News Study reveals laptop brand reliability

Bought my Asus laptop about 4 months ago so can't say much in terms of long term reliabilitybut the guy who bought it from had it for a year without any problems and compared to a lot of other laptops I've used it's a very solid well built peice of kit. Extremely happy with it.

 

I'll being sticking with my ASUS laptop. Really nice 14" model with a modest 4650 1Gb (but still far better than most Nvidia mobile GPUs). I have replaced the crap Atheros WiFi pcie card with an Intel model. Definite improvement there...

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..

 

Having owned 3 Asus laptops previously I am not the least surprised! They have all been rock solid! Owned one for four years and it was still modern looking and the battery life was excellent!

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!

 

something very worth knowing as we are in the EU is

"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

 

Asus being at the top is definitely not a surprise.
HP being on the bottom, I'm not surprised by that either.

 

Surprised Apple placed so well. (having worked at Apple)

 

I had one of the Macbooks (with work) that the case basically broke up at the edges with cracks. Bought myself one of the first Unibodies and its been ok apart from one memory stick being duff on shipment. Not sure who's fault that is, Apple or Hynix
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.

 

I can explain the Acer position...

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.

 

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.

 

Honestly, I don't know why the hate being poured out on Acer. I have had fabulous luck with them. I actually dropped my acer out of my pack (i thought it was zipped shut) and it made the most heart-wrenching *THWACK* when it hit the asphalt. I picked it up and there was nothing but a single tiny scratch on the lid.

I dunno about everyone else's experience, but mine's been good.

 

I've had an Acer Ferrari 3400 for something like 4 years now. One time I smashed the HDD by dropping it from the table while it was on. A new harddisk and it was good to go. Now my girlfriend uses it as her regular computer.