I am learning user experience design. And while I am familiar with the iOS, I need to get up to speed on the Android OS. While I can read all about it, there is no substitute for for actually using it.
So I want to get a phone just to play with the OS. I won’t be needing to sign up for any phone plan. I also don’t have a lot of money to burn (I’m between jobs so affordability is a factor).
It seems like the number of options out there is enormous. So enormous, I don’t know what things I should look for or avoid, based on my circumstances.
New, or used? Obviously, you can save money buying used, but then you’ll be learning on an older version, which probably isn’t ideal for your purpose.
Eh, just plunk down $179 and get yourself a Moto G, but make sure it’s the “second generation” model, which is basically the same but with a slightly larger screen at the same price. Best new Android phone you can possibly buy at that price. The only thing that it doesn’t have that I would usually recommend is LTE capability, but since you aren’t even going to have a phone plan on it, it doesn’t matter. The other thing that’s good about it for your purposes is that it is pretty much plain vanilla Android, without any extra, proprietary manufacturer “skins” (UI), so you’ll get the pure Android experience.
Buy a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in a couple of weeks when the Note 4 starts to ship. The prices will nose dive to about $125 about then and you will have a phone with wifi capability and a fairly up to date version of Android.
I still say that, for your particular purpose, you’ll want something running plain vanilla Android KitKat, natively. You can find older, used phones that you could upgrade to KitKat, but with Android L on the near horizon, you’ll want something that you’ll eventually be able to upgrade to that. And the Moto G comes with the promise of a future upgrade, probably to Android L.
Since the second generation Moto G came out with the bigger screen, I imagine there are a bunch of people that want to sell their smaller Moto G to get the new, bigger one. So, if you want to save some money, you should be readily able to find some used first generation models up for sale. The benefit to the smaller screen is increased battery life, since both models have the same sized battery, and the larger screen uses more juice. But personally, the money you’re likely to save buying used isn’t worth the lack of warranty and chance of getting a malfunctioning phone.
But if you need to save money and want other options to look at, then I’d look for a used Nexus 4. (I’d elaborate more, but I gotta run.)
I tried the emulator when I first started using Eclipse - not only does it run your CPU to the point of heating up (and, in fact, my previous computer got into a habit of shutting down because of CPU overheating because of it), but it’s incredibly slow compared to a separate device.
You can get a new Android Galaxy 3 with Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) for about $140.
This is no help on the affordability concern, but since you don’t need the phone function you might try to get a tablet. Dell has a nice Venue 7 inch tablet running Android KitKat for $160. The Google Nexus 7 is nice too but about $230. I have the Nexus and it runs the same apps as my android phone. And at least you would have a tablet instead of a second phone you don’t really need.
There is no guarantee that any given phone will be upgraded to later versions of Android OS. So if you want Android 4.x, but a phone that has that on it already.
I’d recommend searching eBay for used “excellent” condition phones. You should be able to get one for ~$125 or less.
Search around for a Nexus 4. The 5 has been out for a while and you should be able to pick one up for cheap (and the Nexus line is one of the most affordable in general). You will be able to upgrade to the latest version and keep it updated.
These also have the advantage of being easy to root and tinker with, should you ever actually get into Android development. And they don’t have the messy OEM layers, just the vanilla Google stuff.
If you want cheap and the emulator is too slow, BlueStacks runs Android apps pretty quickly (but doesn’t have the whole OS, like the launcher, settings menus, etc.):
And Androidx86 might let you run Android natively on your computer:
TL;DR: Often times, older phones WILL have problems upgrading to newer versions. It will be difficult to impossible. Research “(phone model) Android KitKat” to see what the situation is on a per-model basis.
To answer this, it’s a MESS and what they refer to as the “Android fragmentation problem”. Basically, Google designs the base OS, but then every manufacturer adds their own special OEM layer on top of it. And most of them are terrible about updating the phones after the first few months. The Android hacker community will sometimes release third-party updates based on Google’s newer versions (see Cyanogenmod, etc.) but this isn’t always reliable depending on phone model.
If you need to run the latest Android version (what is it, 4.4.4 right now?) you have to research the individual phone beforehand. Google’s own Nexus line has the best chance of staying up to date, both because they’re intended as “developer” phones and because they have wide community support, meaning people make updated ROMs for them even after Google stops releasing official patches for them.
Also, the 2012 model of the Nexus 7 (made by Asus) is only $150 new, from $75 used:
It is a tablet and not a phone, but all that means is that it has no cellular modem for making phone calls (WiFi only) and it’s got a bigger/different resolution screen. It has pretty much every other feature a phone would have, and it’s got the same vanilla Android interface straight from Google. Updatable to Android 4.4 now.
In general, Android tablets tend to be cheaper than the phones, probably because of carrier pressure or maybe because they don’t have to be miniaturized as much. I doubt the cellular modems themselves are that expensive.
I second (or third, or fourth) the Nexus 4. You should be able to get one for next to nothing. The advantage of the Nexus line is, of course, it is the closest you can get to vanilla Android, which is what you want if you feel you need an actual device to learn the OS.
I would definitely recommend a Nexus phone. These phones, purchases directly from Google new, or used from individuals and eBay, etc. contain a ‘pure’ Android. No carrier junk has been added to them. In addition, Google immediately updates Nexus phones to the latest release of the OS (assuming that the hardware is capable) without waiting for the carriers to get around to it eventually (the cause of the multiple older Android versions in existence). Check around and I am sure that you can get one for a reasonable price.