Reliable way to check for mobile in C#?

Question

I'm building a site in ASP.NET MVC/C#. I base most of my controllers off of a base controller. In that base controller I handle quite a few common tasks every controller needs to do.

One thing I want to add is a check for mobile browser. I've found some recommendations around SO, but they seem to be outdated.

What's a reliable way to check for mobile browser in C# (ASP.NET MVC)? (note: I already use stylesheet media queries for a responsive UI, but I need a way to detect mobile browser server side)

See my tutorial ASP.NET MVC 4 Mobile Features at http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-4/aspnet-mvc-4-mobile-features — RickAndMSFT, Dec 26 '11 at 16:10
I think some one already asked that question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5233090/how-do-i-detect-a-mobile-browser-in-a-net-mvc3-application you can check this. — hackp0int, Dec 26 '11 at 05:19

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 04 '13 at 02:43

4

Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice I'm using MVC4 not sure if this will work with regular request object.

answered Mar 04 '13 at 02:43

Filix Mogilevsky

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 26 '11 at 05:21

Here's an interesting blog article on Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice: http://dbarrowstechblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/requestbrowserismobiledevice.html It seems like there may be some limitations to this approach.

Overall, it's important to understand the considerable differences between what's called a "mobile device". It can be anything from a very primitive, almost text only, browser on an older phone to an iPhone or Android smartphone to a full featured experience on an iPad or Android tablet.

Tablet and advanced smartphone users hate dumbed down sites and hate sites that interfere with basic functionality like pinch-zoom. They like app'ed sites, when they work well, and sites that are optimized for performance but that are not stripped down to the bare bones.

Reliable way to check for mobile in C#?

2 Answers2