Avast Mobile Security Review: Feature-Rich for Free
Our Verdict
Get Avast Mobile Security if y'all want free Android antivirus protection with a lot of extra features and don't heed a lot of ads. But Kaspersky's complimentary version gives you tougher protection and fewer ads, and Bitdefender'due south cheap just total-featured paid program is improve yet.
For
- Cheap premium version
- Extensive features for free
- Solid anti-malware performance
Against
- Unreliable anti-theft features
- Excessive ads in free version
Tom's Guide Verdict
Go Avast Mobile Security if yous want free Android antivirus protection with a lot of extra features and don't mind a lot of ads. But Kaspersky'southward free version gives you tougher protection and fewer ads, and Bitdefender's inexpensive simply full-featured paid program is ameliorate yet.
Pros
- +
Inexpensive premium version
- +
All-encompassing features for gratis
- +
Solid anti-malware performance
Cons
- -
Unreliable anti-theft features
- -
Excessive ads in free version
Judging by the download figures, Avast Mobile Security is i of the nearly popular Android antivirus apps on Google Play, and its boilerplate user rating has gone up slightly — to an impressive 4.half dozen out of 5 — since we last reviewed it in 2017.
The visitor has stuck to the same business model and design for the past few years, which has served it well. The app, called both Avast Mobile Security and Avast Antivirus Mobile Security & Virus Cleaner in Google Play, performs solidly in 3rd-political party malware evaluations and has lessened its system impact considerably.
With that said, if you lot are willing to pay for your antivirus solution, I would withal lean instead towards Bitdefender Mobile Security or Norton Mobile Security, every bit both offer more consequent performance across the board amidst our all-time Android antivirus apps.
Avast Mobile Security costs and what'south covered
Avast Mobile Security remains a freemium app, with a adequately feature-rich free tier and the option to drop the ads and unlock the premium features in the "Pro" tier for either $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. This is a slight price bump from the last time I reviewed the app, but Avast is even so 1 of the least expensive paid Android antivirus options on the marketplace.
Doing abroad with the ads is perhaps the most valuable piece of the Pro tier, just the anti-theft tools, app locking and tech support from Avast are all nice to have besides.
Users looking for an integrated VPN solution can bump upward to the "Ultimate" tier of Avast Mobile Security for $39.99 yearly or $six.99 a month to use Avast'due south SecureLine VPN service. That's still cheaper than getting Avast's SecureLine VPN stand-alone service, which costs $59.99 per year.
Avast also makes antivirus software for Windows and Mac, both free and paid. To check out the all-time options on either platform, delight see our pages on the best Mac antivirus software and the all-time antivirus software overall. You lot can become it all — Android, Windows and Mac antivirus, plus unlimited VPN usage — with Avast's "Ultimate" programme for $119.99 yearly.
Malware protection
Avast's Web Shield held upward well in the supported browsers that I had installed and managed to detect and block links from known malicious sites.
Avast continues to make malware scanning the focus of its app with the big green "Scan" button. While information technology isn't going to win any speed records, the total scan took between 26 and 32 seconds, rather than the 45 to threescore that it spent churning abroad during my final review of the app.
You can all the same schedule your scans for any time and any day of the week, so there'south no reason for y'all to ever see an active scan during waking hours.
Avast's Web Shield held up well in the supported browsers that I had installed — Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Dolphin — and managed to observe and block links from known malicious sites.
Malware detection
Avast Mobile Security achieved perfect results in German independent lab AV-Examination's evaluations of Android security products conducted in July 2019. The app detected 100% of the 3,347 "real-fourth dimension" malware threats used, and 100% of the 3,433 samples that had been uncovered in the previous iv weeks.
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This puts Avast well ahead of the manufacture averages for this round of testing, which were 96.8% of real-time, and 97.6% of recently uncovered, threats. Those averages were dragged down past the abysmal functioning of Google Play Protect. Merely even with that outlier eliminated, Avast was even so ahead of the pack.
Avast offers an abundance of anti-theft features, simply not all of them worked reliably.
Of the vii other Android antivirus apps that I reviewed in 2019, five submitted samples to AV-Test for its July 2019 round. Bitdefender Mobile Security and Norton Mobile Security also achieved a 100/100 detection rate; correct behind them were Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus and McAfee Mobile Security with 99.9%/100% detection.
Google Play Protect brought up the rear, with the lowest scores on both metrics amidst all apps in the test: 44.i% real-time detection, 54.7% widespread detection.
Looking back over the previous yr of AV-Exam results, Avast scored perfect 100/100 twice, and otherwise maintained percentages of 99.seven or higher up. This is similar to the performances by Kaspersky and Bitdefender, and is a bit ahead of McAfee, but behind Norton, the but make that consistently accomplished a perfect 100/100.
The other two apps I reviewed in 2019, Lookout man Mobile Security and Qihoo 360 Security Antivirus, last submitted samples to AV-TEST for evaluation in 2016. Qihoo 360 performed a bit below average, and Lookout performed especially poorly.
In in-depth evaluations of eleven Android antivirus apps carried nigh past Austrian lab AV-Comparatives in July 2019, Avast Mobile Security scored 99.ix% detection of real-time malware, the same as Bitdefender, Kaspersky and McAfee. Google Play Protect detected 83.two%.
Anti-Theft
Avast offers an abundance of anti-theft features, but as was the case the final time we reviewed Avast Mobile Security, not all of them worked reliably. In theory, yous tin can locate, mark as lost, trigger a siren, lock the device, get data, remotely wipe, and display a bulletin on a telephone or force a telephone to call another telephone. All these features are accessible via the web portal at my.avast.com.
I had consistent bug with the location feature, which would indicate that it could not connect to the device even when I was on the same Wi-Fi network equally the phone. In an actual emergency, trying to become the command to go through would have been incredibly frustrating.
Call Blocker
As has been my experience every fourth dimension I accept reviewed Avast Mobile Security, this characteristic did non work at all. I blacklisted multiple numbers, but they were able to phone call my smartphone without issue.
This may be considering Google has recently limited the ability of 3rd-political party apps to cake calls or text messages. Just equally noted above, this didn't work two years agone either. (Note: Avast informed us that as of 2020, the call blocker is no longer available.)
Photo Vault
This feature allows you to encrypt photos by moving them or sending them straight to the Avast app's photo library. If you have images that you don't want in your main photo app, this could certainly be useful. Notation that you must then delete each photo from the principal photo album on your device.
Wi-Fi Security
This feature scans the Wi-Fi networks yous connect to and notes whatever vulnerabilities. If it detects a Wi-Fi network without an access password, the Avast app will recommend that you upgrade your paid program to include Avast's VPN service; if you take done so already, you'll be able to connect to a VPN server with a unmarried tap.
App Insights
This duplicates native Android features such every bit those found in Digital Wellbeing, but you may still want to use it if you like Avast as a one-stop shop for all of your device health. You can view the amount of time you have used each app, the amount of data each app used, and the permissions it requires.
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Firewall (rooted devices only)
You can restrict internet access on a per-app footing, either to cake an app from accessing the internet entirely or limiting it to connectivity when Wi-Fi is present. As I did not take a rooted device at the fourth dimension, I was unable to test this feature.
Premium built-in features
Anti-Theft
While free users get most of the anti-theft features, there are three additional options for paid subscribers. I had better luck with two of these, SIM Security and remote recording of audio from my smartphone, both of which worked immediately.
The third, Camera Trap, is meant to take a motion-picture show of the individual who has your phone. When I tried to event this control, I got a message saying it "could non accept been processed because there is no face detection available in the device." I was able to fix it by unchecking a setting in my Avast spider web portal, but at that place was no language anywhere indicating this might be a potential trouble.
MORE: forty Best Costless Android Apps
App Locking
If you detect yourself handing your device over to friends or your children at times, you tin merely toggle any apps that you want to lock, such as social networks, shopping apps or your photo gallery. Other users will be unable to access those without your passcode or fingerprint.
Add together-on features
Avast SecureLine VPN
Avast SecureLine at present matches the user interface of the rest of the Avast lineup. Yous can connect to VPN servers in dozens of different locations across the U.S. and around the globe. Almost all the functionality of the dedicated SecureLine app is mirrored in the Avast Mobile Security VPN screen, with the exception of the option to auto-connect to a VPN.
As noted above, the stand-alone VPN app costs $4 a calendar month or $60 per year, so getting the VPN service for an additional $16 per twelvemonth as an Avast Mobile Security addition will save you a chip.
Organisation impact
To evaluate the impact of running Avast Mobile Security on my device, I conducted multiple tests using the Geekbench 4 Android tool on my Google Pixel 3 running Android 9.0 Pie. Outset, I established a baseline performance for the device, and so ran boosted tests following installation and during a full scan by the antivirus app.
Afterwards installing Avast Mobile Security on my Pixel 3, my performance dropped by only 3.53%. A full scan had nearly triple the affect, reducing organisation performance by nine.96% from the baseline score.
This was a dramatic improvement for Avast, which finished dead last in both categories when I tested information technology in mid-2017. The app still came in at fifth place out of viii this time on the post-installation functioning test, only was just a few percentage points behind tertiary-place Lookout. On the total scan, Avast was in 6th place out of 8, but the numbers were far meliorate than the most 25% impact from 2017.
Setup and support
Avast remains 1 of the least convenient antivirus apps to get upward and running, due to the number of features available in the app and the lack of any real guidance following installation.
Fortunately, the app hadn't changed much since I last reviewed it, so I was able to arrive through the setup in well-nigh vi minutes, only I wouldn't be surprised if a new user would take twice as long, every bit you are mostly left to tap around the app and find which characteristic to activate next.
Complimentary users of Avast take to rely on the forums and back up documents on Avast.com for tech support. The power to actually call or email customer service 24/vii in the event of a trouble is definitely one of the perks of a paid subscription.
Interface
The Avast interface has basically not changed since my terminal review of this app, which isn't surprising every bit it had simply undergone a complete redesign in 2017. Screens either feature a unproblematic white background or a color gradient. The app does a solid chore with large touch targets for all of the chief functions, which are visible immediately when you launch the app.
Things are a little muddier if y'all utilize the gratis version. I find the ads and prompts to upgrade then irritating that I would definitely spend the yearly $11.99 to get rid of them, merely if you can mentally cake out the ads, there aren't actually any significant interface differences.
Bottom line
Avast Mobile Security always teeters right on the edge of being a compelling choice for me, just the inconsistent performance of some features, coupled with my frustration with the placement and frequency of the ads in the free version, always makes me shy away from unreservedly recommending Avast amongst our best Android antivirus apps.
If you can ignore the ads and don't need the flakier features, so yous might be happy with Avast. The app has unquestionably solid malware protection, so you aren't giving upwardly much there. If, yet, stability and other forms of security and privacy are your main goals, you should opt for Bitdefender Mobile Security or Norton Mobile Security.
Updated with price changes. This review was originally published in Oct 2019.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/avast-mobile-security-android
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