Various kinds of Hackers and Cyber Criminals are constantly trying to get access to your personal data and the security of your Smart devices is more crucial right now than it ever was. Norton has made a big name for itself in the Device Security market. Is Norton Mobile Security as good as its elder PC cousin?
In Short, you shouldn’t buy it. There are a lot of different antiviruses for mobile devices available in the market that can provide better security for less. It lacks many great features that can be really useful. To know more, continue reading:
Before digging deeper into its features, let’s look at the Pros and Cons of Norton Mobile Security briefly.
Excellent Malware Protection
App Advisor
Privacy Advisor
Call-Blocker
No Anti-Theft Features
No Bundled VPN
No Application Control
Now that you have a brief idea of its strength and weaknesses, let’s move forward for a detailed discussion of the features of Norton Mobile Security:
- Quality Malware Protection
- Call-Blocking
- Web Security
- Wi-Fi Advisor
- App Advisor
1. Quality Malware Protection:
Malware (Malicious Software) are the biggest threat to a device’s security. Generally, the applications from unknown sources contain such malicious files. Malware are more common than any other method used by hackers to get ahold of user’s data.
Norton Mobile Security helps provide needed protection from Malware. Many evaluations have been conducted by various independent labs. AV-Test a very popular German lab conducted tests on 17 most popular security applications available for mobile devices in. Norton Mobile Security detected all 3,345 Malware samples that were tested, providing 100% efficiency. The industry average being 96.9%, the Malware detection of Norton is second to none.
However, Norton Mobile Security is not the only application to offer 100% efficiency in Malware detection. Popular applications like McAfee and Bitdefender also scored 100%. Hence, if you are a user who likes to install tons of different applications to improve productivity and entertainment, Norton Mobile Security can provide the utmost security from such threats.
2. Call-Blocking:
Unknown spam calls can be a real pain to your bank and time. Norton Mobile Security comes equipped with a call-blocker to protect you from unwanted calls and texts. It also features automatic call blocking by identifying spam calls. Unlike many others, Norton’ call blocking feature isn’t just another gig. It works flawlessly and reliably to save you from tons of spam calls.
3. Web-Security:
Phishing Scams have been really popular. We as users visit a lot of different websites ranging from entertainment websites, social media to banking platforms. Many times, users come across a website that is being controlled by people with the malicious intent of misusing your information. These websites can provide real harm to your privacy depending upon the type of information you have provided.
Norton Mobile Security identifies these malicious websites and warns the user against them. This feature can come in handy for those who like to do a lot of online shopping and bookings.
4. Wi-Fi Advisor:
There are a lot of Wi-Fi connections available at a lot of public places. Cafés to Railway Stations, all of them host Wi-Fi connections for customer convenience. However, not all of these connections are safe to use. When you connect your device to a public Wi-Fi hotspot, you wouldn’t know who is controlling that Wi-Fi. You may risk losing your online identity and sensitive data.
Wi-Fi advisor scans for all the available Wi-Fi networks and lets you know about the potentially malicious ones. This feature can save you from multiple network threats.
5. App Advisor:
Norton Mobile Security helps you determine the best application to download. It lets you know the effects of the application on your device’s battery life and CPU performance prior to installing the applications. This feature comes in handy when you are running an older device with limited CPU capacity.
System Impact of Norton Mobile Security:
Mobile security applications can be really demanding and heavy on system resources. Norton Mobile Security, on the other hand, has been among the applications that have the least impact on the System Performance. A typical scan on Norton Mobile Security takes around 10 seconds. In the tests conducted by AV Test lab, the application didn’t show any on device’s batter life and CPU performance.
Features Comparison with its Competitors:
| Norton | McAfee | Bitdefender | |
| VPN | No | Yes | Yes |
| Call Blocker | Yes | No | No |
| Public Wi-Fi credibility Advisor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Anti-Theft | No | Yes | Yes |
| Application Control | No | Yes | Yes |
| Backup of Personal Data to SD Card | No | Yes | No |
| Privacy Advisor | Yes | Yes | No |
Who should Buy and Who should Ignore Norton Mobile Security:
Norton Mobile Security surely fulfills the purpose of an Antivirus. But when we compare the features of Norton with its competitors like Bitdefender or McAfee, it fails to impress. One of the most important features that antiviruses contain these days is Anti-Theft. Anti-theft tools are considered to be the second most important thing these days after a good Malware protection. I, while testing the Norton Mobile Security, also felt the absence of Application control and VPN.
I am not really sure in what cases someone would go for an Antivirus which misses so many features. If just protection from Malware is the concern, one can install the free version of Bitdefender. Even the free version of Bitdefender and Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus offer more features than the paid version of Norton Mobile Security.
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Matthew
I was about to purchase the app. Thanks for saving the bucks.