5 Free Mobile Device Emulators to Test Your Apps

A mobile device emulator allows you to test the responsiveness and functionality of your app across computing platforms including iOS, Android, and Windows without actually having the devices in your disposal. This helps you to identify issues if any and take corrective measures and ensure it works seamlessly across platforms.

Native Android Emulator
Android SDK comes with a virtual mobile device emulator that allows developers to test and run their apps without having a physical device. It comes with different configuration capabilities, thus allowing developers to test their apps for different configuration of hardware capabilities and Android platforms. An emulator is provided with the screen and different set navigation keys. It is also supported by the sensors like accelerometers.

This is just like a physical device except it cannot be used for making calls. It also comes with several debugging capabilities like simulating application interrupts (like phone calls and messages), dropout on data networks, latency effect and more.

Jar of Beans Android Emulator
Jar of Beans is an Android emulator that runs on the Jelly Bean version of the Android platform and is supported by Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM), for hardware acceleration and improved performance. It provides developers with several configuration options including screen resolution. This tool is provided with a button to install the apk files into the emulator, so that you can test your applications using Jar of Beans.[image_library_tag a02a6bc3-c176-409a-844a-6ccfc96261d0 630x581 alt=" " width="630" border="0" ]

BlueStacks Android Emulator
Bluestacks is very much an Android app player that allows you to run Android apps on your Windows PC or Mac. However, you can also link it with Eclipse to test your apps. Also you can install the apk file of your app and test it using this tool.

Windows Phone Emulator
The windows phone SDK comes with its own emulator that allows developers to test their apps on a virtual device. The default memory allocated to the tool is 512 MB so that you can test your apps for lower memory phones available in the market. By using emulator for Windows phone 8 you can test and run apps targeting Windows Phone OS 7.1 and later. You can test your apps for different screen resolutions by using this tool. You can also test your apps for different sensors like camera, GPS, accelerometer, multi-touch, NFC and more. You can not use features like compass, Gyroscope, Vibration Controller, Brightness.

Nokia S40 Emulator
Nokia Asha SDK 1.2 comes with an emulator for testing apps targeted for Nokia Asha 502 phones. Emulator comes with full UI interaction, messaging features and network communication features. This emulator helps developers run and test their apps without having a physical device.  

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Here is a paid emulator

Genymotion Android Emulator
Genymotion provides an Android virtual machine for developers and testers. This tool is available for almost every operating system including Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. You can configure your virtual device by screen resolution, memory capacity and processor speed. It allows you to run multiple virtual devices at the same time. It also allows you to manage sensors like battery level, GPS, rotation, camera, Gyroscope, WiFi etc. This costs 99 Euros per Year Per user.

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