McAfee Antivirus & Security for Android (free, $29.99 per year) is the mobile component of the company's All Access (now McAfee LiveSafe) all-in-one suite and is free for All Access users. Even if you don't have All Access, McAfee is certainly attractive with its well-known name, high malware detection scores, pleasantly minimalist user interface, and enormous slew of security features. But I was disappointed that the app didn't live up to its incredible potential, and would recommend looking at lower-priced alternatives if you're not an All Access user.

Malware Protection
For evaluating mobile malware detection, PC Mag relies on the results of third-party testing labs. According to independent testing lab AV-Test, McAfee detected 99.6 percent of the 1,972 malicious samples used by the lab. This is well above AV-Test's reported industry average of 95.2 percent.

In my testing, I found that McAfee completed a device scan in a snail-slow four minutes and eight seconds with twelve apps running in the background. That's a far cry from Bitdefender Mobile Security and Antivirus, which can scan a device in about ten seconds and detected 100 percent of the malware used in AV-Test's evaluations. In fact, it's the longest scan I've yet seen.

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Despite the slow pace, McAfee doesn't have a big impact on system performance. With only a McAfee scan running, the Usemon app reported that 60 to 70 percent of the system's processing power was in use (Usemon reports 5 to 23 percent in use with no other apps running). There was little practical impact as well: I didn't see any stuttering or slow down while playing Minecraft—Pocket Edition during a system scan. Rebooting my Samsung Galaxy S III with McAfee installed took only three seconds longer than normal—hardly noticeable at all.

In addition to scans, McAfee provides real-time protection, scanning each new app as it is downloaded. When McAfee detects malware, it triggers a pop-up window that includes very detailed information about the suspicious application. The app's main page also changes, making it obvious and easy to deal with new threats without having to run another (lengthy) scan. In general, McAfee does a good job of keeping you informed about what it's doing and how to improve your security.

I liked that McAfee gave you the option to "trust" an app it flags as malicious in addition to simply removing it. In my testing, I use a penetration testing app that looks like malware. If I needed it for my day-to-day work, I could mark it as trusted and McAfee wouldn't bug me about it. If you change your mind about an app, or you read a thoughtful, well-written blog post about an app that you've trusted, you can quickly un-trust an app from the Trusted Apps tab.