Android Question Spare phone or tablet for app testing advice

schemer said:

1. If I do this on a budget, what would be the minimum supported Android version I should get?

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2. Does the phone need to be setup with a service provider if I want to just use the B4A bridge?

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3. Any recommendations of bulletproof phones?

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NJDude said:

I don't think that you will find anything older than Gingerbread, most come with at least Ice Cream Sandwich.


No, B4A Bridge uses your local WiFi network, but I would recommend using USB instead.


Whatever you can afford.

Does it have to be a phone?, you could buy a nice cheap tablet.

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TheJinJ said:

If your in the UK there's was a Huwaei Y330 for £35 new. 4.4.2 stock. Not the best but pretty cheap!

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schemer said:

NJ,
Thanks for the reply. I have used the AVD and it is way slow and I know, not recommended. I use B4A Bridge with ok results but still a bit slow. Genymotion might be good but the price is too much for the full version until I make some money with an app. I already have a phone so maybe a tablet is a good choice. I will definitely look into that. I have plenty of pc's but no tablets. As far as testing goes for best overall compatibility, do you have any tablets you could recommend?
Thanks,
schemer

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thedesolatesoul said:

If its for testing buy a Samsung. They have the most bugs and break things.

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NJDude said:

You can use the free version of Genymotion, no need to buy it, also, the use of emulators is not really recommended, it's better to work with actual devices.

I like the Nexus 7 tab, but, you can do a little bit of research and find similar ones.

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thedesolatesoul said:

If its for testing buy a Samsung. They have the most bugs and break things.

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thedesolatesoul said:

Nexus 7 tablets are made by Asus. Nexus 10 by Samsung. Nexus phones by HTC, Samsung, LG (and maybe motorola?)

I have found that Samsung devices have more bugs because they try to put too many things in. Specifically things like the camera and video playback/codecs.

But also, if your app runs on a Samsung it will still not run on anything ... Countless times I tested on my Samsung and it doesnt work with @NJDude HTC devices, and usually we end up agreeing to blame samsung. To be honest I dont know. Now I test on 3 devices, and then I send it to NJDude for further testing because his selection of devices (and 1337 verification skills) almost always break my code.

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RandomCoder said:

@schemer and @thedesolatesoul I have a Samsung S3 in daily use (really wanting a Note Edge!) and the Nexus 7 2013 (2nd gen Nexus). My own experience with these two devices is that the Samsung comes packaged with loads of CODEC's and so the VideoView works really well and plays most filetypes, whereas the Nexus is a little more pure Android and has very few CODEC's (if any) and so VideoView will only play MP3's.
I've also found that the Nexus often displays different to what is sometimes expected because it has a high pixel density, so it's always good to check if my views look the same on both my phone and tablet.
My final observation comparing these two devices is that the Nexus 7 is much faster. I once programmed a CustomListView with bump scrolling, it worked flawlessly on the Samsung but on the Nexus I had all manner of problems with my list jumping about due to how fast the Nexus updated the list and fired a timed event. Both devices are excellent devices and I highly recommend them both.

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RandomCoder said:

I'm sure the 16GB will be fine. If you install ES Explorer or a similar utility then you can use a network share to store your files on.

PS if you've not tried ES Explorer then you really should. It's about the only application that I always recommend when people ask which apps too install.

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