So you are an Android developer now? great. you’ll probably start to develop using eclipse and some emulators (probably min 2.2). most of the developers I know are a bit fed up by the fact that the emulator suffers from a “few” cons. like what?
- You can’t really use an emulator with a mouse and get a real feel the same way you’ll do using your fingers and the various gestures you’ll use on an actual phone – get a real phone
- if you’re developing an app which includes picture taking/video recording or sound even, then you’ll find yourself guessing – get a real phone
- Locations – yes, if you’re developing an application which includes locations and maps, you’ll probably want to test it out. yes, the DDMS offers such emulation of Geolocations but it’s not so fun to use – get a real phone
- pretty much any sensor that you can’t think about needs a real phone in order to develop it the proper way – get a real phone
ok, we got it, you need to get a phone.
which phone? so many resolutions and API versions? should I get 3-5 different devices?
probably no, if you’re just starting to learn how to develop android apps, you’ll probably be using a basic device which doesn’t have to include massive processing power.
My recommendation is to get a Samsung galaxy S, as much as I am a HTC guy to the bone, the Galaxy S has shown great performance over the years and has been my favorite device to debug on, as someone I know used to say – “if it works on Galaxy S – it will work everywhere”
