How to test for mobile?

I've never owned a smartphone or tablet, so I'm wondering how I should start if I want to publish a mobile game. So I need to buy a used phone or tablet for example? or are there other ways to test my game?

You need to test on as many different devices as possible.

A own smartphone is a good start (can be a little bit crappy - but not too old).

Any smartphone (or tablet) with the latest and most current OS systems running it (Android/iPhone)...

Someone suggested I use a virtual device to test. Anyone have experience doing that?

Like a VR (Occulus Rift) device? Unless you're making a VR game, no.

ShinobiSlash I mean like an emulator that simulates a mobile device.

You will never get a "feel" of how a game works on a touchscreen unless you get a real one in your hand. In the chrome development tool, there is a way to emulate many devices, but it is never like the real thing. My advice to you is to get an old ipad (mini), maybe second hand, they can be really cheap, and test your game on it. Good luck!

i use bluestacks to test mobile games, but many features not work well in the bluestacks emulator. also most of games will lagging because bluestacks not use 100% of the computer resources. so a real smartphone will be necessarily to test your mobile games