Norton Security Premium review: You’ll pay a pretty penny for this excellent security suite - groutrumn1953

At a Coup d'oeil

Expert's Rating

Pros

Very simple and easy-to-understand interface
Liberal device licensing
25GB of online storage and built-in password manager

Cons

Doesn't have quite as many a extras as some other premium suites

Our Verdict

Norton Security Premium still does an first-class line of work of protective your PCs, doesn't bother you too much, and has a very easy-to-use interface. Norton aegis doesn't come cheap, however, at $110 per class for up to 10 devices.

Norton is one of the oldest names in PC security—and scorn some ups and downs, it's notwithstandin one of the incomparable. Presently, Symantec offers various versions of its long-lived antivirus software: The current flagship cartesian product is Norton Security Premium, which costs $110 per year. Following that are Norton Deluxe ($90/year), Norton Security Basic ($70/year), and Norton Antivirus Primary ($50/twelvemonth).

This review covers the top dog among the set, Norton Security Agio. Downloading and installing information technology is simple enough, and the program doesn't try to add a lot to your arrangement outside of the program itself. It does, yet, encourage you to enable its own web browser-based password manager once you're up and running game.

One of Norton's standout aspects is its unobtrusiveness. Out of doors of a itty-bitty cluster of notifications when you first install it, the programme doesn't inundate you with unfailing popups. The interface is too rattling clean and easy to wont, though the settings for each category aren't immediately obvious. (You'll have to click connected a downward-facing arrow on the far right pull of the screen door.)

Norton Agiotage's splashboard is divided into quaternary main categories: Security, Identity, Backup, and Performance. On that point's also a fifth section that houses account management, access to extra features, and advertisements for more Norton services and apps. Like many antivirus programs, Norton Security uses a color-coded scheme where green means you're burglarproof, yellow means caution, and red means you're not protected.

Note: This review articl is part of our best antivirus roundup. Go there for details roughly competitive products you bet we tested them.

nortonidentity2 — Norton Security's interface is plum and organized.

The Security section is the virtually important segment for Microcomputer users, as it houses the settings for regular PC scans. Aside default Norton will do a ready run down, but there are also options for full and customized scans. There's also a feature called Mightiness Eraser that is supposed to wipe out "difficult-to-detect threats."

The Identity section, meanwhile is about protecting you. You'll find the anti-phishing settings hither, as well as Norton's "Identity Condom," which is the desktop version of the built-in watchword manager. Like else services, the fail-safe can house your username, passwords, addresses, deferred payment card information, and assured notes. Norton does have a nice tags characteristic to help you better organize your data, which you North Korean won't always find in totally password managers.

Backup is where Norton lets you setup and manage the 25GB of free cloud storage that comes with the suite. You can function it to upload files operating theater folders to Norton's servers via encrypted additive backups. When you activate the feature, Norton monitors your documents, pictures, contacts, and other items by default. It will not, however, reliever your videos past default operating room some electronic mail databases you may have.

Performance, meanwhile, is the least useable of the categories, since its features are by and large redundant. You'll retrieve options like a file cleanup utility, disk defragmenter, and a creature for restrictive startup programs—altogether tools that come shapely into Windows. If you want to stop programs from opening up at boot, for example, the Task Handler in Windows 8.1 will solve just fine. The Backup section does have a graph that details the current processor usage of Norton and Windows, atomic number 3 well as recent security events and alerts from Norton.

Performance

nortonscans — Norton's security scans settings.

Norton Insurance premium 22.9 received pinched marks from both A-V Exam and A-V Comparatives for malware detection. In June, A-V Test threw 10,252 samples of malware at Norton and the software came back with a 99.9 pct detection rate. A-V Test too set out Norton up against 202 samples of zero-sidereal day, web, and netmail threats for which Norton came back with a 100 percent rating.

A-V Comparatives got a similar result of 99.8 percent in March using nearly 38,000 samples. Withal, that was with an active Cyberspace joining: Offline, that detection rate hide to 86.8 percentage. SE Labs, meanwhile, gave Norton a AAA rating.

Those are wholly great results. The only concerning aspect would perhaps be the offline detection rate, though you could meliorat it with other tools much as Windows Defender periodic scanning operating theater Malwarebytes. (Or just never go offline—kidding!)

Norton did not hold an considerable drain on resources. When we ran PCMark 8's Work Conservative bench mark, which simulates alkalic tasks same spreadsheet redaction, web browsing, and video chat, our test Microcomputer scored 2538 without Norton installed. When we installed Norton Security Premium, started a full read, and and so ran PCMark 8 once more, the second make was 2526. That's a drop of to a lesser degree indefinite percentage and inside the PCMark 8 benchmark's distinctive gross profit margin of error.

We also didn't see any real difference in carrying out during our Handbrake quiz, which puts far more than stress on a system. Information technology took our test Microcomputer peerless hour, fifteen minutes, and 30 seconds to transcode a 3.8GB MKV file. With Norton installed, the time was twenty dollar bill-two seconds faster at 1:15:08.

Conclusion

nortonreportcard — Norton's built-in report feature.

Norton is extremely user neighbourly and well incorporated, and it doesn't interfere overmuch with users' twenty-four hour period-to-day activities. That survive role is operative since security programs make best when they stay out of your path. The software also has some handy extras, like the online backup and password manager that come through an entirely-in-one security suite.

You for certain have to pay for the privilege, however. Symantec will give you a really nice discount for your first year—45 percent off—but don't be fooled, as you'll finally be paying $110 for the privilege of working Norton Security measures Premium.

Still, if you flavor you'll get your money's meriting, Norton is an first-class choice for a security suite.