[Review] Norton 360 Multi-Device
[Update 5/11/13: Changed incorrect pricing (RRP).]
If you’ve ever wanted a virus protection (and can also do more!) software that could protect multiple devices regardless of what OS you are on, then look no further than the Norton 360 Multi-Device anti-virus protection software. This protection software is guaranteed to work on PC, Mac, Android and iOS devices and thanks to Norton I received a 1-year subscription to their service to do a review. Plus, see below for a giveaway on one of these!
Installation was easy-peasy. The software came with a disk and an option to install it via downloading the program. I chose the option to download the program because my laptop doesn’t have a CD/DVD ROM! Then all you had to do was to follow the on-screen instructions once you’ve downloaded the program to continue the setup.
Because it was not my first time using a Norton product, I could skip right to signing in to my Norton account. But if you have not already registered for an account, it will ask you to do that next. Once the product was activated and I had signed in, the Norton 360 Multi-Device software told me I had 366 days remaining for my subscription service. Thanks for letting me know Norton!
The main console or control panel for the Norton software is very clean and easy to understand. There are four large icons, the first is Security – this opens a sort-of drop-down menu with options to run scans, run LiveUpdates, check details about the security of your computer.
I have set up the system to automatically run full system scans when my computer is idle and while this is running, it also performs a tuneup scan as well. I have not had any false-positives as of yet, so that is good.
The next option is Identity – this option allows you to check if anti-phishing and safe web browsing are working properly. Identity checks your browsing websites to see if there are any malware or phishing attacks while browsing your sites, in order to keep you safe.
The next option is Backup and Tuneup. These options are what they say respectively! The Backup option allows you to schedule backups of your files to any destination source you want, whether it is to another external hard drive or to Norton’s secure Cloud Storage facility. Norton provides you with 25GB of free cloud storage with this Multi-Device product, but I’m sure most people have well over 25GB of files on their computer!
The Tuneup option allows you to clean up the registry, optimize your hard disks, clean out your Internet Explorer and Windows Temporary files and to check what startup programs can slow down your PC. I would like it even more if it could clean out Chrome’s temporary files.
Because this is a Multi-Device suite, I also installed the Norton Mobile Security app on my Galaxy Note smartphone. Once installed all I had to do was to log-in, then activate the product and I was away laughing at how easy it was to setup!
The remote features were also very nice! If your smartphone/tablet device is lost or is stolen, providing that the data connection is active on your phone and praying that it is even on, you are able to track the phone’s current location, plus with the option of setting it into Emergency mode, it will record the device’s location as frequent as 5 minutes!
There is also a scream alarm which makes your phone ‘scream’ at the top of its voice in case of a misplaced phone.
Another feature that I think is pretty cool is Sneak Peek. Once you click on the web console to take a photo, the phone will take a picture using the front-facing camera, if your device has one, and upload it to the web interface so you may be able to see who is actually using your phone! This feature coupled with the remote locate feature gives the owner of the lost device more hope in finding their device! In fact there was a user in this situation, whom someone had stolen his/her phone, but because they had their photos to automatically upload to Dropbox, coupled with the Google Android Manager service which enabled them to track down the thief and notify police, they were able to recover their phone successfully, which is great! It may not be the same program that was used to capture and store the photo (Dropbox), but having it [Norton’s Web Console service] all-in-one does make it convenient for the already-frustrated user cursing over their lost device!
There is also a Contacts Backup and Restore feature that enables to you backup your contacts to one of Norton’s secure web servers and in case of deleted contacts data, you can restore them without hassle. If the phone is lost, you can also request a back up of your contacts by using the web console. Data connectivity must be on and enabled for this to work.
But for a full smartphone/tablet device backup I recommend the Wondershare MobileGo for Android or iOS. You can read my review of this software here.
In conclusion, the Norton 360 Multi-Device protection software works very well. It does not hog the system with unnecessary resources and it also works quietly in the background. If you have like me set it to run full system scans automatically, it will do that when the computer is idle, meaning once you get back on your PC, it will not be slow because of the scan. But either way, the scans do not slow down the PC, well in my case it doesn’t.
And for a RRP of NZD129 for a 1-year subscription for up to 5 devices, it is getting on the edge of the expensive zone. There are cheaper alternatives out there, but this Norton product does have a plethora of features for use!
For more information of this product please visit: http://nz.norton.com/norton-360-multi-device/
