Visit Ebay to Buy Old Devices for Cheap
Purchasing the most popular Android and iOS devices from each of these products’
major release cycles will give you a broad cross-section of the hardware and
software environments that your users have. Here’s my recommended setup (as of
early 2015):
iPhone 4 or iPad 2 running iOS7
iPhone 5s (or newer) running the latest version of iOS
Motorola Droid X running Android 2.3.x
Samsung Galaxy SII running Android 4.1.x
Samsung Galaxy S5 (or newer) running the latest version of Android
You’re welcome to substitute any of the Android devices for devices of similar
performance. What’s important here is that you’re using one device from each
major Android release cycle (2.3.x, 4.1.x, and so on) so that you have a
representative sample of the web browser performance from each one. Refer to
http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards for a distribution of the most
popular Android versions.Wrapping up
Performance affects everything. From how many devices can run your app, to the quality
of the user experience, to the perception of your app’s technical competency, performance
is a major tenet of professional web design. It’s not a “nice-to-have,” it’s a fundamental
building block. Don’t relegate performance as a simple optimization to be made in
hindsight.