The most useful tools for mobile web are emulators and simulators. In Chapter 4 of Programming the Mobile Web I’ve made an extensive description and installation guideline for creating a desktop mobile testing environment. And in Chapter 13, I’ve also reviewed other solutions for mobile testing, including four device remote lab solutions.
I’ve mixed all this information to create this ultimate guide to 37 download resources for hundreds of emulators and simulators. Enjoy!
This list includes content from Programming the Mobile Web book with frequent updated information & links.
Name | Official | Platform | Type | Browser testing | Native testing | Compatibility | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
iOS Simulator |
Official | iOS | Simulator | Safari only | Objective-C | ![]() |
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Download3.7Gb (login required) | Devices: iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch, iPhone 4, iPad (Tablet) | ||||||
Comes with XCode and Native SDK. You can’t emulate Accelerometer/Gyroscope (DeviceMotion API). You can’t emulate URI-schemes, such as click-to-call. As a Simulator, it doesn’t provide an AppStore; you can’t install other browsers for testing, such as Opera Mini or Skyfire. | |||||||
Android Emulator |
Official | Android | Emulator | Android Browser – others | Java | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
Download20Mb and 60Mb per platform package | Devices: Generic devices using 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0 O.S. platform | ||||||
We need to download images of the platforms after downloading the SDK. Look at Chapter 4 of the book for details. After downloading the platform, you can install Firefox, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, Skyfire and UCWEB in your Android emulator for testing. You can download Motorola, Samsung and Nook add-ons (see below). Now it includes tablet support in HoneyComb (3.0) | |||||||
HP webOS Emulator |
Official | webOS | Virtual Machine | webOS Browser | JavaScript – C++ | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download260Mb | Devices: Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, Palm Pixi Plus | ||||||
Comes with SDK | |||||||
Samsung Galaxy Tab Add-on |
Official | Android | Add-on | Android Browser – others | Java | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download52Mb | Devices: Samsung Galaxy Tab (Tablet) | ||||||
Requires Android SDK with 2.2 package. The download is done using the Android 2.3 SDK searching for third-party packages. | |||||||
Motorola Xoom Add-on |
Official | Android | Add-on | Android Browser – others | Java | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download2Mb | Devices: Motorola Xoom (Tablet) | ||||||
Requires Android SDK with 3.0 package. It’s only a skin for the emulator. | |||||||
Nokia Symbian Emulators |
Official | Symbian | Emulator | S60 Browser – others | Java ME / WRT webapps / C++ | ![]() |
|
Download500-750Mb each (requires login) | Devices: All Symbian devicesincluding: 3rd edition FP2 (such as Nokia N96), 5th edition (such as Nokia 5800 XpressMusic), Symbian^3 (such as N8) and an specific N97 emulator | ||||||
Large download and installation. You need to check previous requirements to be installed first. You can install Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, Bolt Browser and UCWEB on Symbian emulators. | |||||||
Nokia Series 40 Emulators |
Official | Nokia OS | Emulator | Nokia Browser – others | Java ME / Flash Lite | ![]() |
|
Download30-100Mb each
(requires login) |
Devices: All devices including: 2nd edition, 3rd edition, 3rd edition FP1, 3rd edition FP2, 5th edition, 5th edition FP1, 5th edition FP1 Lite, 6th edition, 6th edition FP1 | ||||||
You can install Opera Mini, UCWEB, Bolt Browser and OVI Browser Beta on Series 40 emulators. | |||||||
Motorola Add-ons SDK for Android |
Official | Android | Add-on | Android Browser – others | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
||
Download30-60Mb each device | Devices: Motorola: Atrix, Bravo, Cliq 2, Dext, Milestone, BackFlip, Devour, Qrty, i1, Droid2, Droid X, Flipout, Defy, Flipside, Cliq, Citrus, others | ||||||
Requires Android Emulator. There are 20 different downloads. | |||||||
BlackBerry Simulators |
Official | RIM OS | Emulator | RIM Browser – others | Java | ![]() |
|
Download50-170Mb each
Requires login |
Devices: 35 different models including series Bold, Curve, Pearl, Storm, Storm2, Style, Torch & Tour. Every model has different emulators combining OS version and operator firmware. | ||||||
For web browsing testing you need to install and open a proxy service. See Chapter 4 for a full compatibility table and installation guide. You can install Opera Mini and Bolt Browser on BlackBerry emulators. | |||||||
BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator |
Official | Tablet OS | Virtual Machine | Internal Browser | Adobe AIR | ![]() ![]() |
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Download105Mb
Requires login |
Devices: BlackBerry PlayBook (tablet) | ||||||
HTML5 browser support. Adobe AIR & Packaged HTML5 WebWorkers app support. | |||||||
Windows Phone 7 Simulator |
Official | Windows Phone | Emulator | Internet Explorer | Silverlight | ![]() |
|
Download (Visual Studio Express included)500Mb | Devices: Generic Windows Phone 7 | ||||||
Comes with Visual Studio Express (free version) or as an add-in for commercial versions | |||||||
Sony Ericsson SDK for Android |
Official | Android | Add-on | Android Browser – others | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download50Mb | Devices: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 | ||||||
Requires Android Emulator. | |||||||
Nook SDK for Android |
Official | Android | Add-on | Android Browser – others | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
||
Download130Mb
Requires Login |
Devices: Barnes & Noble Nook Color | ||||||
Requires Android Emulator. | |||||||
Opera Mobile Emulator |
Official | Symbian / Android / Windows | Simulator | Opera Mobile | No native | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download15-25Mb | Devices: Multiple devices & OS emulation support | ||||||
You can also use emulators (Symbian, Android) and install the real Opera Mobile inside. | |||||||
Opera Mini Simulator |
Official | Many | Online emulator | Opera Mini | No native | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Use OnlineUse online v.4 | Devices: Generic Java device – No Opera Mini for iOS emulation | ||||||
You can also use emulators (Symbian, Android, Java, BlackBerry) and install the real Opera Mini inside. | |||||||
Firefox for Mobile Simulator |
Official | Generic Engine | Simulator | Firefox Mobile | No native | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download20Mb | Devices: Multiple devices – beta version. | ||||||
You can also use emulators (Android) and install the real Firefox Mobile inside. The desktop simulator is very basic and it’s in beta state. | |||||||
Qt Simulator |
Official | Symbian & Maemo | Simulator | No Browser support | Qt | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
Download500-900Mb | Devices: Maemo (such as Nokia N900), Symbian Touch (such as Nokia N8) and Symbian non-touch (such as Nokie E71) | ||||||
It does not support web browsing testing. You can test and create QtWebKit apps (hybrids) with HTML5 and CSS3. | |||||||
Nokia Web SDK Simulator |
Official | Symbian & Maemo | Simulator | Webapp testing | WRT and webapps | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download200Mb
Requires Login |
Devices: Maemo (such as Nokia N900), Symbian Touch (such as Nokia N8) and Symbian non-touch (such as Nokie E71) | ||||||
It does not support direct web browsing testing. You can test and create webapps & widgets. | |||||||
PhoneGap Simulator |
3rd-party | Generic | Simulator | WebKit-based | PhoneGap hybrid testing | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download15Mb | Devices: Apple iPhone, Generic Android, and others | ||||||
The rendering engine is a simulation. You can use it for hybrid PhoneGap testing or for simple WebKit-based browser simulation. | |||||||
Adobe Device Central CS5 |
3rd party | Several | Simulator | Generic browser support | Flash | ![]() ![]() |
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Included with Creative Suite (commercial) | Devices: Device Library with more than 100 devices. | ||||||
The web browsing support up to CS5 version is very basic (just a sized webkit browser for every device) and non-accurate. | |||||||
Bada Simulator |
Official | Bada OS | Simulator | No Browser Support | Bada C | ![]() |
|
Download200/400Mb
Requires Login |
Devices: Maemo (such as Nokia N900), Symbian Touch (such as Nokia N8) and Symbian non-touch (such as Nokie E71) | ||||||
It does not support direct web browsing testing. You can test and create webapps & widgets. | |||||||
Garnet Emulator |
Official | Garnet OS (formerly Palm OS) | Emulator | NetFront | Garnet | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Download200/400Mb | Devices: Old Palm OS devices | ||||||
Windows Mobile 6 Emulator |
Official | Windows Mobile | Emulator | Internet Explorer | .NET / C++ | ![]() |
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Download600Mb | Devices: Generic Windows Mobile Devices – Standard and Professional versions | ||||||
* This emulator requires special attention for using the browser. Look at chapter 4 of Programming the Mobile Web for detailed instructions on how to use it. You can install Opera Mobile and Opera Mini inside the emulator. | |||||||
Windows Mobile 6.5 Emulator Images |
Official | Windows Mobile | Add-on | Internet Explorer | .NET / C++ | ![]() |
|
Download250Mb | Devices: Generic Windows Mobile Devices – Standard and Professional versions | ||||||
Requires Windows Mobile 6 SDK | |||||||
Windows Mobile 6.1 Emulator Images |
Official | Windows Mobile | Add-on | Internet Explorer | .NET / C++ | ![]() |
|
Download400Mb | Devices: Generic Windows Mobile Devices – Standard and Professional versions | ||||||
Requires Windows Mobile 6 SDK | |||||||
Device Emulator with Windows Mobile 5 |
Official | Windows Mobile | Emulator | Internet Explorer | .NET / C++ | ![]() |
|
Download60Mb | Devices: Generic Windows Mobile Devices – Standard and Professional versions | ||||||
* This emulator requires special attention for using the browser. Look at chapter 4 of Programming the Mobile Web for detailed instructions on how to use it. | |||||||
i-mode HTML Simulator |
Official | Native | Simulator | i-Mode Browser (Japan) | No native | ![]() |
|
Download38Mb | Devices: Generic Windows Mobile Devices – Standard and Professional versions | ||||||
Simulator for Japanese’s i-mode browsers | |||||||
MITE 2.0 |
3rd-party | Generic | Simulator | Generic | No native | ![]() |
|
Download75Mb
Requires login |
Devices: Generic Browser Testing with a library of hundreds of devices. | ||||||
The rendering engine is not real. This tool simulates network requests as some mobile device and it renders the response on a generic webkit with some customization per device. | |||||||
Sony Ericsson SDK for Windows Mobile 6.1 |
Official | Windows Mobile | Add-on | Internet Explorer | .NET / C++ | ![]() |
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Download7Mb | Devices: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 | ||||||
Requires Windows Mobile SDK | |||||||
Samsung Device Emulator Skins for Windows Mobile |
Official | Samsung | Add-on | Internet Explorer | .NET / C++ | ![]() |
|
Download7Mb | Devices: GT-B7300 Omnia Lite, GT-B7330 Omnia Pro, GT-B7620 Armani, GT-I8000 Omnia II, SPH-i350 Intrepid | ||||||
Requires Windows Mobile SDK | |||||||
Sony Ericsson PhoneGap Simulator |
Official | Generic | Simulator | PhoneGap apps | PhoneGap hybrids | ![]() |
|
Download2Mb | Devices: Generic Android (such as Xperia X10) and Symbian (such as Satio) | ||||||
Requires Windows Mobile SDK | |||||||
LG SDK for the Java Platform |
Official | LG | Simulator | No Browser Support | Java ME | ![]() |
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Download60-100Mb | Devices: All propietary-OS LG devices | ||||||
Only for Java ME testing | |||||||
Sony Ericsson SDK for the Java Platform |
Official | LG | Simulator | No Browser Support | Java ME | ![]() |
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Download120Mb | Devices: All propietary-OS Sony Ericsson devices | ||||||
Only for Java ME testing | |||||||
Samsung Java SDK |
Official | Samsung | Simulator | No Browser Support | Java ME | ![]() |
|
Download150Mb
Requires login |
Devices: All propietary-OS Samsung devices | ||||||
Only for Java ME testing | |||||||
Samsung Mobile Widget Emulator |
Official | Samsung | Simulator | Only Widgets | Widgets | ![]() |
|
Download150Mb
Requires login |
Devices: All propietary-OS, Symbian and Windows Mobile Samsung devices | ||||||
Only for widget testing | |||||||
Motorola Java ME SDKs |
Official | Motorola | Simulator | No Browser Support | Java ME | ![]() |
|
Download40-150Mb each
Requires login |
Devices: All propietary-OS Motorola devices | ||||||
Only for Java ME testing | |||||||
WAC Emulator |
3rd-party | Several | Simulator | Only Widgets | Widgets | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
Download150Mb each
|
Devices: Generic Widget platform | ||||||
Only for widget testing | |||||||
Brew SDK |
Official | Brew | Simulator | Basic browser | Flash / C++ | ![]() |
|
Download200Mb | Devices: Generic BREW platform | ||||||
Installation and Usage Guide
In Chapter 3 there is an installation and usage guide for mobile web emulators, including how to open local files, keyboard shorcuts and proxy configuration. On Chapter 13 you will find more information on debugging and testing apps using emulators, virtual labs and other tools.
Emulators and Simulators
Generally speaking, an emulator is a piece of software that translates compiled code from an original architecture to the platform where it is running, such as the great MAME. In the mobile development world, a device emulator is a desktop application that emulates mobile device hardware and operating systems, allowing us to test and debug our applications and see how they are working. There are also operating system emulators that don’t represent any real device hardware but rather the operating system as a whole. These exist for Windows Mobile and Android.
On the other hand, a simulator is a less complex application that simulates some of the behavior of a device, but does not emulate hardware and does not work over the real operating system. These tools are simpler and less useful than emulators. A simulator may be created by the device manufacturer or by some other company offering a simulation environment for developers.
If you want to download every emulator on this list you will need at least one MacOS desktop and one Windows desktop, downloading at least 25Gb of applications.
Do you know any other emulator? Leave it in the comments area
Great work!! Do you know any iPhone simulator for Windows?
Awesome resource list. What about test frameworks that give you remote access to REAL devices? Keynote’s MDPI and Device Anywhere for example.
Thanks Steve! I’m planning a post about remote labs, like DeviceAnywhere, there are at least five remote labs, including two free ones.
I believe that for the first testing or the while-developing testing, emulators & simulators are a better & simpler solutions. I agree that they are not as great as mobile remote labs for final real testing.
Performance and WPO are a challenge with emulators, remote labs and real devices. I will talk about that soon; maybe on next Velocity? ;-)
@ Steve Souders
The Qt Simulator (as included in the Nokia Qt SDK) does not require any login. Otherwise a good and comprehensive list.
Do you know a ‘online’ Blackberry browser emulator ? like the Opera mini demo ? http://demo.opera-mini.net/
You are missing Firefox Mobile http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/download/. available for win,mac,lin.
@Joseph: I’m not sure about Blackberry emulators, but the Mini demo you link to seems to not be official, and is an older version of Mini. The Opera 5 official version is http://www.opera.com/mobile/demo/ and the older version (Opera Mini 4.2)is http://www.opera.com/mobile/demo/?ver=4
BlackBerry Simulators are placed here: http://us.blackberry.com/developers/resources/simulators.jsp
I didn’t find microemulator for javame here
http://www.microemu.org/
It’s “resizable” skin is very useful in testing scalable interfaces
Thanks for all the comments and broken link reports! I’ve updated links and added Windows Phone 7 and Firefox Mobile to the list.
The nice thing about the webOS emulator is that it features a host mode, which allows you to run apps, including the web browser app, in your favorite webkit-based desktop browser. Since the webOS browser is very similar to the browsers shipped with iOS and Android, you can do mobile web development for the three platforms using traditional desktop web development debug tools, such as the webkit inspector included with Google Chrome.
Great work on putting this list together. Very helpful!
I would like to add one emulator/simulator for your consideration.
the Ripple emulator, tailored for HTML5 mobile apps, specifically for PhoneGap, WAC, and the mobile Web. Ripple runs in the browser as an extension and is a very light install.
http://ripple.tinyhippos.com
You can see some short demo videos here:
http://youtube.com/tinyhippos
Thanks again for the great content :-)
For any ipod development on a windows machine you would have to emulate mac then install the iphone sdk i doubt apple will ever make it available for windows
FYI, the WAC emulator is now at http://www.wacapps.net/web/portal/sdk and no longer requires a login.
(the existing link still works)
Is any Iphone simulator for windows??
can i get the emulator for blackberry without login??
I’m looking for something I can put up on a website so visitors can enter their web address and see how it will appear on a mobile phone. Can you suggest what the best way to go about that is?
Thanks
Rowena
Ref Rowena’s question.
I am also looking for a proper web based simulator. EVRRY one I have looked only shows the top corner of the full web page, not the full page width (with no scrolling), as it would be in a smart phone (before the user manually zooms or scrolls).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
ColinK
I support some internal corporate applications, and we have recently developed a custom app for ipad, which has integrations into other internal tools, etc, hopefully allowing our sales people to be more productive while mobile.
As it relates to support, I’m looking to substitute an emulator for actual iPads for my team-members.
My question is can these emulators download and run apps from the app store like an actual device? The comments and examples all seem to be regarding emulating a website via safari.
Actually, there are some simulators for the iOS devices’ WebKit around, but none of the ones I have seen so far (not even Apple’s one, to date by far the best of the lot) is entirely satisfactory.
Assuming a Windows host, there is a mostly workable “iOS Web Browser Simulator” (derived from an earlier AIR application called iBBdemo2) which can be found at http://electricplum.com/products.html – I have tried only the Light (freeware) version, though.
Another extremely interesting project is iEmu, an in-progress variant of the well-known QEMU engine aiming to run the full iOS firmware; its status can be tracked at the http://www.iemu.org/index.php/IEmu_Development_Status URI.
Good job for all the post.
Is there any emulator for Samsung Galaxy S+, I am testing between the S and the S+
The Android Emulator has Versions 3.1, 3.2, and 4.0 now
Hi,
We have developed an online mobile emulator that enables you to test the display of any website in many cell phones.
Most of settings are honored : dimensions, resolutions, user agent, behavior, features…
Don’t hesitate. It’s free !!!
Colin.
very well done with your research, i am however curious as to whether you have actually used all of these emulators? or is this just purely research as to what exactly is available? with no reviews??
really interested, if you have another post regarding the quality of these emulators / simulators, please let me know?
thanks Paul
Paul, I’ve used and tried every emulator. There is a full review in my book Programming the Mobile Web; in fact, it’s a whole chapter
Nice list there but I’ve managed to get a browser running in the Bada Emulator which allows you to directly test web sites/applications.
Hi Ian, can you share with us how did you managed to get a browser running in the Bada Emulator?
@Thapelo Makhoba
If you have VirtualBox, the latest version of OS X I could find is OS X 10.7.3, and it is very hard, if not impossible, to upgrade to 10.7.4 to run Xcode without the upgrade completely failing.
If you have the free version of VMWare, you need to buy the full version of it in order to start your Mac VM. I found OS X 10.7.4 for VMWare, which is what the next-to-most recent version of Xcode needs to run.
If you bought the full version of VMWare, all you need is the OS X 10.7.4 file that I found and you should be all set. Just follow the instructions in the video at this link, though. People who didn’t have been known to screw up the VM in many ways. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWivc2XcpP8
Hope this helps!
thank you Max (and numerous contributors). Any thoughts about browserstack.com? How do they fit into the picture?
Lee, BrowserStack is a cloud-based service where you can use this same emulators remotely
Is there any emulators other than Windows Emulator for Windows OS Mobile testing?
Hi,
First let me say that I’m purchasing both books today and look forward to reading. Secondly, I work for a large retailer that launched our mobile site in 2011 and we are struggling with testing the site hence the emulator research. If you had to pick one emulator out of your list, what would be your first top 3 choices?
Mary, usually with emulators you don’t have a choice. You pick the ones you need based on your current target group; for example, if you are retailer you can check stats on your own country at http://gs.statcounter.com and decide which emulator do you need.
Thank you for your quick response. At this time US is splitting the market with mobile devices almost equal – iphone (43%) & android (39%) and I’ve been reviewing tools to help me QA our mobile website and I haven’t found any that really emulate all the functionality on our site. Example: many emulators do not support rotating primary or alt images. I was hoping that you could reduce the downloads by providing me with your top 3 choices that would support testing for android devices and iOS.
Hi – thanks for a great resource.
We are looking for a Windows Mobile emulator but we are running all development machines in Win 7 64 bit and cannot find an emulator that will work. Any ideas that would help? We would even be willing buy one if we could find it.
Great post and the discussions are informative too. I am new to mobile web testing and have been looking info difference in javascript engine that I will see in a emulator vs real device? how does jquery behave on a emulator vs real device? We are just launching a mobile version of our website which uses HTML/CSS/Javascript. If you have any insight please let me know. Thanks.
You might like to add the Firefox OS Simulator (browser plugin).
http://people.mozilla.com/~myk/r2d2b2g/
It’s currently a prototype but it is functional.
Nokia has Remote Device Access via the developer.nokia.com site. An account is required, but you can remotely test on various real MeeGo, Series 40, Symbian and Windows Phone 8 devices. You might also want to mention that Microsoft has a WP8 emulator via the current SDK 8.
Could you please use lowercase in your table? It’s completely unreadable. With all respect to your work.
Hi @Vadim, thanks for your feedback. You are totally right; In fact in the HTML I’m not using uppercase; it seems a WordPress theme update has changed the CSS and forced uppercase there :S Thanks for sending a notice; I’ll fix it. Anyway, I’m planning to move this table to a new website soon with a totally new design.