How to Know What Version of Android You Have

If you've ever tried to download an app for sideloading on your Android phone, then yous know how disruptive it can be. Often at that place are several versions of the same app designed for various device specs—so how do you know which 1 is the right 1?

Understanding the Different File Versions

If y'all're reading this, at that place's a adept gamble you're trying to download an app from APK Mirror, which is a legitimate hosting site for APKs that are bachelor for free in the Play Shop. This is an splendid option if the app you want is geo-restricted, non bachelor for your device, or has an update that hasn't however made it to your account. Though y'all may besides need this information when downloading things from XDA Developers or other sources.

RELATED: How to Sideload Apps on Android

If that'south where you lot detect yourself, and so trying to figure out the proper download for your phone can be a hassle. You won't accept to worry most this if the app you're looking at only has 1 version, but some of apps have multiple versions bachelor—for example, YouTube has 40 different variants. This is when you'll demand to know what version is best for your phone.

Generally, the details are broken down into three main categories:

• Architecture:This is referring to the blazon of processor in your phone. Usually, the options will exist arm, arm64, x86, and x86_64. ARM and x86 are for 32-scrap processors, while arm64 and x86_64 are for 64-bit processors. We'll explain in more detail below.
• Android Version: This is the version of the Android OS your device is running.
• Screen DPI: DPI stands for "Dots Per Inch"—basically this is the pixel density of your telephone'south screen. For example, a six-inch full Hard disk drive screen (1920×1080) has a DPI of ~367. Bump that resolution up to 2880×1440, and the DPI raises to ~537.

Technically, the correct terminology when referring to pixel densityshould exist PPI, or Pixels Per Inch. But since APK Mirror (and others) refers to this as DPI, we'll stick with the relative terminology.

ARM vs. x86

While Android version and DPI are pretty straightforward, processor architecture is another story altogether. I'll do my best to interruption it downwards every bit but as possible here.

• ARM: This is a mobile processor compages outset and foremost, and what the majority of phones run now. Qualcomm'south Snapdragon, Samsung's Exynos, and MediaTek's mobile chips are all examples of ARM processors.Most modern chips are 64-flake, or ARM64.
• x86: This is the architecture specification for Intel chips. Equally dominant as Intel is in the computer market, these fries are far less mutual in Android handsets. x86_64 refers to 64-bit Intel fries.

This information is particularly important because x86 and ARM files are not cross compatible—y'all must use the version designed for your phone'south specific architecture.

Similarly, if your phone is running a 32-bit processor, the 64-bit APK won't work. 64-bit processors, even so, are backwards compatible, so the 32-bit APK volition work fine on a 64-flake processor.

How to Find Your Device's Right Data

I know, I know, it's confusing. The good news is that there'southward an easy manner to observe out all of your device's data with an app chosen Droid Hardware Info. This is a free app in the Play Store, and will tell y'all essentially everything yous demand to know about your phone.

Go ahead and give it and install and fire it upwardly. We'll prove you where to notice exactly what you're looking for.

The first tab you're going to want to look at is the "Device" tab, which is what the app opens on by default. There are two key pieces of info here: DPI and Android OS version.

To find the DPI, look at the Software Density entry under the Display section.

For the Android version, look at the OS version under the Device section. This explicitly displays the version number.

For architecture info, slide over to the Organization tab and cheque out the CPU Architecture and Education Sets entries under the Processor tab. This i isn't quite equally striaghtforward as the others since it doesn't explicitly say "arm64" or similar, so y'all'll have to read between the lines a scrap.

First off, if you come across "64" in the architecture name, y'all can pretty much guarantee it'south a 64-fleck device. Piece of cake enough. To effigy out if information technology'south ARM or x86, you'll look at the Instruction Prepare section—again, yous're just looking for the basic info here, like the letters "arm."

On my Pixel ii XL (the above screenshots), for example, information technology'southward pretty articulate that it'southward an ARM64 device. The Nexus 5, however, isn't quite as articulate—we can come across that information technology's ARM, merely it doesn't explicitly bear witness it as a 32-bit processor. In this example, we can safely assume information technology's a 32-bit chip because it doesn't specify the 64-chip compages.

Choosing Which File to Download

With that in mind, let'south become back to our YouTube instance to a higher place. Nosotros're going to look at the many versions of YouTube on APK Mirror and detect exactly which download applies to my Pixel 2 XL. With the device info in hand, we know information technology's running a 64-bit ARM processor, has a DPI of 560, and is running Android viii.1.

Information technology'due south easy to match the processor type and Android version—arm64 and Android v.0+. Merely at that place'south no specific option for 560dpi.

And then, we accept two main options to choose from: the highest available DPI—in this example, 480, or "nodpi."

In this example, I recommend going with the "nodpi" variant, because it contains all the resources available to encompass the gamut of DPIs out there. So why not choose this one regardless? Because of the file size—since it contains resource to work on essentially any DPI, information technology's a much larger file. If you tin can discover the i that matches your device'due south DPI perfectly, always go with that. Otherwise, you tin also choose one that's slightly higher and exist OK.

In our test case, however, I'thousand not convinced that the 480 DPI version will look every bit practiced equally the nodpi download since the phone is 560 DPI. In that case, the larger file size is worth the tradeoff.

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Learning your device's ins and outs is pretty simple. And fortunately once yous figure this info out once you shouldn't have to worry about it over again until you lot get a new phone.

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Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/339665/how-to-find-your-android-devices-info-for-correct-apk-downloads/

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