Preview underrated devices ?

[Siberian]

When previewing sites on devices, I have access to the common devices to see how a page renders, what I don't have access to is the devices that take up a small part of the market, BlackBerries, Amazon Fire, Lumia line of phones and iPhones running newer versions of iOS, any recommendations on how I can preview on these devices ?

[rproffitt]

At some point you don't worry about it. That is, your web sales to those can't support the effort to make it look good on these. Right now the mobile viewing according to stats my CIO gave me point out we want to try it on Apple iOS, Android, Windows and Apple's Safari and at that point we have 99% of the machines covered or higher. It sounds horrible but why worry about the tenth percent machines?

[Siberian]

I don't understand what you're saying ?

[gentlemedia]

I would say if you have already some device stats from visitors (e.g. via Google Analytics) then design/develop for those devices/operating systems that's used the most.
if you don't have access to a device/operating system that you need to support, you could try to find an OpenDeviceLab near you.
https://opendevicelab.com/
In your case: https://opendevicelab.com/#!odl=1283 :)

[rproffitt]

@Siberien. It's a financial angle from my CIO. If we have say 1,000 web views, and 1 is on that rare device plus they may not be buying the cost of getting the web page to view spot on isn't worth it.

Another view is if you got it to work on iOS, Android, Windows and Apple's Safari then it's going to look OK on that last rare thing or at lease better than run of the mill sites.

My buddy thinks that web developers can often OCD about this. But at some point you need to get to the next thing.

[Siberian]

gentlemedia - The ODL to which you posted the link is quite a distance away from where I live, unfortunately.

I have been OCD about this for over a week, Chrome has a built in emulator, it's not reliable. I have paid for a service which I can do real tests, not emulated online, as I said, but not all devices I have access too or the operating system is a version or two behind. I've thought about strictly checking my site on roughly 6-8 devices and the rest hope it renders well.

[diafol]

about strictly checking my site on roughly 6-8 devices and the rest hope it renders well.

You cannot and should not try to check your site on every piddling little device, it's just not feasible and after a little while, there's the law of diminishing returns. If you are doing this for real and being mercenery about it, not just playing with it, then your time = money. You're spending over a week on this (off and on, granted) - say 15 hours. If you charge £20/hr, then that's £300. Undoubtedly, you will spend even more time on it. Are you going to recoup that from supporting Diafone v33.267 using Iceweasel? rproffitt is quite right IMO.

[Siberian]

What direction to I take for now and in the future ?
Do I focus on a few devices only, what is the most best & logical solution to take ?

[rproffitt]

By focusing on the 99% plus devices out there such as iOS, Android, Windows browsers, Apple Safari I would not call that focusing on a few devices.

If you get it right for the major devices you are doing very well and it will likely look as good or better than expected on the Diafone v33.267 using Iceweasel (thanks for that diafol.)

I think that's the right word. Mercenary. Make it pay.

[Siberian]

I'll focus on a few devices, iOS, Samsung & another and hope it looks alright on the rest.

[rproffitt]

Parting advice. If your boss has an Blackberry then of course target that. You should know why by now.

[Siberian]

The service I use has added some devices, I can test on roughly 16, not emulated devices simutanously, and ignore the rest.

[rproffitt]

That's a very thorough test. Unless the 16 devices don't include say iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones.

[Siberian]

It does include iPhone and Galaxy phones. ;-) I was driving myself nuts for a week and a half, when I'm really in a good position.