Study reveals laptop brand reliability
Apple's laptops might be pretty and fetch a premium, but SquareTrade's study suggests they're not the most reliable.
The study, carried out by SquareTrade and reported over at InfoWorld, reveals that while Apple's range of MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops are certainly reliable enough, they only make it to fourth place overall.
In the 30,000 laptops which were part of the study of failure rates requiring after-sales warranty service, Apple was beaten in reliability by Toshiba and Sony. Further, Asus managed to pip everyone to the post, coming in at the lowest failure rate of all - just 15.6 percent of Asus machines required warranty repairs over a three-year period.
Despite Apple's relatively poor showing - at 17.4 percent over three years - it still managed to beat business staples including Dell, Lenovo, and Hewlett-Packard - with the latter managing an astoundingly bad 25.6 percent projected failure rate over a three-year period.
SquareTrade's vice president Vince Tseng said of the study that "it's not really surprising that Apple's in the middle of the pack," but that "what was surprising was that Asus came out on top."
The study also showed the reason for the common 12-month warranty offered by most companies on their products: in the first year, less than five percent of laptops had failed in a way which would require repair or replacement under the terms of the warranty. This had more than doubled to 12.7 percent in the second year, before hitting 20.4 percent - a one in five chance you'll need to get the laptop fixed - in the third year.
Another interesting statistic to come from the study is that netbooks, by and large, are more likely to fail than their larger counterparts - despite the use of shock-proof solid-state storage in many models. In the first year of use, the study shows that an average netbook is 23 percent more likely to fail than an average 'budget' laptop, and a massive 38 percent higher than a premium notebook.
Tseng gave three reasons for the seemingly high three-year failure rate of laptops: "People leave them on all the time, and notebook components are sensitive to heat. Two, they're portable and take a lot of abuse. And three, they're more complex than most other consumer electronics devices."
Are you surprised to see Apple being beaten by lower-cost rivals, or is it the sight of Asus at the top that has you shocked? Does the insight into failure rates in the second and third years make you wish you'd opted for the extended warranty, or are you confident the Sale of Goods Act will see you right? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThe only big surprise to me is Lenovo and Toshiba, I expected them to be opposite. I had heard Lenovo slipped but had fixed their problems, clearly not well enough. Sony's bad choice in hard disks probably drove them down (I have replaced more than a few), so that wasn't a big shock. Apple, well if you have looked into their past, it will come as no surprises that they only fare average, which is actually an improvement.
You may want to read the original article, there is much more there.
In complete agreement. My experience of Acer hardware and support was so poor, I will never buy another of their products.
I would've thought it'd be lower tbh. Acers' are pretty crap to be fair - they're cheap and cheerful. Ok, so spec-wise you do get very good value for money, but the design and build quality leaves something to be desired.
My mates acer went on the blink literally a month or two after he bought it. Sent it back only to have it returned with half the RAM and a smaller HDD. Sent it back again (after numerous phone calls). This time it came back with the original size HDD, but only 3/4 of the RAM. He couldn't be bothered to send it back again so just gave up.
i'm not suprised by the hp results i would say that a vast majority of hp failures were due to the nvidia gpu problem
nor am i suprised by asus having good results, a majority of there kit is well made
I agree on their laptops, they can be very noisy and parts fail - I'm not surprised they've not done well. Their desktops and servers are very good though and the service I've had is second to none. Had a psu go - someone sent by HP came and fitted a new one, totally free. I've had 3 of their servers running for over 5 years, only had to replace one raid-5 drive.
a laptop is like a hard drive, it's guaranteed to fail.
My mac book pro has failed 3 times within 2 years. not impressed. and all that means is it's going to fail more in the future and when my paid for warranty expires i'm going to be facing huge bills. really, not impressed.
Buy an Asus.. mine's going on 3 years now and rock solid
So far, so good. But I have had the powerbrick fail on me (within 2-3 months of purchase). When will manufactures learn that a power converter which is <100% efficient should not be housed in a sealed (insulating) plastic box... ASUS did a painless swap out for this item thankfully..
Atm I own a unibody macbook which I am equally impressed by, but one of my mates have had his fair share of bad luck with his macbook pro. knock on wood!
"The seller is liable to the consumer for any lack of conformity which exists when the goods are delivered to the consumer and which becomes apparent within a period of two years unless, at the moment of conclusion of the contract of sale, the consumer knew or could not reasonably be unaware of the lack of conformity."
Basically read, you are entitled to a 2 year warranty... but you may have to argue your case...
ref this page http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/protection_of_consumers/l32022_en.htm
HP being on the bottom, I'm not surprised by that either.
who made the module, as they could have checked it before shipping. Have to agree about Hp service, they try and put you off making a repair claim and the call centres in South Africa, the staff there are just outright rude. The Indian ones are ok, but they keep putting you on hold for ages.
The study was done based on extra warranties bought from the store.
Acer's are some of the cheapest you can get.
Who wants to bet the Acer owners were too cheap to purchase the extra warranty? For the price of the warranty, you could have bought a better laptop that wouldn't need the extra warranty.
Apples may also be in a similar position, "I don't need a warranty, Mac's are the best!"
Tell that to my 5 and 9 year old Sonys, both still in operation.
I expect the newer one to work similar.
I've got an original X505 (1999, I think) and another '99 Vaio - both still work fine and are actually quite well built. The X505 is barely used, it's a nightmare to find compatible software for it! It's a bit much to ask new laptops to work for similar periods of time, I fear, because people now prioritize price over long-term reliability and manufacturers design models to meet those needs. My X505 is the size of a modern netbook, but it probably cost six or seven times what one of those would. There's a reason for that...
Somewhere, in the dark recesses of the attic, I've also got my Dad's first laptop. It's grey, lead-acid battery (I can't remember the make at all). Two-colour screen (blue background with white text) and it evidently predates Windows. It worked fine, until 2001 - I think it may have suffered from the Millennium bug. :D
Mmmmm X505 <3
I agree to a point, I used to tell customers to look at a good laptop as an investment, either buy good, or expect it to break. While that holds true if you buy a better quality one, they likely will not go 7 or 9 years, but they are are cheaper so they are still a worthy investment. Besides at the rate of technology these days, 7 years from now, the current stuff will be more behind than the stuff that is currently 9 years behind (Moore's law).
The market however has changed.
You no longer have to look at them as an investment. But a cheap Acer, no warranty, throw a few gigs of ram at it and then use it till it dies, then go buy another. They are disposable.
Unfortunately this is bad for the environment, and they are stuck with a cheap laptop that could go at any minute, but financially, it does make some sense.
I love my Sonys, they have served me well, and even though I am dying for a TZ, my next will be an Asus most likely. It's cheaper, and much better customer support. Something Sony has consistently gotten worse and worse about over the years.
I dunno about everyone else's experience, but mine's been good.