Games
March 20, 2021No Comments

What are the Best Android Emulators For PC?

What is an Android Emulator?

Have you ever heard of the term virtual machine? It is a whole operating system running within an operating system. For example, you have a Linux OS on your desktop but must run Adobe Photoshop. What do you do? You create a virtual machine where you can install and run Windows.

You don’t need to log out of your Linux OS. The virtual machine will run as a program on your Linux desktop, and that program will run Windows OS.

Android Emulator is just that! It is a virtual machine and is often referred to as the Android Virtual Device. You can use a Windows OS, a Linux OS, or even Mac as the environment in which you can run an Android Emulator.

Android Emulators help Android users deploy applications without installing those applications in the IDE or the Integrated Device Electronics.

What are the Best Android Emulators For PC

Advantages of Android Emulators

There are many! Some of them are:

  1. It creates a bridge between the computer and an Android device.
  2. Allows the use of strong computer resources to run Android apps.
  3. Emulators are great for those who want to play Android games because they access more robust resources and better controls offered by their computers.
  4. Emulators allow users to use Android devices for longer hours without worrying about battery life.

Which are the best Android Emulators for PC and Mac?

There are several Android Emulators available. In this writing, we can think of 14 Android emulators in the market. However, we will discuss only the best and most popular five options that you get for this write-up. Read on…

1. BlueStacks Emulator

This is by far the most popular Android Emulator in the market. With over 130 million users, this particular application, BlueStacks, is often the go-to emulator for every Android user.

The core features and benefits of the emulator are:

  1. Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Android operating systems.
  2. Perfect for gamers because it allows custom key mapping to a keyboard.
  3. It uses minimal RAM, leaving behind many computer resources to be used for other applications.
  4. The clean and sleek interface is powerful enough to run multiple applications simultaneously.
  5. It is free to use. However, you can always get a premium version for USD 24 per month.

The negatives:

  1. Some features available with BlueStacks are buggy.
  2. Users cannot control home screen applications.

2. Android Studio Emulator

Android Studio Emulator is a complete toolset primarily geared toward Android app developers. You can use it even if you are not a developer and want to emulate your Android device on your computer.

It is an open-source application provided directly by Google and comes with a nice UI. Rookie users can find the learning curve slightly challenging to be highly stable and freely available for download. However, once you master the labyrinths of features and learn how to emulate your device, you will appreciate the power and stability that Android Studio Emulator can provide.

The core features and benefits of the emulator are:

  1. Very stable and extremely powerful.
  2. Allows using multiple applications simultaneously.
  3. It can be used even for gaming.
  4. Open-source and can be used on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The negatives:

  1. Targeted at app developers, so getting around can be slightly difficult.

3. Nox Player Emulator

Extremely popular, Nox Player Emulator is known to be fully compliant with newly released GDPR policies. This emulator has evolved to become a major player in the Asian market. It is stable and offers a smooth experience.

The core features and benefits of the emulator are:

  1. It is free to use, but the company plans on an upgraded premium version with better features.
  2. Allows keyboard mapping for a better user experience.
  3. Allows running multiple applications at once.
  4. It comes with a macro-recorder to record complex operations that can later be executed with a single click.
  5. Available for both Windows and Mac users.

The negatives:

  1. It tends to lag performance when multiple applications are opened at once.
  2. The user interface could have been better to improve the overall experience.

4. Genymotion Emulator

One of the most highly-rated Android emulators present in the market is the Genymotion Emulator. It is targeted specifically at app developers, and it is proprietary software. What does that mean? If you want to emulate your Android device on your computer for browsing or gaming, this is not the one for you.

The core features and benefits of the emulator are:

  1. It is a highly sophisticated cross-platform emulator for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.
  2. Emulates over 3000+ Android devices.
  3. It has many features like high-pixel compatibility and the ability to forward multi-touch and gyroscope events from Android device to computer.
  4. Allows recording screencasts using a desktop webcam as the source of the video.
  5. It has the capability of emulating devices with external and internal storage.

The negatives:

  1. It is proprietary software with a high price tag of USD 136 to USD 412 per user per year.
  2. Designed for app developers.

5. KoPlayer Emulator

A robustly-built Android emulator, KoPlayer takes pride in running any application available on Google Play Store. This means that even if you don’t own an Android device, you can still use this application to access the Google Play Store and use the apps directly on your computer.

The core features and benefits of the emulator are:

  1. It comes with the support of all desktop peripheral devices like microphones, mice, keyboards, gamepads, cameras, etc.
  2. Offers a built-in video recorder.
  3. Allows playing Android games on a desktop.
  4. It allows capturing and even sharing gameplay.
  5. A dedicated toolbar allows volume adjustments, screen recording, resolution adjustments, orientation adjustments, and more.
  6. Available for both PC and Mac users.

The negatives:

  1. Custom options are not available to enhance the user experience. So, what comes bundled is what you get to use.

That completes our list of best Android emulators for PC and Mac. Because of the limited scope of this write-up, we cannot list all available emulators, and we apologize for the same.