optimize usability across different devices.

Developers and QA testers can optimize for various device specifications and OS combinations in mobile device labs using an extensive range of cross-platform mobile devices, including Android and iOS. Mobile test labs also facilitate integration with CI/CD pipelines to test applications frequently throughout development. 

By automating the testing process and running tests on a wide range of real devices with an internal mobile device lab, developers can catch issues early and ensure apps work as expected across different platforms and hardware configurations.

What is a Mobile Device Lab?

With today’s increased demand for mobile, businesses must evaluate the most productive approach to meeting and exceeding user expectations. It all begins with a commitment to better testing and improving your organization’s efficiency by accessing a mobile device lab.  

A mobile device lab is a dedicated testing infrastructure that allows comprehensive testing of mobile apps and websites on a wide range of real physical devices to ensure quality and consistency across the diverse mobile landscape.

What is Device Lab Management?

Device lab management (DLM) is the practice, and the software, used to run a collection of real test devices as a shared, organized resource. The mobile device lab is the hardware. Device lab management is everything that keeps that hardware useful: knowing what devices you have and where they are, controlling who can use them and when, keeping them charged, updated, and online, and making them reachable by testers and automation wherever those people and pipelines are.

In a small team, DLM often starts as a spreadsheet and a shelf. Once a lab grows past a handful of devices or a single office, most teams move to a DLM platform that connects devices to a central system so they can be reserved, used remotely, and monitored from one place.

When to Use Mobile Device Labs?

A mobile device lab is valuable whenever you need to test on various real devices in realistic conditions, especially when integrated into an agile development workflow. It allows teams to catch regressions and bugs quickly by running tests throughout development—all of which can be done with reduced overhead while ensuring high-quality, optimized experiences across the diverse mobile ecosystem.

Why Use Mobile Device Labs?

The primary goal of a mobile device lab is to facilitate thorough testing processes that mimic real-world usage scenarios, ensuring that mobile applications function optimally across multiple devices. It provides a consistent test environment, streamlines bug tracking and resolution, facilitates continuous integration and testing, and addresses device fragmentation. 

Mobile device labs offer a consistent testing environment that allows you to deliver a quality user experience. 

How is Mobile Testing Done?

There are several ways to perform mobile testing. By deploying a combination of approaches, you can ensure comprehensive mobile testing coverage and catch issues early in the development lifecycle.  

Mobile Device Labs

Mobile device labs allow testing on actual physical devices in a controlled environment, whether it’s set up on-premise or accessed through a cloud-based service.

Emulators and Simulators

Emulators and simulators can test apps without physical devices in a desktop-based environment. Although they cannot fully replicate real-world user conditions and device fragmentation, they can be helpful with initial testing during development.

Automated Testing

Automated testing supports a wide range of programming languages and testing frameworks. It enables writing UI tests on real mobile devices and integrates with CI/CD pipelines for frequent, automated testing.

Manual Testing

Crucial for final validation and testing in real-world conditions, manual testing allows QA testers to test device-specific features and user interactions. It can be done in-house or through a cloud-based mobile testing service.

What are the Types of Mobile App Testing?

Mobile app testing covers various performance checks, from functional correctness to user experience, performance, security, and compatibility, to ensure a high-quality and reliable mobile app.

Functional Testing

Functional testing ensures the app performs and functions as intended. It verifies whether the app’s features and functionalities meet the specified requirements.

Usability Testing

Usability testing will test various factors, such as the app’s interface, performance, functionality, and navigation. QA teams evaluate the user experience by relying on real users given specific tasks while observing their interactions with the app.

Performance Testing

Performance testing evaluates the app’s speed, responsiveness, and stability under various conditions.

Compatibility Testing

Compatibility testing ensures the app functions correctly on different devices, operating systems, and screen sizes.

Security Testing

Security testing involves testing the app for vulnerabilities and ensuring user data is secure.

Installation and Update Testing

Installation and update testing ensures the app can be installed and updated without issues.

Localization Testing

Localization testing ensures the app functions correctly in different languages and cultural settings.

Setting Up Your Mobile Device Lab

Gather Devices

Consider what types of devices you need to test. Accumulate a range of smartphones and tablets representing major brands, models, screen sizes, operating systems, and versions. Then, determine the types of testing that are required.

Aim for representative coverage, not the largest possible collection. Most of a lab’s value comes from matching it to the devices your users actually have:

1. Start from your own analytics. Pull device models and OS versions from your app analytics or crash reporting and rank them by share of sessions. Your top devices are the core of the lab.

2. Cover the long tail by category rather than by model. Beyond the top devices, pick representatives: a low-memory budget Android, a mid-range device, a tablet, a small and a large screen, and at least one device with a manufacturer skin that behaves differently from stock Android.

3. Include older OS versions, not just the latest. Many users lag behind on updates, especially on Android, so keep devices on the oldest versions you still support.

4. Add devices for the hardware features your app depends on, such as NFC, biometrics, advanced cameras, or foldable screens.

5. Rotate on a schedule. Add devices as they gain share with your users and retire ones that drop out of your analytics.

Devices you can’t justify owning, such as rare models or brand-new releases you only need to check once, are better handled with cloud devices than purchases (see “Hybrid Mobile Testing Labs”).

Secure Lab Environment

Create a dedicated space for your mobile device lab, ensuring proper organization of devices, power outlets, and Wi-Fi connectivity for manual testing. Leave gaps between devices to ensure good airflow and avoid overheating. 

Set Up Workstations

Install software such as mobile device management tools, bug tracking systems, and remote access software. Ensure all devices are updated with the latest OS and security patches.

Implement Device Lab Management (DLM)

Because your mobile device lab is vital to your testing strategy, organizing and maintaining it is essential. Doing so will remove the hassle of managing physical devices and provide a singular point of command for device access and testing. 

Whichever tool you choose, a DLM platform should handle the following jobs:

Capability	What it does	Why it matters
Remote device access	Streams the device screen to a browser and accepts input, so testers use a real device that is plugged in somewhere else	Teams in other offices and time zones use the devices you already own instead of buying duplicates
Reservation and scheduling	Lets testers book a device for a session and releases it automatically when the session ends	Stops ‘borrowed’ devices going missing and makes availability visible to everyone
Inventory and device health	Tracks each device’s model, OS version, battery level, and connection status in real time	You know what is in the lab and what is offline without walking to the shelf
Access control	Assigns devices to teams and limits who can use them, typically with SSO and role-based permissions	Keeps pre-release builds and sensitive test data on the devices meant for them
Automation support	Exposes devices to Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest runs and to your CI/CD tools	The same devices serve manual and automated testing, which raises utilization
Session history and logs	Records each session’s video, logs, and device details	Bugs are reproducible and shareable across the team (see addition 5)
Usage reporting	Shows which devices are in demand and which sit idle	Tells you what to buy, retire, or supplement with cloud devices

One capability is easy to overlook when the focus is on access: a shared history of testing sessions for every device. When each session’s video, logs, and device details are stored centrally and visible to the whole team, a bug found on one device in one office can be reviewed by a developer somewhere else without being reproduced from scratch. Over time, that history also shows how a device has behaved across releases, which helps separate a device-specific problem from a genuine app regression.

Kobiton DLM allows your organization to use its internal devices more effectively. By connecting devices to the Kobiton cloud, teams across locations can access and use internal devices, increasing productivity and reducing the need to own duplicate devices. Without additional coding or development, internal devices are plugged in and ready, centralizing testing activity and improving collaboration across organizations. 

Kobiton Device Lab Management could be your solution. Our goal is to allow you to leverage the investment you’ve already made. Better utilization of the resources and investment you’ve already made is just the beginning of releasing the great products your current and future users expect.

Establish Charging Station

Establish a charging station and label all charging cables and power adapters for easy identification. Invest in high-quality, durable charging accessories.

Consider Connectivity

Connectivity is where many labs run into trouble as they grow, so plan the physical and network layer as carefully as the device list.

• Host machines: every device connects to a host computer that relays commands and installs builds. iOS devices need a macOS host with Xcode tooling for automation; Android devices connect over ADB to Windows, macOS, or Linux hosts. Spread devices across several hosts so one failure doesn’t take down the lab.
• Powered USB hubs: use industrial-grade powered hubs rather than consumer or unpowered ones. Underpowered hubs cause devices to drop connection mid-session, especially during long automation runs.
• A dedicated network: put the lab on its own Wi-Fi network or subnet. Office access points aren’t built for dozens of devices transferring data at once, and the congestion shows up as timeouts that look like app bugs.
• Wired hosts: connect host machines by Ethernet so remote sessions and log uploads don’t compete with device Wi-Fi traffic.
• Heat and batteries: devices kept on charge around the clock run warm and their batteries degrade faster, so ventilate the lab and check battery health on a schedule.

For iOS devices, use an Apple computer like a Mac Mini to transmit commands and install provisioning profiles for app testing.

Testing Options

Simulators and emulators have been around for a while and can do part of the job. However, they can’t make the critical connection between software and hardware. In a recent comparison between Real Devices and Emulators, Guru99 talks about when to use emulators versus real devices:

 “Emulators can be considered very suitable for the initial stages of application development. However, to avoid the costly scenario of releasing a business-critical application with defects, enterprises need to ensure that they perform the major part of their mobile testing on real devices before the application goes into production.”

Regular Maintenance and Upkeep

Maintain devices regularly, update software, and ensure the proper functioning of the lab environment to support ongoing testing activities.

Managing Your Device Lab Day to Day

Setting up a lab is a one-time project; running it is a permanent job. Labs that stay useful share a small set of rules that everyone knows and one person accountable for them.

Assign a Lab Owner

Name one owner, with a backup, who is responsible for inventory, updates, and resolving conflicts over devices. Without a named owner, maintenance becomes everybody’s job, which in practice means nobody’s.

Keep a Single Source of Truth for Inventory

Every device should have one record that the whole team trusts. At minimum, track:

• Model and hardware variant, since the same model can ship with different RAM, storage, or chipsets.
• OS version and the date it was last updated.
• Asset tag or serial number and physical location.
• Current status: available, reserved, offline, or retired.
• The team or project the device is assigned to, if any.
• Known issues such as battery wear, screen damage, or a stuck system dialog.

A DLM platform keeps most of these fields current automatically. A spreadsheet needs someone to update it after every change, which is why spreadsheets drift out of date.

Set Checkout and Return Rules

• Devices are reserved, not borrowed. Every session has a name and an end time.
• Devices come back charged and signed out of any test or personal accounts.
• Any device that physically leaves the lab is signed out against a person.
• Label devices by platform and OS version so the right one can be found at a glance.

Reset Devices Between Sessions

Uninstall test builds, clear app data, sign out of accounts, and restore standard settings such as language, location, and accessibility options after each session. This keeps one tester’s leftovers from affecting the next tester’s results and stops sensitive test data from lingering on shared hardware.

Plan OS Updates Deliberately

Don’t let every device auto-update. Keep some devices on the older OS versions your users still run, update the rest on a schedule, and avoid updating anything in the middle of release testing, when an unexpected OS change can make results impossible to compare.

Review the Lab Regularly

Once a quarter, compare the lab against your user base: retire devices your users no longer run, add models that have gained share, and check battery health across the fleet. Ask testers what they couldn’t test because the right device wasn’t available; those gaps are your shopping list.

Choosing the Right Type of Mobile Testing Lab

From device coverage to testing capabilities and CI/CD integration, you’ll want to ensure ease of use and costs for your mobile testing lab. By carefully evaluating the types of mobile test labs, you can choose the one that best fits your organization’s needs and budget.

On-premise Mobile Testing Labs

On-premise mobile lab testing involves setting up a physical space within your organization where mobile devices can be housed and used for testing. These labs use your organization’s infrastructure and provide complete control. While they’re fully customizable, setup, maintenance, and security costs can get expensive. 

Cloud-based Mobile Testing Labs

Cloud-based mobile lab testing uses remote servers and virtual devices accessed via the internet to test mobile applications. With no setup and maintenance costs, cloud-based mobile testing labs allow teams to test various devices without the overhead of maintaining an on-premise lab. It’s also scalable, allowing teams to run parallel tests simultaneously on multiple devices. Faster release cycles are possible with the comprehensive test coverage of cloud-based mobile testing. 

A hybrid lab works best when both kinds of device sit behind the same interface. Your own devices handle the models you test every day and any testing that must stay on hardware you control. Cloud devices fill the gaps: new releases, rare models, and extra capacity when a release crunch means everyone needs the same device at once.

• Keep on owned devices: your top devices by user share, devices running daily or long automation suites, and testing that involves sensitive data or pre-release builds you don’t want on shared infrastructure.
• Use cloud devices for: models you only need a few times a year, the newest devices before you decide whether to buy them, and parallel capacity for peak regression runs.

Because testers and scripts see one pool of devices, they pick by model and OS rather than by where a device lives, and you avoid buying every current device just to have it on hand.

Hybrid Mobile Testing Labs

Hybrid mobile lab testing combines elements of on-premise and cloud-based solutions, allowing organizations to leverage the benefits of each approach. With a hybrid approach, you can maintain cost-effectiveness and faster release cycles of cloud-based testing while having the flexibility to choose on-premise or cloud-based devices based on your needs and requirements. 

Overcoming Challenges in Internal Mobile Device Labs

Setting up and maintaining an internal mobile device lab presents challenges that organizations must address effectively. You’ll need to consider device fragmentation, security, maintenance, and CI/CD pipeline integrations. 

Remember, while an internal mobile device lab provides control and customization, it also requires a significant investment in device management, automation, and resources. Cloud-based testing can be a more effective and cost-effective alternative.

Device Fragmentation

• Challenge: Managing various mobile devices with different screen sizes, resolutions, and operating systems can lead to compatibility issues and testing complexities.
• Solution: Implement a comprehensive testing strategy that includes determining target devices, creating a testing matrix, leveraging cloud-based device labs, and using cross-platform testing tools to ensure broad coverage.

Device Security

• Challenge: Sensitive data on devices can be vulnerable to breaches or unauthorized access.
• Solution: Implement strong security measures, such as device encryption, password protection, and regular data wiping. Restrict access to the lab and devices to authorized personnel only.

Device Maintenance

• Challenge: Keeping devices updated, charged, and in good working condition can be time-consuming and costly.
• Solution: Implement a regular maintenance schedule, use MDM software to manage updates and settings, and train lab staff on proper device handling and care.

Device Reliability at Scale

• Challenge: as a lab grows, devices drop offline more often. They disconnect from hosts, run flat, freeze on a system dialog, or reboot after an OS update. Adding the fiftieth device is harder than adding the fifth, because power, USB, and network demands don’t scale evenly.
• Solution: monitor device status continuously instead of discovering problems when a tester needs a device. Use a DLM platform that flags offline or unhealthy devices, schedule reboots for devices that degrade over long uptimes, turn off OS auto-updates and pop-ups that interrupt sessions, and replace devices whose batteries show wear or swelling.

Integration with CI/CD Pipelines

• Challenge: Integrating the mobile device lab with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines for frequent testing throughout development cycles can be complex.
• Solution: Ensure seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines by automating testing processes and establishing clear communication channels between teams.

Budgetary Constraints

• Challenge: Acquiring and maintaining a wide range of devices can be expensive, especially with frequent new releases.
• Solution: Develop a strategic budget plan that prioritizes essential devices and considers cost-effective alternatives, such as device leasing or automated tools like Appium, to control the devices during testing.

Organizations routinely ask Kobiton about a more effective way to use and manage internal mobile devices. Some have already set up an organized lab, but many have devices in desk drawers or secured in closets, using a spreadsheet to manage inventory. Considering the maintenance internal devices require, keeping them accessible, updated, and charged, it quickly becomes apparent that managing an internal device lab can be extremely difficult, cumbersome, and resource-intensive.

Maximizing Efficiency in Mobile Testing

When you’re ready to scale your testing and lower costs, you may invest in your own devices and create an internal mobile device lab. Managing internal devices has benefits and challenges. Owning mobile devices means having complete control over them, choosing the best testing approach for your organization, and maximizing your investment in them. 

While owning real devices may be viable, you’ll need to consider which option allows for the better ROI.

ROI on Internal Devices

To get the best return on the devices you have already purchased, you’ll need to ensure they have as little downtime as possible and can be shared across your entire organization. 

The cost is clearest when a specific device is needed in one office but sits in another. Without shared remote access, teams have three options, all bad: send someone to fetch it, buy another one, or skip testing on that device. The first wastes time, the second duplicates spend, and the third quietly lowers coverage, which is the one your users feel. Some organizations end up paying people to track hundreds of devices across locations in a spreadsheet and still face the same choice.

For example, if you have multiple offices, you likely purchased duplicate devices. It’s also very likely that the devices are idle for parts of the day, which means you’re not able to maximize their expenditure. 

You can’t improve utilization you don’t measure. These are the numbers worth tracking for an internal lab:

Metric	What it tells you	What to do with it
Utilization per device (hours in use ÷ hours available)	Which devices earn their place	Retire or relocate idle devices; add capacity for the busiest
Wait time for reservations	Whether demand outstrips supply for popular models	Add a second unit or supplement that model with cloud devices
Offline rate	How often devices are disconnected, uncharged, or unresponsive	Fix hardware and hub problems before they erode trust in the lab
Sessions by team or location	Who actually uses the lab	Confirms remote access is working and supports cost allocation
Coverage of your user base	Share of your users’ devices and OS versions the lab represents	Guides what to buy next (see “Gather Devices”)

Maintenance can also be costly and difficult to provide effectively. For example, a support ticket may come in overnight, and your support team doesn’t have access to that device. Kobiton Device Lab Management (DLM) allows you to manage your DIY mobile test environment with the flexibility and expertise you’ll need for real device testing. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Device Lab Management

What is device lab management?

Device lab management is the practice and software used to run real test devices as a shared resource: tracking inventory, controlling access, keeping devices charged and updated, and making them available remotely for manual and automated testing.

What is the difference between device lab management and mobile device management (MDM)?

MDM tools manage employee and corporate devices by enforcing security policies, distributing apps, and wiping lost phones. Device lab management treats devices as a shared testing resource, handling remote access, reservations, automation, and session recording. Many labs use both: MDM for device policy and DLM for testing.

How many devices does a mobile device lab need?

There is no universal number. Start with the devices that account for most sessions in your own analytics, add representatives for screen sizes, price tiers, and older OS versions, and cover rare or brand-new models with cloud devices instead of buying them.

Can remote teams use devices in an internal lab?

Yes. A DLM platform connects your devices to a central system so testers can use them through a browser and automated tests can run on them from anywhere, which lets every office share one set of devices.

Should we build an internal device lab or use a cloud device lab?

It depends on how much control you need, how sensitive your test data is, and how heavily you use each device. Internal labs suit high-use devices and sensitive testing; cloud labs suit breadth and burst capacity. Many teams combine both in a hybrid lab.

How do you keep devices secure in a shared lab?

Restrict access with SSO and role-based permissions, reset devices after every session, keep access logs, and physically secure any devices that leave the lab or stay off the network.

Deliver High-Quality Mobile Experiences with Kobiton

At Kobiton, we hear from organizations daily that want a more effective way to use and manage internal mobile devices. Some have already set up an organized lab, but many organizations have devices in desk drawers or secured in closets, using a spreadsheet to manage their inventory. 

With Kobitron DLM, you have a far more comprehensive, scalable, and hassle-free solution for mobile app testing than maintaining an in-house device lab. You no longer have to maintain, update, and charge internal devices, which is resource-intensive. 

When you optimize your internal mobile device labs with Kobiton’s solutions, you’ll also realize the benefits of comprehensive device coverage, scalability, and improved security and compliance.

To learn more about Kobiton, click here, or get started with a no-commitment free trial today.