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Asus and Toshiba “most reliable” laptop brands
Study carried out by warranty provider reveals chasm in vendor failure rates
Toshiba laptops are among the most reliable in the business, according to US-based warranty services provider SquareTrade.
(ITP Images)
Asus and Toshiba laptops have been labelled the "most reliable" on the market based on a survey of more than 30,000 users that have bought new mobile PCs during the past three years. HP finished up bottom of the study, which ranked nine different PC brands in total.
SquareTrade, a third party warranty provider that carried out the analysis by examining failure rate data from its customers, said just 16% of Asus and Toshiba laptops malfunctioned over a three-year period.
Apple came fourth in the study, just behind Sony, while Dell and Lenovo finished in the middle with failure rates of 18% and 21% respectively.
US-based SquareTrade claimed HP laptops showed the highest malfunction rate, at 26%, but said Acer and Gateway were "nearly as unreliable" with failure rates that exceeded the industry average.
According to the data, more than one in three laptops are likely to encounter faults within three years of purchase, with two-thirds of this figure linked to hardware deficiencies and the remainder the result of accidental damage.
Laptops typically experience higher failure rates than most consumer electronics products, which SquareTrade attributes to the sophisticated components they contain.
"Keyboards, pointer devices, media drives and hard drives are all mechanical components that increasingly wear out when subjected to heavy use, while motherboard circuitry, memory and wireless devices are sensitive to heat and environmental factors," stated the company.
"Given that the typical laptop endures more use and abuse than nearly any other consumer electronic device (with the possible exception of cell phones), it is not surprising to see such high failure rates," it added.
The study also explored the reliability of netbooks, concluding that such devices experience 20% higher failure rates from hardware problems than more expensive laptops.
RCstudent
I bought a 2009 Toshiba Satellite U500 series touch screen laptop in Nov '09 and the keyboard and power button were defective along with rough vibration from the hard drive; Toshiba informed me to ship it back because it could not be repaired due to unavailable parts. They reordered a new second unit of the same brand and model touch screen laptop. I waited another 2.5 to 3 weeks for it. When I got it, it was even worse than the first order. It had a defective touch screen, bad keyboard, and driver software issues not working wit hWindows 7. so, I sent it back again to Depot Repair and they held it "hostage" for nearly 4 weeks now . I contacted Toshiba Corporate to complain of this problem. The Depot Repair damaged the touch screen bezel and shipped it damaged to me and then it was sent back and they are now waiting for a new replacement bezel part. I haven't had this chance to use it since day one. I DON"T recommend this product at all. I tried demanding a full refund and they would not issue a refund because they were basing their warranty return time frame on the first order instead of the second replacement order and claimed that 90 days had expired. I disputed that the tolling time for warranty and return time frame is based on the second unit and not on the first unit. I am considering in challenging them through legal means if there's no resolution in sight by the end of this month. they could be sued under the USA Consumer Protection Rights laws.
Maverick
I've had the opportunity to use quite a few brands of laptops in last 8 or so years for personal and professional use: this includes IBM (or Lenovo), Toshiba, Acer, Dell and HP. I will not recommend HP and Lenovo due to their frequent failure rates as well as performance issues. The Toshiba laptops that I used in the past were solid performers but Toshiba's support is the worst at least in Middle East. It had a couple of failures including a motherboard one and getting it fixed was a nightmare hence I got rid of it. Dell has excellent support but the build quality is just OK. The D620 I am using for past 2 years only had a battery failure that I got replaced but others in the company were not that lucky!) At home, my wife is using an Acer Extensa for almost two years without any issues - yet. In future I guess I would like to stick to Dell or just may be give Sony a try!
ElJefe
I hope Toshiba's are reliable, because their customer support, warranty, extended warranty and repair depots are all rock bottom, the worst! If you do get a defective Toshiba, save yourself hours and hours of frustration and just throw it in the garbage. NO ONE at Toshiba will stand behind their product. I have had mine for 3 1/2 years. It failed within its first 20 hours of operation. Since then, out of curiosity as much as anything, I have calmly and politely followed customer service/tech support instructions, taken it twice to local licensed Toshiba repair and shipped it 6 times to Toshiba repair depot. It now sits on my desk, inoperable, while I await delivery of a shipping box for its 7th visit to the Toshiba Nexicore repair shop, where I assume it will not be fixed. Toshiba flatly refuses to label it "uneconomical to repair," the reaquired code to get them to ship me a replacement. I have not had use of this computer for even one business week in 3 1/2 years, and now I wonder how long Toshiba will play out this game of refusing to give me what I paid for, a working laptop. Toshiba is a horrible company.