When I first heard about TestPartners’ Open Device Lab on The Software Testing Club I was intrigued. Like many teams we try to design and test for the most popular web browser and mobile devices. Unfortunately as any mobile user knows the speed of change makes it difficult, and certainly expensive, to maintain a test device library.

Finally last week I had the need to visit the lab. After a couple of emails with Steve our booking was confirmed.

When you book in to the lab you have the option to reserve specific devices for testing. We didn’t have any specific requirements, really we just wanted to test some recent front end changes on a range of modern devices with varying screen sizes. When we arrived we were presented with a box full of tablets and phones. Each was carefully labelled and had a charger too – something that never happens with the devices I manage at work!