Which Android tablets are usable for testing Javascript heavy web applications

Question

I need to develop a client heavy web application that works on Android tablets. It must work with the default browser and maybe as PhoneGap application. So I need a tablet for testing.

Previously I have had really bad experiences with Android browsers. My HTC Desire Z does not show JavaScript exceptions in Android LogCat. If an exception occurs it just dies silently and there is no way to tell what raised the exception.

So what Android tablets are known to show the exceptions? Stack traces would be awesome, but my hopes are not very high.

I know that console.log messages can be read using weinre or jsconsole, but those alone does not help with the exceptions.

In short I just want someone to confirm that you can see messages about uncaught Javascript exeptions of the default browser in device X.

Answer 1

Ok I can now confirm this on two devices. Asus Transformer TF101 (Andoid 3.2.1) and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10" P7500XXKG7 (Android 3.1) does log Javascript expections in adb logcat!

The log entry is following

E/browser ( 1245): Console: Uncaught Error: mn virhe http://jsbin.com/ihirut:23

Great!

But when it comes to being usable for Javascript heavy web apps these both tablets suck a big time! Both seem to have a huge performance regression in HTML5 Canvas drawing performance. My phone, HTC Desire Z, which has a much slower processor and has an older version of webkit in the browser is much faster than these tablets!

It appears that Google or the manufacturers has screwed up with the hardware accecelaration. More information here:

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17458

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1213087

You can workaround this issue by using Phonegap which does not currently enable the hardware accecelaration.