Test device suggestions

[Ramses]

I've been testing my app on the iphone 4 and it works great though there is some slight slow down at certain spots. I would like to at least test it on one other device before submitting to apple. The question is, which one to get. I would really like to purchase an ipad 2 (mainly since I would use it for more than a testing device), but I'm thinking I should get an older device instead. I'm also going to limit all my app development to arm7. So that limits it to ipad 1 and 2, iphone 3gs, and ipod touch 3 and 4.

Which one of these do you think would be more important to have for extra testing in addition to the iphone 4? Is the app market pretty big with the Touch? I assume it's the lowest of the three. Perhaps a 3gs? I should probably get the one that has the most problems with running apps made with MMF or at least the weakest one. Just curious what everyone else's thoughts are.

[Keith]

Ramses, I settled on an iPhone 3GS because it has 256MB of RAM, a non-retina display, and the older processor/GPU. It does a good job of mimicking the low-end performing 2nd gen iPod touch and first gen iPad (first batches only had 256MB of RAM). Having this around for testing has really made my apps perform better on low-end devices. If you can get one at a reasonable price I recommend it.

Personally, I have a iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPad 2. When the new devices (iPhone 4S and iPhone 5) come out in the next couple of weeks I will have those devices as well.

[Ramses]

Thanks for the input! Actually, after looking into it some more, I wonder if the ipod touch 3 would be a better buy. It has the same RAM, GPU and CPU as the iphone 3GS and it's quite a bit cheaper on ebay.

Regarding the 3GS, obviously I would get an unlocked version without a contract. Is there anything special you need to do or is it the same as registering an activated iphone?

[Keith]

Not sure if you can use a jailbroken phone for dev.

As for iPod touch make sure you get the non-retina display version or you are getting more RAM and CPU/GPU than the low-end. Of course this is only if you want to have a low-end device.

[colej_uk]

A 3GS is an ideal choice. It was announced yesterday that instead of being discontinued as per usual with 3-gen old models, they are being released for free on contract (at least in America). So they're going to be huge with people who can't afford the latest models, students etc.

Edit: I've been testing on the equivalent 3GS ipod touch, and although I suspect performance is very similar, I've started wondering how much the extra telephony stuff the iphone version has to run affects performance? Does anyone know?