Trend Micro Mobile Security PE for Android Review
While anti-virus protection on your smartphone may not be absolutely necessary, it doesn’t hurt to have it, especially if you're using an Android smartphone where the Play Store is full of rogue apps. Today we’ll be taking a look at one such option from Trend Micro. They’ve sent us their Mobile Security suite – Personal Edition for Android, which can be used to prevent malicious apps from causing havoc to your phone, filter calls and websites, and do a lot more.
Interface and Features
Trend Micro offers a 30-day free trial of their Mobile Security app, so you can download it directly from the Play Store and try it out, however you’ll only be able to use the app scanner and not the other features. The premium version upgrades your validity for two years and unlocks the rest of the features. The app scanner provides real time protection to your phone. You can choose the areas to scan (internal memory or SD card storage) and the type of files to scan as well.
Some of the features
The premium features include the Surf, Call and Text security, which lets you toggle safe surfing, parental controls, call blocking and text blocking. All these options can be further customized. For instance, safe surfing and parental controls let you select the level of security and also add sites to a list that are safe to surf.
Does not eat up the battery too much
Call blocker lets you create a blacklist, to which you can add numbers from your phonebook or simply add a number manually. The same goes for texts as well. The interface is very simple to use and all the options are well categorized, so it’s easy to find your way around the app, even if you’re a novice user. It’s a 15 MB download and requires you to have Android v2.2 or higher. Before you start using the app, you’ll need to create a username and password, so you can login to find the phone remotely through a browser.
Performance
The app always runs in the background, but it doesn’t seem to drain the battery too much. I’ve been using it on my Galaxy S for two days now and haven’t really noticed any difference in the battery life. Whenever you reboot the phone, you won’t be able to access it without the password you created earlier. The best feature, however has got to be the ‘Lost Device’ protection. Once enabled on the phone, you can go to a web address to locate your lost phone. Here, you have a bunch of options to choose from. The first one lets you find your phone on Google Maps in case you’ve lost it.
Easily locate your phone, even if the GPS is off
This works even if your GPS is switched off and it tells you the last known location, along with the address. The ’Scream’ option is useful, if you’ve misplaced your phone at home. This activates a loud beeping sound, even if your phone’s on silent, so you can locate it. ‘Lock’ will block all access to your phone and prevent anyone from making a call, etc. If you know your phone has fallen into the wrong hands, then you also have the option to erase all the data from the phone. Finally, you also have the option to lock the SIM phone, in case the SIM is changed. The location feature works well and phone was instantly picked up on Google Maps.