We're all buying more laptops these days, but which laptop makers are most reliable?
Apple is the most reliable laptop brand, according to the readers of PC Advisor. When asked: 'What is the most reliable laptop company?', 19 percent of respondents selected Apple. The runner up was Dell, with 12 percent of the votes, closely followed by HP and Asus, each of which garnered 11 percent of the votes. (If you include Dell's Alienware brand, its figure rises to 15 percent.)
The PC Advisor laptop reliability poll ran over two weeks in January 2013. 5,833 PC Advisor readers voted for their favourite brand from a list comprising all the makes of laptop we have tested over the past 12 months.
Most reliable laptop makers: our survey
One of the questions we are asked most often at PC Advisor is 'what's the best laptop maker?' Laptops are much more popular than desktop PCs these days, and the range of options can be bewildering. We can, and do, review multiple laptops each week on the basis of their performance, build and price. We also provide detailed laptop buying advice. If you are looking for a laptop you should check out our stories: January Sales 2013: Laptop bargains, Best place to buy a laptop and Tablet or laptop for family: which is best?
But fairly ascertaining reliability is impossible to do from lab testing. How a laptop performs over a couple of days is only a basic guide to its long term help. As a consequence we decided to reach out to our readers, and ask them about their experiences.
This is not scientific research: we don't know what laptops respondents use or have experience of using. And we could expect that the most popular laptop brands would fair well - after all, if you have had several MacBooks or HP laptops, you are likely to be a fan of their reliability.
Laptops are by their nature extremely complex machines. Even the best laptop makers will turn out a dud every now and then. And if you have ever had a 'bad' laptop, you are unlikely to espouse its makers reliability. Don't assume that because a laptop maker appears low on this list, that it is in any way unreliable - appearing at all is a decent sign (brands that received no votes at all are not in this list).
However, if a brand of laptop appears high up in our list, it means a large number of people have voluntarily spoken up for that brand's reliability. This should, we hope, add to your knowledge base when making a choice of laptop. For everything else, visit our dedicated Laptop Advisor zone. (If you are having problems with a laptop, visit our Tech Helproom or Tech Consumer Advice forums.)
Most reliable laptop brands: the results
Apple tops the list, as might be expected from such a premium PC builder. Apple products are far from cheap, but they do offer a quality experience. Runner up Dell has a very different business model. It, like other high-ranking brands HP and Asus, operates as a volume laptop maker, selling many thousands of laptops every week. We would expect to see them, and Lenovo, high up in our list because they sell so many PCs: but their higher ranking suggests a lot of satisfied customers.
- Apple: 19%
- Dell: 12%
- Asus: 11%
- HP: 11%
- Acer: 9%
- Lenovo: 9%
- Toshiba: 9%
- Samsung: 7%
- Sony: 6%
- Alienware: 3%
- Fujitsu: 1%
- MSI: 1%
- Panasonic: 1%
Most reliable laptop brands: your comments
Here are some of the comments from participants in our laptop reliability poll. Let us know your thoughts in the comments field below.
"Had a sony over 6 years good build reliable, but support poor, spare parts expensive. Got a samsung 18 months good support, still working well. I would go for samsung again."
-sunnystaines
"I have a 17in Packard Bell and a Samsung netbook. I'd buy either make again as they're five and four years old respectively and are still doing their job as intended."
-QuickBeam
"Only one laptop, a Toshiba, six years old and no problems. Battery not too good but mainly used on mains."
-flycatcher1
Comments
Certified Refurbisher said: Thinkpad and Panasonic toughbook are the pinnacle of reliability HP is bottom of the barrel They short out wireless cards and eventually stop charging batteries pretty regularly across various models Apple is designed to fail after a few years thats why you always see new macs at a coffee shop but always several old PCs and are unforgiving if you make mistakes drop spill overheat I have no comment about all the other consumer machines As a certified refurbisher of all makes all I have and currently own are Thinkpads The rest can really just go in the trash cause they will sooner than later I dont hate dell though
josh said: Totally agree Battery life of HP laptops go down the drain after half a year of usage Terrible build quality overheats like crazy and the list goes on
Tim said: Never ever buy a HP they never work I own one and I am typing from a HP machine it randomly shut off 5 minutes ago So yea theyre horrible
JDH-ITGuy said: I agree working in the business of laptop and desktop PC repair myself id say HP Dell and Toshiba were the worst Lenovo Apple and Fujitsu are pretty good
Steven Kreamer said: If its reliability hears the REAL top ten1Acer 2ASUS 3Fujitsu-Siemens 4Hewlett Packard 5Lenovo 6Median 7Samsung 8SonyDell 9Toshiba10Apple Mac Because the Batteries are Rubbish over heat and Cook Hard Drives go through power supplys which are 69 where as every other Manufactures are around 2800 DellAlienware is too new to be listed yet but the word is they are reliable but let down by build quality There are a lot of clapped out second hand ones out there for sale but people tend to over clock hard drives and run them to the max so I would only buy a new one but they are very expensive as they are very fast and made to play large high Frames Per Second GamesHope this helps anyone looking to purchase a LaptopRemember you want a good Fast Processor and a good Graphics Card before memory as memory is cheap to add the others are not You may also want to use either Win 7 Pro as Win 8 uses a lot more memory
sdf said: Panasonic laptops are used in heavy industrymilitary and built to military standards a survey was really the wrong format for this kind of research and puts smaller and niche manufacturers in a bad light
Maizenbluedoc said: Every article rates different machines as best Someone is not telling the truth
Jane Maple said: Bear in mind that Apple fans tend to see their machines through rose coloured glasses Our office experience is that Apple are no more reliable than Dell but our office manager for whom Apple can do no wrong was convinced that Apple were far better until we showed her the logs
Kamille said: Dell and HP What a joke
Omendata said: I never said one high street repair shop but many of themSee Shops not shopSurely you realise that opinions by customers are hardly the most reliable place to get info - most customers know a little more thasn how to switch it onI have had customers rant and rage because their wireless doesnt work when they bought their laptop and they bring it back demanding their money back but on showing them that all the need to do is press the wireless enable button hardware on the laptop all is wellYou wouldnt believe the sort of nonsense consumers bring laptops back for ranging from the above to not plugging in the charger and expecting the battery to charge itself yip i had 3 customers who thought that the battery recharges itself wirelessly because someone told them it wass the new in thingSo no i disagree users are not the most reliable source of info - most of the users probably damaged their laptops by dropping them plugging the wrong charger in and overvolting the mainboard pressing the laptop screen with a pen and damaging itSo no i dont agree with any consumer survey on technical issues they really know nothing aboutMost consumers of technical products are how shall we say it without being rude - plonkersAre you not aware of the ongoing saga of the overheating and popping graphics chip problem HP and Dell laptops have had for a startTrying to cramtoo much heat and not enough ventilation in order to make the case smaller and sleeker si by far one of the major problems behind laptop failures especially when a fan fails
dourscot said: So Apple was rated the most reliable because it garnered the highest responseThat sounds more like a popularity index The headline Most reliable laptop makers revealed sounds a tad over-stated
Matt Egan said: 19 percent of respondents said Apple was most reliable Its not supposed to be considered a scientific study - as I say in the piece
dourscot said: Dont understand the percentages quoted - is it saying that 19 percent of Apple customers were satisfied or that 19 percent of those who were satisfied were Apple customersEither way the methodology is is a bit hazy Subjective surveys cant possibly possibly track real-world reliability and even suggesting so risks creating a false impression
Matt Egan said: It was rude and there is no need for that But you are - with respect - tying yourself up in knots here Your initial criticism was that the survey methodology wasnt robust The survey isnt scientific and we say so in the piece Now you appear to be saying that the survey should be considered as somehow definitive - which contradicts your original criticismClearly it reflects well on Apple Dell HP etc that they garnered more votes than anyone else but you shouldnt consider that to mean they are the most reliable because we dont know what brands of laptop the sample uses Nor should you consider Samsung to have performed badly because it got only 7 percent of votes simply understand that more than 400 people took the time to say that in their experience Samsung makes the most reliable laptops
imaginarynumber said: Hi MattI thought that thefirms that one could vote for were onlythose that had been reviewed over the past year by your organThe forum comments were votes of confidence from members that were extolling the reliability of their machines based over a number of yearsWhilst i appreciate your point about votes of confidence do you not agree that following your reasoningit is reasonable to assume that that the firm with the most votes of confidence would seem to be the most reliableMy retort to Hectortbbwas largely in response to what i considered to be an unnecessarily rude comment
Matt Egan said: No imaginarynumber youre projecting your own prejudice about the piece on to Hectortbbs comment As it says in the piece on which you are commenting to use this survey correctly you should consider it a vote of confidence for any manufacturer to appear on this list
Matt Egan said: It would be interesting anecdotal evidence but the opinion of one high street repair service is not more scientific than that of more than 5000 users
Omendata said: Dont know why they dont just use locallaptop repair shops any engineer will be able to tell you judging by the amount they have to repair per monthDell would not be on this listLenovo would as they are super-reliable machinesSadly IBM no longer owns its PC DivisionA helluva lot more accurate than asking theusers IMHO
Hector_tbb said: nice survey congrats matt and screw these two douchebagsi think ill start buying a samsung really looking foward to the series 7 with17 display but no the gamer one what you think
Matt Egan said: As I say in the piece its a snapshot of what people subjectively feel