As thread heading says... am planning to order a new one, just wanted to know if this needs any antivirus apps to be installed? Does it have any preinstalled?
Anything connected to the internet should have one. If there's no virus written for the operating system (and there are plenty for Android) one will be soon.
If you only download apps from the play store and only from well known developers the probability you run into some malware is relatively small. If you plan to install random apks from outside the playstore you should install a antivirus app. It doesn't have one preinstalled.