The Android x86 project aims to port Android to x86-based Windows PCs and Mac computers. It's a full port of Android, instead of being more of an application player like other solutions. The last release of Android x86 brought a stable port of Android 6.0 Marshmallow back in September 2016, letting desktop users experience the Google Play Store, run Android apps, work with ADB, and more. Now, 7.1 R1 of the Android x86 project is available and it brings full Android 7.1 Nougat to x86 computers.
Although Android 7.1 Nougat was released back in October 2016, it has taken a while for Android x86 to develop a stable port of the operating system for x86 users. Release candidates of Android x86 7.1 were released on June and October, and now, the developers have released a stable port of Android 7.1 Nougat. The port is provided in ISO and rpm formats, so it can be installed as a virtual machine or as a full install on an x86 PC.
Here's the changelog for Android x86 R1 compared to October's release candidate:
- Android-x86 installer was improved a lot including:
- Create EFI boot entry to efibootmgr.
- Add auto-installation function which is useful to install Android-x86 as the only one OS.
- Provide more information on disk and partition selection menu.
- Add advanced options to provide more boot options.
- Save the last choice in grub2 menu.
- Update kernel to the LTS kernel 4.9.80 with more patches from AOSP.
- Add a new HAL for iio type sensors.
- Show poweroff menu by ctrl-alt-del.
- Fix a lot of bugs.
Although it may seem disappointing that the latest stable release of Android x86 is based on Android 7.1 Nougat and not Android Oreo, Android Nougat is still a fairly recent version of Android and developing a stable port of it for x86 PCs fulfills the needs of users who need to use Android on x86 PCs.
As it's a stable port, critical components such as the Play Store work as they should, and for those needing to use the full version of Android on x86 instead of app players, Android x86 is a great choice. According to Android Police, the build even includes Taskbar as a launcher, which should make the desktop experience a tad sweeter thanks to freeform multi-window support.
Users can download Android x86 for 32-bit and 64-bit PCs in ISO or rpm at the source link. The developers recommend using 32-bit files for legacy BIOS devices and 64-bit files for UEFI devices.
Download Android 7.1 Nougat-based Android x86 Prebuilt Image