G Data Antivirus Review
G Data offers a wide range of features that you would expect from a full software suite. This includes a simple, easy-to-use opening screen that doesn’t muddle things up by glossing over the security status by displaying a “Protected!” caption or a green tick, like many other programs do.
The program also does an excellent job of spotting and blocking the emergence of new malware. The virus monitor that transmits your web traffic to G Data’s cloud services not only updates the virus definition file, it also detects and blocks malware based on behavior. G Data blocked all of the unknown malware that we threw at it during our tests. There was just one false positive.
G Data performed even better in AV Comparatives offline detection test than Bitdefender, its close relative. This is probably due the program’s own DeepRay engine that can detect camouflaged malicious code by analyzing the actions that malware attempts to carry out. Apart from that, it is looking for patterns that could suggest malicious intent, such as changing settings of other software or observing keystrokes.
The program falls short in a few areas that we believe are important to an anti-virus suite. The program doesn’t offer parental control, VPN or firewall. If you’re interested in these features then you’ll need G Data’s more expensive Internet Security package. This could be a major disadvantage, particularly since top-of-the-line competitors like Norton 360 and Bitdefender offer similar packages for the same price or less.