Best Android Emulators for Windows
- by animesh
- Apr 21, 2017
- 5 min read
If you’re looking to run Android on your Windows PC, there’s no shortage of emulators available today. For those who are wondering, there are numerous reasons why you might want to use an Android emulator on your Windows PC. For instance, Android developers can debug their apps right onto their desktop, gamers can enjoy Android-specific games on a larger screen and the list goes on. So, now that you see the various benefits of using Android emulators, it might be tempting to try one. The problem with Android emulators is that a lot of them are finicky and tend to not work as advertised. Therefore, I tried more than a dozen emulators to bring you the best Android emulators for Windows:
1. Remix OS Player
The first time you run Remix OS Player, you should be greeted with a fresh-looking interface, complete with the taskbar on the bottom and a shortcut button to access all the installed apps. The Remix Central app offers you recommendations of trending apps and games you can download. It supports Google Play Store, so you can download apps and games with no extra setup.
The team acknowledges that there’s something tremendously gratifying about button mashing while gaming that sometimes you just can’t get from a touch screen and so, they have heavily optimized Remix OS Player for gaming. Specifically, you can map keyboard buttons and manage multiple games simultaneously on one screen. There are also a lot of under-the-hood improvements to improve gameplay. If you’re a developer, it still has you covered. You can manually set signal strength, network type, location, battery and lots of other things that can help you debug your Android application.
2. Nox Player
Nox Player is another Android emulator for Windows, based on Android 4.4 KitKat that boasts of class-leading performance and advanced features. It ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to features, so it’s possible that some may find the interface to be a little overwhelming at first. But as you spend some time with it, you are bound to fall in love with it.In the settings, you can change the number of CPU cores, FPS or the amount of RAM you would like to allocate to Nox. If you’ve compatibility problems with some games, you can switch between two graphic rendering modes: DirectX or OpenGL.
It comes with inbuilt support for Google Play Store and also, you can just drag and drop APKs to the Nox player to install them. There’s a “simulate touch” functionality which is just another name for keyboard mapping and it aids you in playing games. The “script record” functionality lets you record specific events on screen and replay them later. It can be especially useful when you need to automate an action on Android, that would otherwise be very monotonous to perform manually. To amaze you further, it comes with a rooted version of Android out-of-the-box. Also, the multiplayer feature lets you run multiple instances of Android at the same time.
3. MEmu
MEmu is a high-performance Android emulator for Windows that is based on Android Lollipop. Unfortunately, it comes preinstalled with Android Jellybean 4.2 and upgrading to Lollipop requires downloading additional packages. It is compatible with Intel, Nvidia powered Windows PCs and unlike Remix OS Player, it is also compatible with AMD chipsets.
The first time you open it, you are greeted with an ancient 4-year old Android version, with the main menu tucked in the right-hand sidebar. It comes pre-loaded with the Google Play Store, so you can browse and download Android apps and games to your heart’s content. Also, MEmu associates itself with APK files on Windows, so you can just open the APK file from anywhere and it would automatically open and run in MEmu. Also, if you happen to discover new cool Android apps, you can have MEmu push the app right away to your phone via the USB cable.
It supports keyboard mapping, so you can assign certain keys to simulate touch in specific areas of the screen. Other than this, it supports full-screen mode, screenshot tool, a handy “kill process” tool, screen record, amongst several other features. Also, it features an interesting “operation record” tool, so you can record certain touch-screen actions and replay it anytime, thus automating tasks on-the-fly.
I really like the flawless pointer and keyboard integration in MEmu. Perhaps my only rant about it is that it ships with a really old version of Android. You can upgrade to Android 5.0 Lollipop, but that is still at least 2-years old. If you can compromise on the amazing features that Android Nougat brings to the table, MEmu is one of the most capable Android emulators I’ve tried.
4. BlueStacks(2)
You saw this one coming, didn’t you? After all, BlueStacks is based on Android 4.4 KitKat and has been one of the early pioneers of this whole “Android on PC” thingy. But lately, BlueStacks has become a lot bloated and the competition has quickly caught up with it. However, it is still a very capable Android emulator and I strongly feel that this list would’ve have been incomplete without mentioning BlueStacks.
It comes with the Google Play Store pre-installed, which gives you access to over 2 million Android apps and games. Installing APKs is pretty easy too. It comes with a couple of features that none of its competitors offers. The first one is the ability to live-stream to Twitch, so you can show-off you game playing skills to your followers. The second one is that you can live-stream to Facebook Live using BlueStacks TV. Other than this, it supports multitasking, much like an actual Android phone.
5. LeapDroid
LeapDroid is a powerful Android emulator that was acquired by Google last year and eventually shut-down (you can still download it from other sources). But make no mistake, despite the discontinuation, LeapDroid still manages to be one of the most robust Android emulators around.
It is based on Android 4.4 KitKat and comes with all the AOSP apps like browser, music, camera, etc. The home screen offers shortcuts to download popular game titles like Clash of Clans and Pokémon GO. But that’s not it. It comes with full support for Google Play Store, so you can get Android apps and games up and running in no time.
You can also directly install APKs from your PC if you like. Other than this, it comes with full-screen mode support, a screenshot tool and the option to choose graphics rendering mode between OpenGL or DirectX. It also supports keyboard mapping, so you can play games conveniently with keyboard shortcuts instead of having to awkwardly fiddle around with your mouse pointer. Furthermore, you can also set gesture details and simulate pinch zoom using the scroll wheel of your mouse.
If you can shove down the throat the fact that it comes with Android KitKat, LeapDroid is really impressive. Also, because it has been discontinued recently, the company behind it no longer offers any support. So, if you don’t mind searching the web on your own for squashing any bugs you might encounter, give it a try.
HERE ARE SOME OF EMULATOR WHICH USEFUL IN YOUR DAILY LIFE........
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