It is pretty common that most users who want to emulate the Android phones in computer experience for various specific reasons.
The most common reason why someone would want to run Android emulators on their PC are:
App developers who want to perform App testing before publishing it.
Mobile users or gamers who might want to use it with a keyboard, mouse, bigger display or etc devices on their Mobile games or apps for better gaming or experiences.
Mobile users who want to use apps that are not available on PC platforms.
Getting a Chromebook laptop to solely use Android apps could still be considered pretty redundant, since Chromebook couldn’t load any PC apps, therefore using PC with Android Emulator is a good choice at this moment.
If you have noticed that Windows 11 was now packed with native Android apps support, however Android apps were only downloadable using the mandatory “Amazon App Store” and operated as a virtual machine. However it is still limited at the current previous stage with only 50 downloadable apps, which could be getting ready for the upcoming stages. In the midst stages, its functionality and performance has not been generally confirmed or tested, therefore could be getting a different experience than the best Android Emulator we compiled here from very well-known famous developers.
What is the Android Version for the mostly available Android Emulator for PC?
For your information, there are now still no Android emulators coming freely with the latest Android version, except those who made them specifically for big Android developers.
Good news for you is that most apps could essentially function on older versions of Android so this shouldn’t be the issue in most cases. For most emulators are currently running between version of Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 9.0 Pie
1) BlueStacks
BlueStacks was very popular at an early stage, where there are not many competitors who are providing this great free Android emulator. It is supported to be installed in both PC Windows and Mac, while packs with great various features to improve user’s experiences. The important key mapping tools available allow customizable control for gaming.
Since BlueStacks was backed by angel investors of big manufacturers Samsung, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and more, this posts a great safeness for all users out there to download and install them to their PC with trust.
The latest version of BlueStacks is getting lightest in RAM consumption and fast performance emulator even installed on low-end devices. You should try BlueStack emulator and find out the reason for its dominance, which has been downloaded 1 billion times worldwide.
Emulator Name: BlueStacks
Price: Free-to-use
Drawback: Advertisement in home screen only
Supported by: Samsung, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and more
GameLoop, is a great Android Emulator supported by a big game developer, called Tencent. They are the game developers of Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, etc in case you don’t know how big Tencent is. Since GameLoop operates on Android, you can download any apps from the Google Play Store as usual and any games or apps tested run with no issue. Gaming emulating using GameLoop can be a pretty good experience for most game reviews, and the keyboard controls and performance works perfectly well.
Emulator Name: GameLoop
Price: Free-to-use
Drawback: Ads in the homescreen.
Developer: Tencent
Supported by: Tencent (Largest gaming company in the world)
MEmu was launched by a developer called Microvirt in 2015. This is an Android Emulator they tried to elevate the experience of playing mobile games on PC and carrying vision to be the ultimate platform for play, connect, create, test and more.
MEmu aims to provide the best experience playing Android games and apps on PC by ensuring support for both famous chipset Intel and AMD work well with it.
You are getting an Android Emulator with an Android version of Android Jelly Bean, Kit Kat and Lollipop that are suitable for most latest apps. If you ever want to launch and play multiple instances of games to test the feature, it works smoothly with no issue. The focus of MeMU placed on gamers similar to BlueStacks for much greater gaming experience. MEmu is safe to use and currently has more than 100 million downloads in over 200 countries and 20 languages, which is still growing rapidly.
You can enjoy using this emulator FREE with ads or with a premium version at $2.99 cost per month to disable the ads, with more customization feature, premium support and so on. The best part for this emulator is that it gets updated quite frequently which you can check their latest release at their official website in the link below.
Emulator Name: MEmu
Price: Free-to-use
Drawback: Ads in the homescreen
Developer: Microvirt
Supported by: Microvirt (founders came from Intel, Huawei and other Chinese Internet companies)
LDPlayer is developed by a China company and was known as a low memory consumption emulator with great gaming performance as highlight. You have access to good keymapping control features, macros, multiple or similar apps, simultaneous operation, high FPS, graphic tweaks, and more. The negligible trade off is that this emulator will sideload other softwares during the installation stages, which can be no worry to just uncheck them.
Various great games were supported which includes Clash of Clans, Mobile Legend, PUBG Mobile and more. The essential apps if you want to load them such as Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, and more work well with no issue. You can expect frequent active updates to improve its overall performance.
MuMU is an Android emulator developed by another huge Game developer, NetEase. Provided that this emulator runs with Android 9 Beta release. Gamers who reviewed this emulator discovered good gaming performance with enough features for consideration and no significant issue found. Still, BlueStacks, GameLoop and MeMU have the lead in terms of more features and regular updates. There are times other emulators may have issues with certain games or apps while the MuMu emulator can be a great replacement or a significant option to consume.
Nox android emulator, also named as Nox App Player which operates with Android version of 5/7/9. For general use of Nox, you are getting the usual features such as key-mapping for keyboard, actual controller capability, gesture control key-mapping and more. This emulator works with great performance most of the time. You can enjoy playing with this Android emulator FREE and keep excited with its frequent updates.
Following Are Better For Apps Developer Standpoint of Emulator Choice:
7) Android Studio Emulator
Android Studio Emulator is focused around the default development console, IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Android devices. You get various tools in it to assist developers making apps and games specifically for Android devices. After the compilation, the emulator allows users to test out the developed apps or game accordingly. The setup for this emulator can be more complicated but suitable for app developers because its fast and rich features are by far the best compared to others. The Google Play Store can normally download apps and you can set custom launchers and keyboards, or emulate any different size of devices’ form factor even to the latest foldable devices.
Emulator Name: Android Studio emulator
Price: Free-to-use
Drawback: None
Developer: Google Developers
Supported by: Google Developers.
Compatibility: Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
ARChon operates quite interestingly since it’s a Runtime for Chrome, which means it runs Android apps via Google Chrome Extension installation. If you frequently use Chrome browser, the ability to run Android apps is possible using this method which is pretty simple in most cases, however you could encounter limited support.
To install an app, you need to download APKs and load them in, which at first requires another step to change or convert in order to make it compatible. If you hate extra steps required by this emulator, then you can skip this. However, if you prefer to take some time to use it, which is a convenient bundle with Chrome, go get it now because it also supports OS such as macOS, Linux, Windows, etc.
Xamarin is also an IDE, quite similar to Android Studio, which comes with a built-in emulator for apps for game testing. This Android emulator was more suitable for app builders or developers. The work around of installation and setup requires hefty of work than for regular gamers. It works good but not as powerful compared to Genymotion. You get the features of configurable you need in it and are free for personal usage while companies with larger teams may have to negotiate a payment plan with them.
Genymotion is a great emulator mostly suitable for developers. You can use this emulator to test apps on different Android devices and other Android version without getting a physical one. Common users may find this emulator rather difficult, or more professional use than average gaming experience. It focus with mostly free features for personal use and suitable for lower power computers to act as servers for various tasks for developer’s needs.
Yes, there are ways to build your own emulator, and that requires operating the Android OS using VirtualBox (Virtual Machine) and followed by complicated processes. However, I believe most of you are major Android consumers who would be searching for this topic for ease of selection which are the best Android Emulator instead of building their own complicated time taking process.
Should I Install Keyboard Mapping Apps for Gaming with the Android Emulator?
Most of the Android Emulator listed above comes with keyboard mapping features customizable for great gaming experience and testing the apps and more.
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