What's the most reliable brand? The numbers are in, Apple is most reliable.
Every year, the Consumer Report’s website asks its subscribers precious input on buying preferences and their experience with their purchase, including electronic merchandise. This year’s Annual Product Reliability Survey, gives us an insight into how consumers feel about their laptop and desktop purchase.
Consumer Report asked 50,000 subscribers for their input on 10 laptop brands, to find out which brand can be relied upon the most.
Within a three year span, only 8 percent of Apple laptop owners reported to have needed repairs for their products. Gateway and Toshiba come in second, with 12 percent of users requiring technical support at various degrees, followed by Samsung, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Sony and Acer. 16% of Asus owners seem to have reported problems with their device, pushing Asus at the bottom of the list.
The results of a similar survey on desktop products yields similarly impressive results for Apple, with only 6% of Apple desktop users needing repairs, followed by Lenovo, reporting 8%, and Asus, HP, Acer and Gateway, clocking in between 9 and 11%. Dell performed last with a repair rate of 12%.
What about extended warranties?
When purchasing laptops and desktops, warranty is in most cases a life-saver. Most manufacturers will provide their own warranty, while stores are often authorized to sell their own extended warranty, which can be very useful for users looking to get back to business quicker, by having the store take the burden off the manufacturer.
Having said that, Consumer Report provides interesting data on extended warranties:
Only about 8% of customers who purchased extended warranties, ultimately made use of them, while a staggering 25% of those users paid for repairs out of pocket. The interesting fact is that many laptop owners reported that many repairs they paid for were actually covered by the standard warranty.
Why the discrepancy?
There is only so much a manufacturer can do to make customers aware of their warranty coverage. The initial excitement of a brand new device can be intoxicating, and most often much of the documentation that comes with the box, stays in the box.
Another factor can be that retail employees, most often at large department stores, may or may not be up to date with the original manufacturer’s warranty, which is liable to change at any time, without notice, and in many cases they will advise customers to contact the manufacturer directly for details on built-in coverage.