Antivirus Protection

Panda Antivirus 2010 Review

Posted by Rich on Aug 25th, 2009 | 0 comments home title

Before I came across Panda, I had never even heard of this company. But after doing a tad bit of research on them and seeing their anti-virus software in action, I am glad that I came across them now.

The following review is what we experienced with the various tests we did on Panda and what you can expect if you decide to purchase it for yourself.

Installation:
Panda comes bundled in a 35 MB file that can be downloaded off the internet. During the installation process it performed a scan to detect any kind of unwanted stuff. Though, no details of the scan was shown to us and neither was any trace of this scan was found after the installation-pretty weird.

The details should have been displayed for us to see which program it caught. Uninstalling: It is quite simple and straight forward. There is a feature named uninstall wizard. After a rebooting there was no traces of Panda AV were left.

Panda Antivirus 2010 includes an interface with bright, contrasting colors and basic graphics.

Interface:

The interface is pretty basic and it may seem unreal and may be too basic. The color scheme this time was much better than the previous version which was not much appealing.

Though all the options were nicely placed and within reach. One thing odd was that during a manual scan all the features if the program were inaccessible.

A novice user can easily begin scans or update the definitions and in advanced mode expert users can have more control over the settings. Some basic scans can be scheduled but with limited control.

Extra Features:

Panda Anti-virus scans and blocks viruses only. The full version also includes protection against malware and its different forms. Not much features are available in this stripped down version.

Performance Speed:

Panda scored nearly average of the antivirus products in Labs’ performance tests. On iTunes test, Panda was fast at 270 seconds, just 2 seconds more than our test system. On our Microsoft Office test, Panda was firmly in the middle at 1,355 seconds.

In a test scanning a single folder with compressed and media files, Panda scored a speedy 135 seconds, however, the default setting excludes many of the compressed files used in our test. And in terms of boot speed, Panda did poor and came in last at 39 seconds.

Panda Antivirus is a good AV product with decent speed for inexperienced users, but it would be better to see at least a scheduled full scan for better disk protection. If you’re looking for some broad protection and more control, NAV will be a better choice.

Scanning:

It uses generic engine heuristics with real-time scanner. We have the option to add file types and turn on compressed file scanning in real-time scanner. Scan results inform us about detailed stats on files infected and cleaned files. By default it deletes the virus upon detection.

For quarantine there is an option but to purchasing a platinum version which includes this feature and will cost you around $70. Some settings can be confusing.

For instance, you can enable heuristic scanning, but there’s no indication as to whether it’s working for on-demand scans, real-time, or both.

If you disable the real-time scanner it should come back automatically but in this case it doesn’t. The simple options might be attract novice users but other may want their control over scans and actions of the AV.

Support:

Local E-mail support is available in 40 countries but there is no phone support. An interactive troubleshooter helps you pin down solutions. It takes you to an unappealing knowledgebase section. It lacks significant details.

The software also includes a tool that lets you send suspicious file to an S.O.S service for further analysis. This feature should have been automated but unfortunately it isn’t. ‘Hot topics’ takes you to all the questions that already have been answered.

Least we can say here is that support for Panda AV is not much satisfying.

Conclusion:

Though a decent Anti-virus but the price tag makes you think twice. It has many tough and good competitors in market available for the same price range. They offer much better protection and features at the same price. One good thing that impressed us was the inclusion of antispyware to detect all those nasty spyware.

The bottom line: It lacks third party-tests to prove its worth and failed to draw attention.

Software