Improve Performance of Android Virtual Devices During Development and Testing
Table of Contents
If you’ve ever developed an Android app, you know how painfully slow the default emulator in the Android SDK can be. Waiting minutes for an emulator to boot or deploy an app can seriously affect your productivity.
In this article, we’ll explore a few practical ways to boost Android Virtual Device (AVD) performance and make your development and testing workflow much smoother.
1. Intel® Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM)
If your system has a relatively recent Intel® processor that supports Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x), you can significantly improve emulator speed using Intel® HAXM.
HAXM enables hardware-assisted virtualization, allowing your emulator to use an Intel® Atom CPU instead of relying solely on software-based emulation. This results in much faster boot times and smoother operation.
HAXM works across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it’s supported natively in Android Studio. Intel provides an excellent step-by-step guide for installing and configuring HAXM on your machine:
👉 Speeding Up the Android Emulator on Intel® Architecture
2. Genymotion
Another excellent option for speeding up Android emulation is Genymotion — a powerful third-party Android emulator built on VirtualBox.
Genymotion allows you to create and manage virtual Android devices with ease. While it comes with many advanced features (GPS simulation, battery control, screen recording, etc.), what really stands out is its performance.
It also integrates seamlessly with popular IDEs such as Android Studio and IntelliJ IDEA through official plugins, allowing you to launch and test apps directly from your development environment.
3. Benchmarks
Below are the results of a simple benchmark test conducted on an older development machine:
System Configuration:
- MacBook Air
- 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Virtualization Enabled)
- 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Memory
Startup Times:
| Emulator Type | Boot Time |
|---|---|
| Default Android Emulator | 3 minutes 30 seconds |
| Emulator with Intel HAXM | 2 minutes 10 seconds |
| Genymotion | 23 seconds |
As shown above, Genymotion outperforms both the default emulator and HAXM by a wide margin. Even on an older MacBook Air, the difference is striking.
Conclusion
Even with limited hardware, you can dramatically improve emulator performance with the right tools.
- Intel® HAXM provides a noticeable boost, especially on systems with more RAM and newer processors.
- Genymotion, however, remains the fastest and most developer-friendly option for testing and debugging Android apps.
For developers using Android Studio or IntelliJ IDEA, Genymotion’s native integration makes deploying and testing apps on virtual devices incredibly efficient.
Further Reading