Having used both the iOS simulator and the Android emulator, I don't really see why people continue to complain. There are even x86 images for the Google APIs and at least on my MacBook with that the emulator feels comparably snappy.
You will get a faster emulator, but since x86 is used on like sub 1 percent Android devices, won't that be more like using a simulator, which would make it just as useless/useful as a simulator? Does the x86 image contain support for ARM, too?
For most cases the underlying architecture doesn't really matter. "As useful as a simulator" is also quite a high standard for Android, seeing as there is no simulator available.