McAfee Security Antivirus VPN review: Peace of mind
At a glanceExpert’s Rating
ProsLots of guidance to safe habitsMany smart featuresAffordableConsAnti-theft protection would have been niceOur VerdictIt’s not the cheapest, but for the base price you actually get an unusual amount, including a good VPN service. Excellent additional social media security is a bonus.
Price When ReviewedFrom $39.99 per year
Best Prices Today: McAfee Mobile Security
Free
With McAfee Mobile Security, you get virus protection that’s tight enough. In AV-Test’s review, it lets through the occasional malware attack, but very few, and it still beats Google Play Protect by a small margin. And there are other reasons to get it.
There are some great tools that can help you live a safer online life. The browsing protection scans links not only on the web, but also in social and messaging services, and warns you if you’re about to visit risky sites. There is also a phishing protection that includes SMS and Wi-Fi network security checks.
There is also identity monitoring that keeps track of email addresses, phone numbers, credit cards, passports, bank accounts, credit cards and more. It alerts you if information about them has been leaked online. It’s better than most similar services, which only monitor email addresses.
The premium plan I tested also gives you access to a well-functioning VPN service that you can basically have active all the time to surf more anonymously. It has servers in about 40 countries around the world that you can freely choose from, and many of them are passably fast if not exactly stellar. Don’t expect to be able to use it for video streaming, although it can be done, on and off.
Interface and features
Mobile Security has a nice airy interface with clear panels that provide quick access to the most important features. But individual features and panels are unnecessarily large for a compact mobile app, so there’s a lot of scrolling to get to them all.
At the top is a row called quick actions with actions the app thinks you should take. Initially, these are things like giving the app the right permissions so it can do its job.
Then you get periodic reminders to do scans and other things to keep your phone safe. However, it’s a bit annoying that some actions seem to pop up constantly even though I’ve recently done and ticked them off. It is disturbingly rarely empty in the “to-do list”.
Watch out for the price
There are different options but choose wisely. The two-year plans are the best value starting at £19.99 per year for Basic (one device), which renews at £79.99 per year.
You can then select Plus for five devices at £22.49 per year (renews at £95.99 per year) or Ultimate at £27.49 giving you 10 devices (renews at £109.99 per year.
All of the above are Total Protection plans so you can use the software on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
In the US, plans start at $39.99 per year for Essential and rise to $89.99 per year for Advanced (Individual) and $119.99 per year for Advanced (Family). See all the details here.
You can also choose to skip the payment step altogether. Then you get the virus protection, which checks that apps being installed are safe, and lets you manually scan the system. You also get two bonus features: manual wifi security check and manual scan for leaked email addresses.
Specs
McAfee Mobile Security
Android 9+
App control
Privacy overview
Browsing protection
VPN
Wi-Fi control
Backup
Identity monitoring
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC för Alla and was translated and adapted from Swedish.
Source
Las Vegas News Magazine