Free antivirus protection for smartphones and tablets with AVG

More and more people are buying smartphones. Sadly, this is great news for the hordes of companies making irritating apps. Even more sadly, this is great news for criminals eager to make a buck or two.

Which is why you'd be loopy not to install some antivirus software. Or should that be an antivirus app? Regardless, AVG are on the scene with a free offering for Android smartphones and tablets. AVG Mobilation Antivirus Free might have a silly name, but it doesn't have a silly price point – it costs nothing and has loads of features.

There are lots of other free antivirus apps available for Android, but most of them make you pay for the most useful features. AVG isn't like that. There's a wealth of options, settings, functions and features to protect your tablet or smartphones.

Apps are scanned on install to make sure they are safe, while suspect websites are also blocked. Removing a potentially malicious app is easy requiring just a couple of taps.

The anti-theft system is good. Locating and wiping the device is done through a simple web interface, so if the phone is stolen it can easily be made useless.

The lock function will stop a crook from being able to use the phone. Elsewhere there's a ‘task killer' which is useful for terminating apps and processes that are causing the tablet or smartphone to slow down. For the most part the app runs unnoticed in the background. Scans can be set on a schedule and AVG will scan and check anything installed onto the device.

For the princely sum of nothing, this is a very comprehensive security app.