What’s the best brand of laptop?

By | November 20, 2013
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lappyHey, we’re controversial — we’ve been known to call a spade, a spade.  And we are opinionated, but we’re not sticking our neck out on this one.  Oh, if only we had the money to buy every brand of laptop and test it for you — we sure would. And if we could, we’d give your our ratings and you’d know they’d be our honest opinion.

We have seen a lot of computers during our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care sessions, and the computer brand we’d never buy would be HP. That’s just our opinion. Darcy had an HP laptop and had to have the screen replaced several times in the first year — finally she had to demand a new one. Never again will she buy an HP — TC wouldn’t either.

Well that’s just our opinion, but the facts agree with us — at least according to Square Trade which looked at the most popular brands (including Apple). According Square Trade’s study, Gateway and HP have the worst track record…and we’d agree with them.

Anyway… take a look at the following snippet from a recent Lifehacker article — and be sure to read the rest of the article at Lifehacker; you’ll find the link right after the snippet.

Any laptop can break, but some manufacturers have a better track record than others. A 2012 study by SquareTrade, that looked at failure rates over the course of three years, found that Asus’ electronics broke the least often (followed very closely by Toshiba) and HP’s broke the most often. In fact, with HP, you had more than a one in four chance of getting a broken laptop in those three years. That may seem high, but even the best couldn’t achieve a failure rate below 15%. Let’s take a look at the rankings, from best to worst:P

  1. Asus: 15.6%
  2. Toshiba: 15.7%
  3. Sony: 16.8%
  4. Apple: 17.4%
  5. Dell: 18.3%
  6. Lenovo: 21.5%
  7. Acer: 23.3%
  8. Gateway: 23.5%
  9. HP: 25.6%

Some of these numbers should come as a surprise to most people. If I purchased based on anecdotal evidence I heard from friends and colleagues, I’d assume Apple made the most reliable machines and Dell and Sony made the worst…

Does it surprise you that Asus, Toshiba, and Sony all ranked higher than Apple — it did us too.

Please be sure to read the entire article at Lifehacker by clicking here.

 

 

 

15 thoughts on “What’s the best brand of laptop?

  1. paul

    I have a HP desktop and had to have the motherboard replaced after two years.Luckily It was still under Warranty.I haven’t had any problems since.I Bought my computer in september 2009.

    Reply
  2. Ralph

    could it be that hp , has the most laptops in use, therefore the most problems.not fair to rate them unless you have the figures of how many in use.

    Reply
  3. Martha Gress

    I got an ASUS at your suggestion about a year ago and am happy with it but I have had 3 HP’s and was happy with all of them also and only the last one had a problem after 5 years but I still miss it!

    Reply
  4. Deanna Baugh

    I have two HP’s now, have had one for over three years and the other over two years. They are refurbished ones so the memory and stuff like that has been updated…love both of them, no problems here! I bought refurbished ones because I wanted the os XP…think I am a stubborn old kook?

    Reply
  5. Graham John Thompson

    I’ve had HP’s and wouldn’t buy another one. With the first one, the screen went belly up and the dealers wanted near $1k to fix it! Oops! It fell off my desk and was replaced under insurance. The replacement now sits solidly on my desk and never moves as one of the hinges has broken, apparently a common occurrence, and the thing can’t be closed. Too much of a hassle to get it repaired at an HP dealer, so when I get organised, it will be replaced probably with an Asus.

    Reply
  6. Phyllis Adams

    I had an HP laptop . Had nothing but problems with it from day 1 & support was the worst I have ever had. I will never buy an HP again. Now my husband has an HP laptop he bought at the same time as mine. His is still running no problems ever. He also has an HP desktop that he loves. I bought an ASUS . Loved the 3 yr warranty one it. Had it one yr to the date I bought it & it shut down on me. Had to have the hard drive replaced & a new battery put in. It has run good since . I think all computers have problems at one time or another. You either get a good one or a lemon. If I buy again I would buy another ASUS . Would love to buy an Apple as I have other Apple products but they are very expensive.
    By the way , I love your newsletters, Thank you TC & EB for all your info & for all you do to help keep our computers safe.
    Happy Holidays

    Reply
  7. Linda

    I had a Dell Laptop and had to have everything except the Hard Drive replaced after owning it only 10 months. So far it works fine. Too bad that the original parts were garbage!! Bought another Laptop (HP) and have had absolutely no problems whatsoever and would get another one in a heartbeat!! Not another Dell will ever come into this house again.

    Reply
  8. Clyde

    I bought an HP desktop computer 6yrs ago and all that I have done is replaced the graphics card, but every 6 months the covers come off and I thoroughly brush and hoover to get rid of dust etc etc, keep up the good work and keep sending the newsletters.

    Reply
  9. Mike g

    When I used the windows OS I had a Toshiba the was a real beast and worked perfect for about 5 years before the hard drive failed. I went to an Apple Mac Book Pro because I was tired of fighting malware and reloading the operating system every so often. My Mac is now almost 5 years old, and I just had the battery replaced yesterday. Looks like if the hard drive goes I’ll just replace it and go for another 5 years. I use a program called Clean MY Mac to keep the junk off the drive, and the computer has worked flawlessly since I have owned it. That said, my wife’s Vaio has also worked without a hitch. So I say just buy quality and take care of it, its not a bowling ball, and it will run for you.

    Reply
  10. Karen Mayberry

    I’ve had a HP laptop for over 6 yrs. now and have only had to have the fan replaced on it. Still works great! Matter of fact, it is the one I’m using right now 🙂 I got a refurbished Toshiba about 2 yrs. ago and it works great as well. It was 2 yrs. old when I bought it and it had a new hard drive installed.
    I seem to be one of those people that don’t have issues with things everyone else does, and vice verse.
    We just bought a new Gateway all in one desktop this past summer and it is working great so far. It has few quirks that I am ironing out, but all in all it is fine.

    Reply
  11. Jean Leclair

    I have own a desk top computer Compaq own by HP for seven years this month. It came with Windows XP. I had problems with it last spring and had help from Darcy. It still works but most of time very slow. I hopefully want to buy a new HP after the New Year. I have spent many hours in the last 7 years. I hope the new one I get will last at least half of that. With the help from CloudEight I thank them.

    Reply
  12. Leslie

    About 5 years ago the company where I worked purchased 10 Dell computers to replace older machines. I had my doubts about the purchase but since I wasn’t in purchasing or IT I wasn’t consulted. My job was to call in for service — which I did about 10 times for 7 computers. Four of them needed new motherboards within 3 months (6 new motherboards as 2 were defective). We also had new video cards, new cooling units and a couple of other things.

    I purchased a HP laptop and printer for myself 25 months ago. The Laptop needed a new wireless card within 2 months which was warranty at least. The printer needed a new print head at 13 months – that wasn’t under warranty. For the price of a new print head I purchased an entirely new printer, Canon this time.

    Reply
  13. Linda Willis

    I’ve owned a Dell desktop for 10 yrs. The only thing I had to do is replace the hard drive. I’m getting ready to buy a laptop, so I appreciate all the info I can get. I am quickly realizing that there is no “majic bullet.” I ‘m finding it difficult to make a choice, but the more info I get, the more confident I am that I will get a good one.
    Thank you for all the tips you’ve given me over tha past 10 years.

    Reply
  14. Judy

    I’m in the market again because my Lenovo Edge E420 won’t boot up. I bought the unit right after the newer model came out and really liked it. But 2 months after the warranty period was up the sound went. Lenovo wouldn’t do anything for me so I used ear buds or external speakers. While researching my latest issue I discovered that the Edge series that I have had motherboard issues which Lenovo did not acknowledge for a long time. If you are considering Lenovo steer clear of the Edge series. I will be looking elsewhere for my next laptop.

    Reply

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