Minimum hardware for Android development?

Question

I have this assignment to run a "hello world" Android app. The problem is the Android app emulator is stuck on the Android loading screen.

I have searched this problem. They said that Android development needs a faster computer to execute apps neatly.

Is there a way to run it on a netbook? For example, editing the RAM settings and/or SD card settings so that it can run faster?

Answer 1

Realistically I think your best bet is to try and find a used android phone. You can get them VERY cheaply on Amazon or at other retailers.

If you really can't you can try to muck around with the emulator, but even when it's at it's best the Emulator is a miserable way to do development. You can barely get it running as it is - imagine what happens if you do figure some hacky way to get it running and you try to do anything substantial. It will be a nightmare.

I would also look into upgrading your computer if you are really going to do dev work. A machine that can't run the emulator is a machine that probably can't do most of what you're going to be needing to do. Have you tried your schools computer lab?

Also - as a commentor has stated this question is likely off topic for stack overflow.

Edit: Per Chris Strattons Comment:

You might try disabling various things in your IDE (I'm assuming you're using eclipse) - for example Syntax checking. I would also recommened ensuring that you don't have a web browser, antivirus or other software running in the background which might eat up your computing power. If you're going to run the emulator I would strongly recommend making it the ONLY thing you run.

You may want to look into building and running the application from the command line to avoid the overhead of running and IDE at all:

Please see:

Building from the command line:

http://developer.android.com/tools/building/building-cmdline.html

Running the emulator from the command line:

How do I launch the Android emulator from the command line?

Additionally - is your netbook running Windows or Linux? Windows boxes tend to have higher overhead than Linux machines, so you might try installing a lightweight Linux distro (mint perhaps) and seeing if that helps.

Answer 2

If the problem is getting the emulator to start or your emulator is just too slow, you should look into HAXM:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/android/articles/intel-hardware-accelerated-execution-manager

Pretty much all of my emulators are running the x86 image with HAXM for acceleration, and my dev machine has 16GB of RAM. Using ARM images for your emulators is just too slow, especially for your netbook.

Yes, if you are serious about Android Dev (or any Dev really) you need to get something better than a netbook, but for now, see if a little hardware acceleration will do in a pinch.