0

I've created my app using all the neccessary things to support different screen sizes/densities (relative layouts, dip etc.)

I've created all the neccessary layout files (ldpi,mdpi etc) and images for this support.

I've tested the app on all the available emulator skins using Eclipse, and they all appear like the should. I then tested this on a real device (Samsung Galaxy SII) and it looked great. Then I tested it on a Galaxy Tab (7") and the layouts were a bit wrong, and the text sizes were wrong too, making it look really bad on the tablet.

I'm really confused by this, because it was tested using all of the emulator skins (this includes a 7" screen skin). I then created a custom AVD - (1024X600, 240 density), to match the exact specs of the galaxy tablet. This again looked as it should on the emulator, but the real device shows differently.

Any thoughts why this is? Shouldn't an emulator with the same specs of a real device look the same as the device?

Thanks

alain.janinm
  • 19,951
  • 10
  • 65
  • 112
mmmbaileys
  • 1,233
  • 4
  • 18
  • 33

1 Answers1

1

Take a look at this post:

Android, concerning the User Interface design

You will note a comment from Tim where he mentions that the Galaxy Tab 7" has a large screen and uses the mdpi resources. So your emulator is setup for 1024x600 with hdpi, which would explain the difference.

Or just download/install the emulator from Samsung.

Emulate Samsung Galaxy Tab

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Morrison Chang
  • 11,691
  • 3
  • 41
  • 77
  • Thanks for the post. I've set the emulator to have a density of 160, isn't this mdpi? Because it is still showing fine on the emulator... – mmmbaileys Apr 07 '12 at 20:34
  • Thanks @Morrison Chan! Just another question. As I mentioned above, I thought my app was completely fine from a UI side of things, until I tested it on a the Galaxy Tablet device. Are there any other exceptions? As I mentioned, the app looks fine on all of the available skins in eclipse...I dont want to release my app to the store and find out there are more screens that won't display correctly, similarly to the Galaxy Tab. Cheers – mmmbaileys Apr 07 '12 at 20:45
  • Unfortunately is no guarantee that every device behaves correctly. In theory those with Android Market/Google Play should have gone through a compatibility test, and yet the Galaxy Tab has this issue. If you've gone though all of the sizes of the popular devices, that is the best that you can do until a user complains. Best of luck. – Morrison Chang Apr 07 '12 at 20:52
  • Thanks again! So now that I can see the Galaxy tab emulator working, do I still have to edit my 'layout-large' xml to suit this device? Because doing this would skew the layout of other 'large' devices. Can I create a layout specifically for this device? Cheers – mmmbaileys Apr 07 '12 at 21:01
  • My only suggestion is to either try to see if you can create a layout which will be picked up by the Galaxy Tab and leave layout-large working for those devices that report correctly. http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html#AliasResources – Morrison Chang Apr 07 '12 at 22:04