Rooting tablet and Monkey-X. Best low end tablet?

Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Rooting tablet and Monkey-X. Best low end tablet?

Richard Betson(Posted 2015) [#1]
Hi,

I am about to purchase a lower end quad core Android tablet (my first) and have a few questions on how to install a Monkey-X app onto it.

How do you get an app on to your tablet (best method) locally?
Do I need to "Root" (super user access) the tablet to run an Monkey-X app locally?

This is my first Android device (believe it or not) and I am a total newbie on just what to do and what to expect development wise.

Also I am looking at several lower end tablets in the quad core range. What would you recommend? So far these look good for the price:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1" Tablet 16GB - 1280 x 800 289.00 Walmart (local store)
ASUS MeMO Pad 10 ME102A 16gb - 1280 x 800 - 199.00 Tiger Direct / Best Buy
Acer - Iconia - 10.1" - 32GB - 1920 x 1200 - 249.00 Best Buy

If you have a tablet recommendation please let me know. I'm looking for a baseline development lower end tablet, quad core and a resolution of 1280 x 800 or better.

Thanks.


Soap(Posted 2015) [#2]
You don't need to root as long as it allows 3rd party sources for APKs. Most devices do.

If you want device recommendations would probably better to ask on an Android specific forum. http://www.reddit.com/r/pickanandroidforme


Richard Betson(Posted 2015) [#3]
No root need. Awesome.

I'm looking for something along the lines what is everyone else using or want to get in the way of a tablet. A more general, "hey this tablet rocks for the price and is great for testing apps" kind of response. ;)


Richard Betson(Posted 2015) [#4]
Hi,

I bought an RCA (ya really an RCA) 11.6", quad core (1.4mhz), 1Gb sys-ram, 32Gb storage with keyboard for $170 at Walmart. Has micro HDMI, USB and SD.
http://www.rcatablets.com/tablets/11-maven-pro

It rocks for the price and is at the top of the low end tablets which makes it good to develop for as the average consumers is likely to have this kind of performance ( more then a few worse performance this tablet screams ). It plays games well. I just tried Sonic Dash and it works awesomely, smooth and fast.

I have to say having this 11.6" massive IPS display is sweet and just too cool for gaming. I can even use HDMI out to the TV. Oh my! I can so see tablets as the preferred gaming platform for many out there (say when couple with Bluetooth joysticks) . With the keyboard as an option gaming should feel PC like when using it. It comes with a docking style keyboard and in many ways reminds me of the Asus transformer. The IPS display is real nice and at 1366x768 just the right resolution for my eyes. It comes with Android 5.x lollipop and is real snappy navigating, browsing the net and viewing HD video.

For the price a sweet deal. ;)


Gerry Quinn(Posted 2015) [#5]
The only problem is that 7" is about as big a tablet as you can easily carry around, so I can't see larger ones ever being very popular.

But really, you can test on anything just so long as you bear in mind that your target customers will have devices of a lot of different sizes and form factors.

For simply testing that things work, anything will do really, and you can create a bunch of different virtual devices in the Android Emulator if you want, though it is not much use for playing action games.


Richard Betson(Posted 2015) [#6]
IDK, larger tablets coupled with keyboards seem to be popular and I think an emerging trend in non-phone Android devices is tablets with keyboards and of course the same for Windows. These devices tend to be larger and more productive with the keyboard addition not to mention a track pad. They have the appeal of simplicity, long battery life and lots of media/game power. Really a good device for all around daily use across many modes of operation. So I think its a market to target specifically.

The gaming side of these kinds of larger tablets is a topnotch experience and offers interesting possibilities such as head to head gaming (on one device) that you just cant get on a small display. In general I find the HDMI out and Bluetooth option in tablets to be worth noting . HDMI allows the tablet to become a sort of gaming console exploiting large displays and Bluetooth provides a path for input devices. Perhaps not a trend now but as these tablets seem to be much more capable then in the past a trend to watch for.

In testing the software I design there is no substitute for experiencing how it preforms on the actual targeted device or platform. When developing for Linux or OSX or Android I have used emulators and find them to be less then useful when developing games for example. The only way to know if your game for example is rendering a proper experience is to have it tested on the hardware and OS it was intended for and as the designer experience it for yourself. Sure for simple lightweight projects the emulation route can make sense, but for me I would like to avoid them. I use them when I have to but only when I have to and even then outside of emulating for Linux and Android not very usable for BRL development.


Raph(Posted 2015) [#7]
When I looked into this (a while ago now) the answer was to get the Google one. It has the least extra crap installed on it, and it's the reference platform.