A recent survey of 58,000 Consumer Reports subscribers who purchased laptops between 2010 and 2015 shows that MacBooks lead all other notebooks in reliability and customer satisfaction.
Apple, as in year’s past, has the most reliable notebooks by far – a 10 percent breakdown rate in the first 3 years – with Samsung and Gateway distant seconds at 16 percent, and the rest of the industry – including Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, Dell and Asus, at 18-19 percent.
Almost 20% of respondents reported they experienced a breakdown in the first three years of using a notebook. MacBooks showed a much lower rate of breakdown than notebooks from other manufacturers. The MacBook Air had just a 7% estimated failure rate, while the MacBook Pro was slightly higher at 9%.
Windows machines used for more than 20 hours per week, which is average – have a higher breakdown rate. MacBook users report using their machines an average of 23 hours per week.
The Windows machines closest to the MacBook’s reliability in the survey were Gateway’s NV (13% failure rate) and LT (14%); the Samsung ATIV Book (14%); Lenovo ThinkPads (15%); and the Dell XPS line (15%). Near the bottom of the rankings were HP’s premium ENVY lineup, with a 20% failure rate, and Lenovo’s Y Series, which had the highest failure rate at 23%.
While MacBooks tend not to break down as much as their Windows counterparts, they are more expensive to fix when it does happen. (Which is why we all buy AppleCare with a new Mac, right kids? – Ed.)
As far as the customer satisfaction rankings go, a solid 71% of MacBook owners were “completely satisfied with system reliability,” while only 38% of Windows notebook owners felt the same way about their machines.
