Bitdefender's 2013 security product is
available in several incarnations, from Total Security, down through Internet
Security, to the subject of this review: Antivirus Plus. You can choose the
number of PCs you want to protect: one, three, five or 10.
This is a lovely piece of software to use,
with its well-designed black-and-grey control panel and a Windows Vista/7/8
widget that shows scan and update activity, as well as any security events and
current security status. You can also drag-and-drop files on to the widget for
a simple file scan. (Of course, Microsoft is now warning against the use of
Gadgets due to security vulnerabilities in Windows.)
Bitdefender
Antivirus Plus 2013
The main control panel has four sub-panels:
Antivirus, Privacy, Update and Safego. Antivirus includes a switch to enable
auto-scanning, which can be scheduled as required, and can start quick, full,
custom and vulnerability scans.
Privacy offers anti-phishing software and a
secure file shredder, while Update specifies when the program should check for
new virus definitions and software updates.
Safego is designed to make social
networking safer, by checking links on Facebook and Twitter before you can
click on them.
In an effort to prevent hacking,
Bitdefender offers Safepay as a separate icon on the desktop. This opens
banking pages in a secure browser. Bookmarks can be entered into the utility,
so it recognises when you’re about to make a transaction.
Bitdefender
looks to have done a good job with Antivirus Plus 2013.
AV-Test has yet to examine Bitdefender's
2013 antivirus engine, but it awarded the 2012 product 17/18 - the highest
score it has awarded this year.
That version scored full marks for
protection against malware and for the repair of damaged systems, but lost a
point in usability. It was slightly below average in terms of its hit on system
performance, but better than most in avoiding false positives.
From our own tests, it seems extra work has
been put into the performance aspects of the program.
It took 41 seconds to complete a 1GB file
transfer with Bitdefender’s background processes running, but still only 43
secs when a full system scan was running in the background.
Our 50GB file scan, in which Bitdefender
reportedly scanned 76,689 files, took 29 mins 16 secs to complete. This
translates to a 45-files-per-second scan rate; we've certainly seen faster
security suites.
Interestingly, when pitted against the same
50GB file basket, the older Bitdefender Total Security 2012 checked 98,483
files in 19 mins 39 secs. That test was run under Windows XP, while this was
under Windows 7, but that doesn't account for the lower number of files
checked, nor the slower speed.
The Auto-Pilot facility works well, and we
saw very few pop-ups of the 'xyz is trying to access the internet; what should
I do?' variety.
Getting the balance right between this kind
of annoyance and satisfactory protection is very important, and Bitdefender
looks to have done a good job with Antivirus Plus 2013.
Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 is a great
piece of software to use, and one that should work well in terms of protection,
repair and system impact. It can be a set-it-and-forget-it solution if that's
what you need, or you can tweak most settings on demand. It offers good value
if you have two or three PCs, but is a bit expensive for protecting a single
machine.
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Details
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Prices
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$39 (1 PC)
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Contact
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ashampoo.com
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System requirements
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800MHZ processor; Windows XP/Vista/7/8;
1GB Ram; 1.8GB storage
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Usability
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4/5
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Features
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4/5
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Value
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4/5
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