Notebook Reliability is Not the Only Measure to Consider-Repair Response is Even More Important

Interesting notebook/netbook reliability information over on Electronista.com…

ASUS best, HP worst for notebook reliability

Although Asus is mentioned as scoring the best with a 15.6% 3-year malfunction rate, Toshiba is breathing at its neck at 15.7%. Sony and Apple follow with 16.8% and 17.4%, respectively. Dell isn’t too far behind at 18.3%. But, Lenovo, Acer, Gateway (owned by Acer) and HP all have 20+% failure rates with HP notebooks topping the list with an expected failure of one out of every four of their notebooks. Ouch!

However, these failure rates don’t tell the whole story. The other part of the story is just as important: What does the manufacturer do when you report a problem? In my experience, Apple and Dell have done well in dealing with my notebook problems over the years (all under extended warranty). My one experience with Acer was not a good one. A rubber foot fell off of my first generation Acer Aspire One soon after purchasing it (within 90 days). I asked what could be done (via email) expecting them to ask where to mail a replacement foot. Instead, I got what I recall to be an email run-around with no resolution. It is a good thing netbooks are cheap enough to essentially replace and upgrade on an annual basis.

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