Jide the company behind the popular Remix OS, a multi-windowed version of Android designed to run on PC has launched Remix OS Player for Windows. Marketed as the fastest and most optimized Android emulator on the market, the marshmallow based program will run most Android apps direct on your Windows device.
“Remix OS Player” is currently only available for Windows PCs however, Mac support is coming in the future. Installation comes in the form of an .EXE and can be run as simply as any other program. Remix OS Player is based on Google’s own Android Studio. But what makes it stand out from the crowd in a big way is that unlike Android Studio and other emulators, Remix OS Player aims to let Android developers optimize their apps for the Android PC/Chrome OS environment because of its mouse and multiple window support. As Chromebooks are now gaining the ability to run Android apps this is more important than ever.
Having had access to the Alpha for a short while now, my initial impressions are mixed. I initially enjoyed the experience and appreciate the possibilities as I usually have a few apps running via ARC Welder. While the tools are extensive and future potential is apparent, at the moment there are some things holding back the software. Remix OS Player does come with bloatware and has ads in the app drawer which cannot be removed. The Play Store is pre-installed and whilst I could browse the store freely, I have been unable to download any apps as of yet despite attempting to bug fix for several hours. Sideloading apps was possible and all the apps I tested ran correctly but were held back by very sluggish performance and major frame skips. These frame skips I attributed to the Alpha nature of the software and hope that future releases fix most of these problems.
Installing Remix OS Player is incredibly simple, simply download the file found on the Jide site (link below), then simply open the file and follow the instructions given. If you have not used virtualization on your Windows PC before then you may have to head to your bios and enable it. It is usually found under "CPU configurations" or "System Configurations", users of certain hardware may find that virtualization is enabled by default on their machine and the options are missing from bios. Once the program is installed, open it and after loading for a short while you will find Remix OS running as a window on your desktop.
Don't forget to drop by the brand new official Remix OS Player forums here at xda. There are even Jide staff on hand to listen to feedback and help out where needed!
Jide Announce New Range of Devices and Hire Founder of Android-x86 Project
Jide Remix Ultra Tablet Review: Multi-window Done Right,
Jide Remix Mini Review – $70 of Android Desktop Experience,