BitDefender Antivirus Review

Review

Overall: 9

The quality of the “engine” is still intact and gives BitDefender antivirus one of the top spots in our top 10 antivirus selection. The right choice, if price is the only important factor in your selection and you are not planning to add any other dedicated components (like a dedicated antispyware) to your line of defense.

Detection Rate: 9

BitDefender antivirus is consistently one of the top scorers in independent tests carried out on detection rate. The combination of antivirus and antispyware ensures a top level protection, though it may come with a few more false alarms than average.

Light on Resources: 6

The scan engine can sometime bog down your computer. That’s not necessarily due to the scan engine itself but to its interaction with other software components running on your machine. The user interface can be as heavy on system memory as the engine itself. Needs some improvements.

Ease of Use: 8

BitDefender antivirus' user interface is very complete and tries to put together different functions and informative panels in an easy to understand fashion. The style is rather open to debate, though.

Features: 7

• Scans and removes viruses and spyware
• Scans all Web, e-mail and instant messaging traffic in real-time
• Proactively protects against new virus outbreaks using advanced behavioural analysis
• Laptop Mode prolongs battery life
• Instant Messaging Encryption (only for supported IMs)
• Gamer Mode to reduce the system load to guarantee top performances and minimize latency
• Free technical phone support, 24/7

Scan Speed: 6

Scan speed has been massively improved with the latest versions, but it has still some way to go. In some of our tests it has been more than 20% below the average scanning time.

Value for Money: 9

BitDefender Antivirus 2009 is exceptionally good at detecting viruses and malware, but it can do so with a few hiccups depending on your system. Its set of features is average with an easy to use interface, which might not be to everyone’s taste. Despite the very low price, it is a less obvious choice than it used to be.

Specifications

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32/64 bit) or higher, Windows Vista (32/64 bit) and Windows Vista SP1, Windows Home Server

Hardware and Software Requirements

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32/64 bit) or higher
800 MHz or higher processor
256 MB of RAM Memory (512 MB recommended)
300 MB available hard disk space

Windows Vista (32/64 bit) and Windows Vista SP1
800 MHz or higher processor
512 MB of RAM Memory (1 GB recommended)
300 MB available hard disk space

Windows Home Server
800 MHz or higher processor
512 MB of RAM Memory (1 GB recommended)
300 MB available hard disk space

Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher)
.NET Framework 1.1 (also available in the installer kit)

Screenshots