Are you passionate about mobile video games, does your smartphone run on Android? Would you like to play your favorite games on your PC comp...
The Android system on devices
Android is an operating system that allows you to operate smartphones, tablets, connected watches, televisions, and many other everyday devices. Like Windows for the PC computer, Android is the environment that facilitates the use of our High-Tech devices with its various installed software.
The Android mobile operating system has been developed by Google since 2008. It runs on various ARM, MIPS, and x86 architecture platforms. Android is based on open source code it is said to be open source and it is part of the Linux family.
The Android logo might tell you something, it's called Bugdroid, it's a little green robot. Some would argue that Bugdroid would be taken from the game Gauntlet: The Third Encounter, released in the 90s with a strange gray robot named Android as a character.
It is therefore thanks to the Android operating system that most smartphones work nowadays, in 2015 Android was more used than Apple's iOS system, with a market share exceeding 80%, all versions combined.
If you regularly play with your mobile, you have already imagined playing your favorite Android games on your computer. You are not dreaming, the solution exists, it is called the Android emulator. Let's see the various free solutions that will allow you to play your favorite games on your computer.
NoxPlayer: Android emulation on PC within everyone's reach
NoxPlayer, also called Nox App Player, is an easy-to-use emulator that runs on Windows or macOSX. It emulates Android games or apps. It's a kind of Virtual Machine for Android that installs simply, like any software. Nox Player will allow you to enjoy your video games on PC since it is more geared towards gamers. But you can very well use classic applications in the same way as you would with your smartphone.
The installation of the software is simple, as soon as it is completed the software launches and does not require any configuration or configuration to operate. This is a big advantage over some of these competitors. Nox Player will allow you to play your games with a keyboard and mouse.
A very good idea included in Nox Player is the integration of the Google Play store, with which you can install all your favorite applications. If you develop your own mobile applications on Android, you can also import your. APK under Nox Player, to test its operation with your PC under the Android environment.
BlueStacks 5 emulates Android on computer
This second Android emulator on PC is also intended to be an optimal solution for games. BlueStacks App Player offers a simple and clean environment, which stands out from the Google and Windows solutions that we will see next. This emulation is therefore mainly oriented for video games, a very large majority of applications present on Google Play will be compatible with BlueStacks 5.
The latest version of the software offers promising results, indeed the resources of the computer are better managed in order to offer optimal comfort of use. According to some performance tests, BlueStacks could even achieve six times the speed of some state-of-the-art phones such as the Samsung Galaxy 9+ or the OnePlus 6.
To expect such performance, you will need to use a fairly powerful computer, to run certain video games, a config with a Core i5 processor and 4 GB of memory is a bit tight. So if you want to play properly with fluidity, opt for a recent computer with a configuration optimized for games.
Android emulators for developers
Among the software for emulating Android on a PC computer, there are two in particular that are more programming-oriented. The first is Android Studio, developed by Google, it is the benchmark for developing applications in the Android environment. Its installation is quite long and the software requires a few GB of space on the hard disk.
Android Studio is perfectly functional on a computer running Windows. In addition to its features dedicated to the creation of Android applications, the software can emulate any smartphone. You will be able to test an application. APK format on your PC.
The second software is dedicated to developers, and also includes an Android emulator and Xamarin software. This is the solution developed by Microsoft for developers of mobile applications on Android, but also for iOS for iPhones. The software from Microsoft, like its competitor from Google, is not at first glance intended for gamers. The installation is long and takes up a lot of space on the hard disk. But you can still enjoy a functional Android emulator on a PC.
