Tablet or Phone - Android

Question

Is there a way to check if the user is using a tablet or a phone? I've got problems with my tilt function and my new tablet (Transformer)

Answer 1

It is getting increasingly harder to draw the line between phone and tablet. For instance (as of Aug 2015) the Samsung Mega 6.3 device pulls resources from the sw600dp folders -- so as far as Android is concerned it is a tablet.

The answer from @Vyshnavi works in all devices we have tested but not for Mega 6.3.

@Helton Isac answer above returns the Mega 6.3 as a phone -- but since the device still grabs resources from sw600dp it can cause other issues - for instance if you use a viewpager for phones and not for tablets you'll wind up with NPE errors.

In the end it just seems that there are too many conditions to check for and we may just have to accept that some phones are actually tablets :-P

Answer 2

Please check out below code.

private boolean isTabletDevice() {
  if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11) { // honeycomb
    // test screen size, use reflection because isLayoutSizeAtLeast is
    // only available since 11
    Configuration con = getResources().getConfiguration();
    try {
      Method mIsLayoutSizeAtLeast = con.getClass().getMethod(
      "isLayoutSizeAtLeast", int.class);
      boolean r = (Boolean) mIsLayoutSizeAtLeast.invoke(con,
      0x00000004); // Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_XLARGE
      return r;
    } catch (Exception x) {
      x.printStackTrace();
      return false;
    }
  }
  return false;
}

Answer 3

For those who want to refer to Google's code of deciding which devices will use a Tablet UI can refer to below:

  // SystemUI (status bar) layout policy
        int shortSizeDp = shortSize
                * DisplayMetrics.DENSITY_DEFAULT
                / DisplayMetrics.DENSITY_DEVICE;

        if (shortSizeDp < 600) {
            // 0-599dp: "phone" UI with a separate status & navigation bar
            mHasSystemNavBar = false;
            mNavigationBarCanMove = true;
        } else if (shortSizeDp < 720) {
            // 600-719dp: "phone" UI with modifications for larger screens
            mHasSystemNavBar = false;
            mNavigationBarCanMove = false;
        } else {
            // 720dp: "tablet" UI with a single combined status & navigation bar
            mHasSystemNavBar = true;
            mNavigationBarCanMove = false;
        }
        }

Answer 4

below method is calculating the device screen's diagonal length to decide the device is a phone or tablet. the only concern for this method is what is the threshold value to decide weather the device is tablet or not. in below example i set it as 7 inch and above.

public static boolean isTablet(Activity act)
{
    Display display = act.getWindow().getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
    DisplayMetrics displayMetrics = new DisplayMetrics();
    display.getMetrics(displayMetrics);

    float width = displayMetrics.widthPixels / displayMetrics.xdpi;
    float height = displayMetrics.heightPixels / displayMetrics.ydpi;

    double screenDiagonal = Math.sqrt( width * width + height * height );
    int inch = (int) (screenDiagonal + 0.5);
    Toast.makeText(act, "inch : "+ inch, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    return (inch >= 7 );
}

Answer 5

public boolean isTablet() {
        int screenLayout = getResources().getConfiguration().screenLayout;
        return (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11 &&
                (((screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK) == Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE) || 
                 ((screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK) == Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_XLARGE)));
    }

Answer 6

No code needed

The other answers list many ways of programmatically determining whether the device is a phone or tablet. However, if you read the documentation, that is not the recommended way to support various screen sizes.

Instead, declare different resources for tablets or phones. You do this my adding additional resource folders for layout, values, etc.

• For Android 3.2 (API level 13) on, add a sw600dp folder. This means the smallest width is at least 600dp, which is approximately the phone/tablet divide. However, you can also add other sizes as well. Check out this answer for an example of how to add an additional layout resource file.

• If you are also supporting pre Android 3.2 devices, then you will need to add large or xlarge folders to support tablets. (Phones are generally small and normal.)

Here is an image of what your resources might like after adding an extra xml files for different screen sizes.

When using this method, the system determines everything for you. You don't have to worry about which device is being used at run time. You just provide the appropriate resources and let Android do all the work.

Notes

• You can use aliases to avoid duplicating identical resource files.

Android docs worth reading

• Supporting Multiple Screens
• Supporting Different Screen Sizes
• Distributing to Specific Screens