ESET NOD32 Antivirus v3.0 review | AV Scan

Sunday, March 30, 2008

ESET NOD32 Antivirus v3.0 review


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You might have heard a lot of praise for NOD32: professional virus testers use NOD32, and its virus detection engine is considered the industry benchmark. It really is that good. It's not heavy on RAM, and the updating process works like a charm. I'm speechless.

Most review magazines have long blamed NOD32 for its unintuitive interface, but version 3 and over fare better in that department. I feel NOD32's interface shortcomings was (and continues to be) much exaggerated. Eset (the makers of NOD32) recommend Eset Smart Security for home users, which includes a firewall and costs $59.99 for a one-year single user license. I'd suggest you go ahead with just the NOD32 Antivirus (v3.0), which costs $39.99, and use it alongside a stand-alone firewall.

The good:
- Great detection rate
- Light on system resources
- Good update mechanism
- Inexpensive
- Improved interface is much more intuitive

The bad:
- Not really a negative: has to break out of its reputation (up to Eset's marketing department, I guess?) 

The ugly:
- None

Price: $39.99 (for 3 users); $24.95 (for 1 user)
Go to: Eset website

3 comments:

jayabroto said...

Hi,
I had a gr8 time going through ur blog-reviews on AVs. Missed PC Tools AV that i use these days. Although it may not be gr8 on detection rate but after all its free and lightweight. Please let me know how u assess this one :)

Anonymous said...

I am giving ESET NOD32 a try based on your review. However the prices you list are incorrect. The website shows $39.99 for 1 user and $79.99 for 3 users for 1 year.

bored_product_guy said...

I'm glad you've been inspired by my review. I'm sure you'll find NOD32 satisfying, but just to be on the safe side you might want to give the trial version a shot before actually buying the software.

The prices I mentioned were correct when I wrote the post. Thanks for the letting me know, I'll double-check and update accordingly.