Ask HN: Recommended Android phone for dev/testing | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Recommended Android phone for dev/testing

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I work for an agency and part of that involves making iOS and, more recently, Android apps. We've got the iOS side of things covered but what hardware would people recommend testing Android apps on?

I don't have a huge budget but could afford one 2.3.x & one 4.x device.

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Don't make the mistake I did a few years back, of buying the latest/greatest Android device (A Galaxy SII at the time), do all your testing on it, then find your app performs miserably on the far more common lower powered handsets. (Some of the early jQuery Mobile betas were glacial on a typical "low end ~$50 on a plan" handset…)

Yeah - Buy the most popular phone for your target audience, if that's general public, get it at a Wal Mart, Best Buy or some other place. Not only will you have a good sense of hardware and platform limitations but also any issues that might arise from the more common phone providers out there.

If you don't have a huge budget, get a used Nexus One off of Craigslist for 2.3 compatibility, and either a Nexus 4 ($299) or a Nexus 7 ($229) for 4.3 compatibility. That will depend whether you need to test your app on tablets.

Another option for 2.3 if you want something new is the Samsung Galaxy Player - there's a whole line of these, but they have no phone functionality.

I suggest using a Samsung 4.x device (S3/4) and for 2.3.x: a Sony/Old Nexus S if you can find it! http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Advance-Unlocked-Phone--U-S-Warra...

Take a look on http://swappa.com/. It's an online marketplace to buy and sell used mobile phones. Swappa is the official XDA Developer marketplace and only allows to sell phones in excellent condition.

I would go for a Nexus device (Galaxy Nexus perhaps).

I was in a similar situation in that I needed a cheap Android device to test on with my college budget and I ended up going with a Nexus 7 for $200. You can also easily find a used 2.x phone for cheap on craigslist or ebay. Hope this helps.

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