Cheapest phone for testing

[Muhammad Imad Qureshi]

What is cheapest phone for testing. I want to buy only one phone. I want unlocked phone with no plans. I love nexus one but its too expensive. When is google coming with nexus two?

[Ulf Dittmer]

Unlocked state-of-the-art phones with no plan will generally set you back several hundred dollars; I don't expect that to change any time soon.

I think it's doubtful that Google will come out with another phone any time soon; they've already stopped selling the Nexus One directly, seeing that it very quickly ceased to be state of the art.

Why don't get a phone with a plan to you would use as your own primary phone? That should be much cheaper.

[Tim Holloway]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:
Why don't get a phone with a plan to you would use as your own primary phone? That should be much cheaper.

I wouldn't go that far. Locally, Radio Shack was "selling" the HTC Hero for $79. However if it was wired to Sprint, that would mandate a monthly data plan that would suck your wallet to the tune of $100/month until at least such time as it became cheaper to cancel the account than to keep paying for it. Since the phone itself lists for about $500, if you could buy it stand-alone, any plan over 6 months wouldn't really be cheaper.

On the other hand, it's a nice phone, and Sprint's network locally has been pretty good. Even the customer service isn't as horrible as many of their competitors around here, though there's 1 or 2 rated higher.

[Ulf Dittmer]

I agree; "use as your own primary phone" was meant to imply that it would replace some other phone (and its plan) that was currently in use. That way the monthly costs wouldn't be fully on top of whatever was being payed now.

[Muhammad Imad Qureshi]

Thanks guys. I am looking at craiglist . I am stuck with at&t/iphone for another year so can't get a new plan. But thanks for your help. Should I care about the version of android? Would I be able to update to new version of android on any phone I get.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Should I care about the version of android?

As a user, definitely. It's supposed to be a LOT faster, and has some neat features. As a developer, it depends on your audience - while probably all devices that run 2.0/2.1 will be able to be upgraded to 2.2, right now, more than 50% of all Android users are using 1.5 and 1.6, and their devices won't run 2.x. Would those be your users, or your potential audience? If so, you need to think hard about not supporting them.

Would I be able to update to new version of android on any phone I get.

Depends on the phone. If you get one that can run 2.0 or 2.1 (Droid, Nexus One, and newer models), then it's almost certain you'll be able to upgrade to 2.2. But some of the earlier models (like the T-Mobile G1) won't run 2.x due to memory constraints. Check the manufacturer's web site for details.

[Monu Tripathi]

As a user, definitely. It's supposed to be a LOT faster, and has some neat features. As a developer, it depends on your audience - while probably all devices that run 2.0/2.1 will be able to be upgraded to 2.2, right now, more than 50% of all Android users are using 1.5 and 1.6, and their devices won't run 2.x. Would those be your users, or your potential audience? If so, you need to think hard about not supporting them.

Just wanted to add that there is a device-dashboard page on the developer site that details the distribution of audience against different versions of Android ("relative number of active devices running a given version of the Android platform").

[Tim Holloway]

For the most part, I haven't actually found Android 1.x to be all that slow. Most of the delays seem to be network-related, and the most blatantly-offensive ones are where I've flipped the phone to get the wider landscape keyboard and flipped back, forgetting that that doing that restarts both the action and the download.

Personally, I would appreciate Android 1.x support, at least until HTC gets the long-promised 2.x upgrade for my Hero phone.

Then again, I'd appreciate Goggle getting their act together and adding in OBEX and Bluetooth non-audio network and device support.

Don't want much, do I?