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Developing an Android smartphone app - on which devices would YOU suggest to check the app?

This is the first time I ask in Stack overflow. For some reason I have a chance to get one of these Android phones for testing apps :

  • Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  • Samsung Galaxy S 2

After days searching for information, I see that a good Android developer's phone should be :

  1. a "with Google" phone, so it has the most original Android OS, and often get updated OS early among Android phones.
  2. has a stable, or upgradable to, Android 2.3 or nearby on it, since the market of 2.3 is the largest at this time.

When it come to the point, an experienced friend of mine say "Yes" with S2, though I love Nexus more... But still I can't decide on which one I should take, since there's something not clearly :

  • If choosing S2, will the theme "Touch Wiz 4.0" on S2 affect my testing and debugging process later ?

  • If choosing Nexus, can I safely, easily downgrade the Ice Scream Sandwich (4.0) to Ginger Bread (2.3) ?

So... can you help me deciding this ? It would be great if you explain your reason, too. Thank you ^^

Community
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Obelisk
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  • I personally don't see any reason to downgrade OS. All the 2.3 features will be available in 4.0 also, so I wouldn't be counting that as a factor. – MobileCushion Feb 21 '12 at 16:59
  • So, you mean it's good enough if we just build apps with API of 2.3, and then test them on a 4.0 device ? – Obelisk Feb 21 '12 at 18:00
  • Yes, they are all supposed to work in 2.3, because all API's are backwards compatibile. Of course you won't have access to the features in the new API's, but if you want compatibility with the majority of phones, that's just the way it is. There is also a compatibility package, you can take a look into that. – MobileCushion Feb 21 '12 at 22:11
  • I asked a [similar question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3513966/developing-an-android-smartphone-app-on-which-devices-would-you-suggest-to-che) quite a while ago. Maybe those answers can help you, as well. – Dennis Winter Feb 21 '12 at 17:03

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I currently test all of my Apps on my Galaxy Nexus and emulators. What I think you should really take into consideration is to look at d.android.com and see required API for something that you will be doing. For example:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/drag-drop.html

Drag and Drop requires API version 11. It's things like this that you have to keep note of and test on different devices. There is not one phone that will be perfect for testing all of your apps. That's why they made emulators.

EGHDK
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  • Yeah... I mean, I'm trying to take the most-perfect-can-be. Btw, in some apps using OpenGL ES (such as games...), I figured out that the emulators acted very slowly, even somewhat different from real device... So I'm really worried 'bout that >"< Do you have any tips that remarkably boost the emulator's speed and performance ? – Obelisk Feb 21 '12 at 17:57
  • Testing games is a whole other story. The emulator is usually too slow to provide you with actual game play. Having at least one device is a must, having a few friends with an android device is also recommended. Here is a question about speeding up the Android Emulator: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2662650/making-the-android-emulator-run-faster – EGHDK Feb 22 '12 at 15:37
  • Yeah, the link is quite useful for me :) – Obelisk Feb 22 '12 at 18:56