A lot of people are using emulators on their PC to their advantage for gaming, video editing, and doing a lot of other stuff that can be done on their Android smartphone. Two of the most popular emulators that are used for this purpose are the Nox App Player and Bluestacks. It always becomes this huge debate about Nox vs Bluestacks and which one is the best so in this article, we are going to do an in-depth comparison of the Nox vs Bluestacks, the best emulator for Windows.
What is an Android Emulator?
To compare Nox vs Bluestacks, let’s know about emulators first. You see the word emulator comes from emulating which means to match or imitate. So, when we think of an Android emulator, it is a whole replica of the Android OS that is optimized in form of an app that can create the Android environment on your PC. That means that with an emulator, you can easily do everything that you do on your smartphones like play games, edit a video or photo.
Overall, Emulators have proven to be a game-changer, there are a lot of good emulators that are being developed by huge teams of developers, and the two emulators that stand-out are Nox and Bluestacks.
Nox App Player
Nox App Player was launched in 2015 by Nox Limited which is a Hong-Kong based team of developers. Nox has over 150 million downloads so far and it is one of the best emulators out there.
Nox is one of the most simple and light emulators available so far. It can run even on Windows XP and any Intel or AMD dual-core processor. It is preferred by a lot of gamers because of its gaming centered development and interface.
- Very compact, can work on any rig
- Excellent for Gaming
- No Ads
- Runs Android 4.4.2 Kernel
- Key Mapping and Mouse Control are not as good as Bluestacks
Bluestacks
Bluestacks was launched in 2011 and it has one of the best track records if you compare it to any other emulator. It has over 210 million downloads and its free version can run over 150 million apps.
Bluestacks has LayerCake app embedding technology that can run small smartphone games very nicely on big desktops. It is one of the best all-rounded emulators out there.
It runs on Windows 7 or any higher OS, with a good AMD, Intel processor. Also, you need to make sure that all the graphic drivers are updated when using this. It requires 2GB of free RAM and 5GB of free storage.
- All-Rounded Performance
- Superior UI
- Nicely Optimized Key Mapping and Mouse Controls
- Lots of Ads
- Needs Google Account to Login
- Security Features May Need to be Disabled
Nox vs Bluestacks: How Well Do They Compare?
Features of Nox
- Compact and Robust. The minimum storage requirement is just 1.5 GB of RAM and 3GB of storage.
- Excellent Gaming Performance. Can handle high FPS games with ease.
- Multi-instance gaming.
- Both Keyboard Mapping and Controller Mapping are allowed.
- Virtualization Technology (VT). VT allows the programs to run isolated systems on single server hardware this helps in speeding up the gaming.
Features of Bluestacks
- Superior Gaming Performance.
- Keymapping.
- You can use the mouse by using the Smart Controls feature.
- Play multiple games using Multiple Instance Feature.
- Multiple Android profile support.
- Disk Cleanup.
System Requirements
This is one of the reasons where the Nox App Player is just a better option as it requires 1.5 GB RAM and 3 GB storage compared to Bluestacks’ 2GB RAM and 5GB storage.
Nox is very robust and versatile, it can easily run on even a low config PC whereas Bluestacks is good if you have a good setup. Overall Nox is the winner here with a slight advantage.
Performance
Looking at the latest benchmark scores, Bluestacks scored 165000 on the test and Nox scored 121410. It is clear that Bluestacks wins this on benchmark results but in real life performance, Nox is as good as Bluestacks and will definitely not disappoint you.
UI
UI is one of the most important aspects when you compare any two software. The UI of Bluestacks is vaster and has more features compared to Nox.
Nox on the other hand has a very minimal UI that a lot of people like. In terms of UI, we can say that Bluestacks has better UI for users that have been using emulators for a while now and they can easily explore more. Meanwhile, Nox is recommended for new users who want everything in a simple manner.
Security
Android emulators aren’t quite a thing that has a lot to do with user’s security and privacy. You have to give them permission as they use a bootleg version of Android. So security concerns are the same for Nox and Bluestacks.
Some Other Areas to Compare
- Ads on Bluestacks are heavy and on the other hand, Nox doesn’t have ads.
- You’ll need to log in with your Google Account to use Bluestacks. There’s no need for a Google Account on Nox.
- Bluestacks run 7.1.2 Android version while Nox uses 4.4.2 Kernel.
- Nox is very stable compared to Bluestacks.
Final Verdict
So that was all about Nox vs Bluestacks, now given all the details about both of the emulators. It is up to you to decide which one suits you the best. If you want an emulator for general use, Bluestacks is a perfect choice. When it comes to gaming, Nox is just too good and you should go for it.
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