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The best Android Emulator? BlueStacks vs Andy vs MEmu

T

Tristan IABS

Lurker
I am a big fan of Android game, but have always being in a situation where I want to play a game, I couldn’t use my phone or my battery is going to die. Sometimes I even couldn't enjoy some fancy games because of small screen but thick fingers... :)​

Well, it is actually possible to solve all the headaches with Android Emulator. When you install an emulator on PC, you get a virtual console in which you can use any Android apps and games. Today, I am going to share my experience of three popular Android emulators: BlueStacks, Andy and MEmu. So let's check it out!​

  • Performance
Benchmark: AnTuTu v5.6
CPU: Intel i5 3.3GHz
Memory: 8GB
Graphics: GeForce GTX 950

AnTuTu.png


To my surprise, MEmu obtains the highest score 96375 and way ahead of the others. Andy's score is 73376 and BlueStacks's is 67807. MEmu seems pulls off this impressive performance by running Android apps natively on x86 processor whenever possible. On the other hand, when launching these three emulators, BlueStacks starts up a little faster than the others. I guess it's probably because BlueStacks is a lightweight solution which doesn't virtualize the full Android system.​

  • Use and Setup
BlueStacks is extremely easy to install and setup. In fact, there is very few things could be configured. BlueStacks has its own user interface apart from the standard Android interface. Frankly speaking, I am not a fan of this UI although it's particularly focused on games. The worse thing is BlueStacks costs $2 a month to keep playing.​

Andy is not as simple as BlueStacks. I did have a problem actually installing it but somehow I fixed it. Once you launch Andy, you will get a standard Android interface and need to connect your Google account to Andy at the first time. Andy offers a handy feature that you can launch Android apps from shortcuts in your Windows desktop.​

For MEmu, downloading and installing is amazingly easy. With the default setting, I can directly run any app exactly like it on the Android phone or tablet. I was also surprised that I can change the brand, model and even IMEI, and etc. Sometimes it's very useful, I bet you know that.;)​

  • Gaming and Productivity
As you can see, BlueStacks concentrates more on games rather than regular apps, as its home page filled with suggested games by category reveals. Hence, it's no surprise that the suggested games run fairly well. Unfortunately, I found the program to be buggy and slow in some regular apps.​

Unlike BlueStacks, Andy focuses on an overall experience for both games and regular apps. It actually plays the game better than BlueStacks in terms of stability, but sometimes a little bit slower. The good thing is that Andy supports third party launcher and even allows the use of widgets.​

MEmu also provides a more rounded experience than BlueStacks. It puts all suggested apps and games in MEmu market, but seems most of them are popular in China. So I downloaded a few apps and games from Google Play and they all went very smoothly. One of the things I really like personally is the ability of comprehensive keyboard mapping, since it makes me play shooting game much better than in my Android phone.​

  • Multiplayer Mode
The multiplayer mode is an innovative feature which makes it possible to run several emulators spontaneously. Instead of pushing other apps/games to the background, you can switch between them on the same computer screen. This is like having several phones for real-time multi-tasking.​

BlueStacks and Andy don't support this mode natively, but it's said that you could create multiple instances of BlueStacks or Andy with the help of sandbox.​

MEmu has a thoughtful design for this feature. The activation process is very simple and I was able to create several MEmu players in a few clicks. It’s also easy to customize the CPU occupation and RAM of each emulator was introduced. Moreover, it takes up much less resource, compared to sandbox solution. So MEmu wins it clearly.​

  • Misc Features
BlueStacks offers a feature of syncing apps between your phone and the Windows app via a cloud connect app. Andy lets you use your Android phone as a remote control, mirroring the screen on Andy on your phone. MEmu could be launched from a USB thumb without any software installation. With this portable version, you can easily plug and play and bring MEmu everywhere in your pocket.​

  • Overall
There are many other Android emulators and your choice really depends on your needs. If you need something super simple that plays some light games occasionally, then BlueStacks may be a good choice. For most of Android fans, Andy and MEmu are definitely worth a try. They are both free and powerful. As to me, I will go with MEmu because of good performance and multiplayer mode.

Well, I will be happy to hear your choice or suggestion. :)

BlueStacks: http://www.bluestacks.com
Andy: http://www.andyroid.net
MEmu: http://www.xyaz.cn/en​
 

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I haven't tried MEmu, but I've tried Leapdroid, Droid4x, Bluestacks, and Nox and from my experience Leapdroid has been the best. On their site they have a similar benchmark chart for AnTuTu 6.17 which Leapdroid is higher up than MEmu, here's the link: http://www.leapdroid.com/. Leapdroids also been myu personal pick :)
 
I have tried many Android emulator apps in my Windows 10 such as Bluestacks, but I was never able to get Android experience like the way I use my Android phone. Then i got this app, as long as you use this desktop software, after building connection, you can fully control android phone from pc, and then using your mouse and keyboard to play mobile games. The drawback is that sometimes it crashes during the process of playing, i need to reconnect.
 
Hello,
the problem with bluestack is that i cannot fix the startup ram and speed warning even on a icore7 8gb.
I read all but still get the message on startup, do you know why ?
thank you.
 
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