@sodiumcyclops: Development as in general application development, development as in to test apps on, or something else? If it's the 1st response, I'd say none, because if you're going to be writing applications I don't see how you're going to be comfortable without a physical keyboard.
@sodiumcyclops: As Fish Face said, don't use a tablet for writing software, that would be torturing yourself. On the other hand, if you want it for testing software that you're developing, you should look for something as cheap as you can get. Why pay for the fancy stuff if it's just being used as a workhorse? Another plus is that if you can optimize your software for a slower tablet, you'll know that most users will still get a good experience.
@Fish_Face_McGee: I don't mean vanilla releases but most of the lower end machines don't have (or can't run) the newer releases of Android. I think I would rather have something to test on that can run any if not all of the Android releases so far.
@sodiumcyclops: The Nook Tablet is a TI OMAP4430. That means dual 1GHz A9, PowerVR SGX540 (300MHz edition), and 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM. That's not the cutting edge of specs (we're talking Motorola Droid 3/RAZR area) but is still a high end current Android. As long as it roots and you can get to all 16GB of storage and put CM7 (CM9 soon for ICS testing) on there* then it'll be an ideal machine to use as a platform to test your code on. You can also test your code on the Android Virtual Devices that you run on your development PC, which means you don't have to go out and buy every single device you plan to release your code to to test compatibility.
Lower end machines that can't handle ICS are the sub-1GHz single-core stuff with 256MB RAM and much weaker GPUs.
* I have no idea how far along that ROM stuff is for the Nook Tablet.
Hey there,
I'm wondering if someone can recommend a good tablet for development purposes.
The only things it must have is Wifi, a screen bigger than 7" and must be priced around $700 NZD
Can anyone help?
@sodiumcyclops: Development as in general application development, development as in to test apps on, or something else? If it's the 1st response, I'd say none, because if you're going to be writing applications I don't see how you're going to be comfortable without a physical keyboard.
@sodiumcyclops: As Fish Face said, don't use a tablet for writing software, that would be torturing yourself. On the other hand, if you want it for testing software that you're developing, you should look for something as cheap as you can get. Why pay for the fancy stuff if it's just being used as a workhorse? Another plus is that if you can optimize your software for a slower tablet, you'll know that most users will still get a good experience.
A rooted Nook Tablet probably wouldn't be a bad choice--it's way below your budget, although the screen is right at your cutoff at 7".
Sorry, I forgot to mention that it would be better suited as a test bench and that I wouldn't be developing directly on the machine :)
@CROM I thought of going for the cheaper options but would that not limit the OS (thinking android issues here) to only the base releases?
@sodiumcyclops: Base releases? As opposed to what, OEM skins? All you really need is a device that you can reasonably throw Cyanogenmod on.
@Fish_Face_McGee: I don't mean vanilla releases but most of the lower end machines don't have (or can't run) the newer releases of Android. I think I would rather have something to test on that can run any if not all of the Android releases so far.
@sodiumcyclops: The Nook Tablet is a TI OMAP4430. That means dual 1GHz A9, PowerVR SGX540 (300MHz edition), and 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM. That's not the cutting edge of specs (we're talking Motorola Droid 3/RAZR area) but is still a high end current Android. As long as it roots and you can get to all 16GB of storage and put CM7 (CM9 soon for ICS testing) on there* then it'll be an ideal machine to use as a platform to test your code on. You can also test your code on the Android Virtual Devices that you run on your development PC, which means you don't have to go out and buy every single device you plan to release your code to to test compatibility.
Lower end machines that can't handle ICS are the sub-1GHz single-core stuff with 256MB RAM and much weaker GPUs.
* I have no idea how far along that ROM stuff is for the Nook Tablet.