[mono-android] recommendations for test device

[Andrew Taylor]

Jason,

 

The biggest thing to consider when developing for Android is that every
device is different.  With iOS we basically have a couple flavors to choose
from, iPad 1, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S, and
pretty much all of them can be counted on to be running the same version of
iOS for the moment.  With Android you don't get things this easy.  There are
versions of OS to consider, Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 3.2, 4.0, etc.  There are
hardware considerations to be made because each android device can have
different screen pixel density, sizes, etc.  Each can have different
graphics cards with different abilities.  Each can have vastly different
amounts of ram, disk space, cameras, no cameras, and other hardware
differences.

 

This is why most devices on Android have their own "store" to weed out
things that they know won't work on it.  We test on nearly 20 phones and
tablets here just in hopes that we get a good chunk of the market working as
expected when we release.

 

What you test on really depends a lot on what type of app you are
developing, and how big of a market you are aiming for.  Best
recommendations are don't try for anything under Android 2.3, and stay away
from devices that don't let you access the Google Play store.  Some
exceptions to that are of course the Kindle Fire and B&N Nook, both of which
restrict you to their store, but are heavy players in the market and worth
building for is you are looking for mass market.

 

If you are looking for cheap, my suggestion is to look for refurb devices,
for example we often get a variety of test devices from Fry's Electronics,
the electronics supervisor gives us a call when they have some refurbs in
that we can get for a steal.  This lets us have many devices to test with in
all flavors of OS version and hardware capabilities.

 

Sincerely,

 

Andrew Taylor

Chief Technology Officer

Satori Tech Solutions, Inc.

Stop asking why you can't, and start asking "What else is possible?"

 <http://www.satoritechsolutions.com/> www.satoritechsolutions.com

 

From: monodroid-bounces at lists.ximian.com
[mailto:monodroid-bounces at lists.ximian.com] On Behalf Of Jason Awbrey
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 8:47 PM
To: Discussions related to Mono for Android
Subject: [mono-android] recommendations for test device

 

Any recommendations for an inexpensive Android device to use for testing
with M4A?  

My focus so far has been on iOS/MT, so I'm very unfamiliar with the Android
landscape and choice of devices.

Alternately, are there any particular devices you wouldn't touch if they
were given away for free, wrapped in a $100 bill?

thanks - Jason



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