Mobile phones that are powered by operating systems such as Android enable new possibilities for entertainment, gaming, productivity, business, etc. Running Android on a mobile device has its own advantages, but in some cases like Android application development and gaming running Android on a PC will be hugely beneficial due to the facts like better performance, large screen, keyboard/mouse control, screen recording, improved frame rates, easy to test and generate bug reports, etc.
Android emulators that are installed on a PC serve a vast variety of purposes such as, gaming, Android application development, game testing, app testing, and so on. In some cases, normal Windows users tend to run Android on emulators just because it supports keyboard and mouse.
There are mainly two types of Android emulators in the market, emulators that are developed purely for gaming and emulators that are made for developers. But with the advancements of operating systems such as Android and Windows, there are many Android emulators that can satisfy both purposes.
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Below we shall discuss some well-known android gaming emulators ranked based on their performance, user-friendliness, and features:
1. LDPlayer
LDPlayer is one of the most trending and innovative free Android emulators in the market. This is ranked top mainly because LDPlayer has a bunch of great features that are both beneficial for everyday gamers and more advanced Android developers. You can download LDPlayer Android emulator easily from its official website.
It is evident that LDPlayer tops in the performance sector by being one of the most compatible Android emulators out in the market, the developers at LDPlayer has managed to do this by rolling out two versions of the software, Version 3 which is based on Android 5.1 and Version 4 which is based on Android 7.1 kernel, which both have with two versions: 32-bit architecture-based systems and 64-bit architecture-based systems.
These facts ensure that LDPlayer performs in harmony with the computer’s CPU (Central Processing Unit), GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and RAM (Random Access Memory) that ultimately leads to better performance, stability, and compatibility.
Performance aside LDPlayer has a decent amount of features that are useful in gaming, application development, and many more. These unique and innovative features enable LDPlayer to be one of the upcoming market leaders. These features include but are not limited to:
● External APK Installation
● Keyboard and Mouse Support
● Key Mapping
● Operation Recording
● Multi Instances
● Gamepad Compatibility
2. BlueStacks
BlueStacks player had written its name in the market as one of the first Android emulators. With years of experience, BlueStacks has been able to improve itself to be one of the leading and most stable Android emulators for PC. It is a very well balanced and user-friendly Android emulator that can be used for any purpose.
BlueStacks 4 which is the latest emulator up-to-date has all the many features and performance upgrades. BlueStacks has been known for its easy installation, ease of use, decent performance, etc.
The latest version of BlueStacks is filled with some exciting and unique features, given below are some of them:
● Keyboard and Mouse Control
● Screen Recording
● Multi Instances
● Multi-instance sync
● Macros
BlueStacks is one of the most recommended Android emulators on PC that has a great community of tutorials, guidelines, and forums around it. The only reason that it is not in the first place is to unlock some advanced features a small sum of money has to be paid and otherwise there will be some annoying ads.
3. Genymotion
Genymotion is a powerful Android emulator which is mainly used by developers for Android applications/game development and testing. It is equipped with a lot of developer-friendly features. One of the most advanced features of this emulator is that it has plugins for Eclipse and Android Studio allowing the user to launch Genymotion right from within those IDEs for development and testing purposes. Even though it is a highly advanced Android emulator, Genymotion is pretty user friendly.
Genymotion also comes in two versions, cloud base, and desktop. This is hugely beneficial in a development environment. Given below are some of the features of Genymotion:
● Network Quality Emulation
● Can simulate multi-touch interactions
● Allows setting a custom Android or device ID
● Comes bundled with Virtual Box
● GPS Widget
Genymotion is highly recommended if you are looking for an Android emulator for development purposes and for someone willing to pay the price.
4. GameLoop
GameLoop Android emulator which was previously known as Tencent Gaming Buddy is a product developed by Tencent, the same company that created the Android version of the popular battle royale video game PUBG. Originally this emulator came out as the official Android emulator on PC to play Tencent’s own game PUBG, but later this emulator evolved into a fully-fledged software which not supports almost every game in the market.
GameLoop being an Android emulator specifically designed for gaming has some exciting performance upgrades as well, one of these upgrades being, built-in services for optimizing network performance to reduce lag, support for easier discovery of online players, built-in access for live streams on Nimotv and Nonolive services. And GameLoop emulator has a Game Center which is a centralized hub for discovering, downloading, and playing a wide variety of most popular Android games.
This player has all the other standard functionalities of an emulator such as:
● Key Mapping
● Keyboard and mouse support
● Screen recording
5. NoxPlayer
NoxPlayer is an Android emulator developed by the developers at BigNox, This is ranked one of the most powerful and easy to use game-centric Android emulators in the market. NoxPlayer has features such as multi-instance, built-in keyboard control, screen recording, etc.
One of the other leading features of NoxPlayer is that it gives the user root access onto the system, NoxPlayer is one of the few Android emulators that gives this possibility. This process can be done within a few clicks.