Reviews

The Memorex MyVideo HD pocket camcorder won't bowl you over with its performance or build quality, but its feature set represents good value for the price. For a fairly low price, it offers decent-quality 720p footage in bright light, as well as a few features we've seen only on pocket camcorders that cost at least $50 more.

Kaspersky's third-place ranking in our roundup of stand-alone antivirus programs reflects its ability both to impress and to disappoint. It pairs competent proactive protection with below-average signature detection, and a strong feature set with an at-times annoying user experience.

In traditional detection tests performed by AV-Test.org, this Russian-made program ($60 for a one-year, three-PC license) detected 97.27 percent of known malware samples--lackluster when compared with the performance of some competing apps we tested, which caught 99 percent or more of the threats. It fared better in heuristics tests that gauge how well a program protects against new malware with no known signature. At a time when the bad guys crank out astounding numbers of malware variants to evade traditional signature scanners, such proactive protection is more important than ever. Here Kaspersky came in third with a 66.83 percent block rate.

Though Alwil Avast Professional Edition ($40 for a one-year, single-PC license, as of 11/23/09) has a speedy scan rate, that wasn't enough to offset its unimpressive protection from malware infections and its truly annoying interface. With a last-place showing in our stand-alone antivirus rankings, it's clearly a less than ideal choice for your paid protection. (A new version is coming early next year--see the end of this review.)

Avast's ability to block Trojans, worms, and other baddies in AV-Test.org's huge "zoo" of collected malware wasn't bad--its detection rate stands at 97.8 percent--and the program proved particularly adept at blocking worms with a 99.5 percent block rate. But most of the other programs outperformed it; Avast was only good enough for eighth place in signature-based malware detection.

Avira's AntiVir Premium Edition lacks an advanced malware detection feature used by top programs, and it could use a smoother interface. The program earned a seventh-place ranking in our current stand-alone antivirus roundup.

AntiVir proved capable at detecting known malware, detecting 99.3 percent of AV-Test.org's collection of more than half a million samples of Trojan horses, worms, spyware, and other kinds of malware. In past tests, that kind of showing would have earned a top rank in the category.

While F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010 ($40 for a one-year, 3-PC license, as of 11/19/09) is simple to use and does a reasonable job of blocking malware, it has a few bugs, and it couldn't beat some of its competitors. It came in at number six in our current roundup of stand-alone antivirus apps.

In traditional malware blocking tests, F-Secure Anti-Virus ranked in sixth place overall. Its 99.8 percent performance at blocking known spyware, worms, and other malware from AV-Test.org's massive baddie collection was respectable, but three other programs performed even better. The same goes for F-Secure's 99.3 percent adware block rate.

McAfee VirusScan Plus ($40 for a one-year, single-PC license, as of 11/19/09) does well with traditional, signature-based malware detection, but it delivered a large number of false positives and fumbled on essentials like proactive protection and scan speed. Overall, it ranked tenth out of the 11 products in our roundup of stand-alone antivirus programs.

When put up against AVTest.org's huge cache of spyware, Trojans, and other malware, McAfee's program successfully identified an impressive 99.9 percent of samples, which earned it a second-place rank in that category behind G-Data. Then again, most of the programs we tested handled basic signature detection well.

Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 ($50 for a one-year, three-PC license) ranks fifth in our current roundup of 11 stand-alone antivirus apps. It was buoyed by positives such as strong traditional malware detection, but dragged down by negatives like poor behavioral scans.

In scans performed by AV-Test.org, Panda did well in traditional signature-based detection of known malware. Its 99.8 percent block rate placed it third in that category, behind only the G-Data and McAfee apps. However, it didn't fare as well in tests that gauge how well a program can identify and block new malware that doesn't yet have a signature. In heuristic tests that use 2-week-old signature files, Panda identified 53.7 percent of newer malware samples, which earning it eighth place in that category.

BitDefender Antivirus ($30 for a one-year, three-PC license) holds its own at dealing with malware, but its interface isn't especially user-friendly. Overall the program earned fourth place in our roundup of stand-alone antivirus programs.

This Romanian-made software did well in traditional detection tests that put it up against a collection of known malware kept by AV-Test.org. BitDefender detected 99.66 percent of all samples in a huge cache of spyware, Trojan horses, worms, and the like. But several other apps did even better, so that showing was good enough only for fifth place.

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus ($40 for a one-year, single-PC license) offers some terrific extra features and a polished user interface. But subpar performance in one detection category prevented it from capturing the top spot in our chart of stand-alone antivirus programs.

In traditional detection tests using known Trojan horses, spyware, worms, and other baddies, Norton successfully detected 99.5 percent of samples from AV-Test.org. That's a good showing, but other apps did even better, leaving Symantec's entry in a middle-tier sixth place in this category.

ESET NOD32 has some nice, techie-focused extras and it effectively ferrets out rootkits, but it can't keep up with other antivirus apps when it comes to the essential task of blocking malware. It came in ninth place out of 11 in our current ranking of stand-alone antivirus software.

NOD32 lagged behind every other program we tested when it came to detecting known malware with signatures. Against AVTest.org's huge store of known Trojans, spyware, and other malware, its block rate of 94.8 percent was decent, but strong performance from the majority of the apps we tested has raised the bar.