Bitdefender has been the experts choice when it comes to choosing the best security suite for your Computers and that too for quite a while now. Recently, the company has rolled out a new edition of the Bitdefender Total Security as a part of their latest Consumer security solutions line-up for 2019.
The Bitdefender Total Security 2019 brings over some significant changes and refinements to what we’ve seen in past. It packs in almost every other feature that you’d expect from a top-end security suite. With that being said, let’s talk about the same in detail.
User Interface
The Interface on the new Bitdefender Total Security seems to be very intuitive and informative at the same time. At first sight, you’ll notice that the dark mode is gone or I should say it is now limited to the sidebar.
The home screen mainly comprises all the essential things. Firstly, it shows in the protection status of the machine on top followed by a dedicated “personal security advisor” which works more or less similar to an Autopilot and suggests you the necessary actions based on device analysis which you should take in order to protect your machine. Well, some may like it, some may not, and unfortunately, there’s no way you can disable it. The engine kept on showing me suggestion to turn on Password Manager which I turned off manually; I wish to have an option to hide the same in future updates.
Following the dashboard, you are welcomed by five tiles, each assigned for a particular action to be accessed quickly from the home itself. I found this to be very intuitive, and interestingly one can even customise these quick actions for the one which they use more frequently.
Lastly, the sidebar on the left offers basic control over the whole software. It contains all the sets of system menus including Protection, System, and Utilities tab followed by the antivirus settings and notifications tab.
Protection Features
Protection, as usual, remains one of the strongest points of Bitdefender. It embeds in nifty security options in addition to basic Anti-virus function. Scanning options include Quick scan (checks common areas for infection and takes around 12-15 seconds), System Scan ( examined everything and took about 20 minutes for scanning 200GB of data), note that scan speeds improve over time as per our testing.
We also have Vulnerability Scan which checks system, apps and WiFi networks for potential threats while the Firewall and Online Threat prevention looks for unauthorised data access and online threats like phishing, respectively. Further, the firewall intelligently decides if the app is safe for online access and acts accordingly which is a great thing in my opinion.
Moreover, we now have a new “Ransomware Remediation” feature which attempts to revert any files that were encrypted or modified by the ransomware. The Network Threat Prevention which can be found in Online Threat Prevention sub-menu which is yet another recent inclusion in the protection fleet resists against unethical attempts of brute-force entry, botnet attacks on your PC, and threats to your private information.
It is worth noting that other features like Anti-Spam, Advanced Threat defence and Safe files have not changed much.
Privacy Features
The Bitdefender Total Security also packs a plethora of Privacy options like a dedicated app for privacy would! You are offered a Password manager to save your passwords securely and sync across all your devices, you can also change the saving method to manual from automatic based on your convenience.
The Webcam protection limits the access to your laptop/desktop’s webcam barring the need of covering it when not in use. There is also an option to store files in password-protected vaults, further adding to the data privacy.
In addition to the common Parental Control, the software packs in SafePAY which offers a safe and secure environment while making payments or banking online. During such tasks, it’ll automatically show you a pop-up asking to enter the SafePAY mode where it will be using VPN (optional) to carry out sensitive transactions, and it works flawlessly almost every time.
If in case you want to delete your files and don’t want them to be recovered by anyone, then you can use the File shredder which removes the traces of all the previously deleted files in a particular folder. We tried this on our machine and ran EaseUS Data Recovery to check if the specific deleted files can be recovered after running File Shredder and the results were positive, as expected.
Something more you’d expect? Well, it also packs a VPN module which requires additional install and subscription in return of allowing you to visit blocked sites securely and anonymously.
Utilities
As you’d notice, the Tools section has now been renamed to Utilities with the new version. It is not a very beefed up section but doesn’t include some of the necessary actions. The OneClick optimiser helps in removal of unnecessary junk from your computer including Windows temporary files, cache, recycle bin, registry files followed by the browser cache and temp files. This does help in freeing up some extra space and improving speed by a tad margin but could’ve been better if it had an automatic cleanup option like other tools available in the market.
The Startup Optimizer is yet another useful tool which helps your machine to boot faster by turning off or delaying the initiation of programs intended to start along with the boot. Whereas the Disk cleanup option is a lifesaver in situations when your disk usage is significantly high, and you want to find the culprits behind the same.
Anti-Theft has all the usual features (remote locate, lock, wipe, and scream), and also allows next level security features like automatically take a picture when someone fails to unlock the device, and send a text to a trusted number if your SIM is replaced.
Bitdefender Total Security Pricing
- Bitdefender Total Security – $40
Pros
- Ease of Use
- Reliable
- Multi-platform support
Cons
- Little slow at times
Verdict – Should you go for it?
Bitdefender Total Security 2019 is basically on par with the claims it carries with it. It is good to see such a plethora of features with an AV suite ranging from protection to privacy, further including other useful tools like cleanup. In a word, it acts as both, maid and security guard for your computer.
The Autopilot is extremely useful, and the definitions are updated almost every day to protect you from the latest threats. We are amused by the number of things the company has tried to pack in!
However, there are a few minor fields of improvements like adding automation to the cleaner, option to hide Autopilot suggestions. Otherwise, the AV performs good and has a minimal impact on the performance of the device. And as you already know, Bitdefender has got you covered from every other threat on the internet, thanks to its multi-layered security shield.
The subscription we are using here is the yearly plan with up to 5 devices which is currently available for a discounted price of $39.98 (at the time of writing) and is totally worth for the protection and services it provides. If you are looking for an anti-virus then definitely give a shot to this heavyweight security suite.
