But we’d put Nox ahead of it on performance, and Genymotion is miles ahead on both performance and features (albeit a lot more expensive).Ī final, slightly worrying, note: a Reddit user believes AndY installs a cryptocurrency miner that runs in the background even when the program is closed.

This is a straightforward enough emulator that does the job, and because it’s free it won’t hurt to give it a try. There’s no way to update to a newer version from within the app, although AndY may be itself be updated in future. We installed the latest version of AndY and it came with Android 4.2.2.

Performance was okay, but we saw occasional slowdown (on a 2015 MacBook Pro), and one app – Fruit Ninja – refused to load at all. This is not behaviour we’d expect from a reputable piece of software, but both could be skipped without apparent consequences and we’ve not had problems since, so we’ll look the other way for now. This popular choice of emulator didn’t start well: during the installation process (which took a while to complete)ĪndY encouraged us to install a search tool, and then something called ‘Advanced Mac Cleaner’. And you can connect a physical device to your Mac and use it as a remote control for apps you’re testing in Genymotion.

Ours timed out a few times before we could get it to complete, although this is partly down to a less-than-ideal broadband connection.)Īnother advantage over Nox is that, at time of writing, you can go all the way up to Android 8 Oreo, rather than being stuck in the stone age of 4.4.2: an essential inclusion for those who want to experiment with Android features as they currently are rather than as they used to be. (Be warned that it can take ages to download the necessary files to ‘build’ your virtual device expect anywhere up to 350MB. When you open the app you’re asked to add a virtual device, and you can decide what model this is – such as a Google Nexus 6P – and the version of Android it runs. It’s targeted primarily at software developers rather than consumers, but if you think you need its power, give it a try. Genymotion is a far more sophisticated emulator than Nox, but then you do pay through the nose for the privilege (a free trial is available, mind you).

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