Best device to use as tester?

This is probably the wrong place for this question but I want to get into programing or Android but I dont want to run my pre-prelease on my phone or an emulor but I still need to test it out. Whats out there in the bottom of the price scale thatstill fits most modern phones with their resolution/ hardware?

I would look around ebay for some cheap used phones to test with. I think if you want a mid-level phone that would give you a good idea how well your app will perform on todays phones, maybe you can find a used original droid or something like that for cheap on ebay.

It's not a bad idea.

To add to the advice, get the cheapest mid spec phone you can find that'll run Android 4.1 you may have to flash it yourself with CM10. Maybe check the cyanogenmod site to see what devices they support and find a model you like. Just to make sure your app is future proof and you won't get complaints that it won't run or fcs in JB.

I'm using Samsung GT-S5570 with Android 2.3.4, resolution 240x320. This is a very basic and cheap phone and I think is the ideal to test applications.
My idea is that if an app runs on such device it will run without problem on more sophisticated models with newer OS version.

I'm using a ZTE Blade with 4.0.3. It has 480x800 which is a good mid range resolution to test and a relatively slow processor.
If it works ok with this phone then it will work with the majority of android phones out there.

There are lot's of testing devices available in market but I found this one the most suitable for me http://testdroid.com/products