6 Lightweight Best Android Emulators for PC in 2020

Today I am going to show you Best Android Emulators for PC in 2020. Our list of lightweight best Android Emulators for PC contains 6 hand-picked emulators. If you are an Android fan and you want to run Android applications on your PC or laptop, then you need to read this detailed article about Best Android Emulators for PC in 2020. But first, let us first see what an Android emulator is.

What is an Android Emulator?

An Android emulator is basically a virtual device specifically Android Virtual device (also known as AVD), that help you run any of the Android applications on your PC or laptop. It virtually installs Android OS over your current running operating system. You can enjoy all the Android features on your PC or laptop.

How an Android Emulator works?

With the open-source nature of Android, developers have the freedom to use Android the way they want. SDK tools offered by Google have a built-in Android emulator. The very basic function of the emulator was to test a freshly developed Android application before releasing it. Android emulators let developers choose the best software and hardware that will best suit the end-users.

Android emulators give a real Android user experience to developers right in their testing phase. They can easily emulate all functionalities like calls, messages, games, in fact, every single functionality. As Android emulators gained popularity among developers, it was diversely approached by different companies. The end result was Android emulators for common Android user like Bluestacks or Gennymotion.

Why do you need Android Emulator?

With the current development in Android applications, it has become a major part of our life and we totally rely on Android devices. From handheld devices to wearable, android has taken over every aspect of our day to day life. It can be used for gaming, texting, office works and much more.

Android emulators were invented in 2010. With the invention of Android emulators, it has paved the way for Android users to enjoy Android applications in PC. No matter if you are PC or laptop users, the versatile collection of Android applications will drive your attention to use it in your PC. Now let’s have a look at how the Android emulator can be helpful to you.

• One very obvious reason is that, you don’t have an Android phone and still want to enjoy Android application. In such conditions, it is ideal to use an emulator.
• There is an amazing application or let say a game that you want to enjoy on a bigger screen, Android emulator will do the job
• Speaking of games, if you are games freak and want to play games using your PC’s keyboard and mouse, emulators will enable you to do so.
• The main reason is there is a certain application that is not available for PC but exists in Android, emulators will let you enjoy it in your PC.
• If you are an Android developer, then using an emulator to test your application in a very testing phase is an ideal choice.
• No need to worry about running out of storage, use your PC’s storage to accommodate Android applications or games
• If your Android device happens to have weak hardware that can not withstand heavy applications or games, you can easily enjoy that game or application in an emulator on your PC.

Requirements of PC for running Android emulators

Having an ocean of functionalities, Android emulators are quite heavy applications to run in your PC. However, requirements differ from users to users. Some may want to install a lightweight Android emulator just to run ordinary games and applications. Some may want to use a high-end emulator with a maximum number of options. It is totally user-dependent. However, the general requirement for installing an Android emulator in your PC is listed down below.

• Windows 7/ Windows 8/ Windows 10 or MAC OS
• At least 2 GB of RAM
• At least 2GB of Hard drive
• A broadband internet connection
• Open GL 2.0 or above

Note that the above mentioned system requirements are different for different Android emulators. Above mentioned are least to have an Android emulator in your system. Let us have a look at Best Lightweight Android Emulators for PC in 2020 in detail.

Best Android Emulators for PC

Following is the list where I have listed down the best Android emulators for PC including the best Android emulators for Windows and best Android emulators for macOS. The list has been sorted with the best emulator being on the top. Take a look and choose the one that suits you the best.

Bluestacks 4.1

The top choice in our best Android emulators for the PC list is the BlueStacks. Almost all Android users are familiar with Bluestacks. It is one of the oldest and one of the best Android emulators. With amazing features and easy to use interface, it is popular among Android users. You can easily login through your Google account and access the play store. Bluestacks supports almost 96 percent of Android games and applications. For the amusement of end-users, it is claimed that Bluestacks 4.1 is 8 times faster than Samsung Galaxy S9+. It is compatible with Windows7/8/10 and macOS devices.

The only reason Bluestacks can be beaten by its competitiveness is limitation of computer hardware. Like if a PC has 8GB of RAM, out of these 8GBs, 4GBs will be required by Bluestacks. It means that you can not unleash Bluestacks at fullest potential.

System Requirements for Bluestacks Android Emulator

In order to install Bluestacks in your system you need to have the following system requirements.

• At least 4GB of Hard drive space
• Around 4GB of RAM
• MAC OS Sierra or Windows 7/8/10
• You have to update the graphic drivers from Graphics manufacturer
• You have administrative rights of the system

Nox App Player

Our second pick for the Best Android Emulators for PC is the Nox Player. Next in our best Android emulators for PC list is the Nox App Player. Nox App Player is another very good Android emulator. It is way lighter than Bluestacks. Due to its lightweight nature, it is quite faster. This Android emulator is specifically designed for gaming. If you are someone who loves Android games, then Nox Player is out there for you. This emulator doesn’t require high-end system specs.

An amazing experience of FPS games can be achieved with this emulator. Custome keymapping is fairly easy with both mouse and keyboard. The interface provided is stock android and the user will instantly feel home with this emulator.

System Requirements for Nox App Player

Nox App Player doesn’t require a very high end system. This is the reason it lacks in some features as compared to other emulators.

• Nox player can run on Windows 7/ Windows 8/ Windows 10
• Need a very basic dual-core processor, Intel or AMD
• At least 2 GB of RAM
• Only 1 GB of Hard drive
• You must have open GL 2,.0 or above
• A broadband internet connection

Genymotion Android Emulator

The 3rd choice in the best Android Emulators for PC is Genmotion. It’s not exactly built for everyday use. Genymotion is a great choice to run tools for PC. Specially designed for developers, users can set up multiple virtual machines. These virtual machines mimic the behavior of various processors. It may also act as the entire phone’s architecture. Not recommended for gamers, this emulator is only best suitable for android application testing.

There are two versions of Genymition. One for personal use is free and the other for developers is a paid version. It offers the freedom to its users. It gives you the option to select an Android device during set up. Like if a developer wants to test their app on two different devices, Genymotion allows them to set up two different virtual machines with completely different configurations.

System Requirements for Genymotion Emulator

Providing tons of features to developers, Genymotion becomes a hot favorite choice. It does not require a high-end system to run. Recommended system requirements for running Genymotion are listed down below

• It works on Window 7/8/10 and Mac OS 10.9 or above
• Also, support Linux Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora
• Requires only 2GB of RAM
• As low as 100 Mb hard drive space is required
• You need to have Screen resolution greater than 1024*768 pixels
• Requires 64 bit CPU, AMD -V Capability enabled in BIOS

LDPlayer Android Emulator

It is an Android emulator mainly used as a gaming platform. It supports high end games to run buttery smooth in your PC. Games like PUBG and clash of clans is a piece of cake for LDPlayer. It provides a very simple and intuitive user interface. This emulator offers handsome features to gamers like keymapping, multi-instance, and APK support.

The multi-instance feature allows you to launch multiple LDPlayer instances and log in several accounts at the same time. Download APK application from Playstation and enjoy using it on a big screen. It is considered one of the best and lightest emulators that are specifically used for gaming.

System Requirements for LDPlayer Emulator

Build for gamers, this emulator’s system requirements are a bit higher than the former. As games need more graphics, so you need to have a comparatively better system. However, Recommended system requirements for running LDPLayer are listed down below

• It will easily run on Windows 7/8//8.1/10
• Needs Windows DirectX 11 or Graphic driver with OpenGL 2.0
• At least 2GB of RAM is needed
• Minimum 2GB hard drive space required
• It also needs Intel or AMD CPU Processor like x86 or x86_64

MEMU Android Emulator

2nd last in our list of best Android emulators for PC is the MeMu. It is one of the most frequently updated emulators. MEMU OS is one of the latest entries in the Emulators club. This emulator tool is built with a focus on gaming. You can play games in HD without any hassle. The sound quality of the games is also incredible. Heavy games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Asphalt run so smoothly in MEMU OS. It offers a bundle of features like APK support, keymapping, operation record and many more.

The operation record feature actually records a macro and run it to easliy finish monotonous tasks. MEMU can also multiple instances like more than one MEmu app player running at the same time. The screen resolution is quite good even offering 4K resolution

System Requirements for MEMU Emulator

Full spport of all types of games, MEMU deosn’t require very high end system requirents. This makes it one of lightest Android emulators. Below mentioned are recommended system requirement for MEMU OS.

• It only works on Windows 7/8/10 not Mac OS
• You will need to have Intel or AMD CPU
• Requires GPU with OpenGL 2.0+ support.
• At least 1 GB of RAM
• Minimum of 2GB free hard drive space

KOPlayer Emulator

The next is KOPlayer and it is the last in our list of best Android emulators for PC. KOPlayer is also primarily built for gamers. It is built using the latest kernel X86 Android architecture. Runs all sorts of games so smoothly. It supports an amazing feature that is built-in screen recording. You can either take a screenshot or record a video. You can easily record games and upload them later to your youtube channel. It also supports other features like keymapping and remote controller.

The user interface is very simple and intuitive. It has an internal integrated play store. It is so lightweight that even Windows XP users can also run it. Within this application, it comes with different input devices like mouse, gamepad, and keyboard.

System requirements for KOPlayer Emulator

That being said that it can be run on Windows XP, KOplayer is very lightweight and doesn’t need high-end system requirements. The Recommended system requirements are listed down below.

• It runs on Windows7/8/10
• It only requires as low as Dual-core AMD or Intel CPU.
• Requires 2GB of RAM
• In terms of Hard drive, it requires around 10Gb of free hard drive space
• Speaking of graphics it works with OpenGL 2.1.
• The minimum resolution required for KOPlayer is 1024X768.

Conclusion

That’s all with the best Android Emulators for PC. Our goal is to aware of people of lightweight Android emulators so that people with low system quotations can enjoy high-end Android games and applications. Android emulators give you the freedom of enjoying Android games on a bigger screen without any need for Android devices. All mentioned Android emulators are hand tested and are well known for their performance. We suggest you try multiple emulators until you find one that suits you the best.