Who makes the most reliable laptops?

[Borimol]

One question we get pretty frequently is some variation on "Which laptop brand is most reliable?" It's an important question, as laptops can be tough to fix, with pretty much no user-serviceable parts inside (yes, I'm sure you're all clever enough to pop open your laptop chassis and tinker around; I'm talking about all the other laptop owners out there). That means if something goes wrong with your laptop, it's a pretty much guaranteed trip to a repair center.

Most people rely on anecdotal evidence to pick a laptop they think won't break down--relying on horror stories from friends or the Internet. Of course, every manufacturer has a mile-long list of angry customers who have not gotten satisfaction from indifferent tech support telephone drones, fine-print-filled warranties, or shady third-party repair services.

(Credit: Consumer Reports)

The detail-minded folks at Consumer Reports have just put out their annual look at the computer industry, and while our colleague Tom Krazit has already pointed out that Apple ranks at the top of the list for laptop tech support, (with HP in last place), we're more interested in the brand repair history chart from the same issue.

The chart shows data from about 75,000 laptops purchased between 2003 and 2007, recording how many have had a serious problem requiring repair. The companies listed are Lenovo, Compaq, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, HP, Gateway, and Apple, and all scored between 20 percent and 23 percent. Consumer Reports says a difference of less than three points is statistically "not meaningful."

So, there you have it--no major laptop brand is really much more likely to break down than any other. Why? Because most laptops are essentially commodity products, made from the exact same components, and differentiated only by their outer shells and extra features. So, next time someone says not to buy a laptop from a certain vendor because they "break down all the time," you can assure them that there's about a 1-in-5 chance their laptop will develop a major problem, no matter where it came from.

Via: Crave

[Sophism]

source?

nm you just edited it in there :p

I wonder if that counts all the macbooks that where sent back for discoloration issues a while back.

[Vandalsquad]

So the most expensive and overpriced laptops break the most..

[CY:G]

Where is Acer, they have to be the worst for number of repairs...

[Lasker]

So Apple is the worst company? lol, remind me in women the same, you can see a beauty queen but the inside is pretty bad.

[bigmehdi]

Where is Asus , too ?

[Miuku.]

Another USA only article claiming this or that. These are getting really boring.

[OPaul]

So the most expensive and overpriced laptops break the most..

Thinkpads are probably the most expensive and they break the least according to that graphic.

[instant.human]

in my view, they are all more or less the same...

the difference between the "first" and the "last" are like 3 repairs, big deal.

and thats a very good thing. they are all more or less reliable so its up to your personal taste. =)

[Borimol]

the difference between the "first" and the "last" are like 3 repairs, big deal.

and thats a very good thing. they are all more or less reliable so its up to your personal taste. =)

A good thing? I do not think that 25% of laptops damaged is a major statistical to be proud.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

It's one thing to favourite brand x breaks down less than favourite brand y, but when they do break down, how much hassle are they to get them fixed?

Not that I am an Apple fan, but from what I hear, they are very good about getting things fixed.

[MulletRobZ]

I'm surprised Apple was ranked at the bottom on this survey, especially since I only had my iBook repaired once since I bought it in 2005 and it was because of something stupid I did, not because of a hardware defect. But software-wise, I find Dells are the worst, as they get cluttered with spyware more than any of the other PC manufacturers.

[ANON86364]

I'm surprised Apple was ranked at the bottom on this survey, especially since I only had my iBook repaired once since I bought it in 2005 and it was because of something stupid I did, not because of a hardware defect. But software-wise, I find Dells are the worst, as they get cluttered with spyware more than any of the other PC manufacturers.

Either you have no idea what spyware is or you actually think a PCs vulnerability to spyware has anything to do with the manufacturer. Spyware is something that gets installed usually without the user's consent and monitors and/or annoys the user, or hinders the PCs performance. When a user goes to some website and blindly installs crap or just selects default options in any install and ends up with spyware, that is not the manufacturer's fault.

What you probably mean to say is Dell installs "bloatware" such as Google Desktop and their stupid Quickset and Dell Support applications. And quite honestly, even though these apps are annoying to some people, they do help others.

[pyehac]

As a computer technician for the military, I declare more Toshibas and Averatecs dead than any other computer maker.

And yes, all computers we service here either are home used, or went to combat (HPs and Dells survive more than the others)

[ObiWanToby]

Avoid dell, I hate my Inspiron 1520, I've had 3 repairs, got the laptop replaced and just recently had another repair. I got the error message

*** Hardware Malfunction

Call your hardware vendor for support

NMI: Parity Check/Memory Parity Error

*** The system has halted ***

They replaced the motherboard and memory. Everyday I use this laptop, it ticks me off.

[Cara Veteran]

I news articles such as these funny. The amount of factual information is very limited, they list the total number of equipment sales but not numbers for individual resellers.

For example, what was the ratio of Apples versus Dell sold there, that will directly impact the rating. Or Lenovo/IBM to HP?

I will personally stand behind the information put out by publications such as Consumer Reports...

They tend to hold a bit more weight with me. :)

The full report, which also includes buying advice for desktops, laptops, and all-in-ones, appears in the June issue of Consumer Reports; that publication?s subscribers can also get it online at the Consumer Reports Web site.

[markwolfe Veteran]

^^^ Cara, the percentage of failures (or in this case "repairs") doesn't depend on the number of units sold. It is just a percentage. 20% of Lenovos ended up needing "repair" and 23% of Apples needed "repair". Not a huge difference.

Your charts seemed to be more of "customer satisfaction" survey, not rating the percentage of units sent in for repair.

[Kenji]

/me hugs his ThinkPad <3

[ObiWanToby]

^^^ Cara, the percentage of failures (or in this case "repairs") doesn't depend on the number of units sold. It is just a percentage. 20% of Lenovos ended up needing "repair" and 23% of Apples needed "repair". Not a huge difference.

Your charts seemed to be more of "customer satisfaction" survey, not rating the percentage of units sent in for repair.

Wouldn't it mean Apples fail more if they sell less and fail at the same percentage a lenovo does?

[Cara Veteran]

^^^ Cara, the percentage of failures (or in this case "repairs") doesn't depend on the number of units sold. It is just a percentage. 20% of Lenovos ended up needing "repair" and 23% of Apples needed "repair". Not a huge difference.

Your charts seemed to be more of "customer satisfaction" survey, not rating the percentage of units sent in for repair.

Consumer Reports ranked them by the customer's satisfaction on the repair or work completed, which to me leads directly into the fact that if the machine was being serviced frequently it would lead to a lower customer satisfaction level.

I am assuming that they rated each brand individually but they didn't say if they did or not therefore it could be relative. No base numbers are given so it is impossible to judge this. Either way I find these numbers to be slightly hard to believe given what we see and hear from our support services. :)

Dazzy - They are nice aren't they? I just got an X61 Tablet to play with, I won't say why.

[Knife Party]

China :p

[.Kompressor]

Thinkpads are really nice laptops....

but since Lenovo has taken over the Thinkpad design has remained true to it's original idea...Pretty much all that was changed is the name of the Manufacturer...it's still run by the original IBM design team and service centers...... but their tech support has gone south....but tell me what company hasn't these days. seems to be the norm.

I still like them though.

The thing about finding out info like this is that it changes every year...or every 2 quarters i think. One minute Dell is making solid laptops and then months later they may release something new that has a design flaw or hardware issues...what can you do? nothing, unless you can see the future.

so it's a fluctuating result.

[MMaster23]

I've had several brands over the years.. a small PERSONAL list: (from great to not so crap to utter crap)

- HP (Simply the best .. right up there .. IBM/Lenovo is also great, haven't used them)

- Toshiba (durable but slow by default, fat and IMHO ugly)

- Sony (but clunky and slow)

- Apple (tend to have funky problems .. noone can really tell what to expect .. overall the quality is great but needs repairs from time to time)

- ASUS (good value for money and fast systems but keep on dying...)

- MSI (overpriced, cracks and replacementparts are way too expensive)

- Acer (cracks like hell, poor poor quality)

- OEM notebooks (tend to behave like Acer and ASUS)

I'm loving my 8510p from HP. It may not be the pretiest thing on the block but it's chassis is kick ass, performance is right up there and the batterylife is just awesome...

Over the years I've had several ASUS notebooks .. they look great, perform great .. however after 8 months they just keep on dying / crapping out.

The V6 serie of ASUS was one of the best .. more durable yet. Too bad they canceled the entire serie (too expensive for users).

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

I had a Dell provided by my company. I used it for over 3 years without a problem. Dropped it a few times as well.

[mrt2]

^^^ Cara, the percentage of failures (or in this case "repairs") doesn't depend on the number of units sold. It is just a percentage. 20% of Lenovos ended up needing "repair" and 23% of Apples needed "repair". Not a huge difference.

Your charts seemed to be more of "customer satisfaction" survey, not rating the percentage of units sent in for repair.

Not to be an ass or anything but I don't believe what you're saying makes sense. The report is of laptops sent in for repair... It's a PERCENTAGE of laptops that have to be sent in for repair. By that definition alone it means that it's a PERCENTAGE of laptops SOLD which are sent back for repair... Your statement "the percentage of failures (or in this case "repairs") doesn't depend on the number of units sold. It is just a percentage." Well you say "it's just a percentage" it's a percentage of what though? Of the number of laptops in the warehouse that haven't even gone out to customers yet? No, of course not... They would only be talking about the percentage of laptops that were sent out to customers (sold). Laptops that haven't been sold wouldn't need to come back for service... You can't have a percentage without first having a starting number. You can't just take a percentage out of thin air or have a percentage of nothing... Nothing from nothing equals nothing... It would have to be a percentage of an actual number... in this case the only logical thing would be the percentage of laptops sold seeing as the stats listed were for laptops sent back for repair... Percentage of failures DOES depend on the number of units sold in this case because if the unit hasn't been sold then it hasn't been used and thus wouldn't need to be repaired. Please don't take this post as a flame or anything it's not meant to be sarcastic or condescending...