I've tested countless mechanical keyboards — these are the only ones I'd buy
I spend a sizable amount of my time reviewing the very best mechanical keyboards at all different price ranges. Thocky, clacky, silent, gaming — you name it. I've rounded up a few of my top picks here for anyone heading back to their studies.
Now, I'll be honest. I haven't just included mechanical keyboards. These days, the best gaming keyboards are magnetic rather than mechanical, while the most affordable boards use scissor switches. So I've thrown in one or two of those in case you need something for gaming or are on a super tight budget.
All of the boards below should work on macOS and Windows. Certain manufacturers, like Keychron and NuPhy, have a Mac bias with macOS legends out of the box — although both usually ship with Windows keycaps included. Other brands like Wooting, Wobkey and Epomaker have a Windows bias out of the box but don't usually ship with macOS replacement keycaps. Just keep that in mind.
Without further ado, here are my top picks for mechanical keyboards.
When it comes to affordability, the Keychron B1 Pro is about as cheap as it gets without seriously sacrificing quality. The B1 Pro will set you back just $39, so it's a perfect choice if you're on a tight budget.
This is a scissor switch keyboard, so it's not really a mechanical, but it's difficult to find super cheap mechanical keyboards that aren't anything but, well, cruddy (looking at you, MageGee Sky87).
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This deck scored 4.5 stars in our Keychron B1 Pro review. It's comfortable to type on, lightweight and has awesome battery life. Its software is also fully customizable thanks to its open source QMK firmware. And for just $39, it's ideal for those on a budget.
Our reviewer Erin Bashford tested the B1 Pro back in July last year. She's written hundreds of articles since then and hundreds of thousands of words, and the B1 Pro is still holding up just fine!
She could also have any of the keyboards that come through our office, but chooses to stick with the B1 Pro. It's comfortable to type on, has excellent battery life, can connect to four devices and is compatible with macOS and PC. Additionally, it's small and compact, making it ideal for taking to school or college in your bag.
This is a 75% keyboard, but the B Pro range also includes the 100% Keychron B6 Pro and 96% Keychron B2 Pro.
If you're after a keyboard primarily for gaming, the Wooting 80HE is my top pick. I know, I know, this is a back-to-school list, but the 80HE is also excellent for typing and productivity.
The Wooting 80HE uses magnetic Lekker switches with 0.1mm actuation for ultra snappy and responsive gameplay. Those actuation points can be customized and backed off to better suit typing in the awesome Wooting companion software, though. And the Wooting 80HE is just as good for typing as it is for gaming, thanks to its gasket-mounted PCB.
The Wooting 80HE is an absolute beast for gaming, thanks to its magnetic switches. It's not a bad board for typing either, thanks to its gasket-mounted PCB and adjustable key actuation. It's pricey, but this is an elite-tier gaming board, so well worth it in my eyes.
When testing for my Wooting 80HE review, I utterly fell in love with this keyboard. It looks phenomenal, with gorgeous RGB backlighting, understated keys and a frosted case. Thanks to its premium build quality, it sounds good too.
Most importantly, the 80HE has gaming performance in spades. Alongside its customizable actuation points, it offers elite gaming features including rapid trigger, last key prioritization (A.K.A 'snap tap') and 8,000Hz polling.
This keyboard is compatible with macOS, but I'd recommend it for people who spend most of their time on Windows. If you want a hybrid/gaming keyboard that's more inclined to productivity and/or macOS, yet can switch to being a ruthless gaming monster on Windows, check out the Keychron K2 HE. This is also a more affordable option, although it isn't as fast polling as the Wooting.
Going to college or gonna be writing a lot of essays? You need a keyboard that's built entirely around typing. Enter the Keychron Q1 Pro. This is by far the bounciest, most comfortable and easy-typing deck of any I've tested.
I do quite a bit of typing, as you can imagine, and I always crack out the Q1 Pro for long articles or entire days of typing. That's despite owning around 30 keyboards — they have their own wall in my house, although I have so many that there are keyboards stashed in cupboards and under beds, so I don't know my actual total.
The Keychron Q1 Pro is the bounciest keyboard I've ever used, thanks to an incredibly soft gasket mount and a flexible polycarbonate plate. Its KSA profile keycaps are steeply raked to reduce finger fatigue, and it boasts the usual slew of connectivity and QMK firmware features as most modern Keychron decks. It's currently on sale for $42 off at Amazon, so make sure to grab it while it's on offer.
Key to the Q1's comfort is its gasket mount setup — basically, the PCB is floating on rubber gaskets. On the Q1 Pro, the gasket mount is very soft. Combined with a flexible polycarbonate (PC) plate, and you've got a supremely bouncy keyboard that visibly juggles as you type. This means the gaskets are actively absorbing and damping the impact of your fingers, making the board more comfortable than a firmly mounted deck.
I tested the board with Gateron K Pro linear switches, which have a soft actuation force of just 45g, again complementing the board's soft, bouncy nature. The keycaps use the highly sculpted KSA profile, which rakes steeply outwards from the center, reducing the amount your fingers have to move to hit the top and bottom row.
The Q1 Pro is currently on sale, but if you're looking for a budget alternative, I'd recommend the extremely soft Gamakay LK75, which is cheaper.
NuPhy makes some of the finest low-profile keyboards around, and the Kick75 is the best of the brand's offerings so far. It's a joy to type on, game on and modify, and best of all it only costs $99 (although I've seen it for as little as $89)! When I first got my hands on this board for my NuPhy Kick75 review, I thought NuPhy would be charging double that.
This board can be purchased as either high- or low-profile, and it can be easily modified to switch between the two later on (you simply need to swap the top case and PCB, but NuPhy offers modding parts to facilitate this).
The Kick75 is NuPhy's best low-profile keyboard yet, and comes in at under $100. It can be purchased as low- or standard-profile, and you can swap between the two later. It's effortless to type on, sounds good and looks even better.
In a low-profile guide, this board is lightweight and compact, and its low-profile keycaps make for highly accurate typing. Its PCB is gasket-mounted for a nicely damped and comfortable type feel. And while it doesn't have the most addictive sound of the boards I own, it doesn't sound bad by any means.
As with all NuPhy boards, the Kick75 is built beautifully, so you won't experience shakes or rattles. Its design is super retro, with classic Nintendo-inspired design elements — and it looks the part, you'll no doubt agree. It also polls at 1,000Hz, making it suitable for most gamers, and runs QMK open source firmware so you can customize and remap keys to your heart's content.
A close second was the Chilkey ND75 LP, which is currently $39 off at Amazon with a voucher. If you're on a budget, check out the Hexgears Immersion A3, which is currently reduced from $89 to $49 at Amazon.
So you want a thocky board, huh? Now we're talking. While I get to test a huge variety of gaming, magnetic, scissor and membrane keyboards, I'm a custom keyboard enthusiast at heart, and I love nothing more than a good thock sound.
Getting a perfect thock can involve lots of modding and fettling to get the acoustics just right. But there are a few boards that offer a super creamy thock straight out of the box. My favorite is the Wobkey Rainy 75.
This thing. Sounds. Immense.
The Rainy 75 is the king of thock, with its soft yet thocky sound being truly addictive. It's a fantastic board for productivity, and we loved its beautiful type feel and long battery life, not to mention the sleek looks and excellent build quality. This board is designed to be customized, so it's a great base for modders.
It isn't the loudest thocky board we've tested, but the Rainy 75's sound profile is utterly addictive. The clue is in the name: "Rainy". Wobkey claims this board sounds thocky rainfall — heavy rain, as we point out in our Wobkey Rainy 75 review, but yeah, we can get on board with that description.
A major part of the board's sound is its Kailh switches, which are as glorious to type on as the sound they make. Also to thank are the heavy double-shot PBT keycaps and numerous layers of acoustic dampening on the inside.
If you want a slightly louder thock, I would recommend the MCHOSE GX87, which is incredibly thocky and also a little cheaper. There's also the Royal Kludge S85, which is currently $28 off at Amazon, making it a great budget option. And of course, the drop-dead-gorgeous NuPhy Halo75 V2, which offers a more balanced sound profile — although it definitely errs on the side of thockiness.
Oh, I see. You're actually a clacky fan. Well, listen: I won't judge you (too much). I'm just kidding. What is life without a little clack to balance out all the thock we hear in the world today?
While I prefer the thocky sound profile, I own and very much appreciate numerous clacky keyboards. In fact, I'm typing on a clacker right now: the Keychron Q1 Pro I mentioned earlier. The most clacky board in my arsenal, though (yes, it's part of my personal collection), is the Keychron Q3 Max.
The Keychron Q3 Max is an excellent keyboard, and if you're craving that clacky sound, it'll deliver. That's primarily thanks to its polycarbonate plate, which results in a lightweight tapping sound as you type. It's pricey, but it is currently on sale at Amazon!
Crucial to the Keychron Q3 Max's clacky sound are its layers of sound-absorbing foam, Gateron linear switches, its heavy double-shot PBT keycaps and its thick polycarbonate plate, which generates a lightweight tapping sound as the keys are pressed. This doesn't go too far into a pinging sound, as you'll find on boards with metal plates like the Keychron Q6.
This board is a demon for typing and gaming, and can also be fully customized thanks to hot swappable switches, a fully mod-friendly design and open source QMK firmware.
The catch is that it's pricey. You can currently get it on sale for under $200 at Amazon, but it's still a huge sum to drop on a deck. If you're on a budget, I would instead suggest the GravaStar Mercury K1 Lite, which is just $89, although its design is very divisive.
Do you want everyone around you to resent you? Do you want your roommates to leave? Do you want to get thrown out of the library? Yes? Then you need a clicky keyboard!
Listen, I'm being a little facetious, of course. While it's true that the rest of the keyboard community frowns upon clicky keyboard fans, I'm not here to pass judgment. You do you. And if you're gonna do you, do it on the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard. "Clicky" is an understatement: this thing sounds like a Commodore 64 or retro IBM keyboard that's just injected steroids directly into its click glands.
It's loud and proud, but if you want a clicky keyboard, that'll be exactly what you're after anyway. The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical keyboard is as unashamedly clicky as it is beautifully retro. It's a joy to type on, too. But expect to be kicked out of the library when using it.
If you like clicky boards, then it's really difficult to fault the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical. As I mentioned above, this board sounds truly retro and truly clicky. I personally own the C64 version, and I've gotta say, it is very fun to use. Although my partner is working in the room next door often has to close her door.
It's also a fantastic-looking keyboard with the eye-catching retro design. And it's a gorgeous board to type on, too. Its keycaps are double-shot PBT and nicely sculpted, with trapezoid bevels that feel extremely satisfying to the touch. The clicky Kailh Box V2 switches are also dreamy to the touch, with a firm and highly pleasing bounce back after bottoming out.
If you want the retro looks of the 8BitDo without the clicky sound, I'd suggest the Lofree Block.
Do you perhaps want everyone around you to not resent you? Do you want your roommates to not leave? Do you want to not get thrown out of the library? Yes? Very wise. Then you need a silent keyboard!
I've gotta say, I was a little skeptical when we received the Hexgears Immersion A3 for review. "What's a Hexgears?" was the usual reaction around our office.
Well, our skepticism was definitely misplaced. The Immersion A3 was a stellar performer in our testing, and as a silent keyboard, it's perfect for working around other people at school or college.
Sure, it isn't pretty. But it sure is silent. The Hexgears Immersion A3 uses silent Kailh White Rain switches that are an absolute joy to type on, and they won't annoy everyone around you. This board is great for typing and gaming, plus it offers strong battery life and is customizable via a handy TFT display.
So, unlike the boards from 8BitDo, NuPhy and Wobkey, the Hexgears Immersion A3 won't be winning any beauty contests. But this board is all about two things: typing and silence... together.
Using the Kailh White Rain linear switches, the Immersion A3 is extremely quiet, meaning it won't annoy others around you. It was also a joy to type on in our testing, and is an excellent hybrid productivity and gaming board, thanks to 1,000Hz polling.
If you'd prefer a slightly more stylish board, I'd recommend the silent Gamakay LK75.
Not everyone wants to just type. If you're studying a math- or science-based subject at school or college, there's a good chance you'll want a number pad at your disposal. Look no further than the Epomaker RT100, which is one of my favorite full-size decks.
Contrary to the "100" in its name, this keyboard is neither a 100% nor a 100-key deck. It's a 95%, 97-key layout, which means it has the num pad, but has been compacted slightly width-ways. This means some keys have been lost or moved (the middle navigation group), but it makes the board less cumbersome on your desk. And of course, you still get the benefit of the number pad for quick access when doing sums (or whatever math people do).
The RT100 earned itself 4.5 stars and our Editor's Choice award when we tested it. For just over $100, this is a substantial amount of keyboard. Obviously, in size and keys, as it's a 95% deck with a number pad — great for math or science students. But it also offers plenty in the productivity department, including great type feel and even a detachable mini screen to play your favorite motivational GIF on repeat.
In addition to its handy number pad, the RT100 also has a detachable mini screen. If you, like many students, often struggle with motivation, you can use the display to keep your favorite motivational GIF on display at all times (just don't let that slip into procrastination). The display also shows you key settings readouts so you don't have to mess around finding them elsewhere.
Not that you'd have to mess around much, in fairness, as the companion software, Epomaker Driver, is extremely user-friendly and lets you fully customize the board's software.
To top it all off, when you do have to put down the calculator and write an essay or two, the RT100 has you covered. This board is fantastic to type on, with gently beveled keycaps and a gasket-mounted PCB. It can also be purchased with Epomaker's own Sea Salt silent switches, which are ideal if you're working around other people.
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Subscription Starting price (One year) Renewal price (One year) Number of devices Features Standard $39.99 $79.99 5 Basic VPN service, IP rotation, double VPN, kill switch Plus $49.99 $109.99 5 Antivirus, password manager, dark web alerts, 10GB cloud backup Ultimate $59.99 $129.99 10 Parental controls, device locator The Standard subscription is a reasonable price for what you get, but the superior Proton VPN is barely more expensive and Surfshark is actually cheaper. In other words, Norton VPN is a good price, but not great value — especially when you factor in the renewal prices, all of which force you to pay double or more what you paid the first time. If you'd like to decide for yourself, all the plans do come with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Norton is better known as an antivirus company than a VPN provider, so naturally Norton VPN is packaged with the rest of the Norton 360 family. Be warned — unless you turn the option off in the Settings -> Privacy tab, Norton will collect information on your app usage and use it to target you with ads for its other products. Norton 360 is a massive product line encompassing dozens of individual subscriptions. To keep this section from bloating, I'll focus on the software available as part of an upgraded Norton VPN subscription, then end by listing the Norton 360 plans that include Norton VPN. Features on Norton VPN Plus A Norton VPN Plus subscription adds several features from Norton's antivirus suite, but isn't a complete replacement for Norton or any other dedicated antivirus software. Plus users get most of the antivirus features that work in real time, including a smart firewall, anti-ransomware backups, a sandbox for quarantining suspicious programs and a malicious script blocker. VPN subscribers do not get access to the quicker Smart Scan option, instead getting a different scan feature that checks for online threats (note that the FAQ page about this erroneously says Norton VPN includes Smart Scan). VPN users also miss out on the LiveUpdate feature that installs security patches autonomously, plus the automated hard drive cleaner. Features on Norton VPN Ultimate In addition to raising the device limit to 10, Norton VPN Ultimate adds two features on top of Plus: parental controls and Privacy Monitor. The latter is only available in the US and Canada. Parental control is both a time-based site blocker and a monitoring app. It can not only track a child's internet activity, but also their physical location, giving you alerts if they leave set boundaries during a certain time (say school property during a weekday). Privacy Monitor scans for your information on data brokerage sites so you can send deletion requests, similar to Surfshark Incogni. Norton 360 plans that include Norton VPN Instead of subscribing to Norton VPN directly, you can also pick a Norton 360 plan that includes VPN service. Norton 360 Standard and Norton 360 For Gamers each let you install Norton VPN on three devices. Norton 360 Deluxe raises that number to five, while Norton 360 with Lifelock Select and Norton 360 with Lifelock Advantage grant you 10 total VPN installs. Norton 360 with Lifelock Ultimate Plus lets you install Norton VPN on an unlimited number of devices. Close-reading Norton VPN's privacy policy To assess Norton VPN's privacy, we need to look at two different privacy policies. Like I said in the introduction, there are technically two products called Norton VPN — the standalone service I've been reviewing and the VPN features of the Norton 360 bundle. I've been focused on the independent Norton VPN so far, but since the Norton 360 VPN add-on is a privacy risk, I want to mention it here. Norton lists the privacy policies for each of its products on one page of its website. The VPN feature of Norton 360 is governed by the top two policies, Norton Security Products (desktop) and Norton 360 Mobile Apps. The standalone Norton VPN has its own policy further down the page. The Norton 360 policy is a privacy nightmare. Both the desktop and mobile apps claim the right to save your IP address, device fingerprints and web activity for up to 36 months, and there's no exception for the VPN feature. I strongly advise against using Norton 360's bundled VPN for any activity you don't want Norton seeing. Fortunately, Norton holds the standalone VPN to a much more acceptable set of rules. It isn't permitted to collect IP addresses, browsing history or DNS requests, nor can it share any of the data it does collect with partners. The partners note is important because one of Norton's sibling companies, Avast, is known to have sold information on its users to corporations for ad targeting. A Norton representative stated that Avast is no longer involved in harvesting or selling user data. More importantly, he said that no data from VPN products is shared between Gen Digital brands. Independent privacy audits A recent audit by penetration testing firm VerSprite provides reason to be hopeful about Norton VPN's privacy. According to a report published in August 2024, which you can download from this page, VerSprite found that Norton VPN posed an overall "low" privacy risk, judged on a scale of low, medium, high and critical risks. During their audit, VerSprite informed Norton that certain conditions could make VPN users identifiable. In a second round of tests, Norton appears to have fixed those vulnerabilities. That's certainly reassuring, but I wish the report — which only runs three pages in all — was more specific about what the problem actually was. Regardless, the VerSprite audit is a good sign that Norton VPN is taking privacy more seriously than Norton as a whole. Can Norton VPN change your virtual location? If a VPN can change your virtual location, it can not only throw ISPs and other interlopers off your real identity, but also change what you see on the internet — especially on streaming sites, where connecting through a different country can unlock new shows. However, Netflix and its brethren block VPN traffic for copyright reasons, so it's never a guarantee that you'll get in. netflix canada norton vpn (Sam Chapman for Engadget) I tested Norton VPN's ability to unblock Netflix on five different locations, connecting three times on three different servers in each place. I set the app to automatically choose the protocol. In the table below, you'll see how many tests each location passed, and whether Netflix showed new content each time. If I get into Netflix but the library doesn't change, that indicates the server might be leaky. Server location Unblocked Netflix? Changed content? Vancouver, Canada 3/3 3/3 Iceland 0/3 0/3 Latvia 3/3 3/3 Morocco 3/3 3/3 Philippines 3/3 3/3 I had no problems in four out of five of the locations I tested, but Netflix utterly defeated the Iceland servers. No matter how many times I disconnected and reconnected to get a new IP address, Netflix recognized a VPN server and blocked me. This happened even when I switched to the Mimic protocol. iceland blocked norton vpn (Sam Chapman for Engadget) That indicates that Netflix has blocklisted most or all of Norton VPN's servers in Iceland, and the company hasn't caught up. It's another troubling indication that Norton isn't committing the level of attention that its server network requires. Investigating Norton VPN's server network Speaking of the server network, now's the time to get deeper into it. The relative scarcity of different IP addresses on Norton VPN, along with the download speed drops over long distances, suggest to me that Norton might have relegated maintaining VPN data centers to an afterthought. So, let's see what its worldwide server selection looks like. Region Countries with servers Total server locations North America 5 32 South America 6 6 Europe 36 47 Africa 5 5 Middle East 2 2 Asia 10 10 Oceania 2 4 Total 66 106 All of Norton VPN's server locations are physical, with no virtual locations. This makes its network more reliable — virtual server locations can deliver unexpected speed swings. However, it does limit the number of locations Norton is capable of offering. The selection is reasonably good, with many locations in often-underserved Africa and South America, and many options in marquee regions like the US and Europe. However, it's a pretty small network for what Norton is charging. Also, as we saw with the Iceland location getting blocked by Netflix, having a country on the menu doesn't necessarily mean it will do the job. Extra features of Norton VPN Norton VPN added a ton of features in the first several months of 2025. Most of these mainly brought it up to par with other VPNs, like city-level region selection or support for smart TVs. However, there are one or two you won't find in many other places, like the IP rotator — to my knowledge, nobody else has that except Surfshark. Here are the most important extras to know about. Ad blocker Norton VPN's ad blocker can be used on its browser extension. Its mobile apps can block the trackers embedded in ads, but not the ads themselves. There's not a lot of customization potential; you can turn it on and off, and that's mainly it. The one option you have on the extension is to turn "acceptable ads" back on. This can help you get into sites that normally block users with adblock on, or use sites where you want to see ads to help them monetize. Ad tracker blocker norton vpn (Sam Chapman for Engadget) Double VPN and IP rotator Norton introduced these two features in 2025 as "enhanced anonymity" upgrades. Double VPN runs your VPN through two server locations instead of one, so you're still safe if one server breaks down. You can choose from eight pre-determined multi-hop paths with endpoints in the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Germany and Taiwan. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) IP rotation servers change your IP address frequently while you're connected, which makes you harder to track. Unlike Surfshark, which lets you turn this on everywhere, Norton VPN limits you to six IP rotator locations: the USA, the UK, Canada, Japan, Germany and Australia. Convenience features The next three features were also added in the last eight months. The server location menu now puts your last five locations at the top for easy retrieval. While connected to a server, you can pause the VPN for 15, 30 or 60 minutes, after which it turns back on. Finally, the mobile apps have added a home screen widget so you can operate the VPN without opening the app. pause connection norton vpn (Sam Chapman for Engadget) Kill switch A VPN kill switch cuts off your internet access if you lose your VPN connection, so any sensitive information isn't broadcast unprotected. Norton VPN's kill switch is vital, since it appears to briefly drop encryption while switching server locations. Unfortunately, it's not available on iOS. Split tunneling The Windows and Android apps for Norton VPN allow split tunneling, in which only certain apps go through the VPN while others connect directly. Norton uses app-based split tunneling, but if you want to protect or remove protection from specific URLs, you can use two different web browsers. Wi-Fi security This feature, which appears on NortonVPN's mobile apps only, activates whenever you connect to a Wi-Fi network. Norton VPN scans that network for common attacks launched over Wi-Fi, like DNS poisoning and SSL stripping, and sends you an alert if it detects any. P2P optimization Norton VPN has certain servers in its network configured for torrenting. You can't use it for torrenting outside those locations — if you try, the VPN will disconnect. To connect to a P2P server, just select "P2P-optimized region" from the server menu. You can't choose a torrenting server in a specific region; the app just selects the fastest. Norton VPN customer support options Following the broad trend of Norton VPN, the Windows app gets most of the love, having much more in-app support than any other platform. Mac users get a troubleshooting tab in the settings menu, with three options: go to the online help center, send a bug report or go to the community forum. iOS and Android just have a "help and support" button on the accounts page that sends you straight to the website. On Windows, there's a separate help and support tab above the settings tab, which gives you direct links to some of the most important pages on the Norton website. It's also got links to the forum and help center. Then there's the same troubleshooting tab as the Mac app, but with more options. Windows users can reset the app to default, record a problem to get more specific help, send debug logs and run an automated "Repair Norton" process. If you got to the website through a desktop app, it's surprisingly difficult to get to the general support page for Norton VPN — Windows links to a splintered set of FAQ pages, while Mac sends you to a Mac-specific page for the entire Norton Family. I recommend just going to in your browser, then clicking the Norton VPN button. At least the links in both mobile apps take you straight there. Once you have gotten to the Norton VPN support page, you won't find much of use. Help articles are limited and leave some big holes. For example, all connectivity problems are limited to a page called "Fix problem accessing the internet when connected to Norton VPN." The only advice for Windows, Mac and Android is to choose a different VPN protocol, and there's nothing at all for iOS. Even worse, whenever you use the search bar to look anything up, you're forced to watch an AI answer type itself out in real time, so links to the actual help pages are constantly jumping around as you try to click on them. It's this feature that pushes Norton's help pages from negligent to hostile. Live support experience There are a few other ways to get support from Norton VPN. You can check in on the community forum, chat live with an agent or call their phone line. The forums are reasonably active for Windows, but pretty dead for all other platforms. I used live chat to ask about a problem with installing the iOS app. I managed to reach a human pretty quickly, but there were several long pauses during our conversation. Eventually, they escalated my case to a higher support team. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) I assumed that this team would send me an email, per standard practice. Instead, they repeatedly tried to reach me by phone. I was not warned that they would do this, and each time, the call was flagged as spam. By the time I realized Norton was calling me, I'd already solved the problem myself. Be aware of this if you plan to contact Norton with a difficult issue. Norton VPN background check The Norton software brand has existed in some form or another since the Norton Utilities package was developed for DOS in 1982. The brand was acquired in 1990 by Symantec, which had published its own first antivirus program the year before. Symantec began releasing Norton Antivirus in 1991, and continued distributing it until its merger with Avast in 2022. Since then, the combined company has been called Gen Digital. Compared to that long history, Norton VPN has only been around for a blip. It launched in 2019 as part of Symantec's bid to expand the Norton Antivirus line into a suite that could defend against more types of threats. As such, while Norton and Symantec have been involved in their share of controversies over the years, very few of them happened during Norton VPN's lifetime. Despite Norton's long and checkered history, checking the background of its VPN is pretty simple: nothing has gone seriously wrong yet. This VPN has problems, but they're mainly out in the open, stemming from it being a relative afterthought from a company more focused on other types of security. Final verdict For me to recommend a VPN, it has to stand out in a crowded field. After a week of working with Norton VPN, I have to conclude that the only way it distinguishes itself is the Norton name. For everything else it does, a competitor does it better. Surfshark scoops it on IP rotation and multihop, ExpressVPN has better protocols, NordVPN is faster and Proton VPN's ad blocker works in more places. One thing I will say in Norton VPN's favor is that it's working to rectify all this. In the last year, it's added a lot of features. The problem is that most of those are options I'd have expected it to have already, such as city-level region selection and a kill switch on Mac. It's catching up, not innovating. It's also nice that you can use the bundles to roll more Norton products into one subscription. However, since Norton is much more experienced at developing other sorts of security software, I'd advise going the Norton 360 route if you're interested in those other features and treating the VPN as an add-on. Norton VPN is a side dish, not an entree.
Tom's Guide
5 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
What parents need to know about their high schooler's experience online
If we're being honest with ourselves, high school students present the ultimate problem for parents in the cyber age. They think they're on the cusp of adulthood, so they resent most rules and restrictions you place on them. Just think back to when you were in high school. There are probably a litany of situations that you look at completely differently in hindsight. (Yes, Mom, I should have called when I was staying out too late hanging out with my friends. I get it now.) Whether or not they'd like to admit it, high schoolers still need protection against the worst the web has in store. At this point, they're old enough to take responsibility for their actions online, so having guardrails up for their final few years before they head out into the real world can be vital. Norton 360 Deluxe with Parental Control will equip you to make the process as painless as possible. Just because they're on the verge of being grown doesn't mean they're there yet. You've still got time to prepare them to make good choices in the real world. Because we all know it doesn't get any simpler after graduation. This is what it all boils down to. I know it's easy to say, but raising a child who is actually willing to talk through problems with you is priceless. As they're getting older, chances are their problems are nuanced in ways they weren't a couple of years before, sometimes without simple explanations. There's a lot happening in their lives that you may need to work to understand, but you can let them know you're a constant resource. If they need reassurance, you're there. If they need guidance, you're there. One of the great joys of parenthood is raising someone you enjoy talking with, so find the time to talk. Even when things get hard, they'll know you're there. In elementary and middle school, you may be slowly introducing devices. A phone here, a tablet there. By the time they reach high school, they've got the full complement of gear, and each one plays a role in their lives, from the ubiquitous phone to their school laptop. Norton's services cover Windows, iOS and Android devices, with the brand's Safe Search extension available on several major browsers. Norton 360 Deluxe covers up to five devices, but with a high schooler, you might need to upgrade to the ten-device package. Your kids are growing up in a digital world, and the importance of remembering their passwords is paramount. That said, bad actors are always on the lookout for a way to access your devices, so using "password" or the name of your pet is out of the question. A major key to safe online journeys is to always have strong passwords and keep them confidential. Here, Norton 360 Deluxe's Password Manager can help by storing an unlimited number of credentials in encrypted form and consolidating them into a single incredibly complex password that's very hard to crack. While you're at it, make sure two-factor authentication is enabled. As referenced earlier, high schoolers might, occasionally, stay out too late. I know — shocking. But your kid might start driving any day now. It's good to know where they're at. Norton 360 Deluxe's map tool shows you their real-time location. It also gives you a 30-day history of their phone's location, so you can make sure they're actually going to play rehearsal instead of over to a friend's house to play video games, something the author of this piece is not at all guilty of. You can tag approved locations and get alerts when they leave the boundaries, so you can get a heads up when they're on their way home from their after school job. They might blanch at the thought of you tracking their location, but I'm sure you can convince them that it's a small price to pay for a little more freedom. Honestly, there are rules we previously spoke about in the middle school version of this article that are still super helpful here. Topics like social media monitoring and cyberbullying are as prevalent for high schoolers as they are for the younger set. Still, you've probably done a good job of setting them up for success when it comes to internet safety. If you ever have a question about how to handle a situation, keep the four C's in mind. Content – Keep access to objectionable material limited. Contact – Avoid real-world meetings. Conduct – Respect others online and keep away from illegal downloads. Commerce – Be careful who you give payment information to. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you have other questions, The Smart Talk has solutions. Co-developed with Norton and the National PTA, it has a ton of guidance that you can utilize, even if you think you've got it all figured out, just like your high schooler.
