Baseline mobile device for WebGL testing

[Red Spark]

So I want to test some WebGL stuff and look forward to buy a cheap android tablet capable of full WebGL 1.0 specs. My current one is somewhat outdated already (Android 4.4.2) and has Mali 400 in it, so even with the latest Chrome / Firefox it's not able to run WebGL apps.

Any recommendations on what to buy?

• 7 - 8 inches
• $100 - $150 range, $200 max

Cheers and thanks in advance!

EDIT:

Actually it supports WebGL and is capable of running basic apps, but my benchmark is focused on PlayCanvas demos (specifically http://car.playcanvas.com) and it's not capable of running those. 

[chg]

2 hours ago, Red Spark said:

So I want to test some WebGL stuff and look forward to buy a cheap android tablet capable of full WebGL 1.0 specs. My current one is somewhat outdated already (Android 4.4.2) and has Mali 400 in it, so even with the latest Chrome / Firefox it's not able to run WebGL apps.

Do you mean WebGL 2.0 (ie. based on OpenGL ES 3.0) ? Mali 400 is fully capable of doing everything in WebGL 1.0 (it won't do some of the extensions, but they are by nature not part of the spec). 

If you want a device capable of running almost anything you probably want to stick with a computer with a semi-ok (or better) GPU.

If you want a device to test that your app/game preforms ok, maybe you want something with the minimum specs you expect your end users might have. Your 2012(?) model tablet mightn't be able to run insane fragment (aka "pixel") shaders from shadertoy.com fullscreen, but then that gives you a good warning to reevaluate if you need that effect, or if you can do it cheaper (less instructions, more vectorised, or better optimised for mobile hardware eg. compute UV coords used for sampling in the vertex buffer so that sampling involves dependant texture reads).

So I think the real question is, what do you want/expect the minimum specs of your end-user audience to be?

[Red Spark]

4 hours ago, chg said:

So I think the real question is, what do you want/expect the minimum specs of your end-user audience to be?

Well, turns out my current device isn't capable of displaying PlayCanvas demos - the thing is, they don't crash or anything, they just show empty background, or sometimes a few floating triangles. You're probably right that it's the issue with shader complexity like uniform limits and some exotic extensions, since PlayCanvas showcases PBR materials and depth buffer manupulations.

So I want to find a baseline device fully capable of displaying PlayCanvas demos with working PBR and stuff. See http://car.playcanvas.com for example

Just to be set for the 2016-2017  

[Daikrys]

If you want something that last for a while i would suggest Nvidia's Shield K1, Xiaomi's miPad or Lenovo's Yoga Tablet 2. All Three are around $200 maybe a bit less but prices differ depending where you live. They are Top-notch for their pricefield and equally if not slightly better then Samsung's Galaxy Tab S.

Look into them and find the best price possible. I think you may find what you seek.

Hope this helps

[totor]

if someone has a (proven or tested) list of device/os/browser webGL capability; that would be awesome because something as simple as https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/sdk/demos/webkit/SpiritBox.html doesn't render the same on the same tablet but with different browser.

[Red Spark]

On 1/20/2016 at 4:34 PM, Daikrys said:

If you want something that last for a while i would suggest Nvidia's Shield K1, Xiaomi's miPad or Lenovo's Yoga Tablet 2. All Three are around $200 maybe a bit less but prices differ depending where you live. They are Top-notch for their pricefield and equally if not slightly better then Samsung's Galaxy Tab S.

Thanks for suggestions, K1 looks really interesting! But it still seems too overpowered for my needs.

I'll check it further though.

[Red Spark]

2 hours ago, totor said:

if someone has a (proven or tested) list of device/os/browser webGL capability; that would be awesome because something as simple as https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/sdk/demos/webkit/SpiritBox.html doesn't render the same on the same tablet but with different browser.

How different exactly? Texture filtering?