A wrapper for Android's Trace utility that checks the SDK version so you don't have to before each call.

Tracer.java

import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Trace;
import android.support.annotation.NonNull;

/**
 * A wrapper for {@link Trace}, which is unavailable on SDK versions under 18 (Jelly Bean MR2).
 * Using any methods of this class on versions below 18 will result in a runtime exception.
 */
public class Tracer {
    private static final int REQUIRED_SDK = Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR2;

    /**
     * {@link Trace#beginSection(String)}
     *
     * @param name A String used to label the section in Systrace
     */
    public static void beginSection(@NonNull String name) {
        Tracer.throwIfNotDebug();

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= REQUIRED_SDK) {
            Trace.beginSection(name);
        } else {
            throw new RuntimeException("Tracing requires a minimum SDK of " + REQUIRED_SDK);
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@link Trace#endSection()}
     */
    public static void endSection() {
        Tracer.throwIfNotDebug();

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= REQUIRED_SDK) {
            Trace.endSection();
        } else {
            throw new RuntimeException("Tracing requires a minimum SDK of " + REQUIRED_SDK);
        }
    }

    private static void throwIfNotDebug() {
        if (!BuildConfig.DEBUG) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Trace code must not be used in release builds.");
        }
    }
}