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Comment by kuschku | Hacker News Reader

One of the largest issues of Android P is that the Nexus devices will never get it.

So if you as developer want to get the developer preview, the cost for that just went from 270€ (Nexus 5X) to over 759€ (Pixel 1), and the Pixel 1 isn't even available in major markets such as France.

So now a huge number of developers has no ability to test their apps on the latest version of Android.

For me, personally, this means I won't be able to support Android P, I won't be able to replicate bugs, and in worse case (as happened before once) I'll have significant bugs in my app, no way to replicate them, and no way to fix them, because the bug doesn't show in the emulator, and I have no device to test on.

Google's really shooting themselves in the foot by offering no way for developers to get an affordable testing device anymore.

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This is actually a pretty big deal. I think one way they can really solve it is to improve the emulator to make it actually useful.

For now, you'd just have to ship a Pixel device to France and pay an extremely high fee.

What about the Android One devices like the Moto X4 or any one of the ones from Nokia that will end up getting P?

That's not of any use for testing apps before P is out. It will be months after the official release before non-Google phones get P.

None of those devices get the developer preview. All Android One devices get updates from the manufacturer, usually several weeks after release.

A developer with a Pixel can test their app on P in spring. A developer on a Moto X4 or a Nokia can test their device in late autumn.

That's 6 months extra time to fix bugs and adjust to new APIs.

Oh ok - that sucks from a developer standpoint. Google should think of selling previous gen Pixels at lower price point.

Not a developer but the post mentions an emulator being available, why not use that? If there's a bug, submit a bug report ?

I imagine you never had the "pleasure" of using Google developed emulators.

Why do you think 3rd party emulators like Genymotion exist?

Even Microsoft created one from scratch before Google bothered to reboot their own implementation.

In any case, thanks to OEM customizations, even if it runs perfectly well on the emulator there are zero guarantees that it will work on the actual devices.

Or you could get a used Pixel 1 on eBay for ~300 euros

The cheapest Pixel 1 from a seller offering the legally mandated 1 year warranty I could find was still around 370€, plus shipping.

And that's a Pixel 1, which also only gets one more year of updates.

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