There are a surprising number of Android anti-virus programs that are essentially useless says a new report released recently. The majority of apps, even paid apps failed to detect 65% or more of the malware and viruses used to test them.

Name brands like McAfee, AVG, and Trend Micro were among the applications that did not score high. It seems that apps that had PC counterparts tended to do better than those that are strictly Android based. Among the top were Avast, Dr Web, F-Secure and Kaspersky.

A total of 12 of the 41 apps tested caught less than 40% of the malware thrown at it and about half of the apps total were found to be fairly useless.

Best antivirus for Android?

According to the study, Avast scored the highest of all other antivirus in terms of protection. Currently Avast is free to download and is also ad free. Included in Avast is a firewall and many anti-theft features. You can remotely lock your phone, locate it and wipe all of the memory incase it’s stolen.

Avast also includes an SMS and call filter. You can easily stop certain numbers from contacting you, stop calls and texts at certain times by specific contact groups.

Avast antivirus for Android offers a more in depth protection with root access (not required). Root access allows you to take advantage of its powerful firewall. You can block 3g and wireless access on specific applications and roaming data access. Since many free applications request 3g connections to download advertisements, this is an extremely useful part of the app. Using this feature can conserve battery power as free Android applications can use up to 75% of your battery.

All in all it’s fairly surprising that most android antiviruses are all but useful. However, seeking a well-made and feature rich antivirus like Avast is a sure way to protect you from viruses and malware.