Bluestacks 4 is the latest flagship version of the popular BlueStacks App Player. Launched in September 2018, the latest release comes with a host of features that make it one of the best candidates to choose among a multitude of free android emulators that exist today.
For starters, Bluestacks app player offers a virtualized android environment that allows you to play your favorite android apps on your PC or Mac. It is also used by app developers to test applications designed to run on the Android operating system.
Thanks to support by tech giants like Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD, Bluestacks is more than just a standard android emulator. The fourth edition of the player comes with a plethora of features that transform your PC into a superb android gaming device.
This article highlights some fascinating features that Bluestacks 4 brings to your laptop.
A striking UI
Bluestacks 4 comes with an attractive modern user interface that favors gamers and Android users alike. For the gamer, Bluestacks delivers a core gaming function as part of the central UI. Links to trending games and recent notifications are well within reach, and customizable features like the Bluestacks Store and Quests are available to the gamer’s fulfillment.
Icons of basic apps like Google Play Store are located in the home screen to make it easier for the user to access, although nothing is really far from the user’s hands. Everything seems to have been organized with the user in mind.
What’s more, you can customize resolution, DPI, and graphics mode of the bluestacks display to suit your taste.
Graphics mode
Bluestacks 4 supports both Direct X and OpenGL. The OpenGL option is especially good for gamers who want nothing but crisp graphics. This cross-language, cross-platform API interacts with your laptop’s GPU to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.
Performance
Bluestacks 4 is 8X faster than Bluestacks 3 and 6X faster than Samsung Galaxy S9+.
However, performance depends on your hardware, so laptops with better CPUs and GPUs will do much better.
A laptop with a RAM capacity of 8MB and a CPU with at least 3 cores will do the job. Bluestacks allows you to set the number of CPU cores, memory, and frame rate that bluestacks will exploit. You can tweak these from the bluestacks settings menu to give your laptop a bit of headroom in performance.
A functional key mapping tool
If you’ve ever played android games on PC emulators, you’ll appreciate the value of key mapping.
The key mapping tool in bluestacks 4 gives you the option of assigning a personalized control scheme to each game. All you have to do is open the game you want to personalize, and the key mapping tool will appear at the bottom. Next, assign any keyboard button to a specific function in the game. The process of adding new controls is as easy as “drag-and-drop.”
By default, the Bluestacks 4 key mapping tool uses the WASD scheme.
Android N (7.1.2)
It’s hard to come by a free android emulator that’s compatible with the latest Mobile OS. That’s one of the reasons bluestacks has always been special. With Android N, Bluestacks 4 provides a wide radius of compatibility for running high-performance and graphics-intensive games on your PC. You get a taste of faster gameplay and crisp graphics on a bigger screen while saving your resources.
Bluestacks 4 Multiple Instances
Do you play multiple games using multiple Google Play Accounts at once? Bluestacks 4 provides a multi-instance manager that allows you to run many instances of bluestacks at once. It’s like having several functional phones at your disposal only that this time they’re extremely fast and embedded in your PC. Gamers who want to enjoy higher chances of earning rewards in RPGs will reap most from this feature.
A useful File Manager
Bluestacks 4 has a built-in file manager that you can use to manage your photos, images, audio, and videos files. Not only can you explore the SD card but also preview your media, and even import and export files to your PC.
Version 4 of Bluestacks also comes with a computer file manager that lets you navigate through files as if you were navigating a real file system on a PC. Computer File Manager is an independent app that you can install via Google Play store.
Another file management app included in the Bluestacks 4 download package is Google’s own Files Go app. This file manager gives you access to the root, SD card, system, and user apps, as well as all media files and documents. The most exciting feature in Files Go is the ability to share files between Bluestacks and PC through File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Bluestacks Notifications
The notification feature in bluestacks 4 is fully customizable. You can choose to show or hide notifications for each app, and that does not limit you from using custom notification settings for installed apps.
Bluestacks Extras
Bluestacks points and cards have never been fuller of zip than they are in bluestacks 4. Since the release of Engine version 2.52.66.8704, bluestacks users have been receiving pika points for merely launching the emulator every day and playing games. Pika points can be redeemed for a one-month bluestacks premium subscription or other rewards (Google Play Gift cards, Gaming Gear, themes, and T-shirts). You can access your Pika Points via the Bluestacks World Icon. Unfortunately, Bluestacks World will be no more after September 30, 2019.
Still, Bluestacks has much more to offer. Content creators who join the bluestacks Affiliate program can piggyback on the popular Bluestacks brand to generate more traffic and earn money with each game install referral.
The bluestacks community is getting bigger each day as more mind-blowing games launch, and more players join in.
Is Bluestacks really free?
Bluestacks’ basic features are completely free, but you can gain access to more advanced features by buying a monthly subscription. Some premium features in Bluestacks include a special premium priority support channel, full-blown wallpaper customization, ad-free experience, and ability to use one premium subscription in multiple PCs.
How many people use Bluestacks?
If the user statistics are anything to go by, we can conclude that Bluestacks is the most popular Android emulator to date. Bluestacks boasts over 300 million users. The app player reached its 100-million download mark in December 2015.
There are many more features that Bluestacks 4 has to offer such as a camera manager, screenshot tool, browser, android settings, photo viewer, and a rich app center. So be sure to check it out yourself using the download link below.
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin