When comparing avast! vs Lookout, the Slant community recommends Lookout for most people. In the question“What are the best antivirus applications for Android?” Lookout is ranked 4th while avast! is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Lookout is:
Lookout is a lightweight application that has a small influence on device performance such as start up times and battery life. Although when downloading applications there is a slight slow down because Lookout will scan every application.
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Pros
Pro Decent anti-virus protection
Pro Minimal effect on performance and battery life
Lookout is a lightweight application that has a small influence on device performance such as start up times and battery life. Although when downloading applications there is a slight slow down because Lookout will scan every application.
Pro 96% detection rate result and 5.5/6 protection score from third party testing labs
Lookout received a detection rate result of 96% from AV Comparatives' mobile security review ahead of some but behind Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and Avast!. AV Test gave Lookout a 5.5/6 protection score and and a 6/6 usability score behind Kaspersky and Bitdefender and tied with Avast!.
Pro Heartbleed scanner
Lookout also offers the ability to check to see if your device is vulnerable to Heartbleed and if it has been affected with a separate application called Heartbleed Security Scanner. Unfortunately Lookout cannot fix the problem but it can warn you so you can alert the manufacturer and stop using your device.
Cons
Con Tries too hard to sell you the paid version
Con Too noisy
Avast! has sounds turned on by default. It also has a lot of blinky features of questionable use.
Con Makes your system slower than usual
Even though scans are not being run in background, it will slow your system.
Con Opt-out installation of Google Chrome
These advertising tactics are simply unacceptable.
Con Selling potentially identifying user data
Con Detection rate isn't too solid
Avast! is not the sort of antivirus product to give you peace of mind. In practice, it does miss some malware every now and then. You'll need backup virus protection, which raises the question why you should get Avast in the first place.
Con Expires after a year leaving computer exposed to new viruses
Expires and stops updating after a year after which the user's computer may become infected by new viruses not covered by existing patterns.
Con May interfere with hyper-V
Since avast has its own virtualization engine, it will cause issues with hyper-V.
Con Unable to detect some adware such as FADE adware
Con Blocks or causes issues on apps or games
Con "Smart Screen" feature
When running an unknown application, avast will run it wrapped in a sandbox environment first for scanning, then kill the process and re-run it again. A lot of applications do not like this.
Con Safe browsing, privacy advisor, and other features available only to premium users
Safe browsing (a feature that scans every link and site you visit), privacy advisor (manages and explains application permissions), remote lock, remote wipe, enhanced backup, and a few other features are reserved for premium users only. Fortunately though for antivirus purposes Lookout premium is unnecessary. Lookout premium is $3 a month.