what physical android device you use for testing purpose?

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+1 Q:

what physical android device you use for testing purpose?

any good recommendation of a physical android device for testing purpose?

I am looking for a device like iPod touch in Apple camp that help iOS developer to test their stuff. I know there is Nexus One, but that thing is pretty expensive and i don't really care about the phone stuff, but something that can let developers test accelerometer, touch screen, orientation etc.

any idea?

How much are you willing to spend? You could get a used Motorola Droid off eBay for maybe $250. If you will never, ever care about the phone features (using it as a phone), you can get a Motorola Droid with a banned ESN (i.e. Verizon will not let it on the cell network) for even less.

Otherwise, the Archos tablets/media players are in the $200-300 range. They can not access the Google Android Marketplace without some sort of hackery, if I recall.

birryree 2010-10-08 04:46:37

I actually picked up my Droid for under $200 on craigslist (good esn). It's definitely a good place to keep an eye on, and for a low dpi device I've seen the Eris for as low as $100.

kcoppock 2010-10-08 04:49:32

I was actually just looking at the Archos 32 3.2 inch device, only $141 in Amazon, very affordable (and disposable i guess). Anyone has experience with Archos as testing device? On a side topic, what is the reason Archos device cannot access the official Android Market?

BBL 2010-10-08 05:05:17

To qualify for the Market, tablets/phones have a minimum requirement they must fulfill. ArchOS doesn't meet that requirement. Don't count on it having accelerometers, a gps, a camera, or even all the buttons required by Android. And although not strictly required by Android, I believe ArchOS has resistive single touch as opposed to capacitive multi-touch, and its touch functionality will be so bad -- you'll probably just decide to return it to where you got it from.

Stephan Branczyk 2010-10-08 07:10:48

As to buying a phone with a bad esn, doesn't a bad esn mean a stolen phone? Or are there other ways one can get a bad esn???

Stephan Branczyk 2010-10-08 07:20:46

Archos 32 has accelerometer, camera, but no gps and it is also resistive touchscreen(so no multi touch i guess). If i read it correctly, the main reason it cannot access official Android Market is because of the fact it does not have a phone chip inside. I feel this maybe a good choice for casual developer who just started his/her android journey....

BBL 2010-10-08 19:08:26

Android devices come with different screen sizes and resolutions so you need to test your device on a number of emulator configurations. For usability testing real device is a must though.

Tablets are not well-suited for testing cause they often have non-standard screen size and resolution. So phone is your only choice. Now you need to choose the phone that allows rooting (some phones such as Motorola Droid series make rooting harder). Finally, take a phone with the latest version which is FroYo (Android 2.2).

If you plan targeting some specific devices, then take that device of course.

Eugene Mayevski 'EldoS Corp 2010-10-08 04:47:32

The original Droid is super easy to root. The much newer Droid X and Droid 2 have been rooted, but no ability to load custom ROMs onto them, AFAIK.

birryree 2010-10-08 04:54:26

All very good advice, until it got to recommending Froyo. As a **user**, you will want the latest hardware with the latest Android OS, but as a developer you will want just the opposite, otherwise you will not be able to detect many of the problems your users are going to have (just don't follow the recommendation of Macarse, 1.5 is way too low, get 1.6 at the bare minimum, may be 2.0, and only 2.2 if you plan on using that device for yourself).

Stephan Branczyk 2010-10-08 06:58:23

@Stephen you should not recommend 2.0.x- it is deprecated. (and AFAIK no phones will have it)

Jon 2010-10-08 07:33:27

@Stephan 1.6, 2.1 and 2.2 work differently. Testing on 1.6 will not expose specifics of 2.2 behavior, which did broke some things. So the best would be to target all of them. Now, if you look at statistics, 2.1 and 2.2 are already on majority of devices and will be on almost all, probably (at least, 2.1 will be). So it doesn't make sense to target 1.6 for *future* application. It was actual a year ago, but not now.

Eugene Mayevski 'EldoS Corp 2010-10-08 09:09:47

I'd go for the newer devices, like HTC Desire or Google Nexus One, Even tough they are bit more expensive, they have a good number of features. Since you can use them privately too, it's basically a good investment

Tseng 2010-10-08 09:32:11

If you don't want to spend money, just use the emulator. It's just fine.

If you really want to test the app, get an htc hero with 1.5. It the most incompatible phone I have ever worked with.

Macarse 2010-10-08 05:07:11

Jon 2010-10-08 07:40:07

Many 1.6 devices will be updated to 2.1, but not to 2.2. This includes HTC Hero (very successful device) and some others.

Eugene Mayevski 'EldoS Corp 2010-10-08 09:10:39

ansaurus

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what physical android device you use for testing purpose?

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