I'm looking to get a device (phone, tablet, etc.) for developing Android applications. I know I can use the emulator to get me started, but I feel like that will only get me so far along. I'm looking for something reasonably priced, and I don't want a phone contract, data plan, etc. Anyone have any suggestions?
I would recommend either a Nexus One or ADP2 ( you can get via Market once you sign in as developer. ). Other option is ebay. All attendees of google i/o got moto droid as a gift. And several devices are on ebay, priced around 350-400. I wouldn't buy G1 for a reason i think it close to end of life. I'd also avoid devices alternative homes and ui ( blur, touchwiz, sense ). You want to clean google experience phone.
Advantage of Nexus of Dev phone - you'll have engineered bootloader, which let you to install custom roms and you can get root access which among other things allow you to use awesome tool hierarchyviewer ( from SDK ) on the device .