a cheap android device for testing monkey app ?
Community Forums/Monkey Talk/a cheap android device for testing monkey app ?
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| All, I would like to make a small app on an Android, and I have a low budget. The app should save/load data on/from the Android, and later sync to a web site via HTTP Get or Post. Could you please suggest me an affordable Android device that works and is easy to install and test an app onto it ? Alternatively, are there good Android emulator for Windows or Linux ? Thanks in advance, Sergio. |
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| The Android SDK (necessary for Monkey to compile for Android) already comes with an Android virtual machine, which can create virtual android devices on your own computer. To be honest, every single one of the low-cost Android devices I've seen blows, since they tend to cut corners that drastically impact their usability (like using resistive touchscreen instead of capacitive, using to little RAM, etc) The Archos 70 is about as 'low budget' as I'd go myself (~$269), you're just going to regret the cheap ones. If you look around you'll find a ton of reviews absolutely slaughtering the $200 Chinese clones, although some of them apparently make a half-way decent cutting board or door stop. Kinda pricy for that, though. |
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| I bought an Entourage Edge. However they are not producing them any more so you have to rely on the community to get Frodo 2.2 for it. Also doubles as an excellent ereader. Woot had them for $129 the last time they were on sale. |
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| I have, and recommend an LG Optimus One. They aren't the cheapest (or the most expensive) but they're often billed as the best entry-level Android phone. They run Froyo as standard but are upgradable to Gingerbread which has just started to roll out in eastern European countries as a testbed. The only downside is the battery life sucks. I need to charge mine every day (though I play snooker on it a lot). |
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| I've just ordered a Simvalley S-40 for 99 Euro. It's just for development, so I decided to buy a low end mobile. Android 2.2 - 480x320 - 420 Mhz - DualSIM - no UMTS If my apps work ok on this one, they will run well on better ones. |
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| Having to recharge every day is pretty much a given on any Android device with moderate use, from what I've seen. |
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| All, thanks for the infos. I'm interested to the Simvalley that Volker suggested; I've found the Simvalley SP-40 and not the S-40, I suppose is a typo, right Volker ? Basically I need an Android o.s. and there runs the version google Android 2.2; is it ok ? I want to use http get and post from within it, with the good mnet library; what do I need on the device ? I guess I should first enable my SIM card to go on internet - that is, I should change/extend the contract with the phone provider - right ? Once made, is the Android phone ready to go, or do I need other things ? Basically, how does a smartphone go to internet ? Using the sim card, or WLAN points ? Cheers, Sergio. Last edited 2011 |
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| The Orange San Fransisco is also a good one costs about £115 with £10 topup you get 480 x 800 pixels, 3.5 inches 600 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset 150 MB storage, 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM |
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| how does a smartphone go to the internet? Using the sim card, or WLAN points ? Yes. (Normally it tries wifi first if configured, and falls back to the telephone network if there is no wifi. It's important to make sure that your sim has a data plan associated with it, or the telephone company may end up charging you a metric sh*t-ton (technical term) of money for your data usage over their network. |
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| It's important to make sure that your sim has a data plan associated with it, or the telephone company may end up charging you a metric sh*t-ton (technical term) of money for your data usage over their network. This is true - I knew this when I got my Android phone (PAYG) and changed tariff straight away, but it took about 36 hours to actually change, but in the meantime my phone credit was going down... and down... and down. Just due to background services doing whatever it is they do.I read a few years back (when it was of no consequence to me) that some mobile phone networks charge the equivalent of £200 per GB of data, so its imperative that you get a tariff with data included. Mine has 500MB and I never get anywhere near that because I use wifi most of the time. |
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| The only downside is the battery life sucks. Install a task killer, even when you "exit" an app some apps leaves several services running in the background. I use this one: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller&hl=en This helps a tiny bit... Last edited 2011 |
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| I've got a Galaxy S2, I've doubled my battery life by underclokcing the processor, runnign task killer apps, changing the default launcher to a more effecient one and running the screen at a lower brightness level. |
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| With Android 2.2 or above, the task killers do more harm than good -- the OS it trying to 'protect' you, and automatically keeps relaunching the killed tasks for you in the background... Uses a lot more power to do that over and over than it would to just keep the program running idle in the background, annoying as that may be. |
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| With Android 2.2 or above, the task killers do more harm than good Yeah I seen this heaps of times, but in my experience a task killer still helps... Im running 2.2.1 so I "shouldnt" need one, but I still use one. |
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