With the rise of mobile gaming comes the need for good android emulators. Since I like to record and upload gameplay videos for a lot of mobile MMOs, I needed to find a good android emulator because recording on my tablet isn't easy and the quality isn't nearly as good as an emulator. I also prefer to play mobile games on my PC when I can because I have a bigger screen and can multi-task while gaming. I've tried quite a few android emulators over the years and have personally downloaded and tested each of the android emulators listed below:
Best Android Emulators For Gaming:
Blue Stacks was one of the first super popular android emulators having launched in 2012. With over 300 million users it remains the largest free android emulator on the PC. From my experience it works really well for well known games like Clash Royale, Vainglory, Seven Knights, etc but sometimes has issues with some of the more obscure games. I've personally used Blue Stacks extensively and it's probably the best emulator for everyday use as it's by far the most user friendly. It's also gotten a lot better over the years and continually gets updated. As of 2018 they boast that they're the biggest gaming platform after Steam on the PC with over 300 million users.
After downloading and trying a dozen or so android emulators, I can safely say that Nox is probably the best or tied for the best with Bluestacks. There's a reason Tencent literally uses Nox as their PC client for their hit mobile moba King of Glory (known as Strike of Kings Internationally). They do so because it works near flawlessly. The biggest issue with most android emulators is that they just don't work for a lot of games. You'd go to open a game and it wouldn't launch or it'll instantly crash. I'm not saying Nox is perfect, but from my experience Nox can run more games flawlessly than any other android emulator and does so with excellent performance (high frame rates). Nox is without a doubt the best android emulator and I continue to use it regularly. Every mobile gameplay video I put on Youtube was recorded using Nox Player.
Other notable features: Supports PC and Mac, Built in controller support,
Fast and Reliable
MEmu is a popular android emulator amongst many Twitch streamers designed specifically to play games on the PC. It's updated regularly and boasts '2x the performance' as other Android Emulators.
Another well known android emulator. While Nox and Bluestacks are aimed at gamers, Genymotion is largely aimed at app developers. It's best known for its stability and regular updates. While it has a free version it also offers a paid professional version for freelancers/contractors. Excellent for app development/testing, but can also be used just to play games. One annoying aspect of Genymotion is that users need to create a Genymotion account before they can download and use the software.
Droid4X (Dead emulator)
Droid4X is yet another popular android emulator. After giving up on Blue Stacks I used Droid4x for a while but ran into some of the same issues that plagued Blue Stacks. Namely, the emulator not working for certain games. The emulator itself wouldn't crash, but trying to open a game would lead to an endless black screen. There are also reports of Droid4x comping pre-packaged with some Chinese torrenting software called Xunlei which could hog some bandwidth as it downloads stuff in the background. It also stopped being updated.
Ultimately your best bet is going to be either Nox or Bluestacks. Both are great and I recommend trying them both out. I personally have both installed on my PC and if Nox doesn't work for something, I'll try Bluestacks.
Related
MobilesAndroid5 Best Android Emulators for Windows PC and Mac
Android emulator is an application designed to install and use Android APKs (Applications/Games) on a computer. It does not replace your computers main operating system, but is installed as a program. You can read more about how to install Android APK.
Best Android Emulators
There is a number of Android emulators for PC in the market, and all of them claim to bring the ultimate Android experience to the screen of your computer. Hence, it becomes hard for users to decide which emulator should be installed on their PCs. To help you decide the best Android emulator for your PC, we have compiled a list of five top Android emulators for Windows PC as well as Mac. Check out below.
1. Andy Android Emulator
Andy is one of the most popular and best Android emulators. It is a free and user-friendly emulator, which is compatible with both Windows PC and Mac. Andy is different from other Android emulators as it allows you to use your smartphone as a controller. This feature is useful when playing games on your PC. The emulator also allows syncing of data between the smartphone and the computer. You can therefore easily use communication apps on the PC.
2. BlueStacks Android Emulator
BlueStacks Android emulator has smashed several awards. It is free to download for both Windows PC and Mac platforms. BlueStacks emulator is popular among gamers as it uses the dedicated graphics card on your computer to run games. It has a simple user interface that is identical to the Android interface on your smartphone. You can use the keyboard and mouse on the Android apps. Developers can use this BlueStacks Android emulator to test applications.
3. AMIDuos Android Emulator
AMIDuos is a relatively new Android emulator. There are two versions of the application; JellyBean and Lollipop. There are no major differences between the two versions apart from the price. Jelly Bean costs $10 while Lollipop costs $15. You need not worry much about the prices since they are one-time charges. Overall, AMIDuos will run Android apps on PC smoothly. It is ideal for gaming and productivity. Developers may have issues with the emulator since it does not allow device-specific configurations.
4. GenyMotion Android Emulator
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GenyMotion is one other Android emulator for PC. GenyMotion users praise it for its fast speed. The software comes with amazing developer features. It allows testing and redeployment of Android apps. The emulator allows access to the webcam or laptop’s camera, which is very handy when running social media and communication apps. GenyMotion Android emulator is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
5. YouWave Android Emulator
YouWave is another one of the best Android emulators for PC that brings the Android experience to the screen of your computer. You can easily play Android games and use other Android apps on your PC. It also allows you to sync app data between your computer and smartphone. YouWave can be downloaded from the app’s official website. There is a free version as well as a paid version. The main problem with the free version is disturbing Ads.
Conclusion
An Android emulator allows you to use Android apps on your computer. The big screen and the ability to use the keyboard on Android apps does stir some curiosity. Download any of the emulator mentioned above and have an Android experience on your PC. You can even check more of emulators from this post on Device Tricks. If you have other Android emulators on your mind, share in the comment box below.
Linux may not be as popular an operating system as Windows is, but it’s definitely a pretty widely used one; and if you’ve ever wanted to try out an Android app on your Linux system, you must’ve wondered what the best emulator for that might be. After all, while Windows and macOS have a plethora of Android emulators that users can try, Linux has basically a dearth of those. However, there are some Android emulators that are definitely worth trying out, whether it is to check out a brand new game, try out an app, or even for testing an Android app you are developing. So, here are 5 best Android emulators you can use on Linux based operating systems.
1. Genymotion
Genymotion is one of the most popular Android emulators available on Linux (it’s also available on Windows and macOS, by the way) that you can try, and it’s by far one of the best ones out there. Unlike most emulators, Genymotion brings a good-looking interface which will make you feel right at home. You can create a virtual device and just jump right in. By default, virtual devices in Genymotion come with the barebones, but if you want to install apps from the Play Store, Genymotion gives you a handy button to install Open Gapps on your virtual device in just a couple of clicks. It’s pretty cool, and once you’ve installed Gapps, you can basically install just about any app you want to try.
It’s perfect for not just trying out that random Android app you found or are interested in, but it’s also great for testing an app you’re developing on your own. It comes with a bunch of awesome features aimed at developers including the fact that it’s fully supported by Android Studio, so you can directly run your app from inside Android Studio and have it open in a Genymotion emulator. That is helped along by the fact that it comes with emulators running Android version 4.1, all the way up to Android 9.0 Pie and in a variety of form factors from smartphones to tablets, and even custom screen-sizes that might come in handy if you’re checking out how your app’s UI looks in a variety of form factors.
If you’re looking for an emulator to play Android games on, Genymotion is probably not the one for you. I tried installing PUBG Mobile and Free Fire on it, but it simply says that the device isn’t compatible (probably an emulator thing). I did install Pigeon Pop on it, and that works fine, but there were visible input delays, which are not acceptable if you’re trying to play a game.
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That said, when I was trying to install Genymotion on our HP Envy running Ubuntu 18.04.1, it was having issues with Virtual Box even though Virtual Box was properly installed. If you come across the same issues, it could be because your system has UEFI secure boot enabled. Apparently, that causes issues with Virtual Box. In order to overcome this, you can use mokutil, and disable secure boot on your laptop, after which Virtual Box should work fine and you will be able to run Genymotion easily. You can check out this Ubuntu Wiki page for a detailed tutorial on how to use mokutil to disable secure boot.
2. Android-x86
If Genymotion isn’t cutting it for you, and you’re looking to actually run Android as a virtual machine on your system, Android-x86 is probably what you’re looking for. The software is actually intended as a port of Android for x86 based systems, which is most likely what you’re gonna be using. This is an open-source project, which means you can check out the code-base if that interests you. However, the best part about the Android-x86 project is that it’s updated quite frequently, and currently has a stable release available based on Android Oreo.
Installing Android-x86 on your Linux system is pretty straightforward, which is definitely great. You simply need to download the Android-x86 ISO file to your system, create a new virtual machine on Virtual Box and set the ISO to be the boot-up device. From there, you can easily install Android on your VM. Overall, Android-x86 feels slightly less responsive than Genymotion, but it’s not an issue, especially if you’re just gonna be using it to test apps. If gaming is what you’re after, well Android-x86 is probably not the emulator you’re looking for. While you can play games on it, in my experience, you’ll not have a smooth and seamless experience here.
3. Android SDK
If you’re a developer and you’re looking to use an emulator that’s officially supported by Google and lets you create multiple virtual devices running anything from Android Lollipop to Android Pie, WearOS, and even Android TV, well, the official ‘Android Virtual Device’ manager (or AVD Manager) included with Android Studio is the one for you.
You’ll just have to install Android Studio on your Linux-based system, and once you’ve launched the software, you can simply head over to ‘Tools -> AVD Manager‘ to create your first virtual device in Android Studio. However, the biggest reason why a lot of developers prefer using a third party emulator instead of the official one from Google, is that it loads pretty slow. Sure, things have improved over time, but it’s nowhere near as fast to load as something like Genymotion.
However, for developers, this is definitely the most flexible option to go with. After all, it not only offers the ability to create multiple virtual devices running anything from Android 5 to Android 9 Pie, it also lets you create virtual Android TV devices, and virtual wearOS devices, so you can test your apps on all of Google’s most commonly used operating systems. Plus, it comes with all the features you might need to test your app. You can rotate the emulator, change the location, battery, and network conditions, use the camera, and do a lot more with the Android Studio emulator. If you’re a developer, you should definitely give it a shot before you check out other emulators.
4. Anbox
Anbox is one of the more unique Android emulators on this list. It’s not so much an emulator as it is a sort of sandboxed Android Run Time (ART) that works on GNU/Linux systems. It comes with Android 7.1, which is pretty great for an emulator, and it’s also pretty responsive, so you won’t be annoyed the way most people get annoyed with Android Studio’s emulator.
The only reason Anbox is so far down the list is that it has some glaring issues. For starters, it doesn’t come with Google Apps installed on it, which means there’s no Play Store, no Play Services, etc. So, if you were planning on installing, say PUBG Mobile on this, you’ll run into a bunch of issues. I tried installing a casual game (Pigeon Pop) and that requires Play Games to be installed on the device, and Anbox doesn’t support that. So yeah, there are issues. Plus, if you’re a developer trying to test your own app on Anbox, you’ll not be able to just drag and drop to install it. Instead, you’ll have to use ADB to install the APK on Anbox using the ‘adb install <path_to_apk.apk>‘ command.
What’s worse however, is that installing Anbox can be a little ‘in-the-weeds’ for beginner Linux users. It’s a two step process where you have to install some Kernel modules first, and then download the Anbox ‘snap’ itself before you can launch the runtime. Fortunately, the Anbox website does a pretty solid job of explaining how you can do all of that. Be warned, if you run into issues while loading the Kernel modules, you might be facing the same issue that I described with Genymotion, so try using that same solution.
5. ARChon
If you’re looking to run Android apps on your Linux system without having to install a separate emulator for them, ARChon might be something that interests you. ARChon basically lets you run Android apps in Chrome, so you can check out apps without having to worry about downloading emulators, creating a virtual device, or that UEFI secure boot issue that cropped up with Genymotion. ARChon simply installs as a Chrome extension on your system (there are instructions on the website that you can follow), and from there onwards, you can use any of the various tools mentioned in the website to convert Android apps into ARChon compatible apps and just run them directly in Chrome.
I tried this out with the sample 2048 app that ARChon provides, and it works pretty well, and I’m fairly certain that most other simple apps like this one will run without any issues using ARChon.
SEE ALSO: What is Fuchsia OS and How Is It Different from Android?
Run Android Apps on Linux with These Emulators
Well those were the 5 best Android emulators for Linux that we think you can check out. Whether you want to test an app you are developing, or you just want to try out a new Android app on your Linux PC, these emulators should meet your expectations. We did try to find an emulator that we could recommend for gaming as well, but unfortunately none came to our attention. That said, if you know of an Android emulator for Linux that performs well in gaming, let us know in the comments down below and we’ll definitely give it a look.
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If you want to use Android apps or games on your Windows PC, you have several options. We have compared for you the methods to use Android on your PC. In the update we show new emulators like Bluestacks 4 or MEmu, which inherit Andy or Nox and at least use Android 7.1.1. As a bonus we also show Phoenix, which wants to inherit the full x86 operating system Remix OS - but can't.
You're about to enter a world of pain
First the obvious question arises: Why would you want to run Android apps or games on your PC? After all, the list of potential complications is unmanageable:
1. Android apps are touch optimized and may use motion sensors. Your PC probably doesn't have either of these input methods and if it does have a touchscreen, it won't work as well in the emulator - if at all - as it does on a smartphone.
Emulators can map such inputs to your keyboard or ideally to a gamepad and thus simulate them. However, the user experience and the associated gaming fun or at least the ease of use are usually much worse.
2. Also, the performance is significantly worse than on a smartphone; unless of course, your smartphone is a starter model from 2015 and your computer is newer, has an Intel i5 or better and a dedicated graphics card. After all, new emulators rely on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and are therefore able to handle faster OpenGL versions. In the test, however, there was still a lack of Vulkan support, which would be promised improvement.
3. The software in emulators is unfinished. A lot of things are broken in emulators. Not only the above-mentioned mappings for translating touch and motion inputs often seem to be unreliable. Also the software interface itself is often overloaded with advertisements, is updated little or not at all and simply stops sometime in some examples of the story, because the developers simply give up the product.
MEmu Play promotes itself
The new kid on the block is MEmu Play. It inherits the orphaned NOX App Player that stopped with version Android 4.4. MEmu uses the same interface, so it has several settings on the right side, emulates and maps touch and motion inputs to keyboard, mouse or gamepad.
It pre-installs the Play Store right away. APKs can also be sideloaded, i.e. games can be installed from outside the Play Store. Notifications are looped through to the Windows 10 notification system.
During the first installation after the download, be careful not to accept the optional installation of the browser and anti-malware software by clicking Decline so as to install MEmu without bloatware.
OpenGL ES is only supported up to version ES 3.0. More modern titles based on ES 3.1 or even Vulkan are not included.
BlueStacks brings Android games to the PC
The latter also applies to BlueStacks: OpenGL Es 3.0 is the end. However, BlueStacks is the most durable of all independent Android emulators. The App Player integrates into your Windows system in such a way that games can be started directly via a desktop shortcut. The detour via the fiddly Android surface is therefore a thing of the past.
BlueStacks exists since the end of 2011 and the developers could gain a lot of experience in the field of Android on the PC during this time. You can make mobile games like Star Trek Fleet Command executable on your PC.
Remix OS is dead, long live Phoenix OS
The independently executable operating system Remix OS was inherited by Phoenix. Unfortunately, the successor still inherits the same sufferings: Not all machines boot into the system, and if they do, they are plagued by a lack of hardware support. The experiment is interesting, but as a PC operating system Android (7.1 in this case) will not work in 2019 either.
Like Remix, Phoenix is based on the open source Android x86 project. This has made the image based on Android 8.1 Oreo available for download in January 2019. This even promises real, albeit experimental, Vulkan support - at least for AMD graphics chips.
The emulator cemetery is filling up
AMIDuOS was a well-known Android emulator. After a few months of inactivity, the overdue decision was made to pull the plug. The project was not brought up to date for a long time and could not keep up with BlueStacks or AnDy in terms of performance.
AnDy made it to Android Nougat. The free Android emulator offered nearly the same features as BlueStacks. Since 2016, however, at least product marketing has been at a standstill, even though the software still receives occasional updates. So the project seems orphaned.
Professionals emulate Android differently anyway ..
Memu
There are also other niche solutions such as AnBox, Shashlik or ARChon. However, they are complex to install and serve a completely different purpose than the consumer-friendly Android emulator BlueStacks.
And professionals prefer the Android Studio Emulator anyway. Although it is the only one that offers the current Android version, it has zero ease of use or performance optimization.
Android on the PC: the conclusion
Especially on Windows computers, BlueStacks is rightly still considered by many as a synonym for Android emulators. The app player delivers the ideal compromise of ease of use, performance and reliability.
Have you tried emulating Android apps on the PC? What are they, which emulator do you use and what are your experiences? Share your experience with us in the comments.
After the death of several previously presented projects, we had to completely renew the content of the article.
In gone days, phones were considered quite ineffective to play video games and you weren’t able to download your favorite video game on your mobile to have access to it for all the time. It was mere a thrilling concept to use your mobile as a Playstation. Now it has become an undeniable reality and you can access almost every game from your Smartphone and tablet. In preceding years, video games did not have so many levels and you were never on your knees to ask your friend to send you out more lives to continue the game. It doesn’t mean that the video games in those days were comparatively superior.
Of course, some of them were better and a few were a lot better. So, when to think of them, you would feel that they were precious gems in old memories and still you would love to play them as they were a great source of pleasure for you in the past. Below-discussed applications would surely let you recall those video games of classic era and you can enjoy playing them on your Android tablet or phone. Android devices with low space can’t handle games that take huge space, that’s why they play games on Facebook Online, but these classic games take very little space and you don’t need to worry about their size. These applications are called emulators and you can use these emulators to play innumerable video games from the classic era, e.g. Snes, PSX, DS, etc. on your Android devices.
Now the question arises here that how the actual games can be obtained? You can search for the games on the internet and if you find, just download it as a ROM. Hence, the best emulators from the classic era have been discussed and listed below for you in two different categories. One of them is the category of free emulators and the other one is the category of paid emulators. Check them out for your selection.
Contents
- Free Emulators for Android Devices
- Paid Emulators for Android
Free Emulators for Android Devices
1. MegaN64
MegaN64 is a demanded N64 emulator that functions very well. Although, some of its features are glitchy and have bugs, but they are just minor ones. You will find it a perfect N64 emulator that can be downloaded just now. The base of MegaN64 is the most popular Mupen64 and the people who love to play it, would surely want to get this emulator. It is absolutely free, but in its free version, ads will definitely disturb you.
Install MegaN64.
2. DraStic DS Emulator
DraStic DS emulator is basically a Nintendo emulator that can run your game ROMs and supports Nintendo DS. You will find it fully compatible with controllers of the game and save states. You can even use cheat codes while playing the game. It is available in two versions. You can download its pro version if you want an ads free game and if you are looking for its pocket-friendly version, go ahead for a free one.
Install DraStic DS Emulator.
3. My Boy! Emulator
My Boy is an extremely fast emulator that has been introduced for all sort of GameBoy Advance video games. It supports the cheat codes and saved states. This emulator also enables you to use fast-forward feature in the game. So far, it is the only emulator that provides a complete support to the “link cable emulation”. You can get its pro version in only $4.99. Its free version is also available.
Install My Boy.
