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> i can't emulate the different cpu and ram of any other device. Of course you can: run a virtual machine, give it e.g. 500 MB, don't allow the guest OS to hav
by acqq 7y ago
> i can't emulate the different cpu and ram of any other device.
Of course you can: run a virtual machine, give it e.g. 500 MB, don't allow the guest OS to have the swap file, install there your favorite browsers and try (and weep).
It will be hard and unpleasant for you, but that's exactly what the users with less money are faced with. To ease your initial pain (or make the installation of the browsers or the OS even possible?), you can first install the OS and the browsers with more virtual RAM on the guest and only then reduce it.
And of course, you'd have to clear the browser cache every time before you try your pages. Also ideally, limit the network speed and increase the request latency!
Also to get the "realistic" CPU speed, run that all on some less powered CPU, like: https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Compute-Computer-Processor-BOXSTK1AW32SC/dp/B01AZC4NHS https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Compute-Computer-Processor-BOXS... with Atom processor.
The question is more the will and not the technical aspect. And explaining all that to the managers, if you are in a company which doesn't have awareness of the potential users around the world.
To give you an idea: I can read still HN site on the underpowered devices, but there are enough sites today which just don't load or crash (i.e. I can't read the linked articles). It's that bad.
- em-bee 7y agono you can't. that virtual machine does not compare at all to the actual performance on a phone where the app runs besides other apps and native services, deals with different latencies for device access, internet speed etc. yes, i can test my app that way, and it will probably good to do so to catch the most blatant performance issues. but then i could just test on my own phone for the same effect. in no way though i am going to be able to test across a multitude of devices, all of which have different performance characteristics.
- acqq 7y ago> but then i could just test on my own phone for the same effect If I may guess, your phone has 2 GB RAM minimum and at least 4 core CPU and therefore is much stronger than what I talk about? Like I’ve said, using Apple iPad 2 (which probably are easy to find and have 500 MB RAM) is a good start. You can’t dismiss those as being not polished enough. They are just specced less powerful than the current first world phones. My VM suggestion is that the tests can be done on every notebook. If your page fails on that setup it’s obviously not suited for the less powered devices.