How to test on Android with a limited budget - Part 1

When we started working on Android apps three years ago, we just had two Android devices in office. The goal was to ensure that we designed and tested the apps on those two devices, and if it worked there, it was good enough to be sent to a client. Unfortunately, the strategy never worked. It was like trying to get your website to work well on IE5 on the Mac, there was always somebody who complained that it didn't work properly.

We've spent the last three years trying to group things in a way that we can cover as much of the market as possible, without going nuts. In terms of screen sizes, we decided to bring our resolution coverage to almost about 90% of the market share. Since the numbers always keep changing, we try to get together every once in a while and figure out which resolutions do we need to test on to achieve our coveted 90% coverage. And this time, we thought it would be a good idea to share our findings with the community as well.

The Numbers

There are a total of three different zones that we need to cover to get to 90. The first are the highly used ones. There are 2 resolutions which cover about 50% of the market. Then there are significantly used ones, about 6 different resolutions, and they cover another 40% of the market. The list below is broken into these two categories, and then it lists phones which have this resolution.

Here is a full list

50% Market Share in Screen Resolution

480x800 - [Samsung Galaxy Grand I9082](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_grand_i9082-5163.php) - [Samsung Galaxy Win I8550](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_win_i8550-5392.php) - [Samsung Galaxy Core I8260](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_core_i8260-5419.php) - [Samsung Galaxy S II 4G I9100M](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_ii_4g_i9100m-4059.php) - [HTC Desire X](http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_desire_x-4951.php) - [HTC One V](http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_v-4575.php)

720x1280 - [Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_ii_n7100-4854.php) - [Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-4238.php) - [HTC One X](http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB413691&cv=820#fbid=1U0uFxttVag) - [HTC One X+](http://www.landofdroid.com/2012/htc-one-x-htc-pm63100-benchmarked-again/)

40% Market Share in Screen Resolution

240x320 - [Samsung Galaxy Y S5360](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_y_s5360-4117.php) - [Samsung Galaxy Y Duos S6102](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_y_duos_s6102-4385.php)

320x480 - [Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830I](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_ace_s5830i-4664.php) - [Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_ace_plus_s7500-4397.php) - [Sony Xperia tipo](http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_tipo-4718.php)

540x960 - [Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 I9150](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_mega_5_8_i9150-5396.php) - [Samsung I9190 Galaxy S4 mini](http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9190_galaxy_s4_mini-5375.php)

720x1184 - [Motorola Moto G](http://www.anandtech.com/show/7586/motorola-moto-g-review/7)

768x1184 - [LG Nexus 4 E960](http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_nexus_4_e960-5048.php)

1080x1920 - [LG Nexus 5](http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_nexus_5-5705.php)

10% Market Share in Screen Resolution

All the other possible resolutions

References