For the cost of an RPi2, you could just try buying 4+ refurbished (and in some cases new) cell phones that are dual+ cores each. I'm not sure of the power difference and performance differences here, but I would think you could get more production out of the cell phones for the same up front cost. I bought 8 Optimus Fuels over the holidays for $10 USD each and found a deal on 3 Moto E's for $10 USD each as well. I have missed out on a couple deals for the phones with quad core CPU's in them. But the point is that you can still find much cheaper options that are better supported within the BOINC community.

Isn't the ASUS Cube only a dual core, 1GB RAM (~half is usable), Android 3.2, and advertised at ~$140USD though sometimes found for a little cheaper? How does that compare to most modern dual core cell phones? I would think that for that price you could get 10-14 dual core cell phones (refurbished and sometimes new) that would be a way better investment. However, I've never used the Cube and am wondering why it is such a good choice. Can you elaborate?

I can honestly say that out of the over dozen phones I have had running exclusively DC projects, not a single one has exploded. Not saying it isn't possible but I think a little common sense can really go a long ways here. Each device is certainly different. I think I replaced the battery in my Moto. Bionic 1 time in like 5 years of non-stop use. None of the others have needed replaced. I think the concerns with battery issues is more over hyped than it deserves.

ASUS, quality will depend on the person. Their products tend to be love/hate relationships. I for one have not had much luck with any ASUS products. So, I wont find any value to that upsell.

Since my phones are dedicated to DC'ing, I would say that in this case (for sake of what we are discussing for buying) the always plugged in is kinda moot.

I would say a device with a battery is superior as that means if the power goes off, it still has time to stay on. It is also less likely to have issues during brown-outs.

Aaaaaand if the battery really does bother you that much, there are many phones that can run without the battery installed. However, you would have to research those.

Great thoughts to you guys...nice to hear all that!

But RP is not developed to be used on WCG users...as for scientist are concerned...and probably never will be!

Why?
RP is a gadget that only few of us knows how to use...we're talking about 1/10.000 people have ever heard of RP...and of those 700.000 people on planet, MAYBE 7.000 of them knows how to use them!

Cellulars are more frequent, about 3.5 billion people have them...of those, about 1 billion are smartphones, which could run some calcs...
It's all about numbers! ;)



edit: an example is made here - https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,37685

I've summed up the amount of ARM cores listed at boincstats: 149,107.

I took a look at wcg and the used operating systems. 57,467 Android devices are listed for WCG.
The problem is. I didn't found any information whether the other OS are still active or if it is a historical sum up. In total (Android included) a total of 2,399,748 devices are listet.