ExpressVPN Review: A Good Android VPN

It is not safe to connect to unsecured networks without any virtual private network or VPN, no matter what equipment you are using. ExpressVPN for Android gives access to more than a thousand servers spread across the planet. But it is costly when compared to rivals and does not have high-end functions such as split tunneling or ad-blocking. Also, a subscription-only user gets only a few simultaneous connections, and the service was not speedy enough in the ExpressVPN review. The Android app of ExpressVPN does its primary function well. Still, other rivals give users a better experience on Android at a lower cost.

The firm has recently upgraded its Android app with new functions. During our ExpressVPN review, we installed the latest version of the software on Android. We did not get any issues when signing in or utilizing the app. The app's reliability is a vital metric since it is probable that it is your best defense against privacy incursions. Any VPN that loses the connection to the server defeats the purpose of using such software in the first place. The app of ExpressVPN is effective and simple. This is useful for people who only want to connect to the VPN server without any hassles. In the middle of the display, the app gives a big power button that a user taps to connect. Below the button, you choose the server location you want to utilize.

Tap on the Expand button in this field to get all the available and recommended servers. But the app should have included more information on all of the servers, such as latency or server load percentage. The latest version of the app makes it simpler to access the recent and recommended server locations by adding shortcuts to those servers on the main page. The app has also given the ability to add browser and app shortcuts to the app's main page. These are only present once you enable the VPN. This function assists users in ensuring that the VPN is enabled and working before they launch an app. They are great usability functions, but we do not appreciate the constant notification at the bottom of the main screen that highlights the software and its news.

You can access the settings by tapping on the overflow menu icon on the left-hand side of the main display. The settings section is quite bare. The user can choose the VPN protocol and specify whether the software should connect on the start-up of Android. There is no feature of the split-tunneling present here. ExpressVPN has many tools in the help and support section for verifying if WebRTC is leaking the original IP address, testing for DNS leaks, and checking the IP address. These things are not built into the software and redirect the user to a web browser. The software does have an option to contact the support team of ExpressVPN. Still, the privacy policy is not given anywhere.

When you connect any equipment to a VPN, you will see a negative effect on the performance of the network. The extranet of this change is due to a number of reasons. This includes the device, geographic location, and server you select to connect. As stated earlier, a VPN with more server locations and servers will cause fewer major impacts on the speed of the networks. Keeping this in mind, we see our ExpressVPN review as a comparative snapshot of the performance rather than the ultimate conclusion. To test the performance of the VPN, we used the Ookla Speedtest app. We also ran many tests over the Wi-Fi network. We enabled the Airplane mode to control the inconsistencies in the cellular network speeds during the testing.

We are taking the median results of many tests run with the VPN disabled and getting the percent change from the same tests when the VPN was enabled. The software gave mixed results in our tests on the Android device. For example, it performed well enough in the latency tests. It increased the latency by less than fifty percent. But, the results fell to near the bottom of the list on the upload and download speed tests. The software slowed upload and download speed by nearly eighty percent. For comparison, Turbo VPN, Private Internet Access, and NordVPN led the path in the latency tests. They each increased the latency by less than thirty percent. Speedify VPN was the fastest in the download speed test. It decreased the speed by about four percent. NordVPN was the top performer in the upload speed test. It decreased speeds by only about twenty percent.

ExpressVPN for Android is a good service that gives a sufficient number of servers and spans many locations across the planet. But it does not stand apart from the crowded pack of rivals. It restricts users to a handful of simultaneous connections, performs below average testing, and is costly.