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Updated September 2011.

To develop on Android, you need many devices for two reasons:

• Screen Size (from 1280x800 to 320x240)
• Hardware platform: GPUs and CPUs

But if you need one, buy a Nexus S (S or One), because it is an official Google Phone. You will have GingerBread (Android 2.3). And you must know that Debug on NDK with Android is bugged. You can't debug easily multi-thread programs (OpenGL). There is a fix in NDK r6 ( or r5) but its needs a Gingerbread phone. For HoneyComb dev (Tablet), you need a Tegra2 device (or OMAP 44x0).

To check your Android games, i recommend to have one device per GPU family at minimum.

So in September 2011, I recommend to have these phones:

• Galaxy S or Nexus S (for PowerVR 540 and Android 2.3.3)
• Galaxy S2 (for Mali 400)
• HTC Sensation or HTC EVO 3D (Andreno 220 + 960x540) or Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (Andreno 205 + GamePad)

and these tablets:

• Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia, Asus transformer, Galaxy 8.9 or 10.1 (Tegra2 + Honeycomb)
• Archos G9 or Galaxy 7.7 (OMAP 44x0)

But, i check on these devices too:

• HTC Desire HD, Z or S (Andreno 205)
• Nexus One (Andreno 200); I aim framerate > 25fps on this device

Outdated devices:

• Droid (PowerVR 530): GPU is too slow
• A101IT archos (tablet resolution 1024*600) performance is very low
• Spica, Moment, Naos & Taos: OpenGL are so bugged... to be compatible with these devices you should verify each OpenGL command;
• HTC G1, HTC Magic or HTC Hero: if you plan to develop OpenGL ES 1.x, verify on these devices
• Wildfire (small resolutions)

I'm one of developper of Moblox (a featured Android game) and i needed all these phones. If you don't use OpenGL, you can have only one Phone and check with Emulator. For HoneyComb, the emultator is so slow that i recommend a real device.

Ps: i made a collections of OGL 2.0 extensions on this page

ps2: my gpubench can give hints about GPU on Android (results)

Changelog

• September 2011: add tablets, move Droid and A101G8 in outdated devices
• May 2011: move Spica in outdated devices

Updated September 2011.

To develop on Android, you need many devices for two reasons:

• Screen Size (from 1280x800 to 320x240)
• Hardware platform: GPUs and CPUs

But if you need one, buy a Nexus S (S or One), because it is an official Google Phone. You will have GingerBread (Android 2.3). And you must know that Debug on NDK with Android is bugged. You can't debug easily multi-thread programs (OpenGL). There is a fix in NDK r6 ( or r5) but its needs a Gingerbread phone. For HoneyComb dev (Tablet), you need a Tegra2 device (or OMAP 44x0).

To check your Android games, i recommend to have one device per GPU family at minimum.

So in September 2011, I recommend to have these phones:

• Galaxy S or Nexus S (for PowerVR 540 and Android 2.3.3)
• Galaxy S2 (for Mali 400)
• HTC Sensation or HTC EVO 3D (Andreno 220 + 960x540) or Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (Andreno 205 + GamePad)

and these tablets:

• Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia, Asus transformer, Galaxy 8.9 or 10.1 (Tegra2 + Honeycomb)
• Archos G9 or Galaxy 7.7 (OMAP 44x0)

But, i check on these devices too:

• HTC Desire HD, Z or S (Andreno 205)
• Nexus One (Andreno 200); I aim framerate > 25fps on this device

Outdated devices:

• Droid (PowerVR 530): GPU is too slow
• A101IT archos (tablet resolution 1024*600) performance is very low
• Spica, Moment, Naos & Taos: OpenGL are so bugged... to be compatible with these devices you should verify each OpenGL command;
• HTC G1, HTC Magic or HTC Hero: if you plan to develop OpenGL ES 1.x, verify on these devices
• Wildfire (small resolutions)

I'm one of developper of Moblox (a featured Android game) and i needed all these phones. If you don't use OpenGL, you can have only one Phone and check with Emulator. For HoneyComb, the emultator is so slow that i recommend a real device.

Ps: i made a collections of OGL 2.0 extensions on this page

ps2: my gpubench can give hints about GPU on Android (results)

Changelog

• September 2011: add tablets, move Droid and A101G8 in outdated devices
• May 2011: move Spica in outdated devices

Updated May 2011.

To develop on Android, you need many devices. But if you need one, buy a Nexus S (S or One), because it is an official Google Phone. You will have GingerBread (Android 2.3). And you must know that Debug on NDK with Android is bugged. You can't debug easily multi-thread programs (OpenGL). There is a fix in NDK r5 but its needs a Gingerbread phone.

To check your Android games, i recommend to have one device per GPU family at minimum.

So in May 2011, I recommend to have these phones:

• Galaxy S or Nexus S (for PowerVR 540 and Android 2.3.3)
• Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia, Asus transformer, Galaxy 8.9 or 10.1 (Tegra2 + Honeycomb)
• Galaxy S2 (for Mali 400)
• HTC Sensation (Andreno 220), Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, HTC Desire HD, Z or S (Andreno 205)

But, i check on these devices too:

• Nexus One (Andreno 200) or Droid (PowerVR 530): same GPU performance. I aim framerate > 25fps on these devices
• A101IT archos (tablet resolution 1024*600) 20 fps

I have many other devices.. but there are too old or too bugged, so i didn't use them:

• Spica, Moment, Naos & Taos: OpenGL are so bugged... to be compatible with these devices you should verify each OpenGL command;
• HTC G1, HTC Magic or HTC Hero: if you plan to develop OpenGL ES 1.x, verify on these devices
• Wildfire (small resolutions)

I'm one of developper of Moblox (a featured Android game) and i needed all these phones. If you don't use OpenGL, you can have only one Phone.

Ps: i made a collections of OGL 2.0 extensions on this page

ps2: my gpubench can give hints about GPU on Android (results)

Updated September 2011.

To develop on Android, you need many devices for two reasons:

• Screen Size (from 1280x800 to 320x240)
• Hardware platform: GPUs and CPUs

But if you need one, buy a Nexus S (S or One), because it is an official Google Phone. You will have GingerBread (Android 2.3). And you must know that Debug on NDK with Android is bugged. You can't debug easily multi-thread programs (OpenGL). There is a fix in NDK r6 ( or r5) but its needs a Gingerbread phone. For HoneyComb dev (Tablet), you need a Tegra2 device (or OMAP 44x0).

To check your Android games, i recommend to have one device per GPU family at minimum.

So in September 2011, I recommend to have these phones:

• Galaxy S or Nexus S (for PowerVR 540 and Android 2.3.3)
• Galaxy S2 (for Mali 400)
• HTC Sensation or HTC EVO 3D (Andreno 220 + 960x540) or Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (Andreno 205 + GamePad)

and these tablets:

• Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia, Asus transformer, Galaxy 8.9 or 10.1 (Tegra2 + Honeycomb)
• Archos G9 or Galaxy 7.7 (OMAP 44x0)

But, i check on these devices too:

• HTC Desire HD, Z or S (Andreno 205)
• Nexus One (Andreno 200); I aim framerate > 25fps on this device

Outdated devices:

• Droid (PowerVR 530): GPU is too slow
• A101IT archos (tablet resolution 1024*600) performance is very low
• Spica, Moment, Naos & Taos: OpenGL are so bugged... to be compatible with these devices you should verify each OpenGL command;
• HTC G1, HTC Magic or HTC Hero: if you plan to develop OpenGL ES 1.x, verify on these devices
• Wildfire (small resolutions)

I'm one of developper of Moblox (a featured Android game) and i needed all these phones. If you don't use OpenGL, you can have only one Phone and check with Emulator. For HoneyComb, the emultator is so slow that i recommend a real device.

Ps: i made a collections of OGL 2.0 extensions on this page

ps2: my gpubench can give hints about GPU on Android (results)

Changelog

• September 2011: add tablets, move Droid and A101G8 in outdated devices
• May 2011: move Spica in outdated devices

To develop on Android, you need many devices. But if you need one, buy a Nexus (S or One), because it is an official Google Phone. You will have quickly GingerBread (Android 2.3). And you must know that Debug on NDK with Android is bugged. You can't debug easily multi-thread programs (OpenGL). There is a fix in NDK r5 but its needs a Gingerbread phone.

My devices:

• Nexus One or Droid: same GPU performance. I aim framerate > 25fps on these devices
• Nexus S or Samsung GS (Captivate...): very fast OpenGL GPU (three times better as N1)
• Spica, Moment, Naos & Taos: OpenGL are so bugged... to be compatible with these devices you should verify each OpenGL command;
• HTC G1, HTC Magic or HTC Hero: if you plan to develop OpenGL ES 1.x, verify on these devices
• Galaxy Tab or A101IT archos (tablet resolution 1024*600)
• Wildfire (small resolutions)

I'm plan to buy a Tegra2 tablet or phone quickly too.

I'm one of developper of Moblox (a featured Android game) and i needed all these phones. If you don't use OpenGL, you can have only one Phone.

Ps: i made a collections of OGL 2.0 extensions on this page

ps2: my gpubench can give hints about GPU on Android (results)

Updated May 2011.

To develop on Android, you need many devices. But if you need one, buy a Nexus S (S or One), because it is an official Google Phone. You will have GingerBread (Android 2.3). And you must know that Debug on NDK with Android is bugged. You can't debug easily multi-thread programs (OpenGL). There is a fix in NDK r5 but its needs a Gingerbread phone.

To check your Android games, i recommend to have one device per GPU family at minimum.

So in May 2011, I recommend to have these phones:

• Galaxy S or Nexus S (for PowerVR 540 and Android 2.3.3)
• Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia, Asus transformer, Galaxy 8.9 or 10.1 (Tegra2 + Honeycomb)
• Galaxy S2 (for Mali 400)
• HTC Sensation (Andreno 220), Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, HTC Desire HD, Z or S (Andreno 205)

But, i check on these devices too:

• Nexus One (Andreno 200) or Droid (PowerVR 530): same GPU performance. I aim framerate > 25fps on these devices
• A101IT archos (tablet resolution 1024*600) 20 fps

I have many other devices.. but there are too old or too bugged, so i didn't use them:

• Spica, Moment, Naos & Taos: OpenGL are so bugged... to be compatible with these devices you should verify each OpenGL command;
• HTC G1, HTC Magic or HTC Hero: if you plan to develop OpenGL ES 1.x, verify on these devices
• Wildfire (small resolutions)

I'm one of developper of Moblox (a featured Android game) and i needed all these phones. If you don't use OpenGL, you can have only one Phone.

Ps: i made a collections of OGL 2.0 extensions on this page

ps2: my gpubench can give hints about GPU on Android (results)