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The Rundown

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• Best Overall: Pioneer BDR-XD05B at Amazon, “Slim and lightweight Blu-ray writer that offers a great experience in a design that’s just 8.2 ounces.”
• Runner-Up, Best Overall:Pioneer BDR-XS06 at Amazon, “Offers fast write speeds alongside an auto quiet mode to reduce noise.”
• Best Splurge: OWC Mercury Pro at Amazon, “It’s capable of writing M-DISC DVDs and M-DISC Blu-rays, but it can also burn and play regular Blu-ray Discs.”
• Best Write Speeds: ASUS BW-16D1X-U at Amazon, “This beautifully designed device is packed with features and is more powerful than most external Blu-ray drives.”
• Best Budget:MthsTec Ultra Slim at Amazon, “Supports speeds up to 10x faster (5Gbps) over USB 2.0 (480Mbps) and no AC adaptor or drivers are required.”
• Best for Macs: Sea Tech at Amazon, “A plug-and-play package that’s just 15.2 ounces and measures 8 x 7.4 x 1.9 inches.”
• Best Design:Pioneer BDR-XU03 at Amazon, “Works with BDXL discs, Blu-ray discs and is backward compatible with DVD and CDs.”

Our Top Picks

Best Overall: Pioneer BDR-XD05B

Released in 2015, Pioneer’s BDR-XD05B is a clamshell-designed (opens from the top) slim and lightweight Blu-ray writer that offers a great experience in a design that’s just 8.2 ounces. Measuring 5.24 x 5.24 x .58 inches, the XD05B offers premium and proprietary features such as PowerRead and PureRead to assist in the delivery of smoother playback of both DVDs and CDs. The Pioneer will handle write speed at 6x for a Blu-ray on one quad-layer BDXL disc that can store the equivalent of around 27 DVDs.

The inclusion of Auto Quiet mode allows for the reduction in disc rotation speed to reduce noise. It switches between both quiet and performance modes depending on your needs. Pioneer includes CyberLink software for Windows, which allows for Blu-ray playback. Unfortunately, the BDR-XD05B is only compatible with Windows software leaving Mac fans to look at alternative options for Blu-ray writing and playback.

Runner-Up, Best Overall: Pioneer BDR-XS06

The Pioneer BDR-XS06 external Blu-ray writer is a solid piece of technology that offers fast write speeds alongside an auto quiet mode to reduce noise. Auto quiet mode assists in noise reduction while listening to music or watching movies, as well as when setting it too high for faster data transfer.

Measuring 5.31 x 5.31 x .71 inches and weighing 5.6 ounces, the Pioneer is powered solely by USB connection via a computer. The drive itself supports BDXL format with storage for more data in the form of 156 percent more capacity than a 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc.

The inclusion of Toast Lite Software allows quick and easy burning from a Windows or Mac computer, although Blu-ray playback requires the separate purchase of additional software. Both portable and fast, the Pioneer offers 6x BDR on single and dual-layer discs as well as 4x max write speed on BD-R triple and quad-layer discs.

Best Splurge: OWC Mercury Pro 16X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD Read/Write solution

If it’s speed you crave, the OWC Mercury Pro delivers, reaching write speeds up to 16X. It’s capable of writing M-DISC DVDs and M-DISC Blu-rays, but it can also burn and play regular Blu-ray Discs.

Housed in a single piece of aluminum, this drive has a sleek, but solid design and impressive build quality. On the back, you’ll find access to the USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0), power and Kensington lock slot connections. Along with the drive, you get applications including Smile DiskLabel and ProSoft Data Backup for Mac and NovaBackup for PC. While they aren’t the latest and greatest versions, they will serve you well nonetheless.

Best Write Speeds: ASUS Computer International Direct ASUS BW-16D1X-U

Measuring 9.6 x 2.5 x 6.5 inches, this beautifully designed device is packed with features and is more powerful than most external Blu-ray drives. The Mac- and Windows-compatible device can write up to 16X with BDXL support that supports data storage up to 128 GB. Using USB 3.0 technology, it enables data transfer rates up to 10 times faster than those offered by a USB 2.0 connection. On top of that, it doesn’t just read and write to Blu-ray discs; it also reads and writes to both DVD and CD optical media discs.

But what sets this drive apart from others? It comes equipped with CyberLink Power2Go8 software designed to streamline the burning process and protect private files, plus professional data backup software to ensure all your precious files are backed up sufficiently.

Best Budget: MthsTec Ultra Slim

The MthsTec Ultra Slim external Blu-ray player and DVD burner combo drive offers up a fantastic value (and a host of features). It weighs 10 ounces and measures 5.9 x 5.6 x 0.6-inches, making it par for the course in the Blu-ray external drive world. Fortunately, its size hides its extensive feature set.

Connecting to a computer via USB 3.0, the MthsTec supports speeds up to 10x faster (5Gbps) over USB 2.0 (480Mbps) and no AC adaptor or drivers are required. Overall write speed is set for a standard 6x (plus an 8x DVD-Max write speed), which means the MthsTec is backward compatible with older technology.

Best for Macs: Sea Tech

While all the Blu-ray external drives support Windows 7 to Windows 10 software, Mac support is a little more hit and miss. Realistically, Apple doesn’t officially support Blu-ray playback, but there are a host of third-party applications that do. As a CD/DVD unit, the Sea Tech aluminum external USB Blu-ray writer super drive is a plug-and-play package that’s just 15.2 ounces and measures 8 x 7.4 x 1.9 inches.

Released in 2012, the Sea Tech remains as perfectly viable today as it was back then, thanks to updated third-party software that provides a great viewing experience on both Apple desktops and laptops. Additionally, the Sea Tech provides support for M-Disc, which offers years of reliable data storage and playback. Write speed on the Sea Tech is an average 6x, while Blu-ray playback is a standard 2x speed. Unfortunately, there’s no auto-quiet feature to reduce the internal noise while playing or writing a disc, but that’s a worthy tradeoff for a drive that’s 100 percent compatible with Apple’s computer line.

Best Design: Pioneer BDR-XU03

Slightly expensive for its standard feature set, the Pioneer BDR-XU03 price is best understood when you consider the magnesium body design that’s both futuristic and functional. Capable of standing both vertically and horizontally, the BDR-XU03 weighs 8.6 ounces and measures 5.2 x 5.2 x .5 inches. Along with a 6x writing speed, there’s support for additional features such as auto-quiet mode, as well as USB 3.0 for faster data transmission between a PC and the Pioneer itself.

The BDR-XU03 works with BDXL discs, Blu-ray discs and is backward compatible with DVD and CDs. Additionally, Pioneer includes support for PureRead to help minimize sound glitches during music playback, which provides an error-free audio performance and even helps during movie playback. And if you have a green thumb, it's even eco-friendly because the smaller design also means reduced power consumption.

Tested by

How We Tested

Our reviewers spent six hours testing one of our readers' favorite external Blu-ray drives. To get the most comprehensive feedback possible, they connected it to their laptops to see how it handled everything from playing movies to burning discs. We asked our testers to consider the most important features when using this drive, from its speed to its design. We've outlined the big takeaways here so that you, too, know what to look for when shopping.

What to Look for in an External Desktop Blu-ray Drive

Writing and rewriting - The most basic Blu-ray drives are only useful for playing Blu-ray movies. If you want to burn your own Blu-ray discs, look for one that’s capable of writing or rewriting. Drives that can both write and rewrite Blu-ray discs are more flexible, but rewritable Blu-ray discs can’t store as much information as regular ones.

Compatibility - There are two compatibility issues to look out for with an external Blu-ray player: port type and operating system. Blu-ray players that support USB 3.0 transfer data faster, but that doesn’t help if your computer only has USB 2.0 ports. In that same vein, some external Blu-ray drives only work with Windows, others only work with Macs, and some can be used with both.

Speed - If you only want an external Blu-ray drive to watch movies, speed isn’t a big concern. But if you want to rip Blu-ray movies to your hard drive or burn your own Blu-ray discs, a faster drive will save you a lot of time.

Test Results: Pioneer BDR-XD05B (Best Overall)

What We Don't Like

• Electronic open/close button didn’t work consistently

• Not as compatible with Macs

One of our testers summed up this external desktop Blu-ray drive as a “fast, flexible Blu-ray and DVD drive that has a few speed settings and also burns disks.” Our reviewers also liked that it was quiet: “The speed and quiet rotation definitely set it apart from the cheap external DVD drive that I used in the past,” one person said. While not necessarily a negative, our testers warned that this drive requires a more extensive setup with Mac machines. One reviewer also reported that its electronic open and close button didn’t work consistently.

There are a lot of valid reasons why someone would want to run Android emulators on their PC. App developers may be trying to test their application before shipping it out. Gamers may want to use a mouse and keyboard on their games. Maybe you just want it there to have it. In any case, Android emulation on PC is possible and we’re going to take a look at the best Android emulators for PC. Please note, the process can get quite technical and some of these require some technical knowledge. The market slowed down a lot in recent years with many old favorites (Andy, AmiduOS, and Leapdroid) permanently leaving the space or becoming unusable without tons of issues. You can find out about their fates at the bottom of the article.

Who uses emulators?

There are three main uses for emulators. The first is the most common and it’s for gaming. Gamers can use emulators on their computers to make some games easier to play. They don’t have to rely on the battery life of their devices and the existence of macros and other tricks help the process. In most cases, these little tricks aren’t illegal (in most games) so nobody really has a problem with it. The best Android emulators for gaming include Bluestacks, MeMu, KoPlayer, and Nox.

The second most common use case is development. Android app and game developers like to test apps and games on as many devices a possible before launch. Usually the Android Studio emulator is fine for this kind of work. However, Xamarin and Genymotion are excellent for this type of use as well.

The final main type is productivity. This isn’t nearly as common because Chromebooks are cheaper and better for using Android apps on something other than a phone and most productivity tools are cross-platform. Any gaming emulator works as a productivity emulator to an extent. However, those with hyper specific use cases and a little knowledge can try ARChon and Bliss. The full list is below. Enjoy!

Android Studio’s emulator

Price: Free

Android Studio is the default development console for Android. It comes with a bunch of tools to help developers make apps and games specifically for Android. As it turns out, there is also a built-in emulator that you can use to test out your app or game. The setup is rather complicated and it can take a long time. Thus, it’s not one we would recommend for consumer level use. However, developers can simply use this tool as their emulator for testing their apps. It also supports Kotlin in case developers want to try that out. It’s too much of a pain for regular people, but it’s excellent for developers.

ARChon

Price: Free

ARChon isn’t a traditional emulator. You install it as a Google Chrome extension. It then gives Chrome the ability to run Android apps and games (albeit with limited support). It’s not an easy emulator to get running. You’ll have to install the thing to Chrome. From there, you have to obtain APKs and load them in. As an added rub, you may need to use a tool to change the APK in order to make it compatible. There are a lot more steps to make this work than most other Android emulators for PC. On the plus side, though, it works with any operating system that can run an instance of Chrome (Mac OS, Linux, Windows, etc). We linked to the official GitHub where you can find detailed instructions for its use.

Bliss

Price: Free

Bliss is something a little bit different. It works as an Android emulator for PC via virtual machine. However, it can also just flat run on your computer through a USB stick. This is definitely a power user option and not recommended for simple. As a VM install, the process is fairly simple, if tedious. The USB installation method is even more complicated, but it lets your computer actually run Android natively from boot. That makes Bliss a super unique emulator if you can make it through the steps to the end. Of course, it only really runs well if your system is compatible so be prepared with a backup of your current operating system. The system runs Android Oreo and that’s among the newer versions of Android offered on an emulator. This is a bit of a diamond in the rough, but again, we only recommend this one to the tech savvy.

Best Player For Mac Os X

Bluestacks

Price: Free / $2 per month

Bluestacks is the most mainstream of all Android emulators. There are several reasons for that. For starters, it’s compatible with Windows and Mac. It was also one of the first that worked really well that still gets regular updates. The emulator targets mobile gamers. There is a stigma with Bluestacks because it can feel a little bloated at times. Bluestacks 4 (launched in 2018) aimed to fix that with mixed results. It also includes key-mapping and settings for many games installed. That should help make things much easier. It’s one of the heaviest emulators on the list. However, it also has the most features for better or for worse. Recent updates put Bluestacks at Android 7.1.2 (Nougat), one of the most recent of any emulator. The update to Bluestacks 4 also improved speed, even on older computers. Hit the button below to check out one of our favorite Bluestacks games and don’t worry, there’s a button to download Bluestacks at the bottom of that page as well.

Droid4X

Price: Free

Droid4X is currently available, but it’s a tough one to recommend. It’s one of the classic Android emulators for PC and t features a simple design that should easily work for a lot of people. It markets itself towards gamers and boasts support for simpler, casual games. However, like most Android emulators, you can do productivity stuff if you want to. This one is not in active development anymore. Its last update was March 28th, 2016. Thus, we recommend you tread with caution as this could be a buggy and unstable product. Droid4x is also Mac compatible. We have the Windows version linked up, so Mac users will need to search a bit for it.

Genymotion

Price: Free with paid options

This Android emulator is mostly for developers. It lets you test your apps on a variety of devices without owning them. You can configure the emulator for a variety of devices with various versions of Android to help suit your needs. For instance, you can run a Nexus One with Android 4.2 or a Nexus 6 with Android 6.0. You can easily switch between virtual devices at will. It’s not great for consumer uses, but Genymotion does offer their services for free for personal use. It’s most useful feature is its availability on both your desktop computer and the cloud. Those without powerful computers can make Genymotion’s servers do all the work for them.

KoPlayer

Price: Free

KoPlayer is a newer Android emulator for PC (comparatively speaking). It has also managed to fly under most radars until recently. Its main focus is for gaming. You’ll be able to use key-mapping to emulate a controller with your keyboard. Players will also be able to record game play and upload it wherever they want. The install process is easy enough and it seems to work okay. It runs in a virtual machine like most other Android emulators for PC. It’s a middle of the road option and it’s also usable for productivity. There is the occasional but, but most emulators on the list have them. It’s not bad for a free option.

MEmu

Price: Free

MEmu is another of the up and coming Android emulators that seems to do quite well with gamers. One of its biggest features is support for both AMD and Intel chipsets. Most work on AMD processors, but it’s nice to see developers specifically pay attention to AMD’s platform. Additionally, it supports Android Jelly Bean, Kit Kat, and Lollipop. You can even run multiple instances at once for multiple games or testing features. It aims itself at gamers much like Bluestacks and similar emulators. However, it’s also quite usable as a productivity tool as well. Its most recent update was in late December 2018 according to its blog and that means its development is still in full swing. We appreciate that.

Nox

Price: Free

Nox is another Android emulator for PC for gamers. That includes the usual stuff like key-mapping with your keyboard, actual controller support, and even the ability to key-map gesture controls. For instance, you can assign the function to swipe right to an arrow key and use that in a game without actual hardware controller support. It’s a lot of fun and seems to work rather well most of the time. It’s also entirely free and in active development. The demo video below is rather old and it definitely ran better than that on my laptop.

PrimeOS

Price: Free

PrimeOS is kind of a standout in the Android emulator space. It’s not actually an emulator. You install this as a partition on your computer and it boots up running native Android. It’s a gamer-focused Android experience, although you can totally use this for productivity if you really want to. PrimeOS includes a gaming center, support for mouse and keyboard, and access to most Android apps and games. To be frank, it almost runs like ChromeOS minus all the Chrome parts. You can multitask, watch video content, or play games as you choose. We haven’t tested this one in-depth yet as it is new in 2019 from an Indian start-up. We’ll update the article if we noticed anything peculiar about it.

Remix OS PLayer

Price: Free

Remix OS Player by Jide is one of the newer Android emulators for PC (comparatively speaking). It runs Android Marshmallow and that’s still relatively new compared to many of the others on the list. The installation process is pretty simple and using it also fairly easy. It caters mostly to gamers. There are a few gamer specific features along with a customizable toolbar. It boasts features like running multiple games at once. That said, it’s a fairly clean emulator so it’s still perfectly usable as a productivity tool. The site runs a little slow, though, and it hasn’t received a substantial update in a while and its social media accounts have been inactive since 2017. We’re concerned about this one in the long term, but it still works for now.

Xamarin

Price: Free / Enterprise options

Xamarin is an IDE similar to Android Studio. The difference is that it can plug into things like Microsoft Visual Studio for an even larger development environment (for better or for worse). Also, like the Android Studio, this comes with a built-in emulator for app or game testing. In case it wasn’t readily apparent, we only recommend this one to developers. The setup is simply too tedious for regular consume use. Xamarin’s emulator is not as powerful as something like Genymotion, but it’ll get the job done if you intend on using this and it’s also configurable for your needs. It’s free for personal use. Companies and larger teams may have to negotiate a payment plan.

YouWave

Price: Free / $29.99

YouWave is one of the older Android emulators for PC. It’s been around for a long time. Its last update was in 2016, though. That makes it fairly current. The free version uses Ice Cream Sandwich. Forking out the $29.99 will get you the Lollipop version. We didn’t experience any major issues with either one. The installation process was easy enough. It doesn’t have any game specific features but it will still play games. That makes it good for light gaming and productivity. We haven’t seen a meaningful update in quite a long time, though, so even its Lollipop version is woefully out of date. We don’t recommend the premium version, but the free version works nicely for those who want an older emulator that runs older Android.

Build your own

Price: Free (usually)

As it turns out, you can build your own emulator. Here’s how it works in a nutshell. You need to download VirtualBox (linked above). You then have to download an image from Android-x86.org. From there, it’s just a matter of finding one of the many guides online and following the steps. This is easily one of the more difficult methods, but still not quite as tedious or difficult as setting up a whole IDE like Android Studio or Xamarin. We don’t recommend you try without a tutorial and a little prior knowledge. It won’t work well, it’ll be buggy, and unless you’re a coder, it’ll be difficult to fix. Still, it’ll be yours to customize as you please and who knows, maybe you’ll make and release an emulator that’ll adorn this list someday.

Thanks for reading! Here are a few more app lists to check out!

10 best office apps for Android! (Updated 2019)

10 best cloud storage services and apps for Android!

If we missed any of the best Android emulators for PC, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists! Here are what happened to some old classics from the list:

8. 8. • Leapdroid was purchased by Google and no longer operates.
      • AMIDuOS closed its doors officially on March 7th, 2018. Those who bought it can still get an installer if you follow this link and follow the instructions.
      • Andy began using some seriously not great development tactics, including suspected bitcoin mining without user permission. Until they get their stuff together, they are exempt from this list.
      • Most of the rest simply haven’t been updated or in active development in years and don’t really work well anymore with newer operating systems and hardware.

Vlc Media Player For Mac

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