If you are planning to buy a new laptop or a new netbook during the PC Fair or otherwise, you might be interested to read this.
SquareTrade, the largest independent warranty service provider in US has, in 16 November 2009, unveiled a report that analyzed failure rates of over 30,000 new notebook computers manufactured by 9 leading brands (with minimum 1,000 units of each brand sampled) over the past 3 years.
The report concluded that:
- 31% of laptop failed during the first 3 years. 2/3 of this failure (20.4%) came from hardware malfunctions, another 1/3 (10.6%) was reported as accidental damage.
- Netbooks have a 20% higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than laptops.
- The failure rate is inversely propotional to the market grade (and price) of the laptop.
And the most reliable laptop brands are Asus and Toshiba which scored almost equally.
So, if reliability is important to you, you might probably consider laptop than netbook, with preferance to the more reliable brands above.
Click here to read the full report of SquareTrade's Laptop Reliability Study.
8 comments:
Even though the statistics imply that Asus and Toshiba laptops have lower malfunction rates than the others but that does not mean that they are more reliable. It also depends on the sampling population as well. For example, Dell has sold alot more computers than Toshiba but its malfunction rate is a little bit high. Does that mean it is less reliable? If Toshiba had sold the same number of laptops as Dell, their malfunction rate might be skyhigh as well. By in large, the more computers circulating around, the more malfunctions being reported.
Hi,
You haven't read it, have you?
The rate is stipulated in percentage, not number. The higher the sampling count will give you a more accurate malfunction rate in percentage, but will not give you a higher malfunction rate!
And the report actually stated they studied on at least 1000 for each of them.
Hey dumbass "Anonymous", maybe you should learn to read...they used percentages. Are you brain dead?
THE report is published in April 2010. Is this an ongoing process where u publish cumulative data ~ or is it updated every once in a way ?
Hi Voyager8,
Stumbled into this post and would like to share that my 3 and half year old Dell laptop is showing signs of failure. It may 'die' anytime but I think probably not. It is just aging. Now the battery is in need of replacement. Recently the power button and/or chip failed and was repaired. Last year the LCD display was replaced. Reading the report I conclude that a Dell fail 12% on average due to hardware malfunction in 3 years. Extrapolating to say 4 years I guess the rate should go up exponentially to maybe 30% and 50% in year 5?
Would you agree that while laptops are more practical they are less reliable than desktops? Or my observation that the smaller they are the poorer their lifespans? This is substantiated by the SquareTrade's report that netbooks are less reliable than laptops, and my observation that my desktop now 6 years old is still working, although repaired a few times before. The only component that hasn't failed me once is my 17" HP LCD monitor. Still in perfect condition.
Maybe someone can do a similar study on people? Have a good weekend.
@Peter Yew
Normally a manufacturer will produce different range of netbook/laptop/PC with different grade.
Generally, military grade is most robust, followed by industrial grade, business grade and home grade. The durability depends on the parts assembled in it.
Even within the usage grade itself, there are different range of products, with different specification.
Smaller might not be poorer, especially in server products. Rack mount server are designed to be thin, but can also last for long.
However, from the ventilation perspective, desktop is better than laptop, and laptop is better than netbook. Heat might be a main cause that affect the lifespan.
Another major lifespan affecting factor is the stability of electric current. I protect my computer equipments with Belkin surge protecting sockets. It is even better to use AVR or UPS to regulate the current going to the computer power supply.
If you DIY a desktop and picked reliable parts to build it, it can last for many years. I had a DIY Pentium 4 desktop with me for 8 years. I sold it 2 years ago because its 512MB SDRAM then became too low and it is expensive to upgrade since the SDRAM parts are hard to find now. Now it has reached 10 years of service, and I believe it is still up and running. The only parts that failed was the round Lithium battery in the motherboard reached end of life at its 7th year, and I replaced it or else the computer clock always gone back to 1970 after power off.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. Quality and reliability has its price I guess.
Generally, military grade is most robust, followed by industrial grade, business grade and home grade. The durability depends on the parts assembled in it.
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