Norton 360 Advanced is the flagship security suite from the renowned antivirus software maker. Sitting at the top of the Norton 360 range, the package boasts a ton of features and offers coverage for a whole lot of devices, as well as some added benefits including protection from identity theft.
In this article, we’ll look at exactly what capabilities Norton 360 Advanced provides, and how these features can make your devices a safer place, before weighing up the value proposition of this flagship product in our conclusion. Read on to find out whether Norton 360 Advanced - or Norton 360 with LifeLock Advantage, as it's known in the US - will suitably meet your security needs.
What is Norton 360 Advanced?
Norton 360 Advanced is the top-tier security package in the Norton 360 range. It gives you antivirus protection, a firewall, and all the core security aspects you’ll need, plus a lot of additional goodies like a VPN, parental controls, ID theft protection, and more.
Essentially, you get all the same key features delivered by Norton 360 Deluxe (the next suite down), but Norton 360 Advanced ups the ante in some areas. One of the biggest changes is that it provides coverage for up to 10 devices, which is double the amount given to users by Norton 360 Deluxe.
Other packages in the Norton 360 range include the entry-level Norton AntiVirus Plus, and Norton 360 Standard, which is the product that nestles between AntiVirus Plus and the 360 Deluxe package. We’ve got a full explainer on all these Norton 360 plans right here, if you want to know more about how they stack up comparatively.
What devices can I use Norton 360 Advanced on?
Norton 360 Advanced can be set up on Windows PCs or Macs, and Android or iOS smartphones, with a maximum limit of 10 devices that the suite can be installed on.
For Microsoft PC owners, Windows 8/8.1, as well as Windows 10, and Windows 11 are supported. On the Mac, Norton 360 Advanced can be installed on computers running macOS 10.5, macOS 11, and macOS 12. However, note that the SafeCam, Parental Control, and Cloud Backup features are not supported on the Mac.
For mobiles, you must be running Android 8.0 or better, and for Apple smartphones, you need iOS 13 or better. This is how things stand at the time of writing, and note that for Apple devices, Norton 360 Advanced always supports the current version of macOS or iOS, as well as the previous two versions.
Norton 360 Advanced: what features does it have?
Norton 360 Advanced contains everything provided by Norton 360 Deluxe, which is the following: antivirus and ransomware protection, a firewall, password manager, parental controls, a full VPN, webcam protection, and dark web monitoring to keep an eye out for any of your personal data which might’ve been leaked online (and could therefore end up being leveraged against you). For more detail on those features, check out our full primer on Norton 360 Deluxe.
Norton 360 Advanced ups support for the number of devices from 5 to 10, plus you get the following additional features on top of all the above:
PC cloud backup
Norton gives you a backup tool that’s very easy to use, and can automatically run scheduled backups should you wish to keep your data safe on a rolling basis. While this cloud backup feature comes with all Norton’s plans, you don’t get much storage space away from the higher tier subscriptions – but you receive the biggest allowance with Norton 360 Advanced, namely 200GB. That’s quadruple the 50GB of space included with Norton 360 Deluxe. (Bear in mind that Mac users don’t get cloud backup, and also miss out on parental controls and webcam protection).
Identity Restoration Support
With identity theft and subsequent fraud very much on the rise these days, Norton gives you something quite different here – added peace of mind if you’re unfortunate enough to have your identity stolen (or you believe that to be the case). With Identity Restoration Support you can talk directly to one of Norton’s specialists to help you ascertain what you need to do next. That specialist will handle your case from start to finish, providing step-by-step support, and seeing you through the resolution of any issues. That’ll doubtless be a considerable comfort for the many folks out there who won’t know what to do in the case of suspected ID theft.
Social Media Monitoring
This is another protective measure to keep you safe from getting scammed, with Norton 360 Advanced monitoring a clutch of popular social media accounts. Supported services include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, with a range of capabilities provided, such as monitoring to check if your account may have been hijacked. Furthermore, with Twitter and YouTube, the monitoring module checks any links present in your feed and will warn you about anything that it deems suspicious, perhaps saving you from clicking through to a scam.
How good is Norton?
Norton’s core antivirus engine is well-respected at the big independent test labs, blocking 100% of threats in the latest real-world protection test at AV-Comparatives, and currently as we write this, it scores full marks over at AV-Test too.
That’s impressive, with the only caveat being that Norton has been observed to produce more false positives (detecting things that aren’t actually malicious) than some antivirus apps – but there’s no doubting the protection provided here keeps you very safe.
As well as those core defenses against malware, Norton 360 Advanced gives you a whole host of features as we’ve seen, and some additional functionality over and above Norton 360 Deluxe. The question is whether those extras are worth it for your own needs, weighed up against the extra cash required to get the Advanced version of the suite, rather than the Deluxe.
Those with families could well find benefit in the upped device coverage alone, with 10 pieces of hardware going much further than the five devices defended by Norton 360 Deluxe.
On top of that, there are some useful identity protection capabilities – including direct help from a Norton representative if needed in the case of ID theft – and a fair chunk more cloud backup storage space. All in all, that seems a good value proposition when you consider that Norton 360 Advanced doesn’t cost all that much more than Deluxe, at least for the initial year (given discounts at the time of writing – which may, of course, vary in the future).
On renewal after that first year, the Advanced subscription does become a fair bit more expensive (again, going by pricing at the time of writing), and at that point, you’ll likely want to make a judgement call around whether those extra features have proved useful – and how much you’ve benefited from that doubled level of device coverage.
