0

Is it ok if I just use Logcat and DDMS on a virtual device, or do I really need an actual phone too for debugging? I mean, Android just runs on a VM (Dalvik) after all?

I just use dropbox and I install my apks directly from my dev dropbox folder. Does this make any sense?

polyglot
  • 423
  • 1
  • 4
  • 7
  • you will not catch **real** bugs without having real device (or better several target devices). – c69 Apr 06 '12 at 19:55

2 Answers2

2

You can do all the testing you want on a VM and it will probably catch 60-80% of your issues. Unfortunately it will never give you the same results you see on a real device. This happens due to fragmentation and hardware across all Android devices. As it is unreasonable to buy 100+ test phones for most developers your best bet is to build a robust way of handling errors into your apps otherwise you will be dependent on the developer console to pass you errors which is less than ideal. Additional you will not get any error feedback when using 3rd party markets.

ian.shaun.thomas
  • 3,468
  • 25
  • 40
  • Well, then it doesn't make any sense to me to use an actual phone since there are just 100+ different phones with different versions. So far, I never had any issues debugging on my virtual machine and then installing the apk straight from the dropbox folder on my phone. – polyglot Apr 06 '12 at 20:11
  • Just wait till you release to the market. You will get all kinds of random bugs. – ian.shaun.thomas Apr 07 '12 at 19:23
1

I think you'd better test your app on real phone, because there are some errors can't be found on VM

Jake
  • 131
  • 2
  • 5
  • 13