Which android phone is good for android app development? | Hacker News Reader

Which android phone is good for android app development?

18 pointsmbchandar25 comments

HTC Wildfire?

If you want a deal on a really good development phone, I'm looking to sell my Nexus One. It's an excellent device, and is fully unlocked and can easily be flashed with custom firmware or stock android from a nice GUI app at the drop of a hat. I absolutely love the phone, but I just want the next greatest, unlocked phone.

I still have all the original boxes, cables, books, etc, and I also have the official car dock that puts the phone in car mode, has a loud speakerphone, etc. It's engraved on the back with my username, but it's otherwise in excellent condition, no scratches, screen protector, etc.

If you're interested, contact info is in my profile.

I'm interested in a Nexus One. I just sent you an email, but I understand if you give priority to the poster or would not like to ship internationally.

If anyone here has a used, unlocked N1 and is willing to ship it to Brazil, please contact me.

The Emulator will give you plenty of experience with what your app will run like on really slow hardware. :-( So I'd suggest skipping the common recommendation of getting a low end phone like a G1. Get something reasonably high end and recent. Almost anything decent and popular should do.

Having access to several devices might be beneficial if you're programming something like a game (where you might want to playtest on different size screens, etc.) or are otherwise pushing the UI envelope.

If you're doing basic productivity, social network, etc. apps (like todo lists, twitter clients, etc), then there really isn't going to be much different between different devices. If you follow the recommendations in the developer doc on handling multiple display densities, etc. then the platform really does a great job abstracting away any differences between different phones.

I would get the G2 since it's Googles official development device. It may be a bit clunky but its a solid hardware configuration and Google uses this device internally for development. Also, the hard keyboard is useful when testing for those target devices (folded up and hidden, virtual keyboard should activate).

I still use the G1 and it has yet to fail me.

G2 site: http://bit.ly/g8Ck6E

I thought Google's official phones were the G1, Nexus 1 and Nexus S. The G2 is an HTC-only effort, as far as I'm aware.

The G2 is notable, because it's an HTC phone with an unmolested version of Android. It's important to note the G1 was not an official Google developer phone, either. You're thinking of the similarly-named, carrier and developer unlocked ADP-1.

Google developer phones: ADP-1: aka G1 ADP-2: aka HTC Magic, myTouch Nexus One Nexus S

The G2 is not an official development device (although it is a really good phone). The G1 was the original Google Dev phone, but is now discontinued as a dev phone. The two models currently offered for sell by Google as developer phones are:

* The Android Dev Phone 2 - which is the HTC Magic. Pretty out of date if you ask me.

* The Nexus One.

The Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Dev_Phone) has alittle bit of information about all three dev phone. I'd send you a screenshot of the online storefront Google has for purchasing the dev phone 2 or the N1, but I've got no idea what's a good way to post images on HN. :-(

A couple of additional recommendations:

The G1 is not the lowest end Android phone you can get, hardware wise. The Huawei U8100 is the lowest end phone I'm aware of. It's 320x240 resistive screen and 128MB of RAM is truly crappy. It can be had for <$150, so testing your app on a very-low-res screen won't cost too much.

And you may also want to test on a tablet, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab or a rooted Nook to ensure your app doesn't look horrible when blown up on a large screen.

OTOH, rumours are that the Android tablet marketplace will change significantly soon, so you may want to hold off on a tablet.

I've got an HTC/Droid Incredible and it's been pretty pleasant to work with. I suspect as long as the carrier or manufacturer hasn't disabled the "USB Debugging" option in the settings, they are all probably about the same.

I suppose what makes the Nexus platform good for development is that it's usually running the latest Android version several months before the rest of the market. Are there any other development benefits to having a Nexus?

I have just ordered the new Nexus S for development work but the Samsung Galaxy S looks the part as well.

I'm pretty sure the Nexus S -is- a Galaxy S.

Nexus S, Vibrant, etc are all just the individual versions of the Galaxy S class of phones.

You are of course right in 99% of the comparisons, but that curved screen + Gingerbread make me completely overlook that they're otherwise the exact same hardware.

does the Galaxy S have NFC hardware in it?

No, there's more differences: the Nexus S has the NFC hardware, and has no microSD slot, just double the onboard flash memory (16GB) the Galaxy S has (8GB) .

??? 8gb? Mate my galaxy s had got 16gb AND an 8gb microsd card in it

Is there a price difference?

All the different Galaxy S phones have slightly different features and prices.

The biggest difference between Nexus S and Galaxy S is that Google is responsible for updating the software on the Nexus, and Samsung and the carriers are responsible for updating the software on the Galaxy. This is a massive difference, IMO, and swamps the minor differences, like NFC and the curved screen.

Depends what your development strategy is, but the Nexus S is the most powerful phone running Android out there, running a version of Android that no other consumer phone is running.

It is so bleeding edge it is barely even a "consumer" edition phone. Therefore, I don't really see it as a good candidate for building + testing apps on if you want something reflective of your target user.

It's more of a long term investment

From personal experience, Android phones are never that much of a "long-term" investment. Your phone will be pretty common place within 2-3 months, and will be far exceeded by better phones in around six months :)

How/where did you order it?

HTC Desire. It matches the Nexus One in hardware spec and rooting the device is just as easy (if you want to develop on custom ROM's).

If you can afford it, I'd recommend both the G1 and the G2. The G1 is pretty much the lowest end device you'll have to deal with. I still have and use mine regularly, and it is impeccable, though it's stuck on Android 1.6.

The G2 is the other end of the spectrum. It's far more cabable, modern, bigger, yadda yadda. It's probably more like the top end phones you'll see more frequently.

If you have to only get one or the other, go for the G2. If you want to make sure that your stuff works on lower end devices, pick up a G1 too -- you should be able to get one for a song.

For a top end phone, I'd recommend something which has been promised to receive 2.3 quickly, which as far as I'm aware, is limited to the Nexus 1 and the Nexus S.

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