When comparing Official Android SDK Emulator w/HAXM vs Android-x86, the Slant community recommends Official Android SDK Emulator w/HAXM for most people. In the question“What are the best ways to run/emulate Android on a PC?” Official Android SDK Emulator w/HAXM is ranked 2nd while Android-x86 is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Official Android SDK Emulator w/HAXM is:
Each running instance of the emulator has a separate virtual router allowing complex simulations and setups. Network speed and delay can be simulated either by using presets for various network formats or manually entering desired values. It's even possible to interconnect one AVD to another AVD.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Can simulate complex network environments
Each running instance of the emulator has a separate virtual router allowing complex simulations and setups. Network speed and delay can be simulated either by using presets for various network formats or manually entering desired values. It's even possible to interconnect one AVD to another AVD.
Pro GPS emulation support
Longitute, latitude and altitude information can be supplied to the device once it's running. NMEA 1083 formatting is optional.
Pro Allows sending an SMS to the virtual device
You can send an SMS using the command
sms send <senderPhoneNumber> <textmessage>
Pro SD card emulation support
A disk image can be loaded into the emulator on startup to act as an SD card. This can be done via AVD Manager or mksdcard utility. While the SD card cannot be removed from a running emulator, files can still be moved, copied to and from, and removed from the card. The SD card can be of any size up to 128GB.
Pro GSM emulated modem allows telephony emulation
Telephony emulation allows simulating incoming calls as well as establishing and terminating data connections. Calls can be accepted, but there's no support for call audio.
Pro The virtual device is capable of recording and playing back audio
Pro Accelerometer support
Pro Flexible interface
Pro Works on Windows/Mac/Linux
Pro Libre/Open source
Pro Various power characteristics can be emulated
Via the power command, AC charging state as well as battery state, presence, health and capacity can be changed.
Pro LCD density can be abstracted
Pro Camera support
Pro It's a complete port of Android to x86
Pro Has Bluetooth & WiFi support
Pro Actively developed
Since 2009 the pet project of running Android on a PC by a highly respected developer, has gathered many developer contributions from the open source community...and in 2015 they are still going strong and delivering. Contributors are welcomed and needed for ongoing development work, any donations are accepted.
Pro Stable device support
Runs on more devices than any other available Android on a PC product presently available, KitKat, Lollipop, all open source.
Pro Open source
Using Open Source Mesa for GPU / Video and presently up to Linux Kernel 4.0.6, with some Kernel 4.1 test builds available from contributors....
Cons
Con Setting up the whole environment is a hassle
Con No Bluetooth support
Con Can't place actual phone calls
While simulated phone calls can be placed and received, there's no call audio support.
Con Bad OS X support
Con Clunky UI around things like GPS and such
Con Slow performance
Runs very slow which is not efficient.
Con Short list of supported devices
Currently it's tested on only the following devices:
- ASUS Eee PCs/Laptops
- Viewsonic Viewpad 10
- Dell Inspiron Mini Duo
- Samsung Q1U
- Viliv S5
- Lenovo ThinkPad x61 Tablet
Check them out, download a build and try it for yourself, read their forums and see what is presently happening, from the SurfacePRO 3 work in progress to the older Asus T100 ongoing work and many other PC's, Laptop, 2-in-1's, the older Surface 2, Dell XPS 12, Dell Venue 8, HP Stream, Sony Viao and many others. AOSP KitKat is their present released product, Lollipop version 5.1.1 is their present development cycle. There are builds available for either.
