Asus laptops top for reliability in Q2

Asus laptops were the most reliable notebook computers during Q2, US repair specialist has claimed. Apple came second, Lenovo third. The three manufacturers scored 416, 394 and 314, respectively, on Rescuecom's reliability index. Fourth-placed Toshiba scored 218. HP, which came in fifth place, rated 142 points. Rescuecom …

[William Clark]

Statistics..

Although I think they have done the best they coudl on the numbers the have collected, I wonder if:-

1 More linux notebooks shipped in Q1, and linux users are more ready to have a go at fixing things for themselves or conversely later machines had more windows and less skilled users 'messing them up' - I am not a linux user myself but would opt for it if I was getting a notebook (unless Apple comes out with something AA1 sized and similarly priced - yes I know.......)

2. How many of these issues were OS/Config/Software/User cock-up related and not hardware issues?

Nice to see figures in context though.

[RichyS]

SCCs

I wonder if the number of SCCs Asus sell compared to Apple, Tosh and HP is relevant here.

SCCs by their very nature are less complex, and therefore less likely to go wrong. Additionally, if an SCC /does/ break, what are the chances of the user just buying another (on the basis that they're dirt cheap), rather than stumping up for a repair.

Be interesting to see a further breakdown of the numbers.

Finally, no surprise to see Sony nowhere on the list. And what about Dell? My previous experience of them suggests that they're cheap because (in the words of Gerald Ratner) they're crap. On the basis of once (well four or five times) bitten, twice shy, I've not bought a Del recently...

Keyboard icon as coffee in a laptop is not a good mix...

[Anonymous Coward]

hardware issues only?

number of support calls is a stupid and pointless metric.

What we need to know is how many hardware problems needed to be fixed.

[Bassey]

Quite surprised by HP

I'm surprised to see HP do so poorly. Whilst in 5th, their rating was terrible. I'm no fan of HP but our company uses their machines and they seem to be built on a KISS basis to keep reliability high. There are no fancy CPU's, no fancy graphics cards, large (fugly) cases to keep air flowing etc. When friends ask me to recommend a laptop, I quite often end up recommending a HP purely for their relative simplicity and (therefore, assumed) reliability. Might have to re-think - although, as mentioned above, HP's might be being bought by technical incompetents comforted by the big name but who are more likely to A) fuck it up and B) Call a support company for help.

[Anonymous Coward]

HP terrible

There is a large group of HP users who have received machines that are faulty by design. However not all models are receiving extended warranty even though they are affected.

HP are still not listening and I this IT manager will never buy HP laptops again

http://www.hplies.com/

[netean]

shame Acer can't follow suit

all I can say to people thinking of buying Acers... don't they're very unreliable (and then expensive to repair - if its a laptop)

My 17" acer notebook, 22 months old, GFX card failed. Cost to repair (out of warranty) £250

Rubbish!

Next time I'll buy an Asus

[Cameron Colley]

Honestly not flamebait...

... But don't Apple handle their own support calls? Isn't that part of whye peiple buy them?

Apologies to fanbois if this company work on their behalf.

[Daniel von Asmuth]

Dell laptops never break

Did you notice that Dell scored top reliability with 0 laptops turned in for repairs?

[Kimo]

Grain of salt applied

It does seem that there is some bias in the "survey" methodology, especially since this is not a survey, but an analysis of Rescuecom's internal (and one would suspect proprietary and thus unconfirmed) data. Apple and Dell both have strong support options (as well as on-line communities) and thus are less likely to result in calls to third-party support. It would also stand to reason that the numbers are based on out-of-warranty machines, so an Asus with a two-year global warranty would not be in the survey, while a HP or Sony with a one-year warranty might result in a call to a third party support company.

The information would be stronger if, in addition to market share, the study factored in : hardware v. software issues; percentage of issues successfully resolved; the age and support history of units they worked on; and the support offerings of the manufacturers.