Mobile events - orientationchange

The orientationchange event

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Here are the results of my research into the firing of the orientationchange event.

This event fires when the user changes the orientation of the device, for instance from going from landscape to portrait or vice versa.

But: should the event also fire when the user flips the device completely around; i.e. does a 180 degree orientation change from landscape to landscape?

Selector	iOS		Android		Chrome		Opera			BlackBerry				Nokia				UC			Puffin	Nintendo	Dolphin	Tizen	One	IE		Firefox
Selector	6	7	2	4	18	30	Mini	Mob 12	Mob 16	6	7	PB	10	Xpress	MeeGo	Anna	Belle	Mini	8	9	Puffin	Nintendo	Dolphin	Tizen	One	9	10	OS	And
Orientation change 90 degrees	Yes		Yes		Yes		No		Yes	Yes				No	Untestable	No		No	Yes		No	Untestable	Yes			No		No
Orientation change 90 degrees
Orientation change 180 degrees	Yes		No		No		No			No		Yes		No	Untestable	No		No			No	Untestable	No	Yes	No	No		No
Orientation change 180 degrees	The Samsung Android 2 may fire two events because it goes from 90 to 0 and then to -90, or vice versa. So it temporarily stops in the middle.

Tested browsers

Mobile browser test array 1.2; November 2013

iOS 6: WebKit 536; Default browser on iPhone 4S with iOS 6.1.3
iOS 7: WebKit 537; Default browser on iPad 2 with iOS 7.0.3
Android 2: WebKit 533; Default browser on HTC Legend, Android 2.2; Default browser on LG Optimus something, Android 2.2; Default browser on Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Android 2.3.6
Android 4: WebKit 534; Default browser on Samsung Galaxy Note I, Android 4.0.3; Default browser on Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2; Default browser on Xiaomi M2, Android 4.1.1; Default browser on Huawei C8813, Android 4.1.1; Default browser on Samsung Galaxy S3, Android 4.1.2; Default browser on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2
Chrome 18: WebKit 535; Default browser on Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.2.2; On Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2. This is a downloaded version from Google; It will be interesting to see if Samsung’s purported Chrome 18 is really the real Chrome 18.
Chrome 30: Blink (Chromium 30); On HTC One X, Android 4.2.2; On Nexus 7, Android 4.3
Opera Mini: Presto; Proxy browser; 7.0.5 on iPad 2, iOS 7.0.3; 7.1 on BlackBerry 9800 (OS6); 7.1 on Nokia PureView 808, Symbian Belle; 7.5 on Samsung Galaxy Note I, Android 4.0.3
Opera Mobile 12: Presto; 12.00 on Nokia E7, Symbian Anna; 12.10 on Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Android 2.3.6
Opera Mobile 16: Blink (Chromium 29); On Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2; On Nexus 7, Android 4.3
BlackBerry 6: WebKit 534; Default browser on BB Torch 9800 (OS6)
BlackBerry 7: WebKit 534; Default browser on BB Torch 9810 (OS7)
BlackBerry PB: WebKit 536; Default browser on PlayBook with OS 2.1.0
BlackBerry 10: WebKit 537; Default browser on BlackBerry Z10 (BB OS 10.1); This device has 1GB of internal memory instead of the customary 2GB, which may matter in performance tests.
Xpress: Gecko 20100401; this version was used for some Firefoxes from 3 to 4.; Proxy browser; 3.7 on the Nokia Asha 311, S40.; This browser used to be called Ovi. Nokia developed it because it saw how succesful Opera was on Nokia’s own devices.
MeeGo: WebKit 534; Default browser on Nokia N950, MeeGo Harmattan 1.2; Originally slated as Symbian’s successor, MeeGo was ousted in favour of Windows Phone. Some devices were sold, however, and a Finnish company is trying to re-start MeeGo under the name Sailfish. Also, rumour has it that Nokia is quietly hiring back ex-MeeGo people, so a Nokia-based restart is not entirely impossible.
Anna: WebKit 533; Default browser (7.3) on Nokia E7, Symbian Anna; The next-to-last Symbian build. I don’t think it was the prime Symbian build for long; it was replaced by Belle fairly soon. But it’ll be in some people’s pockets.
Belle: WebKit 535; Default browser (8.3) on Nokia PureView 808, Symbian Belle FP2; The most recent Symbian build.
UC Mini: Doesn’t mention a rendering engine; Proxy browser; 8.8 on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2
UC: WebKit 534; UC 8.5.1 on Xiaomi M2 (Android 4.1.1); UC 9.2.3 on Huawei C8813 (Android 4.1.1); The largest Chinese browser. This is the full variant, not the proxy. These browsers were pre-installed (next to Android WebKit; don’t ask me why).
Puffin: WebKit 534; 2.1 Free Edition on Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.2.2; Claims to be Chrome 11
Nintendo: WebKit 536; Nintendo browser 2.0.0 on Wii U 4.0.0; Supposed to be based on NetFront.
Dolphin: WebKit 534; Beta 1.3.1 on Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2.; Independent full browser for Android. The non-beta is a skin over the Android default browser. The beta uses their own WebKit port.
QQ One: WebKit 533; 4.2.2 on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2; This is the downloadable, international browser TenCent created.
Tizen: WebKit 537; Default browser on Ref.Device-PQ by Samsung; Tizen 2.2; Tizen is an OS jointly being developed by Samsung and Intel. I expect Samsung to start producing devices this year, and it will get a few percent of market share.
IE9: Trident; Default browser on Nokia Lumia 800, Windows Phone 7.5.
IE10: Trident; Default browser on Nokia Lumia 820, Windows Phone 8.0.
Firefox OS: Gecko 18; Geekphone/Telefónica (Peak and/or qcom); Boot2Gecko 1.0.1.0-prerelease
Firefox Android: Gecko 25; 25 on HTC One X, Android 4.2.2

Browsers by WebKit version:

533: Android 2; Anna; UC; QQ 2.0; One
534: Android 3 and 4; BB 6 and 7; MeeGo; Puffin; Dolphin
535: Belle; Chrome 18
536: iOS6; BlackBerry PlayBook; NetFront
537: iOS7; BlackBerry 10; Tizen