Android NoxPlayer Emulator (Nox App Player): best based on user feedback

Nox App Player or NoxPlayer is one of the well established Android emulators for Windows 10, 8.1, Windows 7 and Mac OS, that, while supporting different platforms, has other advantages: Russian language interface, good game support, the ability to select the emulated Android version, even suitable for weak computers or laptops.

In this review on using the Android Nox App Player emulator, its characteristics and configurations, job characteristics and problems encountered at the start. Relative to other emulators in a separate material: The best Android emulators for PCs and laptops.

Use the Nox Player emulator for Android games on PC

Installing NoxPlayer, whose old name is Nox App Player, it's not complicated: just download the original installer from the official web portal (that appears at the end of the post), run it and wait for the installation procedure to complete. But there are two nuances:

• The emulator includes services and unnecessary things, some antivirus can swear. I don't know how malicious they are, but they are warned. Unfortunately, this is common among chinese emulators.
• If you are asked to restart your computer after installation, do it before running the emulator; opposite case, the chances of a blue screen appearing in Windows are very high.
• Even though the official web portal specifies the version 7 Android in the emulator, the version 5 will be installed by default. Despite this, this can be changed in the future, what I will write about in the section on configuring Nox Player.

Compared to other similar Android emulators for Windows, so that they run without problems or errors, with high performance, you must enable virtualization in BIOS / UEFI from your computer or laptop and, in the case of Windows 10 u 8.1, disable Hyper-V and Sandbox Components if they are enabled. They are disabled in the Control Panel – Programs and characteristics – Enable and disable Windows components.

After starting the emulator for the first time, you will see the “desk” Android familiar in landscape mode and controls very similar to what you may have seen in other similar programs. Before you start using it, I recommend that you go to the folder “Tools” and open the app “Tutorials”; there are basic instructions on how to use NoxPlayer in Russian language.

At the same time, if you are not sure what the control panel icons are located on the right side of the emulator window, just hold the mouse pointer over the icon: all are signed in russian, and for some of them they are shown by a short instructional video.

In the emulator you will find Google Play Market, If you wish, you can simply download and install the APK files of games and applications, by double-clicking Windows or using the button “apk” in the right panel of the emulator. Unfortunately, the notification that appears when the application files are installed is not translated into Russian and it is not very clear what exactly is happening (but, in general, after a while the application turns out to be installed).

Many popular Android games have keyboard and mouse control settings pre-installed in Nox App Player, mainly popular shooting games. If the control settings for your game are not offered, you can configure them manually.

Regarding the performance of the Nox App Player emulator in games: in my case (laptop with Intel and integrated graphics, with a discrete graphics card the image can be very different) It is acceptable, but not outstanding, of the recently tested emulators on the same device, the fastest was Bluestacks, even though according to some reviews, It is, Conversely, lags further behind than others.

NoxPlayer Settings and Additional Android Emulator Features

One of the most interesting details of Nox Player is the opportunity to use different versions of Android within the same emulator. To do this, start shortcut “Multi-drive” created by Nox App Player on the desktop and click on the three dots next to the button “Add emulator”.

You will see an offer to install an emulator with the version of Android you want, at the time of writing this review: 4, 5 O 7. Android 4 may be more suitable for weak PC (but it is not compatible with Play Market , you must download the APKs separately or export them from other versions of Android), while Android 7 will potentially be compatible with more new games.

After downloading the emulator with the Android version you want, you can give it a clear name and then click on the icon to create a shortcut to bring up a shortcut for that version of NoxPlayer on your desktop. At the same time, With Multi-Drive you can run multiple instances of the emulator on the same computer at the same time (but this will be difficult on a weak PC).

Both in the running emulator and with the configuration button in Multi-Drive, can change graphics, performance and other emulator settings:

• In general settings, the most interesting is the opportunity to enable root access in the emulator.
• In the performance settings you can allocate resources to the emulator, change resolution, rendering mode (DirectX for better performance or OpenGL for better compatibility if some games won't start or just show a black screen).
• The interface settings allow you to override the location of the action buttons and arrange the ones you want in a convenient order. You can also determine the size and position of the emulator window at startup.
• The section “Game settings” allows you to limit the number of fps (FPS). Reducing the value can be useful for weak teams.
• The section “Cleaning and backup” enables you to delete the internal memory of the emulator or create a backup with all settings and applications.
• In the shortcuts section you can see and change the control keys of the emulator: knowing them can be useful, as an example, to quickly minimize the emulator window or release the mouse from the game window.

Among the features, additional functions and settings:

• Shared folder for Windows and Android emulator. You can configure its parameters by clicking the computer icon in the right pane. It is also possible to simply drag and drop files to the emulator window from Windows.
• To show the FPS throughout the game, click the menu button (three bars) and activate the respective function.
• The emulator supports layout themes. Click on the t-shirt icon in the title bar of the Nox player.
• The emulator has the ability to record keyboard and mouse action scripts. It is also possible to create macros for the control buttons in the emulator (using the “Soft Button” item when setting up keyboard control).
• When using multiple open emulators simultaneously, it is feasible to synchronize the actions between them so that the actions in one window are automatically repeated in all the others.
• It is feasible to record video from the emulator screen.
• You can export the APK of an application installed in the emulator: for this keep it pressed (as if you want to erase it) and drag it to the export button.

Video about NoxPlayer emulator

To sum up, first of all I can point out the following: if you consider only Android emulators that have been around for quite some time, Nox App Player is probably the one with the most positive comments from users, the proportion of those who do not. as if it is lower than mentioned Bluestacks and some others. There are promising Android emulators, but relatively new: LDPlayer y MuMu App Player, but no definitive conclusion can be reached about it yet.

In general, if you haven't tried Nox App Player so far, or did, but a long time ago, I recommend you try it (whenever required): can be suitable for your tasks and work well on your computer or laptop. Official web portal of the emulator: https://ru.bignox.com/