Reliability for notebook computers according to a publication by Square Trade rates Asus as the most reliable and HP the least reliable. So who is Square Trade? It is a company that offers warranties on computer systems and its results were based on 30,000 notebooks that required repairs. The chart below shows which computers it found to be the most reliable:
Highlights of the study include:
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Looking at the first 3 years of ownership, 31% of laptop owners reported a failure to SquareTrade. Two-thirds of this failure (20.4%) came from hardware malfunctions, and one-third (10.6%) was reported as accidental damage.
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Netbooks are projected to have a 20% higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
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ASUS and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16% having a hardware malfunction over 3 years.
FWIW – I have owned Toshiba laptops as well as having repaired [software] problems on the systems, and I must agree that the company makes a very good product. But what about you? Who do you think makes a good laptop?
For the prices Apple charges one would think it would have a higher reliability rating.
Comments welcome.
RE Apple, this is using data from their first ever intel laptops (and everyone knows not to get Rev. A products), where failure rates would be higher simply because it’s something completely different from what they’re used to.
After that, the 2 year data will also be including the swathe of failures seen thanks to the NVidia 8 series failure debacle (which also extends to the 9 series, somewhat). That affects most of these companies to some extent, but Apple’s Pro laptops have used those chips for the last 2 years.
I myself was caught up in that and got a completely new logic board transplanted into my MBP. I’ve also had two new batteries in the last 2 years. The first of those two was out of Apple’s hands, but the latter they’ve endeavoured to fix with the latest MacBooks and their improved battery tech.
I’ve heard from several reliable sources to steer clear of HP. The Asus rating doesn’t surprise me. The Lenovo does a bit.
Stef – thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Buffet – I agree. It does appear that the more successful one gets the worse their products become. LOL
I’ve been addicted to HP since years ago IBM sold its small-computer division to Lenovo (of China). Before that I’d ONLY buy IBM Thinkpads.
Now it’s HP.
I disagree with ratings. My HP’s have been 100% reliable.
However I “major” in engineering/science-oriented computing, so I am not focused on entertainment or cheap laptops. HP made a name for itse;f in science/engienering, worl’s most sophisticated caluclators many years ago were pioneered by HP & TI. They make reasonable servers.
But look, if you spend $249 on HP Netbook at a retailer like Ecost.com and complain, you should complain on why you expect great reliability from 250 bucks.
So Asus is their favorite?
GO SPEND THAT MUCH MONEY ON HP AND YOU’LL GET SAME RELIABILITY.
And remember one thing:
everytime you buy an Asus and not HP, you help create Taiwanese jobs & destroy American.
If you want dark future for yourself & kids, go play with Chinese plastics & toys.
Your lovely Asus is at least 100 bucks more expensive versus HP models they’re comparing against!!
Whatever this review says it’s biased against HP.
HP i smy favorite and next week i am getting HP Mini, despite this review, but it’s a $400 Mini, not $249.
And it won’t fail.
I Luv My , Gateway . Keeps on Tickin
Heh Den,
Yeah my Gateway is running great as well. I formatted the drive back to factory spec’s and it runs awesome.
It is going to be a X-Mas present for Tanner for him to do his school work. Can you believe it. He’s in the 5th grade already.
You are getting old dude! LOL So is Charley!
. But . What’s my Christmas Present. ?
Have used one Compaq notebook (old days), one HP DT, three Thinkpads, three Dells including a current Mini 9 netbook, and three Macs – all of these going back to the early ’90s. Only had trouble with the Thinkpads (two early 390s – weak hinges). Otherwise they were all very reliable!
Better to be lucky than smart, I guess. . .
I usually get the extended warranty on notebooks, though I’ve only used it once and then the repair was less than the cost of the warranty. Maybe I should rethink that expenditure!
I’m surprised to see ASUS up to since everyone I know with one has had me service it b/c ASUS wont, I’m one of those people. In most cases replacement parts cannot be sourced and the chassis & system board have to be discarded. I also used to work for a subcontractor for Lenovo, Dell, Sony, & Apple and I’d say move Sony & ASUS between Gateway & Acer and it’d be more accurate from the standpoint of the person people have to come to for service after the warranty expires.
Ok, please people don’t keep talking about how you are happy with your computer from company X that hasn’t failed. The worst (HP) company has 25% failure rate, so 75% of people will have a no-failure experience.
If you are one of the people without an experience of a failure then… what exactly does that mean and how does it benefit the conversation?
Maybe if you have purchased 4 computers in the last 3 years from that company and one of them (25%) didn’t fail… even then that’s not really statistically significant is it?
Wow yea i can agree with that Hp/Compaq over half of the computers i have fixed are hp / Compaq and my dv6000 is just a ticking time bomb. My Fujitsu has done me well over the past 2 years couple of problems but never no hardware replacements. Compaq’s are known for the hinge to break and the hp Nvidia Geforce 6150 chipset always dieing i’m not surprised
I find that comment about “Taiwanese Jobs” very distasteful. Every country, not just Taiwan, has the right to compete in the world market.
When you buy “HP laptop”, you buy the laptop battery that was manufactured in Korea then later processed in China for that particular batch of HP laptops, not to mention all the other components manufactured from other countries that make up the HP laptop.
Take a look inside the ASUS laptop, find one component that isn’t made from another country.
I do, however, agree that you get what you paid for (for the most part). You can’t really complain about a laptop when you only spent $300… netbooks, that’s a different matter and still up on the air if $250s netbooks are worthy.
Oh it’s going to be a big surprise!
Just one question? Have you been naughty or nice?
On second thought I better ask Karen! LOL
Sorry Stan, I just returned my $700 HP. Biggest piece of crap I ever owned. My Dell was even better…. Have a Toshiba now. So far so good.
Ron,….who is this Charley you are talkin about? And guess what? No BLADE error this time…..
I meant Charlie!
I have to agree with Goose I bought a custom HP DV9700 notebook for $1200 and it only lasted me 2 years before the motherboard died. I now have an Asus G51VX I bought from best buy a couple of months ago so reading this does make me feel more confident about my purchase.
I would like to say that Toshiba Netbooks are good ones for the money. Some issues that I heard from users are the screen size as well as the speed of the network. For the most part they are a good brand I own a Satellite and very pleased but I also like my HP.
Yeah the dv series of HP- classic. I always see one of those junk on any repair shop. I got mine which was apparently recalled last year. But I couldn’t return it because I was off-site. Now the hinge is crumbling like sand and I can’t even close the fng lid! Statistics? Well all of us friends who bought that $800 ginormous desktop replacement back in 2007 from compusa have either returned it for repair or trashed it and moved on to buy another laptop. I’m lucky mine is still booting.
I also have an Asus and a mac I bought early this year. I have never had a problem with the hardware so far. I’ve had some issues after upgrading to snow leopard but it was resolved with the recent update.
I know the real Charlie….and he is WAY younger than you and Denny!
Me Too Gooose , AKA , Old Charlie
AND , Glad to see YUR new ‘Puter is still Workin , thats about 1 week now
Denny,
If that Toshiba I recommended breaks or goes haywire, we can rest assured it will be his fault.
Remember my buddy John? He visited pron sites and ending up having his system not boot. It took a few hours to get it fixed.
Does this sound familiar ? LOL
You can rest assured that I will be calling YOU!
No habla ingles
Usted puede estar seguro de que voy a llamarle!
Googe – I’m not giving you my new phone number after we move this weekend! LOL
Call Woodson !
El problema es que cuando llamo Woodson, alias Denny, Bugsy, llama a 3 días después y dice: “¿Arreglaste el equipo todavía
Sé Woodson es un dolor en el culo!
¿Me estás diciendo!
Nous devons veiller à ce que nous disons!
I’d also like to see some systematic study of support experiences… time to repair, number of time a system had to be taken back, etc. My company has officially blacklisted HP as a supplier, not because of the failure rate, but due to poor support.
i have asus laptop buy at mid 07 and axioo laptop (buy feb 09), and so far okay.
i think condition of every laptop depend on user that use it (like man behind the gun, hehehe…).
if (user know about software and hardware) and can fix the problem then
laptop will okay
exit sub
else
go to service
end if
I have 3 HP laptops from some of my customers (I repair computers in France and Switzerland)) and all 3 are dead…motherboards or CPU…whatever…and this after 1 and 2 years… So I tend to agree with the survey.. I advise most of my customers to get Asus or some other brand but not the cheap ones…whatever the brand they usually don’t last very long…
I am a bit surprised at the results for Toshiba..
Cheap is not always good for your purse…
i just bought an asus and within two hours of having it i foud that the one i had was really slow. it was worse than a three year old toshiba i own. i took it back to best buy and he offered me a new one but i decided to go with my first choice which was a hp. they guy talked highly of asus but i was still skeptical. i do understand that anyone no matter what you buy can get a bad computer out of all the good ones that a company makes, which is obviously what happened to me. lm not really familiar with asus. did i make a good choice???
Apart for some problems with the dvdrw (serviced by the manufacturer on my demand), my Acer notebook works fine even today, after 3 and a half years. However, I’ve passed it to my parents now and bought a Lenovo netbook instead. Hopefully the next 3 years will be just as happy for me.
I own two dells and one HP. the dells are still runing although there are some problems related to Vista. The HP is dead after 1.5 years. So I agree the comparison between Dell and HP.
I’m questioning the methodology of the report.
The results were based on 30,000 notebooks that required repairs.
Then how did Square Trade know how many notebooks didn’t require repairs within 2 or 3 years?
Does the survey favour brands with small market share because fewer repairs were done?
For example, they might claim that 15% of notebooks had malfunction within 3 years. From the repairs that they had done, they probably could know that 15 notebooks (out of say, 100 new notebooks) that required repairs were bought within the last 3 years. But how did they know that there were 85 notebooks that did not require repair if they were not sent in for repair?
Take it with a pinch of salt because I think there are many assumptions/estimations made in the survey…..
Hi Roy,
Good points,
Regards, Ron
Useful info. Very helpful, very useful indeed…