Apps What Device to Test App On

[mg4android]

Do most people developing apps test them (after the emulator)...........

On their own personal phone ?
If so, have they had any issues uninstalling or with their phones?

OR

Do most developers purchase an ADP1 /ADP2 phone ?
If so , are these phones 3G enabled ?

OR

Buy another phone and add another line to their existing contract
and use that to test ?


Thanks in advance!
Michael

 

[dmitriyk]

The emulators are pretty good, but you're not going to catch all the issues unless you test on a device or several devices. I consider it an absolute requirement.

Whatever device you already have will be perfectly fine for testing. Unless your application has malicious code in it, you're not going to break anything, so feel free to test on your personal phone. The developer phones are another good option, but personally I don't think they're worth the money. If you're able to easily add another Android phone on another line, go ahead and do that. In my experience, certain phones (I'm looking at you, HTC Sense) have more issues with applications than others, and you're probably not going to be able to find all the issues on just one phone, though you can get very close.

 

[jdizzle1988]

I have been using my HTC Hero (Sprint) for testing and so far I have not had any issues with the phones normal operation. In fact, it works faster than the emulater because you dont have to wait for it to boot up! As mentioned above though, the emulaters are pretty good. Remember though, and emulater is not the 'real' thing it is only mocking the real thing so testing on a physical device is the best type of testing you can do.

 

[kevin@teslacoilsw]

I'm strongly against the ADP. They're overpriced and then you're testing on a phone that NO ONE actually uses (Though they are at least similar to the G1 or Magic). Nexus One at least has actual users and all the modern Android devices are similar to it.

Personally, I primarily test on a Motorola Droid (no cellular service, got it used). It's the most popular Android, it's relatively cheap on craigslist, it's easy to flash different ROMs to. It's 480x854 and it has a hardware keyboard. So you really cover most test cases with all that.

I also test on my personal phone, a Nexus One. If I'm running the same version of Android on both of them then the Nexus One usually doesn't have significant differences. But I mostly keep the Droid at Android 2.1 and the Nexus at Android 2.2. Also the Nexus can be flashed with a Desire-Like ROM to test against SenseUI.

Finally as a last step I check it in the emulator. I set it for medium resolution whereas my devices are high. Also I can run Android 1.5 or Android 1.6 there.

 

[mg4android]

On the Droid you test without cellular service that you purchased does the
Droid come up normally without a google account and how do u test internet apps (WiFi) ?


>>Personally, I'm primarily test on a Motorola Droid (no cellular service, got it used).

Thanks in advance!

 

[kevin@teslacoilsw]

I use Wifi on the Droid to test internet apps. When it boots it will show the activation screen but you can bypass it by touching the four corners sequentially Tip: How to Bypass Android Activation Screen on Motorola Droid - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

Then you can associate a google account and everything with it. I put it into Airplane mode to save battery and then just need to turn on Wifi every time i boot it (But it also automatically skips the activation screen).

 

[GoldenTiger]

I would highly recommend testing on a couple of devices spanning hardware specs if your app/game. Preferably you would be able to test on two different screen sizes and high-end/low-end CPU... depending on your API target level, you'll want to make sure whatever you make is compatible with the older versions as well if that's a design goal for you (more for utilities/apps than games, on that note). Remember, actual device testing is extremely important as it can reveal design and usability flaws, as well as bugs, that the simulator won't.

 

[mg4android]

>>

I would highly recommend testing on a couple of devices spanning hardware specs if your app/game. Preferably you would be able to test on two different screen sizes and high-end/low-end CPU... depending on your API target level, you'll want to make sure whatever you make is compatible with the older versions as well if that's a design goal for you (more for utilities/apps than games, on that note). Remember, actual device testing is extremely important as it can reveal design and usability flaws, as well as bugs, that the simulator won't.

<<

Yes , but were do you get these other hardware devices from ...Are you adding
extra lines to your existing line and paying full price for the phones ?

 

[dmitriyk]

Most any older phone (including the fairly recent Droid) can be picked up for pennies from eBay or Craigslist, especially phones with bad ESNs that can't be used on cell networks. And if you need to test internet connectivity, you can just use wifi.