[V-2]

"I used to think the iOS simulator was painful, now I realise it's pretty awesome. Skip the Android simulator all together and deploy to a real device, or be prepared to spend a lot of time waiting."

With its "native" emulator, yes, but there are better alternatives like Genymotion. Giving up on them is not good development advice.

[stefan_kendall3]

The android emulators not only are bitterly slow to launch and use, but they do not reflect actual device performance, unlike the iOS simulator.

This makes automated testing impossible on the simulator, whereas in iOS I can run my full test suite (400-something tests) in the simulator in a couple seconds.

[LordIllidan]

I find the simulator a bit deceptively fast, compared to a low spec iPhone (e.g. iPhone 4).

Also, there's the case sensitivity - iPhone Simulator is not case sensitive (maybe depends on your filesystem settings), while the device is case sensitive. This can be really annoying the first time round.

[baldfat]

That is the reason why there are Nexus phones.

[philtar]

Nexus phones are for the development of AOSP, not apps.

[rooster8]

Check out Genymotion.

[V-2]

I did, that's why I wrote "there are better alternatives like Genymotion"; I do use it.

It's not a coindidence that it is recommended by very talented developers such as C. Mottier: http://cyrilmottier.com/2013/06/27/a-productive-android-deve...