Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android – A Review [Sponsored]

It’s only in recent times that the word ‘malware’ is being associated with the Android platform.  Even then, Android is such a tight platform that unless you explicitly give this ‘malware’ permission to access the information it wants, it really won’t (truth be told, personally, I have always just tapped on the next button without ever reading what permissions an app wants when installing it, and I am pretty sure many of you do the same, too).  But for those who need that extra edge, there are a lot of anti-malware apps that are pretty useful and along with real-time scanning of apps and your storage, they do offer features like anti-theft protection and a full remote wipe, just in case you have lost your device and don’t want your compromising selfies to fall into the wrong hands.

Bitdefender Mobile Security is one such app. Considering the strong presence that Bitdefender Antivirus already has on the Windows desktop platform, it’s not hard to envision them tapping into yet another ever-growing market – Android.  We’ll take a look at this security app for Android and help you decide if this is the right kind of protection for you below.

What It Offers

Like other anti-malware apps available on the Play Store, Bitdefender provides, first and foremost, malware protection.  It’s as easy as installing it from the Play Store and hitting the Scan button and you are set.  Plus, the app is constantly monitoring your device and takes up about 11MB of your memory in its latent state, which isn’t much when compared to other RAM-hungry apps that are usually running on an Android device (Facebook takes up almost 27MB of RAM, so go figure).

 

 

The other notable feature of the app is its anti-theft functionality.  You’ll need to set a PIN and a ‘trusted’ phone number which will be used to communicate with in case your phone is stolen/lost, and you are done.  There’s also a web interface that will help you locate your missing device and wipe it if needed.

 

 

What we did find new was a feature called Bitdefender Safego (available on the web interface) which will notify you (or your friend from whom the post originated) on Facebook of any questionable content that should unwittingly find its way on to your wall.  According to Bitdefender, this is done using what is called ‘in-the-cloud’ scanning to assess if that post is actually a threat and notify you so you are careful before clicking on that post.

Another nifty feature is the Privacy Advisor which gives you a snapshot of what level of access your installed apps have, which should help in being careful about what apps you actually want to have on your device and which ones to be wary of.

 

What We Disliked

Coming to the app’s cons, once you have installed it, you’ll find that all you get is a 15-day trial app.  You could continue the service by paying a premium of $9.95 per year, though it would have been better if the entire app with full functionality was available for free, but with ad support.

Conclusion

All in all, Bitdefender Mobile Security is the app to install if you are looking for a complete solution for your Android device’s protection.  What could put off some potential users though is the fact that it’s not free, considering there are other viable apps on the Play Store that offer the same kind of features.  But as always, premium is premium and I am sure many of us wouldn’t mind shelling out a few bucks if it means our device and data is safe.