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Android Test Results Blog
5th April 2019
Our Four Competitors..

1. An Acer something-or-other, cheaptastic, slow and horrible little thing.
2. Archos Gamepad 2
3. GPDxd
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 A - 2018 model

-=-=-

Test One

Shoebox Site

Go to Shoebox page, see how it runs.

1. Broken - The Acer device tried to load the Shoebox, but then it gave up, crashed the browser, and headed back to the homescreen.

2. Slowly - Although the Archos Gamepad2 managed to run the site, it did so at around about 3fps. Obviously, this is not ideal!

3. Broken - The GPD managed to navigate to the page, but it didn't then manage to run it, leaving a solid blank webpage. I assume this is a javascript error. I'll have to try and figure out how to get debug messages from it. It's probably a memory issue or something.

4. Runs perfectly fine.

Test Two

Installing a "Shoebox.apk"

Oooh, this is new!!
Making use of Apache Cordova and a LOT of tweaking to get it going, I was able to export an 8Mb .apk featuring the entirety of Shoebox, to the point where you can switch off the wifi/mobile data, and continue to play Shoebox titles.

Hurray!!
But how well does it work!?

1. Broken - The ASUS device ran so flamin' slowly that it took about 10 minutes just to navigate through the File Explorer to run the .apk in the first place.
Once clicked, it gave an error about the .apk being corrupt.

2. Broken - The Gamepad 2 was much quicker to access the .apk, but it gave the same "corrupt" error message.

3. Broken - GPDxd didn't fair any better.

I'm going to assume that all three of these failures are due to the three devices being as old as they are. The ASUS device is running Marshmallow, the GPD KitKat, and the Archos Gamepad Jellybean.
The manifest.xml suggests a minimum of KitKat, but also that it uses TargetSDK="29", which is Pie.
So.. Um..

Not really sure what's going on there, if I'm honest, because it "should" have at least installed on all three devices, even if it's not going to run..
I'll certainly have to delve into it a little more, and try to figure out what is and/or isn't happening on the devices.

Meanwhile


4 - Runs perfectly! .. Except..

For some really obscure reason, the .apk version seems to be running at a lower resolution than the normal browser edition.


In the browser..


In the .apk..

Note how the lower version, even though the "screen" is the same resolution, is actually running at about half the resolution.
I'm thinking the browser edition is running "Retina", or something. I'm not really sure what's going on, there.

Also note, however, that in the .apk screenshot, the wifi has been disabled and yet everything's nice and playable.
Mmmmm..

Now to try and get the same results on iOS.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing the same method (using Cordova) or see about writing my own little mini-browser things. .. ... I'll probably be lazy and use Cordova, though, as that was (for the most part) a relatively simple process.

.. OK, back to coding!
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Shoebox , Android
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