Ever wish to run mobile android apps on your pc,
android emulator for windows
is the answer to this problem, earlier these emulators were primarily
used by developers but until when large number of users discovered the
benefits of running your favorite apps on pc these android emulator for
windows have gained huge popularity to leverage this popularity few
companies have built special emulators which has many features over
emulators which comes with android development package, here we will
discuss 5 best android emulator for windows in great detail so that you
could go over the list and pick the one which suits you best.
The top of our best android emulator for windows list is bluestacks it topped our list for its popularity, features and quality
Bluestacks
Bluestacks is one of the popular
software amongst android emulator for windows, this is not complete
virtual software it is more of an app player. Company has raised series
of funding from major VC’s to build this product, it has a simple user
interface, Before launching the software you might expect to get android
like interface but that is not the case it has a completely different
grey and white display quite different from other android emulator for
windows, you have to complete one time setup to configure your device
this is done not only to sync the apps currently installed on your
device but also to push any app from bluestacks to your device.
You can search for an app on play store using the search field and
install the app on your pc. The user experience could be a lot better if
you have a windows 8 touch screen display as you could perform action
just the way you would do on android smart phone, however if you don’t
have touch display to perform a swipe, click and hold the mouse button
down, move the mouse cursor, and then release
few downsides using bluestacks is not all features of the app can be
used and this android emulator for windows still has lot of bugs
freezing, lags are pretty common issues you can encounter, though it is
not the best android emulator for windows but it has a great potential
to be one.
Click here to download bluestacks
Quick Features
- Push apps from app to your device
- Ease of pc to navigate on bigger screen
- Runs on mac pc as well
The second on our best android emulator for windows list is
YouWave,though it has potential to be on the top but because it is a
paid app it could not make it to the pole position
You Wave
You Wave offers full android
system unlike bluestacks app player the menu and options are just like a
regular android home screen, however you wave is a paid application but
comes with ten days of free trial to try out the software, this is the
only android emulator for windows on our list which doesn’t offer free
version. You wave android emulator for windows works on resources from a
software called virtual box, if this piece of virtualization software
is installed on your system then you will have to remove it before
installing the you wave because both will be relying on same services.
You may decide to install android on virtual box by skipping you wave
but that calls for more work however by doing this you don’t have to
pay to you wave makers. Unlike bluestacks, you wave doesn’t come
preloaded with top apps however you can install play store to get your
favorite apps, to install Google play Click the View menu, select Online
Content, and click on the Google Play icon, then Click the View menu
again, select Apps, and click the Google Play app to download Google
play.
Just like bluestacks You Wave does require Google account to access
your account, if you have one you can enter the details else you can
always create one, performance of apps on you wave android emulator for
windows is much faster with almost no lags and with very similar android
user interface experience navigation is easy & fun.
Click here to download You Wave
Quick Features
- Complete android user experience
- Fast performance with almost no lags
- Only ten days of free trail
The third on our list of best android emulator for windows is native
android emulator, technically the third party android emulator are
better performing and offers lot more features than this but because it
is standard and reliable emulator it is on 3rd position
Native Android Emulator
Google android development kit
comes with an emulator, though this is primarily used by folks
developing apps however you can go ahead and use this emulator to run
apps on pc for casual usage too, however unlike bluestacks and you wave
android emulator for windows installing this one is little tricky as we have to install the complete android development kit to get this emulator.
one of the downsides of using this emulator is you don’t have direct
access to Google play to download the apps, you will have to manually
download apk file for each app and upload file in emulator which is
really cumbersome process, this method is not very reliable but it is
good to know it exist if you ever need it.
Click here to download Google native Emulator
Quick Feature
- Free Native emulator with complete android user experience.
- Stable performance but not as good as bluestacks or you wave.
- No direct access to Google play to install apps.
The fourth on our best android emulator for windows list is
Genymotion (former Android VM), it offers great features but it is
relatively new which is why it is on the fourth position.
GenyMotion
Formerly android vm has been upgraded to
Genymotion,
developers aim to replace android native emulator and increase its
usage from just testing to presentation and much more, it is a quality
& feature rich product. Genymotion is available for windows, mac
& linux. Like You Wave genymotion does rely on resources from
virtual box, if you are trying to install it on windows the installation
package is bundled with Virtual box but for mac and Linux virtual box
has to be installed separately.
Genymotion has a lot of features to offer including but not limited
to Wi-Fi, GPS emulators, hardware acceleration, command line utility
& eclipse IDE plugin, developers goal is to include many more
sensors in coming versions,
click here to download Genymotion
Quick Features
- Good connectivity options to emulate wifi connection
- GPS emulation options, to test gps functionality of app
- Build in command line to interact with genymotion
The final and fifth position on our best android emulator for windows
list is jar of beans, it offers a feature rich product however many
issues regarding its performance has been reported by users.
Jar of Beans
As the name suggest this emulator is built on android jelly bean
operating system, this android emulator for windows is pretty popular
amongst developers community, it supports hardware acceleration on intel
machines which improves emulator performance,
jar of beans
works on a resolution of 1280*768 or higher. There are specific buttons
designed to install apk, control volumes and users, you can also create
a virtual sd card card.
The newer version of this
android emulator for windows
has play store integrated to install apps directly. though the emulator
is feature rich however freezing, error messages & installation
problems are pretty common issues users have reported.
Click here to download jar of beans
Quick Features
- Supports hardware acceleration to improve performance (only on intel based machines)
- Works on 1280*768 or higher resolution
- Option to create virtual SD card