Battery & Data Usage Testing

Battery and Data Usage Testing is a specialized type of non-functional testing that measures how an application impacts a mobile device's resources. The goal is to identify and resolve any inefficiencies that could lead to excessive battery drain or high data consumption, which can negatively affect a user's experience. This is a critical step for mobile applications, as users are sensitive to apps that consume too much power or use up their data plan.

Example: A developer adds a new "auto-login" feature to a mobile app, where the app stays logged in by periodically refreshing a token in the background. A quality assurance team would perform Battery and Data Usage Testing on this new feature. They would:

• Measure the device's battery level before and after enabling the feature for a set period, comparing it to the battery usage without the feature.
• Monitor network traffic to ensure that the token refresh process is not using a lot of data and that it's only happening at necessary intervals.

The test results might show that the auto-login feature is refreshing the token too frequently, causing unnecessary background data usage and battery drain. The team would then recommend a more efficient refresh schedule to improve the app's performance.