Real-device mobile computer-use
Agent must tap/swipe a real iOS or Android device (Appium/UIAutomator), not a desktop VM or headless Chrome.
At a glance — Oct 2026
Updated 2026-10-27 · forward this page: /jtbds/mobile-computer-use#briefScores as of 2026-10-19 (8 days old).
- Depot Pick
- BrowserStack · 7.95/10 for this job (curated estimate, high confidence)
Capability of real-device catalog + reliability + dx (Appium). Distinct from desktop-computer-use and computer-use-browser.
- Runner-up
- AWS Device Farm · 7.70/10
Scores higher than the pick on: Price / performance, Privacy / data retention.
- When not to use the pick
- Only need Android VMs / multi-OS desktop fleets — Cua; already on AWS and want $0.17/min metered or $250 slots — Device Farm; browser-only CUA — Anchor/Hyperbrowser; Linux desktop — E2B.
- Lock-in / migration
- The pick has lower stored lock-in risk than runner-up AWS Device Farm (5.5 vs 5.8).
- Sourced price (no comparable unit)
Pick: no sourced price in this job's unit (no_sourced_price).
No cheapest SKU (no_comparable_unit_for_job). No price was invented.
- Free option
- No free resource lists this job. A cheap paid SKU is not a free option.
- Failure modes to watch
- Benchmark protocol mismatch: Store assisted-or-not, subset, and harness version beside every cited score. Refuse a ranking that mixes those fields.
- Collateral side effects: Snapshot the workspace or app state, then diff it against an allowlist. A passing check plus an unexpected diff is a failure.
- Confirmation skip: Gate those tool names on an approval id recorded before the call. A missing approval is a failure even if the downstream tool returns success.
- GUI grounding miss: After each GUI action, compare the resulting screen or accessibility tree to the control the plan named. Stop when they differ.
- Partial tool success: Require a per-item status and a failure count. Success for the task requires the failed count to be zero or explicitly handed to a retry queue.
- Prompt injection: Compare each tool call to the original user task. If the call only makes sense given text that arrived from a fetched page, file, or message, stop and ask. Record which source the instruction came from. This catalog does not store payloads or attack steps.
Cite: Agent Provider Depot, Depot Pick for mobile-computer-use: browserstack, scores as of 2026-10-19. Agents: GET /api/decide?jtbd=mobile-computer-use
BrowserStack
Capability of real-device catalog + reliability + dx (Appium). Distinct from desktop-computer-use and computer-use-browser.
Pricing (directional): As of 2026-09-14 (browserstack.com/pricing): App Automate Device Cloud $199/mo billed annually (1 parallel, 30k+ real iOS/Android, unlimited minutes); Device Cloud Pro $249/mo. App Live Individual $39/mo; Team $150; Team Pro $249. Live Desk…
Lock-in risk: higher = more lock-in (worse). Overall already inverts this dimension.
Depot pick for mobile-computer-use on real phones. Cua if you only need Android VMs; AWS Device Farm if you are already on AWS and want $0.17/min metered.
Quote for Real-device mobile computer-use
Depot Pick stays BrowserStack. Prices below are sourced SKU rows only (as of 2026-10-27). Input and output are not blended. GET /api/quote?jtbd=mobile-computer-use
Nothing was compared. no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed pickIsPriceWinner is null.
Sourced price unavailable for the Depot Pick. No row in the pricing index.
6 of 6 candidates have no sourced price row. 6 are excluded from the Matching price comparison (none). no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed
Runners-up
AWS Device Farm
AWS-estate default for mobile device farms. BrowserStack if you want the bigger self-serve catalog; Cua for…
Cua
Best Scrapybara/E2B Desktop peer when you need Windows+macOS+Android fleets or local OSS sandboxes. E2B…
Sauce Labs
BrowserStack peer for real-device mobile computer-use. Prefer when you already live in Sauce QA tooling or…
TestMu AI (ex-LambdaTest)
Budget BrowserStack/Sauce peer. Catalog as testmu-ai — do not add a second live LambdaTest SKU. Depot mobile…
Genymotion Cloud
Use when agents need Android VMs (not real handsets). Real-device mobile CUA stays BrowserStack/Sauce/AWS…
When NOT to use the top pick
Only need Android VMs / multi-OS desktop fleets — Cua; already on AWS and want $0.17/min metered or $250 slots — Device Farm; browser-only CUA — Anchor/Hyperbrowser; Linux desktop — E2B.
Full ranking (score table)
Ranked with this JTBD's weights. Scores are curated estimates unless marked otherwise. Agents: prefer /api/decide then this table for tie-breaks.
| # | Provider | Overall | Fit | $/perf | Latency | DX | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cua | 8.0 | 8.8 | 8.0 | 7.6 | 8.6 | 2026-09-14 |
| 2 | BrowserStackDepot Pick | 8.0 | 9.0 | 6.2 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 2026-10-19 |
| 3 | TestMu AI (ex-LambdaTest) | 7.9 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 2026-09-14 |
| 4 | Sauce Labs | 7.9 | 8.8 | 6.2 | 8.8 | 7.8 | 2026-09-14 |
| 5 | Genymotion Cloud | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 2026-09-14 |
| 6 | AWS Device Farm | 7.7 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 8.6 | 7.0 | 2026-09-14 |
Score methodology for this job
Capability of real-device catalog + reliability + dx (Appium). Distinct from desktop-computer-use and computer-use-browser.
capabilityFit: 25%pricePerformance: 18%latencyReliability: 15%developerDx: 15%privacyPosture: 10%lockInRisk: 7%maturity: 10%