Android emulators for PC: Best to run games and apps

By

Running an Android emulator on your PC can be a good alternative for anyone who wants to try apps without spending the data plan, or for those who want to play their favorite mobile games, such as PUBG Mobile, with the comfort and precision of the keyboard and mouse.

Another advantage is that you can use a “real” keyboard in applications that require more dedication when typing, such as Evernote or Word. And since most of these apps work well on multiple Android devices, just set up your Google account to have all your data synced between the emulator and your devices.

Android emulators for PC: see the best in running games and apps

How to choose the best Android emulator on the PC

Emulators were tested on Windows 10 on a PC with Core i5-6600 processor. Although not so demanding on the minimum requirements, it’s good to check that your machine’s CPU supports virtualization technology (VT), since almost all emulators claim to run better or even require this option.

As our focus is on games, all of the above Android emulators come preconfigured with Google Play support, keyboard and mouse, and even some specific settings to improve game performance. There are built-in options for developers, and in most cases, Android Studio itself handles the message.

1. BlueStacks

The BlueStacks is one of the oldest Android emulators for PC and known to the market. The BlueStacks, its latest stable version, comes with Android 7.1.1 and its own interface, which may displease some users it also contains several pre-installed applications and, in the free version, lots of annoying advertising.

BlueStacks offers “download packages” with specific settings for popular games like Clash of Clans, and even a special game mode for battle royale games such as PUBG Mobile and Rules of Survival.

Google Play support lets you install apps like Instagram and Facebook, but apps like WhatsApp may not work because they require a valid phone number. Here’s how to download Google Play APKs in this tutorial.

The process of installing APKs is simple, with just a few clicks to open other instances of the emulator. However, BlueStacks does not offer as much freedom to change other settings, such as camera and GPS, as its competitors. The BlueStacks N, the latest version of the emulator, is available for testing.

2. NoxPlayer

Perhaps one of the main competitors of BlueStacks is NoxPlayer, another Android emulator for PC with good performance focused on games and applications. It allows you to further explore the potential of Android with various configurations, but with a less user friendly interface.

Although it comes with version 4.4.2 of Android by default, you can create a new instance of the emulator with Android 5.1.1 and use it in the same way.

The NoxPlayer is the emulator with the best integration with Windows, creating shortcuts on the desktop for the apps installed on the virtual machine and using the notifications of the operating system.

3. MEmu Play

With less pre-installed advertising and a virtually identical interface to NoxPlayer, MEmu Play comes with Android 5.1.1 and had the most satisfying performance among the three options tested.

Keyboard and mouse integration and keymap support is great. Just like in NoxPlayer, MEmu Play also offers advanced settings such as setting the amount of CPUs to be emulated, available RAM, and macro recording for task automation on Android.

To install APKs, simply drag them to the emulator. If you want to download an app from MEmu Play to your mobile phone, just connect it to the PC via USB cable and install it by the program itself.

What is the best Android emulator for PC?

All emulators tested have common features such as:

  • Option to run in full-screen mode;
  • Integration with Google Play Store;
  • Easy to install APKs;
  • Screen capture tool;
  • File transfer between Android and PC;
  • Possibility to run multiple instances of the emulator;
  • Focus on mobile games, such as Candy Crush, Clash Royale, PUBG, Rules of Survivor, etc.

While some offer a newer version of Android (such as Nougat on BlueStacks 3 ), others are more configurable (like NoxPlayer ) or less infested with advertising (like MEmu Play ).

In our tests, the most enjoyable in terms of performance, ease of use and freedom of configuration was MEmu Play.

However, whether you’re a developer, an Android apps enthusiast, or a gamer wanting to play your favorite mobile game on your computer, feel free to try and choose the best Android emulator for PC. Then share with us in the comments.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We use cookies for providing you with the best-possible user experience. By using PrivacySavvy, you accept our privacy policy.
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookies list
Cookie name Active

Privacy Policy

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site or place an order. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address or mailing address.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways: To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs) To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you) To improve customer service (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs) To process transactions Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested. To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature To send periodic emails The email address you provide for order processing, will only be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to?keep the information confidential. After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be kept on file for more than 60 days.

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart, understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business. If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders by contacting customer service. Google Analytics We use Google Analytics on our sites for anonymous reporting of site usage and for advertising on the site. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behaviour on our sites please use this link (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/)

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions. We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you. To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section. After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’. Logging in using social networking credentials If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

Updating your personal information

We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
Save settings
Cookies settings