The February Update for Windows 11 added the ability for a larger set of Windows 11 users in the United States to run Android apps via the Amazon App Store, and Microsoft has now published a support page for that accordingly. The new page dives deeper into what’s required to run Android apps in Windows 11, and it might surprise you a bit.
Per Microsoft’s suggestions, your PC needs a device with a solid-state drive, as well as 8GB of 16GB of RAM for Android apps to work right. In addition, the surprising part is that Microsoft is excluding the AMD Ryzen 2000 series from the list of compatible chips that work with the feature. You’ll need either an Intel Core i3 8th Gen processor, AMD Ryzen 3000 series processor, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8c processor for things to work. Of course, your system also needs to support virtualization, too.
These specs are actually above the baseline specs for Windows 11 itself and do seem to be quite restrictive of which hardware can run Android apps. As a reminder, those specs include an 8th Gen Intel Processor or newer, AMD Ryzen 2000 series processor or newer that’s 1GHz or faster with 2 or more cores, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage (traditional harddrive or solid-state-drive.)
Microsoft doesn’t explain why it’s set these minimum specifications for Android apps, but presumably, it could be that traditional spinning hard drives are not reliable enough for Android apps. At any rate that’s not the only interesting choice Microsoft made, as Ryzen 2000 series CPUs work just fine with Windows 11 and are officially supported by the new OS. It’s a strange choice, and it will be interesting to see if the company comes out and explains why.
