The WPT waterfall results are different from the Network tab in Chrome dev tools. Can you please explain why?
Here’s the WPT test result (6 HTTP requests for iPhone 4 iOS 5.1):
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130103_94_4AZ/
The Network tab in Chrome shows 5 requests. Here are the Chrome settings:
There were discrepancies for the Nexus S as well.
UPDATE:
I tested the same URL on Mobitest, Web Page Test, Chrome’s Developer Tools Network Panel, and an actual Android 2.3.5 device. I then compared the server access logs. Here’s the new test:
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130103_NS_KKS/
Mobitest and Web Page Test were generating HTTP requests for image1.jpg, while Chrome’s Developer Tools and the actual Android device were not.
I have to assume this has something to do with the way Mobitest and WPT handle landscape / portrait orientation. Because the physical device didn’t show the HTTP request, I’m going to stick with Chrome’s Developer Tools as the more accurate tool for Android testing.
Maybe it is the iOS version? WPT uses the Mobitest agent code and they run on actual physical devices (oriented as portrait). Only catch is that they are running iOS 5 and they are using the UIWebView container instead of safari (same browser you would get inside of the twitter client for example).
On Android they also use the web view on a real device and they capture a tcpdump to get the requests so if it shows up in the waterfall it is a safe bet that it was actually requested. The stock android browser is different than Chrome though (which is what I assume you are using for the developer tools waterfall) and I believe all of the public devices are running gingerbread (Android 2.3).