What I like about Mobox
One of my biggest gripes with Winlator is that you can only use DRM-free GOG games with the emulator. Sure, it’s technically possible to install Steam on Winlator, but you’ll need a combination of luck and patience to load the Steam client, let alone run a game or two.
Fortunately, Mobox is more powerful than its rival and is fully capable of running the Steam client. As such, you’re not just limited to GOG games, but can also run apps available on Steam. This feature alone makes the effort of setting up Steam worth it (but more on that in a bit). If Steam is your platform of choice, then Mobox is the only way to legitimately run Steam titles on your Android device.
Surprisingly incredible performance
Before I used Mobox, I was rather skeptical of the rumors surrounding the emulator’s superior performance. So, once I’d installed Mobox, I immediately ran Crysis at 1024×768 resolution without tweaking any other setting. Within a few seconds, I was staring at the main menu, which was a far cry (pun intended) from the minute-long load times on Winlator.
After setting most of the graphical options to low, I noticed the game ran at pretty much 28-30FPS, with an occasional lag when too many enemies showed up. For reference, Winlator could barely run Crysis at 800×600 30FPS and had its fair share of graphical bugs in addition to frequent FPS drops.
Better compatibility with newer Snapdragon chips
Snapdragon’s mobile chips lie at the apex of the Android landscape, making smartphones powered by SD processors a solid recommendation for gamers. Unfortunately, it’s currently impossible to run Winlator on the newest SD 8 Gen 3 processors, and the only way to get Windows titles to boot on said chips is by installing extra third-party mods. Even then, you’re likely to experience reduced performance, in addition to frequent crashes and glitches.
Fortunately, Mobox is compatible with most of the latest Snapdragon processors, including the cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processors. So, if you’re a proud owner of a high-end gaming phone armed with these chips, Mobox is the only way to have a crash-free experience when emulating Windows titles.
