Which System Images Should I Install for Android L Developement?

Question

I want to Have an Android L Emulator in my AVDs , I used to use Genymotion for android developement, but till now genymotion doesn't supports android L.

I'm using Windows 8.1 x64 ,an Intel Processor, and HAXM Installed.

Which system Images should i Download and Use ? What's The Differences between :

1. Intel x86 Atom_64 System Image
2. Google APIs Intel x86 Atom_64 System Image

Should i download both for this Purpose?

I want an Emulator Which is Fast as Possible that Supports Google API too.

Thanks Alot.

Answer 1

If your processor is Intel and supports hardware virtualization, use an Intel x86 Atom Image and install Intel x86 Emulator Accelarator (HAXM installer) under Extras.

However, you still need to manually install the HAXM after downloading it. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager and run intelhaxm-android.exe

And don't forget to check "Use host GPU" as previously suggested.

Answer 2

Both are full images, the Google APIs one isn't an add-on.

The only difference between the two is the support for Google APIs that is only in 2., both 64bit images are as fast.

You should tick "Use host GPU" setting instead of Snaphost as Snapshot will save you start time but the emulator will be overall slower.