Android is not one device. It is hundreds of phones from Samsung, Google, Xiaomi and others, with different screen widths, pixel densities, navigation bars and font settings. A layout that looks perfect on the phone in your pocket can break on the one in your customer's hand.
You do not need an Android emulator or a drawer full of test phones to see the difference. MobileCheck loads your page on our servers in Chromium, the engine behind Chrome, configured like the Android phones you pick, and shows you what breaks and how to fix it.
How the Android check works
Chrome is the default browser on most Android phones, so Android devices in MobileCheck run on Chromium. Each one gets its real CSS viewport, its device pixel ratio, touch input, a mobile Chrome user agent, and the space taken by the address bar at the top and the system navigation at the bottom.
The page is loaded once per device and checked in four scenarios: normal, dark mode, large text at 150%, and with the mobile menu opened. You get a full-page screenshot per device, a score from 0 to 100, and each problem highlighted on the screenshot with a plain-English explanation. The report also includes lab measurements of Largest Contentful Paint, layout shift and page weight.
Android screen sizes worth testing
Android phones cluster around a few CSS widths:
- 360px: most Samsung Galaxy S phones, from the S8 to the S25, and many older and budget models. Still one of the most common widths, and narrower than any current iPhone.
- 384px: the Galaxy S23 and S24 Ultra.
- 393px: Xiaomi Redmi Note and Xiaomi 13 and 14, and the Pixel 4a and 5.
- 412px: Google Pixel 6 to 9, Galaxy A-series phones like the A15 and A55, and OnePlus.
- 344px: the cover screen of a folded Galaxy Z Fold, the narrowest phone width you are likely to meet.
Heights vary even more, from about 640px on older phones to over 900px on tall modern screens. See the full list with heights and pixel ratios in our mobile viewport sizes table.
Odd pixel ratios
iPhones use a device pixel ratio of 2 or 3. Android phones often use fractional ratios like 2.625 (Pixel 7, Galaxy A15) or 2.75 (Redmi Note), and the Galaxy S24 Ultra uses 3.75. With a fractional ratio, one CSS pixel does not map to a whole number of screen pixels, so thin borders can look blurry or uneven, 1px lines can disappear, and images can be scaled slightly. These quirks only show up when the emulation uses the same ratio as the real phone, which is why we set it for every device.
Things that are different on Android
Font scaling
Android lets people make text bigger in system settings, and Chrome has its own text scaling option in its accessibility settings. Many people, not just older users, turn these up. If your layout uses fixed heights or tight containers, larger text will overflow, overlap or get cut off. Our large-text scenario renders the page at 150% text size so you can see where it breaks. The large text guide explains how to build layouts that grow gracefully.
Navigation bars
Android phones use either gesture navigation, with a thin handle at the bottom, or the older three-button bar, which takes noticeably more height. Together with Chrome's address bar, that is the difference between your call-to-action button being visible on arrival or sitting just below the edge. We account for both: older devices get the taller button bar, newer ones the slimmer gesture area.
Zoom
Chrome on Android respects user-scalable=no and a low maximum-scale in the viewport tag, so people cannot pinch to zoom unless they have turned on "force enable zoom" in accessibility settings. If your site disables zoom, Android visitors with poor eyesight are stuck. See why you should not disable zoom.
Samsung Internet
Samsung phones ship with Samsung Internet alongside Chrome. It is built on Chromium too, so layout and CSS support are very close to what our check shows. One notable difference: Samsung Internet has a dark mode that can darken websites on its own, even if the site has no dark theme. Our dark-mode scenario tests your site's own prefers-color-scheme: dark styles; it does not reproduce Samsung's forced darkening, which can still change colors in ways you did not design.
Emulation, not a phone lab
MobileCheck is not an Android emulator that boots a whole operating system, and it is not a farm of physical phones. It is a real Chromium browser set up to match each device exactly. That covers what matters for layout and readability: viewport, density, touch, user agent and the visible area. It does not cover manufacturer skins, Android system dialogs, or apps. For layout bugs, it is fast and free; for device-specific hardware issues, a real phone is still the final word.
Want to check your iPhone visitors too? Our iPhone test runs on WebKit, Safari's engine, so you can compare both platforms in one report.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an Android emulator?
Not a full one. Instead of booting Android, we run Chromium, the engine behind Chrome, configured with each phone's real screen size, pixel ratio, touch input, user agent and browser bars. For checking how a website looks and reads, that is what matters.
Which Android phones can I test?
Samsung Galaxy S and A models, Google Pixel phones, Xiaomi and Redmi phones and Android tablets, alongside iPhones and iPads — every device in our catalog, for free. Pick one or all 51 in one check, with no daily limit.
Does it show how my site looks in Samsung Internet?
Very closely for layout, because Samsung Internet is built on Chromium too. It does not reproduce Samsung Internet's forced dark mode, which can recolor sites that have no dark theme of their own.