String.equals("") is actually a bit slower than just an isEmpty() call. Strings store a count variable initialized in the constructor, since Strings are immutable.

isEmpty() compares the count variable to 0, while equals will check the type, string length, and then iterate over the string for comparison if the sizes match.

So to answer your question, isEmpty() will actually do a lot less! and that's a good thing.

To detect if a string is null or empty, you can use the following without including any external dependencies on your project and still keeping your code simple/clean:

if(myString==null || myString.isEmpty()){
    //do something
}

or if blank spaces need to be detected as well:

if(myString==null || myString.trim().isEmpty()){
    //do something
}

you could easily wrap these into utility methods to be more concise since these are very common checks to make:

public final class StringUtils{

    private StringUtils() { }   

    public static bool isNullOrEmpty(string s){
        if(s==null || s.isEmpty()){
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    public static bool isNullOrWhiteSpace(string s){
        if(s==null || s.trim().isEmpty()){
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

and then call these methods via:

if(StringUtils.isNullOrEmpty(myString)){...}

and

if(StringUtils.isNullOrWhiteSpace(myString)){...}