what well working Android device to buy??

Tim Legler

Hi there!
I purchased the dronelink app a few days ago.

I purchased an Android device because the SDK doesn' support IOS.

I bought a Xiaomi11 lite 5-g and it keeps crashing after a few seconds of waypoint mission.

It would be very helpful to have a list with devices that do not work/probably work in the future/work very well!

 

I now bought a device that can be send back for about 14 days. In case dronelink will never support my Xiaomi device I can't neither send it back nor use it and thatfor have an expensive brick of rubbish that I will never use in my life.

BR,
Tim

 

PS. ther are a few devices that will probably never work and that are already mentioned. How do you know that these devices will not work?

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Comments

38 comments

  • Comment author
    JOHN FRANCIS

    I might have the same problem(Moto g Pure), my password seems to be accepted, the Mission planner begins for a few seconds, then it asks for my password again and crashes(?)

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  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert
    • Edited

    There are so many manufactures of devices which uses Android OS that it’s impossible for DL to buy and test each one. Literally a ton of them out there. Best thing to do is what your asking about which devices will work without issues. I’m attaching a list which DL gave awhile ago and is probably not up to date. You can add the devices from the DL help section. 

    Dronelink Low Performance Device List

    Android OS Devices

    RM500 (DJI Smart Controller)

    SM-G930V

    SM-G930F

    SM-G935F

    SM-G935V

    SM-G925F

    SM-G950F

    SM-A530F

    SM-A5FN

    SM-A205G

    SM-A730F

    SM-A750G

    SM-J737VVP

    SM-G532M

    SM-S205DL

    SM-A307G

    SM-G960F

    SM-J600G

    SM-A217M

    SM-G960U

    SM-G930W8

    SM-A505G

    SM-J410G

    SM-A405FN

    SM-A505G

    SM-A505F

    SM-T820

    SM-T290

    SM-T295

    ReninNote 6 Pro

    Remi Note 7

    Remi Note 9 Pro

    Lenovo A6020a46

    Lenovo TB-8505F

    G8151

    LDN-L21

    XT1650

    M2003J15SC

    AGS-W09

    LG-H870

    ZTE B2017G

    ZTE BLADE A530

    HTC 10

    SHIFT6m

    Mi A1

    Mi A2

    Vivo 1904

    ZS600B

    LG-873

    MRD-LX3

    ONEPLUS A6003

    VS995

    Moto g (8) power lite

     

    Apple IOS Devices

    iPad Air

    iPad Air 2

    iPad 2

    iPad 3

    iPad 4

    iPad 5

    iPad 6

    iPad 7

    iPad Mini

    iPad Mini 2

    iPad Mini 3

    iPad Mini 4

    iPad Pro

    iPad Pro 2

    iPhone 5S

    iPhone 6

    iPhone 6 Plus

    iPhone 6S

    iPhone 6S Plus

    iPhone 7

    iPhone 7 Plus

    iPhone 8

    iPhone 8 Plus

    iPhone SE

    iPhone X

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    I run Dronelink on:

    • The phone part of an old LG V50
    • Samsung Galaxy Fold Z2
    • Samsung Galaxy Tab 7FE 5G (this is my default flying device)
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  • Comment author
    Tim Legler

    Hello and thank you for your answers!

    I need to concretize my error description a bit, although I wasn't primarily concerned with the specific error, but rather that I have little interest to buy and test half a dozen Android phones.
    Since I'm otherwise an Apple user, I'd like to spend as much as necessary but also as little as possible on a well-cooperating Dronelink phone.
    With my Xiaomi phone, the waypoint missions created on the PC start normally- only the app crashes after a short time (again and again). 

    I would like to suggest an editable Excel list online - which at best would be provided by the developer himself - in which interested users can enter the used Dronelink beta version, the used Android device and its software version and of course the usability. This would help all users and the developer. Maybe he already has such a table for error analysis in use...
     

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    I would think you could pick up second hand versions of the first 2 devices in my previous post for a reasonable cost, the LG V50 is on Android 12, and the other 2 are on 13

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/16522882253715

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  • Comment author
    Tim Legler

    Hi Jim,

    the confetti moves without any stuttering- in that respect it should work fine.

    Is it really that difficult to define the minimum hardware needed?

    Still like the idea of an excel sheet that can be filled bythe community..

     

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    Is it really that difficult to define the minimum hardware needed?

    Unfortunately yes because it isn’t just about the hardware but it also depends on the manufacturer and version of Android. For example, people have issues with the Samsung S22 ultra, which is ultra modern hardware.

    Still like the idea of an excel sheet that can be filled bythe community..

    If you want to start a shared google sheet, feel free to post it here and ask people to fill it out if you like.

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  • Comment author
    Tim Legler

    what Informations would be interesting for the developer?

    Brand - Model - RAM - Android version - Dronelink version - stable/crashes sometimes/crashes every flight/ keeps crashing all the time -   

    Is there a section that you (as the developer) identify as the most often crashing part of the app? I am only using waypoints as that is the main feature I buy a drone for.

    I want to create a sheet that from the beginning asks for the important informations, because your beta tester will not fill out that sheet sveral times...

    BR and good night,

    Tim

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Of the 3 devices I listed earlier, I don't think I've had Dronelink crash on any of them, I use waypoints, mapping, on the fly functions etc

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  • Comment author
    Tim Legler

    a little update: the app keeps crashing a few seconds after starting a waypoint mission or a map mission. exremly annoying!

    At the moment i can only strongly advise against buying a Xiaomi 11 lite 5G for Dronelink....

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    To be clear, if you are using Dronelink DJI (MSDKv5 build for Mini 3 / Mini 3 Pro), the crashing is likely not due to this particular device but rather an underlying issue in the MSDK:

    https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/16409496589331/comments/16410305783571

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  • Comment author
    Scott Hudson

    To clarify, is the Dronelink Low Performance Device List above a list of devices that the DL app is hard-coded to report as being low performance devices? If so, this suggests that information exists on which devices are NOT low performance devices.

    Or does the app search for specific hardware components on startup, before reporting "Low Performance Device"?

    From the Low Performance Device warning,
    "...Please consider upgrading to a higher performance device..."

    How are we supposed to know which tablets and phones are higher performance devices? 

    I bought an SM-T295 a few days ago based on the list at https://www.phantomhelp.com/tips/best-tabletsphones-for-dji-go.18. 

    After several hours hunting, I found buried in this forum page, info that my new tablet is a low performance device! Hopefully it can be on-sold for not too much of a hit....Grrr  






     

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  • Comment author
    Scott Hudson

    Surely Dronelink can provide a short list of devices they are 100%-confident that the app will run on, and that aren't low performance devices.

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  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Looks like that device was released about 4 years ago. Check the help article about system requirements and device selection. There are way too many manufactures which use Android OS so it’s difficult to know which ones may work or not but in general if released with the last year or so it should be ok. Just stay away from any of the devices listed at bottom of the second help article.  

    https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025829933-What-are-the-system-requirements-Supported-drones-and-devices-

    https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/15304402363411-Mini-3-Mini-3-Pro-Support-Overview

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  • Comment author
    Scott Hudson

    Trying to narrow this down, which android devices does Dronelink test their app with?

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff
    • RC Plus
    • RC Pro Enterprise
    • RC Pro
    • Smart Controller (bad performance)
    • Pixel 6
    • Pixel 4a
    • Tab 6S
    • Tab S5e
    • SM-X200
    • OnePlus Nord N200
    • S21
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  • Comment author
    Ken Kroeker
    • Edited

    Of those devices Jim, are any of them on the edge? Which would you expect can live with Dronelink 2 years on?

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    The all work, but the Pixel 4a and Tab S5e are getting a bit older and the UI is definitely not very snappy.

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  • Comment author
    Tim Legler

    well over a month ago I started asking here what Android device to buy- now I have a Xiaomi 11 lite 5 and the app crashes always after a few seconds 🤮.
    Although I appreciate the energy Jim invests in the application, I think he should not only mention a few devices that do not work at all, but host a devices list…
    I downgraded my device yesterday and will do some testing if that helped or not.

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    Maybe we should crowd-source this - here is a start. Anyone is welcome to fill in their device and experience with it. Open to adding other columns or information that you think might be relevant.

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Well I mentioned 3 devices that I use with no problem:

    LG V50
    Galaxy fold Z2 (just retiring this due to main screen has packed up, I'll be replacing with a Z4)
    Galaxy tab 7 fe (my default device)

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  • Comment author
    Jim McAndrew Dronelink Staff

    Want to add them to the Google Sheet?

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Will do Jim McAndrew👍

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  • Comment author
    Barry Houldsworth Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Great idea.  I'd suggest adding the non-functional ones to that too so that there is one place for people to go and look.

    I also added a column to show when this was last tested, otherwise I can see a situation in the future where someone saw a comment saying something was working well and that comment was made 2 years ago and now it's terrible.

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  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    I,m getting new phone today (Z fold 4) and hopefully my mini2 should be back soon as well, so once I've got them both I'll test the Z fold 4, I've added a column for drone used, which should hopefully give folk an idea of which SDK (4 or 5) was used

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  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert
    • Edited

    I looked over it yesterday and thought the same thing Barry. Date last used and the model drone. 👍🏼 Also it’s probably by accident but you have IOS version 13 in there. Probably automatically added that from above Android version somehow. No biggie but IOS Should be 16.**** something. 

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  • Comment author
    Barry Houldsworth Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Mike - you're correct - my bad, I don't know where I got that number from, probably copied it from another field.  It is 16.5.1 (although I have an update pending)

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  • Comment author
    Tim Legler

    thnx a lot Jim for the Google sheet! I wanted to add my setup, but due to my restricted language cappabilities I need to ask for the exact meaning of "functional"?

    I f.e. was able to install the beta and start it- it runs fine and the the cpu test with the confetti runs flawlessly. Unfortunaly the app starts crashing within seconds when I try to run a mission. So what would be the correct answer?

    Just one more comment- it could make sense to dd the beta version that what used to the sheet. I will add my drone-device-combination twice when I have more informations on the stability after android device downgrade...

     

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  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert
    • Edited

    Just my thoughts but I’d wait. Since it’s still Beta and with all the known app crashes and no live video feed may be due to the DJI software and it won’t really give an accurate assessment of the device. Once they fix the underlying problem and the app is stable and you can fly many missions then I’d list how the device works. Otherwise devices listed which are not working now may work after they correct the issues. Something to consider. 

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