Android device advice for testing builds?

Hello All,

I am in the process of building some of the games using Lightship ARDK. I need Android device advice for testing builds.

I am looking for these devices: OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 9 Pro, Samsung S20+, Samsung S21.

Can anyone please recommend any top-end Android Phones for testing builds?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, from my personal experience of developing mobile applications (not only AR) for a few years now you should probably consider looking at this from two perpectives:

  1. the device that you, as the devleoper, use for testing
  2. the range of devices that your potential users will probably use

For the first point I can always recommend Google Pixel devices, since you get the purest form of Android, without any skins or additional “featues” on top. For me personally this is the best form of development. In the past I owned multiple devices that I flashed with custom ROMs to be as close to stock Android as possible, then I got the the Pixel 4 before I recently switched to the Pixel 6 - all of them for the same reason.

For the second point I would recommend you look into lists of most popular smartphones from 1-2 years ago, like this one, for example: Most popular smartphnes of 2020
This will probably give you a decent insight of what people out there, who aren’t constantly upgrading their smartphones or don’t want to pay upwards of 1000$ for a device, will likely own. If you have the option to also test your app on more low-end to mid-range devices like these (relatively speaking, to the ones coming out now); do it. We keep older Galaxy S Series and other phones like the OnePlus Nord around the office for said purpose. You’ll gain insigths regarding possible performance optimizations, that you wouldn’t have noticed developing on a high-end device. Just make sure they’re on the ARCore compatibility list: ARCore supported devices

If I had to choose one from your list I would probably go for the OnePlus 8 Pro, since I still don’t like to pay 700€ or more for a smartphone and the specs are otherwise still really nice IMO. But that’s just personal preference and all of the four should work for you purpose :slight_smile: I hope that helped!

1 Like