Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 may have arrived early, but a number of improvements show it isn't a rushed release.

The interface has received an overhaul, with large, clear tabs and more white space than before. But behind the clean design a plethora of sub-panes means it isn't always simple to get where you want to go.

There are some technical updates too. The browser toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox now includes a button to launch a screen keyboard, used to defeat keyloggers. Safe Run lets you run programs you're uncertain about in a sandboxed environment where they can't access your system files.

And Kaspersky also makes smarter use of online resources: bad files can be instantly blacklisted from a central database, while whitelisted files don't need to be fully scanned, saving time. Other additions include improved rootkit detection, IM monitoring and web advert suppression.

Thankfully, these extras don't make Kaspersky a bloated suite. In tests, it added six seconds to boot time, and the RAM footprint rose from 528MB to just 611MB.

The firewall remains one of our favourites: as soon as we tried to probe the system, Kaspersky blocked our attacking PC. But, sadly, when it came to intercepting malware it wasn't as impressive, with a detection rate of 88% falling behind the 90% achieved by G Data and Avira.

Several of these samples weren't identified by name, but were flagged because of their potential behaviour. And although we'd like to see evidence of a more comprehensive database, such behaviour detection demonstrates that Kaspersky can intercept threats it hasn't seen before.

If Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 had detected just a few more samples, and if it were just a little cheaper, we could have been looking at a new A List winner here. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite take the crown in those areas, but it remains a credible and powerful suite that's well worth a look.