Gadgets

F-Secure Total Security & VPN Review

Published

3 hours ago

September 30, 2024

Empowerment

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

Simple, stripped-down interface

Extended bank protection

Excellent VPN

Cons

Lack of in-app guidance

Expensive subscriptions

Our Verdict

This isn’t an app you buy to get security on your phone. It’s an app you can install on your phone if you’ve already bought a licence elsewhere. And even then, it’s not particularly rich in functionality.

Price When Reviewed

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Best Pricing Today

Price When Reviewed

From $49.99 per year

Best Prices Today: F-secure Total Security Android

The F-Secure Total Security & VPN app is not available to buy separately. Instead, you access it with a multi-licence subscription, either F-Secure Internet Security or F-Secure Total.

It costs at least £39.99 per year or $49.99 in the US with, unusually, no discount. The difference between Internet Security and Total is that with Total you also get a VPN, password manager, and ID monitoring that checks online if your sensitive data has been leaked.

So if you only want security for a mobile phone, it will be unreasonably expensive.

If you’re getting F-Secure for your PCs, however, it’s more affordable to add an extra user for an Android device. But still not as cheap as some other Android security packages.

It’s also not the easiest experience to get a subscription. I go through the app and on to the F-Secure web interface but there’s no way to go to the store to buy what I need. It can only be done in the browser on a computer, which doesn’t feel intuitive or smart. Why make it difficult to buy a product?

Slow installation

Once a trial subscription is secured (30 days is longer than most), installing and configuring the app proves quite tricky. There are many permissions needed for an active security app, and I’m not given very good information and instructions on how to activate these. But with a bit of blind trial and error, it eventually works. It might be a bit of a stretch for those who are less used to it.

The protection against malicious apps is slightly better than with Google Play Protect, but not as 100% tight as from some other providers. In addition to that, you also get effective phishing protection that makes sure you don’t accidentally click on shady links.

F-Secure says the app will give you extra protection when banking and shopping online, but exactly what it does is unclear. It is likely to monitor network traffic when you browse to well-known banking sites and online shops, the same as F-Secure’s banking protection on a Windows computer.

The app also checks the properties of the Wi-Fi network you’re connecting to and warns you if it seems unsafe. It’s still up to you to choose whether or not you want to connect anyway. But only if you have an F-Secure Total subscription, as that particular feature doesn’t seem to be included in Internet Security.

Parental Control gets a thumbs up

Finally, there is also a parental control called Family Rules, which, like VPN and Solution Manager, is installed as a separate app. Here, F-Secure gets a thumbs up for the quality, performance, and stability of the VPN. It’s a real premium service.

All in all, it’s still a good collection of features that can enhance security in everyday life. However, it feels like something is missing, like a good backup function or real theft protection with tracking. And the fact that you can’t buy it separately for mobile is a definite minus.