Good but flawed compared with the competition

Pros: Excellent user interface, small system footprint. Fast scanning times, excellent detection record in all AV comparative tests, very fast definition response time to newly identified threats.

Cons: Painfully slow update procedure (one suspects it may deliberately be throttled to encourage paying for the premium version), rather complicated to set initial configuration, scheduling, etc. Very annoying emphasis on selling the paid-for version, from the prominent "Free Version" labelling on the interface to the intrusive nag screens that accompany updates. If you compare all this with avast! and AVG, the otherwise technically superb Avira product doesn't come through too well. Oh, and there's no POP3 or SMTP scanning in the free version, so unless you stick to Gmail or another web-based service, there's no desktop level email protection.

Posted: 28-Apr-2008 12:30:48 PM

Useful but flawed...

Pros: Excellent library management, tag editing, file conversion, ripping and burning. Lots of less obvious features, including the ability to create statistics for just about every use, and a locked-down "party" mode that prevents casual interference.

Cons: Full of nag screens - just about every menu and dialog has options that are only available in the paid "Pro" version, and they make this abundantly clear at every possible opportunity. Very limited skinning - doesn't worry me, as the interface is pleasant enough as it is, but compared with Winamp or even XMPlay it's distinctly lacking. Worst of all, the sound is just not up to the best players. There is a replay gain facility, with an anti-clipping option, but it doesn't seem to work (maybe it's only for paying customers???) and the result is the digital equivalent of preamp distortion. Compared with XMPlay in particular it just sounds rough and harsh. Pity, because the concept is great, and the program is fast, stable and intuitive to use.

Posted: 16-Aug-2007 06:05:21 AM

Really excellent...

Pros: Very fast, highly sophisticated, full of useful features and significant security improvements. Maybe, in this latest version, the best of all the Trident-based browsers - far more usable than IE7. I suggest visiting the Maxthon website to check out the extra features, which are far too numerous to go into here.

Posted: 18-Oct-2007 04:31:18 PM