Testing BlueStacks Emulator

In this article I will tell about my experience with the BlueStacks emulator of the Android operating system , which runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system. This is a free beta version of the product, and the authors honestly warn that at the moment it may have serious flaws.

Testing of the program was carried out on the following equipment: ASUS X58C series laptop, Intel Celeron 1.2GHz processor, 2Gb RAM, HDD 500Gb, video SiS, audio HD Definition, Microsoft Windows 7 Max operating system, Oracle Java JRE 7.0 package. As you can see, the computer is a bit "overloaded", but it is on it that you need to carry out "stress tests". On this equipment, the emulator worked very slowly, but steadily! This is a curtsy towards the developers.

The program was installed quickly; during the installation process, it didn’t ask "extra questions". The emulator is installed in the folder: "C: \ Program Files \ BlueStacks", and this is without options! In which folder Android applications downloaded from the Internet are installed, I have not figured out yet.

This emulator has the following "additional features".

Firstly, the program has its own online service, on which accounts are created after registration in the program. Using the online service, you can synchronize applications, accounts, contact records, etc. between different computers on which the BlueStacks emulator is installed, and “normal phones” based on the Android operating system. I tested this function only partially (synchronized applications between different computers), since I am only going to buy a phone with the Android operating system.

Secondly, applications for this operating system can be downloaded from online stores. The system has already installed applications for downloading programs from GetJar and Amazon stores. The Google Play Store is only supported in the “root version”.

There was no regular browser and email client for Android in the emulator assembly. Why this is done is not clear. Perhaps due to patent restrictions.

The program allows you to conveniently configure the keyboard, and manage the languages ​​supported by the system. Among the supported languages ​​is the Russian language. In the initial settings, text is entered from the on-screen keyboard, and the keyboard layout corresponds to the language in the system by default. In the settings, you can select the keyboard languages, set the layouts necessary for it, and connect a computer keyboard for typing.

The keyboard layout changes after the mouse (or finger on the touchpad) moves on the space bar of the on-screen keyboard. Hot keys on the computer hardware keyboard do not work.

The emulator in the beta version is installed only for one computer user, and only under the administrator account. At the same time, he can work under the account of an “ordinary user”, only you can imagine what you need to have ingenuity and which to carry out “dancing with a tambourine” in order to correctly install this program ...

The system is installed only with Internet access, and after its installation requires registration on the server. There are two registration modes - with simultaneous registration with an account on a computer and telephone, or only on a computer. I chose the second option. When registering, the service requests an existing email address, and issues a PIN code for access to the account. It must be remembered, because in this case, when you reinstall the service, you will not be able to log in to your account, and you will be asked to register to another phone number and email address. And this is inconvenient. The PIN code is long, you have to type it on the virtual keyboard.

The product places high demands on the video card, and like Linux, it does not work with non-standard equipment. Because of this, after installing the emulator on my laptop with a SiS video card and an unknown chipset, about half of the programs from online stores were not installed on me, giving an error message with the video card driver.

Also, after installing the emulator in startup, I had two copies of this application. I don’t know if these are the features of the emulator installation program or the result of my “dancing with a tambourine”. After removing both instances of the shortcuts from the automatic launch, the program still started, and consumed less memory.

In general, this emulator is very demanding on the amount of RAM, and after closing the programs in it, it does not free the memory occupied by them. So, after you finish working with it, you need to stop the emulation and exit the program.

The program works fine only with constant access to the Internet. Otherwise, the results of working with Android applications are not saved.

Now about the evaluation of the program. The idea of ​​creating this emulator is very good, the program is really needed, but the implementation of this program is very "raw". The success of the entire project depends on whether developers can fix the problems with installing the program and supporting various equipment. However, the author has not yet met a single UNIX emulator for Microsoft Windows, which could reach the mark: “good”, including the “cult development” of CygWin.

Well, that’s probably all.

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