Once you download Hearthstone, you won't be able to play it unless you have a 6-inch screen or a comparable resolution because the game has a screen-size check once you launch it. Install the Android SDK on your computer if you haven't already, enable USB Debugging (requires unlocking Developer Mode via Settings > About Phone > tapping Build Number 7 times in a row) and connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable. Open a command console in the platform-tools folder and type adb shell wm size 1440x2560 (if you're on a Mac just add ./ to the start of the line. This command will change the resolution of your device to 1440x2560 and allow you to run the game.

I have a Nexus 5 running 4.4.4 myself which has a base resolution of 1080x1920, so you're really not increasing the resolution by that much. Everything is still plenty readable (and arguably better) at 1440x2560. If you want to return to your old resolution, connect the cable again and type adb shell wm reset.

The game runs very well with just a few frameskips in certain animations (like searching for an opponent or loading the title screen). I'm sure anything with comparable horsepower (Nexus 5 has a Snapdragon 800 quad-core @ 2.2GHz) will run it just fine, meaning anything around probably Galaxy S4 and up.

dabom88

United States3483 Posts

December 18 2014 17:47 GMT

#29

Been playing it on my Galaxy S4. Works great, but I'll probably only play it for Casual Play. I don't want to risk playing Arena or Ranked on a touch screen where any number of things could go wrong.

TimoS1703

Germany250 Posts

December 19 2014 12:38 GMT

#30

Nice, works on my nexus5. I might be back to some casual Hearthstone now.

Excludos

Norway8054 Posts

December 20 2014 12:20 GMT

#31

Australia, New Zealand, and Canada...? Aren't these usually the countries that gets everything months after everyone else? I quite like them getting some love finally.

edit: Huh. The official version is only for tablets

That sucks. Guess I'll have to get the third party one

WindWolf

Sweden11767 Posts

December 20 2014 15:49 GMT

#32

Even though the frame-rate is a bit low at times, it still runs perfectly fine for me on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

R1CH

Netherlands10340 Posts

December 21 2014 04:01 GMT

#33

It's rather disappointing that it runs so poorly. OpenGL acceleration is quite good on modern Android tablets, but Hearthstone is likely all rendered using the CPU. It's unlikely this will change since the game is made on the Unity engine for rapid development. I wonder if Blizzard ever regret that decision as I'm sure it limits their technical freedom.

Excludos

Norway8054 Posts

December 21 2014 13:31 GMT

#34

On December 21 2014 13:01 R1CH wrote:
It's rather disappointing that it runs so poorly. OpenGL acceleration is quite good on modern Android tablets, but Hearthstone is likely all rendered using the CPU. It's unlikely this will change since the game is made on the Unity engine for rapid development. I wonder if Blizzard ever regret that decision as I'm sure it limits their technical freedom.

Is it really made on Unity? Then I don't see how its taken them this long to port it to tablets to begin with. The engine is made with portability in mind. In the editor its literally clicking a button.

WindWolf

Sweden11767 Posts

December 21 2014 14:46 GMT

#35

On December 21 2014 22:31 Excludos wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yes it is. I think Unity is also heavily single-thread, which might explain the slow frame-rates if it is rendered using the CPU.

killa_robot

Canada1884 Posts

December 21 2014 22:56 GMT

#36

On December 17 2014 15:11 eviltomahawk wrote:

Show nested quote +

Asus Memo Pad HD 7? That's what I have

I'll update this by saying after waiting a few days I opened it again, and after a few moments it loaded to the screen properly.

Feels pretty clunky playing, but for some casual gaming it works.

dabom88

United States3483 Posts

December 22 2014 19:11 GMT

#37

On December 21 2014 22:31 Excludos wrote:

Show nested quote +

Was released on iPad first because of a more limited number of products to test it out on. Bug fixes, optimization, etc.

Android has quite a wide range of devices to test out on, even just for Tablets.

Smartphone-wise, they might even need to change the interface to account for even smaller screen size. I'm hoping they aren't aiming the smartphone version to be optimized for iPhone 5 or older. Good god, that would be annoying. Android Tablet version works decently enough on my Galaxy S4, though. But for Android PHONES, though, there are quite a lot of them to test out on.

Excludos

Norway8054 Posts

December 23 2014 16:58 GMT

#38

On December 23 2014 04:11 dabom88 wrote:

Show nested quote +

For android, what you need to account for is screen size and apk, so luckily you dont have to test every model out there. Unity does all of the optimization for you (they probably have to change interface for phones like you said, but it doesn't account for why it's taken them this long to roll it out for tablets)

Incanus

Canada695 Posts

December 24 2014 00:36 GMT

#39

On December 20 2014 21:20 Excludos wrote:
Australia, New Zealand, and Canada...? Aren't these usually the countries that gets everything months after everyone else? I quite like them getting some love finally.

As do I.

The reason is developers sometimes use these countries as a kind of beta launch to see if anything will go wrong before deploying to the larger American demographic (and then the world). The population is smaller, but the demographics are similar, English speaking, etc.