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Mobile Testing Lab

I seem to have unwittingly built up quite a collection of mobile devices, which make for a nice "test lab".

Here's (the newly-responsive) Codestore seen on them all:

IMG_0011

Clockwise from top left there's an iPad (1!), a Nexus 7, a HTC Hero, an iPhone 4, a Galaxy S2 and a Galaxy S3.

Which is my Favourite?

Isn't the youngest child always a parent's favourite? In that case it's a close call between the day old Nexus 7 and the month old S3. They're both amazing. The Nexus slightly more-so as it has Jelly Bean and Google Now on it. When Jelly Bean comes to the S3 then it will be the hands-down winner for me. The S3, for me, is the closest I've ever come to thinking this is the perfect phone. I can't fault it. Not even on size. It doesn't seem big at all to me.

Least favourite is the HTC Hero. Even when I owned it it annoyed me. Now I look back and wonder how on earth I managed with it. I guess my use patterns have changed considerably since then. When I owned the Hero I just used it as a phone. Now I use phones as everything but a phone. My S3 is a constant companion that I'd struggle without.

Out of the others the iPad is now a bit of a white elephant. It's "old" (2 years!!) and has been relegated to use by the kids who mainly use it to play games and watch Max & Ruby on Netflix. The S2 is probably going to end up on eBay unless I decide to keep it as a testing device. The iPhone is Karen's favourite - it's perfect for what she needs. Personally I still don't get the fuss about iPhones. You just can't do much with them. They're so teeny. Like a toy.

Comments

  1. How times have changed - lots of us used to think like this: http://www.codestore.net/store.nsf/unid/BLOG-20080408/

      • avatar
      • Jake Howlett
      • Thu 19 Jul 2012 05:09 AM

      :-)

      Not sure if it's me that's changed or, like you say, the times.

      I think it's simply that phones are now finally good enough to take seriously. When I look back at the N73 and the Sony-Erricson i910 it's almost laughable how bad they were considering it's only 4 years ago.

  2. With the seemingly imminent demise of the Blackberry, my corporate customer is upgrading to iPhones for executive access to approvals (my area of responsibility). They are all quite geeked to get upgraded. They'd probably fall over if they were offered the S3.

    • avatar
    • Ferdy
    • Thu 19 Jul 2012 06:05 PM

    Quite jealous of your lab :)

    Mine is far more limited. I just wanted to share that this service is quite good:

    http://crossbrowsertesting.com/

    It's not free, but it offers a wealth of device (simulators) that you can use to test your designs, both as a screenshot service and by live interacting with it.

    Not getting paid to say, just liking that service :)

      • avatar
      • Jake Howlett
      • Fri 20 Jul 2012 03:21 AM

      If mine makes you green at the gills, check out Clearleft's:

      http://clearleft.com/testlab/

      There's is a great idea. You can go to their office/lab in Brighton, UK and use any of the devices for testing. All the devices are donated by the community.

      Every city should have a mobile testing lab. Maybe I'll start Nottingham's. Not sure Karen would like random strangers trudging through the house to get to my office though.

      Show the rest of this thread

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Written by Jake Howlett on Thu 19 Jul 2012

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CodeStore is all about web development. Concentrating on Lotus Domino, ASP.NET, Flex, SharePoint and all things internet.

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