BitDefender Mobile Security Premium Review

BitDefender Android App

Do you even need antivirus protection for your Android smart phone or tablet? Maybe, maybe not. But I would suggest that you need a contingency plan in place in the event that your device is lost or stolen.

Whilst the threat of viruses and other nasties on the Android platform certainly do exist it is questionable whether or not antivirus protection is either needed or particularly effective. To my mind, the problems associated with losing your phone, having it stolen or tampered with are far greater at this moment in time.

This is why, in my opinion, you should only consider using a security program on your phone or tablet if it offers features that cover these eventualities too.

And BitDefender Mobile Premium does just that.

This antivirus app for Android has the following features:

• Malware scanner
• Web security
• Event viewer
• Application audit
• Anti-theft

And I’ll look at each of these in a little more detail below…

When you first run BitDefender Mobile Security Premium it will immediately prompt you to get going with a scan. The good news here is that a malware scan on your Android device will likely take far less time than on your home PC. In my case it took about 20 seconds to fully scan my Advent Vega tablet which is no time at all!

Unsurprisingly, no malware was found, and my daughter was able to get back to playing Angry Birds

Testing the effectiveness of Android virus scanners isn’t particularly easy though so I’ll point you towards AV-TEST.org who’ve recently had a go at ranking various Android security apps.

The Web Security aspect of the app protects you whilst you are surfing the web in much the same way that many antivirus programs do on traditional computers. It uses BitDefender Cloud services to warn you about web pages that may contain suspicious links or otherwise dodgy content.

This part of the app worked pretty well in my experience.

The Event Viewer is a simple display of what the app has done for you and any issues that it may have discovered/fixed along the way. Its worth checking this occasionally to ensure that everything is operating as it should.

Whilst malware in and of itself may not pose a significant threat at this time, apps that you install may do so.

When installing applications onto your Android device you have to decide whether you are happy to give them certain permissions – hands up if you just allow them without reading what they can do!?!

Application Audit will allow you to see all the apps you have installed. You can click on each to find out more about the permissions they have been granted. This may allow you to spot if any have internet access when you would rather they didn’t. Or the ability to make calls or send texts that would secretly cost you money.

To my mind all the above features are useful but not overly essential. Anti-Theft, however, is a key component, especially with phone thefts on the increase (as my son knows all too well).

So I reckon your decision on whether to get this app will probably be down to how well this aspect works. Fortunately, it works very well indeed.

The Anti-Theft component allows you to perform some functions on your phone remotely which is rather handy if someone else has picked it up! You can lock the phone, wipe all your sensitive data off of it and even send messages to it even if it has been lost or stolen. This sounds ideal for government officials and kids alike!

There are two versions of this app – free and paid. The free version misses out the Web Security and Anti-Theft functions mentioned above which, in my opinion, are probably the only two parts that make having the app worthwhile in the first place. Therefore I’d say the free version isn’t worth bothering with, though you can use it to get a free 14 day trial of the full version.

The paid for version (£6.95 at the time of writing) is worth your consideration though just for the Anti-Theft functionality that it gives you.

Do you use BitDefender Mobile Security yourself? Or have you never considered Android security before? Let me know via the comments below…