I recently upgraded from Macbook Air 2017 to Macbook Pro with an M1 chip. My four-year-old Macbook Air was giving up. The performance to run heavy tasks like using the iOS simulator when developing and working on React Native apps was declining. I had long given up using the Android emulator and used an actual Android device for testing.
- Feb 17, 2021 MacBooks with M1 can run Android apps with this software: What you need to know. If you're in need of running Android apps on a significantly bigger screen, the latest update from mobile gaming.
- Three months with M1 Macbook Air as a mobile developer. Self taught flutter developer with more than 3 years of experience. Being a flutter developer almost for three years, I always had to use virtual machines on my windows laptop to test and run flutter applications on ios device. It was always a terrible experience.
- Answer: The environment you have is good enough to run the ADT (i.e. Eclipse + Android plugin). However, the default emulator that comes with ADT would run slow and may be choppy.
I’ve never been a Mac guy.
My main gripe with Apple is that every Mac they release has a processor that’s about a generation behind. Then they have the audacity to charge the Apple tax. You typically pay 3x for a Mac what you’d pay for a PC with the exact same hardware.
Enter the M1 Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro. These are entry-level Mac products that price/performance wise are actually semi-competitive with Windows machines at the same price-point. OK Apple, I’m listening.
But, can it run XCode quickly?
The M1 Chip is Very Powerful, Perfect For Developers Looking to Run XCode
I’m a software engineer, and in 2018 I wanted to try my hand at XCode development. I figured I’d buy the cheapest Mac Apple offered. This was the 2018 Mac Mini, which cost $800, and a multi-core GeekBench 5 score of 3203.
I was annoyed by that price/performance ratio, so I decided to build a Hackintosh. This Hackintosh had 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Intel Core i7 processor with a multi-core GeekBench 5 score of 5300. I built a machine that was twice as powerful as the top of the line 2018 Mac Mini, for $200 less than the base model. This machine is powerful; it has been fantastic for XCode development.
However, in 2020, Apple released a new M1 Mac Mini for only $700. My first thought was, “Can it compete with my Hackintosh.” And yes, not only can it compete, The M1 Mac Mini has a multi-core GeekBench 5 score of 7386. It blows my Hackintosh out of the water, and the base model is cost-competitive with my 2018 Hackintosh at only $700.
It’s quite impressive. The Hackintosh is officially dead (not just because you can’t buy Apple Silicon processors). I can no longer think of a great reason to build one over the M1 Mac Mini, or M1 Macbook Air. The best reason I can think of is Apple still gouges you if you want a 2TB hard drive. But, other than needing a beast of a machine the M1 Macs have the advantage. Bravo Apple.
Is 8GB of RAM Enough For XCode on the M1 Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro?
This was the big question I had when I pulled the trigger and got the base M1 2020 Macbook Air. Was 8GB enough RAM to run the simulator without experiencing significant performance issues?
I know from my Hackintosh experience that a Mac can quickly get up over 8GB of RAM when running the XCode simulators. I rarely get my Mac up to 16GB of used RAM, but 8GB is pretty easy to surpass if you’re a developer with multiple tabs open. So I was very curious how much the 8GB model would slow down development.
If you’re curious too, I highly suggest you check out the YouTube video below from Max Tech. This guy went through and meticulously compared the performance of the 16GB model vs. the 8GB model while using tons of common apps.
The conclusion? Even if you edge up close to your 8GB of RAM limit, there’s not a massive drop in performance. He was experiencing things taking 10% longer on the 8GB model when he got around that limit. The integrated SSD’s of your Mac is fast to the point where a minor amount of swapping isn’t going to have a drastic effect on performance.
That said, this next guy is running Photoshop. He REALLY knows how to max out RAM on his machine. When you really give your Mac a task that takes significantly more than 8GB of RAM, you’ll notice a pretty substantial performance drop. It’s also worth a watch if you really want an in-depth example of this.
Personally, I’ll be forking over the extra $200 to get the 16GB model. But, I think unless you’re some type of power user, 8GB will be sufficient for you. The SSD Read speeds are so fast that you won’t notice a big performance drop unless you’re going WAY over the 8GB of RAM like in the Photoshop example above. There are probably very few use cases where that would ever happen.
There are people out there who are worried that swapping to your hard drive over and over could wear down your SSD. And if you intend to max out this machine 24/7 and still be running it in several years, I think that’s a valid concern.
For most developers and most people, I think you could easily get by with the 8GB model.
Do You Need To Run The XCode Simulator on the M1?
One of the cool things about the M1 Macs is that they can run iOS apps natively. This got me thinking, do I even need to debug my apps in the RAM hungry simulator anymore? Can I just run them straight from the Mac?… Yes!
There is a “run on Mac” destination for iOS apps in XCode, which will run the app natively on the machine, not in a simulator. It’s cool; you’ll lose simulator functionality like rotation, sleep, home button, etc. But, it’s now possible to avoid using a RAM hungry simulator when developing your apps on M1 devices.
Rosetta 2 Performance Vs. Native Apps
Not all software has an ARM based version of their app yet (like Final Cut Plugins) and you have to run it through the Rosetta 2 simulator.
This usually works rather well. But, there’s definitely a noticeable drop off in performance when comparing non-native apps to native apps on this machine.
Macbook Air M1 Android Emulator Windows 10
This will become less of an issue over time as more companies compile their apps for the M1 chip. But, in the early days of a gen 1 product just keep in mind that there may be some issues.
Conclusion
The M1 Macs are powerful machines capable of XCode development at an OK price point. Well done Apple, I might have to consider becoming a Mac guy now.
We’re all well aware about the capabilities of the Android platform. There are smartphones today that can compete with a wide range of technologies. However, what makes those devices really tick is the core Android platform. But what if you own an iPhone and still want to try out Android phone ? Well, you no longer have to purchase an expensive (or inexpensive) phone to find out. There are best Android emulator for Mac today that can help you run and bring full compatibility with all the features of Android (without owning one), while some even update their emulators with the latest version of Android.
With these Android Emulator For Mac, you can run apps for android, play games, and do pretty much anything like the Android device can (barring phone calls, obviously). Those are just the three main uses of a built in emulator. So we’re going to talk a bit about some of the most popular emulators out there. While some user friendly emulators are present here, we’re also going to talk about developer emulators that can help test out or run android apps and android games.
Instead of giving your only 5 best emulators, we are citing 7 on this post for cross platform. So let’s get to the best Android apps and games emulator for Mac.
Best Android Emulator For Mac
Macbook Air M1 Android Emulator Free
1. ARChon
ARChon is a little different than most of our best Android emulators for PC or Mac in that this one is actually a Google Chrome extension. That’s right — no installing a program on your machine and wasting precious storage space! It is comparable to a virtual machine, virtual device or virtual devices.
Of course, it’s certainly not nearly as seamless as a native program, as it can take a bit of fiddling to get apps and mobile games to work. To use ARChon, once you have it setup in the browser, you’ll have to push or drag APKs to load the apps within the browser. It’s a nice, free program for those that want to be able to use an Android emulator wherever there is Google Chrome.
Not sure where to find APKs for ARChon? You can find many of them for free over at almost any Android APK repository. Some of our most trusted and favorites are APK Mirror or APK Pure.
Download it now:here
2. VirtualBox
Believe it or not, you can actually use VirtualBox to create your own Android emulator for Mac. Download VirtualBox on your Mac machine, and then set it up with the necessary ISO image from Android-x86.org. You’ll be able to create an efficient emulator that allows you to play almost any game or app within Mac.
As an added bonus, VirtualBox gives you a lot of control over how much resources and hardware you devote to it. That allows you to keep your overall machine running smoothly while still running your Android operating system emulator in the background. VirtualBox is free to use; however, it is recommended that you have at least 8GB of RAM on your machine if you want to run this one.
Download it now:here
3. KO Player
KO Player is a relatively new entrant in the emulators game and is one of the newer Android emulators on the list. It markets itself as a mid-market emulator that can run apps and multiple games comfortably. While the focus is mainly on games, this is a full blown Android emulator, so it can run pretty much any app on the Play Store as long as it is compatible with the Android version. The company’s website doesn’t mention which version of Android it’s running, but talks about a few popular apps and games that are compatible with KO Player (WhatsApp, Clash of Clans etc).
It also comes with features like gameplay recording, keyboard gameplay support, and comes with the Google Play Store pre-installed. It is said that about 99% of the Play Store apps are compatible with KO Player. The best part here is that KO Player is a free download, and can be snatched up directly from their official website. As with any free offering, expect some minor issues during usage. However, the app developers are pretty keen on offering a fresh and refined experience through bug fixes.
Download it now:here
4. Nox Player
This is yet another decent alternative for gamers. It comes with the ability to run android games, support joysticks and controllers (assuming your Mac supports actual hardware controller support). There is zero lag during gameplay or general usage, so you can be assured of a smooth performance. Among the list of features here is the ability to keep multiple accounts on Nox, which is handy if you want to use it on the family computer. You will find that the emulator is compatible with pretty much every popular game and app right now.
Further, the emulator is compatible with x86 as well as AMD processors, thus bringing a variety of devices under its compatibility list and access to most Android games. Like with KO Player, Nox allows users to record their screen and share it on social media as they please. It’s one gaming oriented emulator can be very handy for graphics heavy games available as well as strategy games like Clash of Clans and Fortnite (which will reach Android emulation shortly).
More importantly, it’s light on your computer, much like helping it run smoothly and devoid of lag. This is also a free offering with no hidden caveats. Nox also offers the keyboard mapping feature, so the user can play more efficiently with mouse and keyboard. If you are one of those mobile gamers, this one is for you as it is considered as the Android emulator for gamers.
Download it now:here
5. Bluestacks
Bluestacks is probably the most popular Android emulator currently available in the market, and with good reason. This app has served Windows and Mac OS users for a few years now, giving them a viable way using Android on their desktop. This isn’t an ideal setup for developers, though, as Bluestacks is marketed for the masses. This means there will be some lag when you operate, although it’s rapidly diminishing with each update. The recent version of Bluestacks was updated to Android Nougat, making it the freshest Android emulator out there. It’s too soon to tell if and when Bluestacks will update its offering to Android 8.0 or even 9.0 as the latest Android version, so it will have active updates nearly every month.
As it stands, if gaming and social media is your priority, Bluestacks is an excellent emulator to have as it aims itself at gamers. GameLoop is an Android emulator that is used as a gaming platform. It can run all the heavy games and even offer key mapping support, which has become a prerequisite with modern day Android emulators and can bring the better or for worse Android app and game on your Mac. With the added smart keymapping along with a customizable game support, this android emulator is mostly going to boasts a gamer experience.
Bluestacks official emulator is entirely free to download, but will require a subscription per month for continued usage.
Download it now: here
6. Genymotion
One of the newer emulators if you want to run Android on your Mac is Genymotion. We are now coming to the dev-friendly emulators out there. You won’t find all the bells and whistles that you probably see with Bluestacks, Genymotion lets you test out how an Android device and version would work with a particular app or supports Android operating systems. For example, you can have a Nexus 4 running Android 5.0 or an even older device running that version like Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Kit Kat(assuming it’s compatible).
Genymotion can let you run an emulator directly on your PC or on the cloud, which very few emulators out there can do. This means you can share the functionings of your app with the rest of the world without them having to download a dedicated emulator.
This is a game changer for developers who like to get opinions on their projects from the masses or close associates. Naturally, the android emulator for PC option is also present, so you’re free to use it the old fashioned way. This isn’t a free version offering for personal use, though, so be prepared to subscribe to one of Genymotion’s plans to reap the benefits of all the features mentioned above.
Download it now: here
7. Android Studio
Google’s very own Android Studio emulator also comes with an emulator you can download, although it’s significantly less flashy than a few commercial use emulators and actually run android natively. However, it is updated frequently with new features. This is designed specifically for budding and experienced Android developers to test out their apps before it is pushed to the Play Store. It works with both PCs and Macs, so neither platform is left out. It has all the tools to build and design your apps, while the emulator feature allows you to glance through your creation.
Given the feature set, it is definitely not recommended for amateurs, as setting it up could take some time. Android Studio is a free download on both major platforms, and is a 880MB download for Macs. Though updating those services may take time, watch out for more active development in years with this productivity emulator.
Download it now: here
While these emulators offer a great experience for your Mac as it runs android apps/games like Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG mobile, this may also create a negative effect on your device as the level use might increase, especially with the battery life. Running multiple emulators may affect your device operation as it depends on the operating systems and hardware.
Always test your apps or test apps on the emulator you install once you’ve downloaded them and see the emulators ability to run smoothly and see if it is usable as a productivity tool for PC and Mac. There are still best android emulators that you can discover around the web that can run an Android app or game. The installation process may take longer than expected, depending on various factors such as internet speed and the likes.
If you find another Android emulator or free android emulator that is actually a fairly decent, actually works pretty well and that suits your taste, feel free to use it as long as it runs well or work well, gets the work done or the emulators run properly. You can use emulators as a productivity tool for video loading or loading video. Just find one that supports this kind of function. You might be able to get the price free for personal use just like PrimeOS Remix OS player and other Android Studio S emulator or ldplayer android studio.
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