Is Android’s encryption feature worth it for most users?

Our smartphones are jam packed with personal information that we want to keep safe, but how can you do that? Google made things easier in Android 5.0 by adding opt-in Full Disk Encryption but it comes at the cost performance. That’s one of the unfortunate rules of life, you simply can’t have the best of both world. The best you can achieve is a comfortable middle ground. In this instance, the happy balance between performance and security depends on the user and Android Central has done a few tests that can make the decision easier. 

Being secure is all about adding layers in between the thing you want to keep safe and everything else, even you (and in some cases, especially you). Personal information, like the stuff we all routinely load our smartphones with, doesn’t actually want to be secure. You have to put some work into keeping your information safe, and every step you take adds some small layer of inconvenience. In Android 5.0, Google made Full Disk Encryption something you can either enable yourself or enjoy because your smartphone or tablet has shipped with it enabled by default. Before you flip that particular switch, however, lets take a look at what you gain —and lose — through the use of this feature. The two big ways Full Disk Encryption affects users is performance and protection, and like most forms of security you’re going to lose some of the former in order to gain the latter. Performance is a funny thing to talk about with Android devices, because most folks look at performance one of two ways. You’re either all about the hard data provided by a technical benchmark, or you’d like to see how usage in the real world changes. While we typically shy away from benchmarks to demonstrate performance over real world use, it’s important to see just how many different ways encrypting your device affects performance.