ESET NOD32 Antivirus 2012 Review

With today’s malware becoming more and more complex, it’s never been more important to get the virus protection that you need. With ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5, you get effective virus protection for all sorts of different threats. However, at this price range, there are plenty of better options for you to consider.

At first glance, ESET NOD32 seems to be the perfect antivirus program: it promises to protect your hard drive, email, search engine pages, and more from all sorts of different spyware, including worms, rootkits, Trojans, and other forms of malware.

Unfortunately, ESET NOD32 rarely delivers on these promises. While it has better protection than some of the lower-end antivirus programs, it falls fall short of the marks set by others in its price range. It achieved a measly 58% on the AV-Test Protection tests, which are performed annually by an independent company. Meanwhile, higher ranked solutions like Kaspersky and BitDefender achieved 100%.

Easy to use

Despite its dismal performance in the AV-Test, NOD32 is one of the easiest antivirus programs that we’ve ever used. It has a slick interface that makes navigation a breeze, and even the pop-up notifications are aesthetically pleasing. There’s an advanced mode for users who like to tinkle with every aspect of their antivirus program, but the basic settings will satisfy the average PC user.

We also appreciated a cool feature called laptop mode, which forces ESET NOD32 to run with as little power as possible. It’s designed to avoid draining your laptop battery, but it’s great for PC gamers, or those who perform any intensive tasks on their computers. There’s also the ability to schedule regular tasks, report logging, and more, and adjusting these settings is incredibly simple.

These features are useful for beginners and computer experts alike. However, they can be found on most other programs in NOD32’s price range, which somewhat dilutes their total value.

While ESET NOD32 is easy to use, we wish the company had put more of a focus on effective protection than on developing cool, easy-to-use software. It does protect you from most online malware threats, but it doesn’t quite protect you from all of them. For $39.99, we expected a lot more.

Key Features

• Useful modes for laptops and gaming that limit the amount of resources in use
•  Above average protection against malware and viruses
• Easy user interface – no matter what level of technical expertise you have
• Comprehensive support options will help solve any problems that you encounter

Pros

• Decent protection against most forms of malware
• Useful gaming and power protection modes
• Cool-looking interface
• Settings are easy to change
• Email and phone support

Cons

• Slightly overpriced for what you get; fails to compete with others in its price range
• Limited functionality in certain areas
• Extremely low score on the AV-Test Protection scale

The Verdict

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 2012 didn’t quite live up to our expectations. For $39.99, you can get a lot better coverage from other programs. While features like bootable disk creation and email scanning are useful, they’re neither unique nor effective. If you’re prepared to shell out forty bucks for antivirus software, then you’re better off going with BitDefender, Panda Antivirus Pro or others within this price range.