Nov. 2015: Consumer Reports survey finds Apple most reliable laptop brand

[Johan]

Consumer Reports survey finds Apple being the most reliable laptop brand, according to Consumer Reports survey finds Apple most reliable laptop brand and Apple's MacBook Air claims laptop reliability crown.

Source: Consumer Reviews; Laptop Reliability: Can You Count On Your Computer?

ThinkPad's claimed to have a 15 % failure-rate in first three years!?! Wow...

Johan

[ZaZ]

One way or the other, polling only Consumer Reports subscribers likely skews the data.

[Saucey]

Apple doesn't have too many models compared to other manufacturers, so they'll have less to QC to deal with.
SSDs are much more reliable than HDDs when it comes to accidents, given the Air is an SSD only machine, I see why it doesn't have problems.
I think Apple learned from having discrete cards, I've read they've had problems with both ATI and nVidia graphics on their MacBook Pros.
Given how Apple buyers can get the no nonsense Apple Care extended warranty, you're practically bullet proof, which would add to 'they are so reliable'.
There aren't Dell, HP or Lenovo stores you could just take your machine to get fixed or looked at, I would see this would make Apple a better company to other consumers.
But people who buy apple were the ones who had problems with regular PCs, and since technology progressed, they won't look at a Windows computer because they don't want to get problems.

[pianowizard]

This is hardly surprising. Apple laptops range from $900 to $2,500, whereas Windows laptops and Chromebooks start at ~$150. To be fair, reliability surveys/studies ought to compare products of comparable price ranges. The only study that did this systematically was SquareTrade's 2009 report, which found reliability to be highly correlated with price. If Apple ever made a $150 laptop, it would be much less reliable than a similarly priced Windows or Chrome laptop, because Apple would still want to have a huge profit margin.

[rambo47]

This is hardly surprising. Apple laptops range from $900 to $2,500, whereas Windows laptops and Chromebooks start at ~$150. To be fair, reliability surveys/studies ought to compare products of comparable price ranges. The only study that did this systematically was SquareTrade's 2009 report, which found reliability to be highly correlated with price. If Apple ever made a $150 laptop, it would be much less reliable than a similarly priced Windows or Chrome laptop, because Apple would still want to have a huge profit margin.

I disagree about needing to rate similarly priced laptops for reliability. Reliability is an absolute. Either the laptop is or it isn't, regardless of price.

[ZaZ]

Reliability is an absolute. Either the laptop is or it isn't, regardless of price.

Of course in the aggregate one notebook may be more or less durable/reliable than another, but every notebook tells its own story. You can do a lot of damage without much force if you hit it in the right spot. I've seen doorbuster specials get used and abused, but kept on ticking while other well built notebooks, that mostly sat on a desk, refuse to boot one day.

[micrex22]

Newer ThinkPads definitely have reliability problems: we've had clients with numerous X1 Carbons (3rd gen) have critical motherboard failures (repeatedly) with Lenovo not having replacement mobos for periods of *months* (of course Lenovo never follows up with us either). That client now refuses to buy any ThinkPads.

Then we bought some T440s for another client, the all-in-wonder synaptics trackpoint-touchpad kept having repeated failures, and then the second T440 had its mobo die along with the CPU (and the IBM tech said he's never seen that before in all of his history of servicing ThinkPads, and he was doing it since the T42 at least).
The client said "you told us these were reliable!" after all of the continued problems, they're not buying ThinkPads after that either.

Lenovo ThinkPads (as of now) are not reliable.

[KentT]

Apple is also consumer grade. Which is a synonym for unreliable. And their obsession with thinness and styling, is degrading laptops. What part of frail do you not understand? Apple is delicate and frail. Want rugged and reliable, don't buy consumer, or gaming anything. If I can't kill it, you more than likely won't kill it either. Spastic me is hard on laptops when muscles have a mind of their own.

[jdk]

Apple is also consumer grade. Which is a synonym for unreliable.

Disagree. Like most manufacturers, Apple divides their product into standard and "Pro" lines. The standard line, the iPad, Macbook Air, the Macbook, the Mac Mini. This consumer line is characterized by a race for thinness, with ULV processors, only one or two expansion ports, non-IPS displays, and even a cheap 16:9 ratio TN screen on one model. They start at about $500 for the desktop, $900 for the laptop.

The Professional line is the iPad Pro, MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro. The MacBook Pros are significantly thicker, have 16:10 Retina displays, i7 (or i7-xxxxHQ) mobile processors, and discrete graphics. The Mac Pro has a Xeon processor (which has lost its significance over the years now that Intel also has consumer-grade Xeons and a consumer-grade mobile Xeon). I am not a betting man, but I assume one of the new mobile Xeons will end up finding its way into the MacBook Pro refresh this summer.

We have several 15" MacBook Pros out in the field deployed alongside Latitudes. Haven't had a reliability problem with either model. They get tossed around, stuff stacked on top of them, etc. Both models are obviously a lower tier than Toughbooks and the ruggedized Latitudes.

Speaking of Toughbooks, I am in the states right now for the first time in over a year. Yesterday, I noticed that my doctor's office, which once had Toughbooks with the circle touchpads, has now moved on to Macbooks. That took me by surprise. The doctors and nurses expect to be running Macs. A sign of the times, I guess.

[KentT]

Apple's idea of Pro is exact opposite of business class in the PC world. In the Apple World, there is no user easily serviceable, no accidental damage coverage, no next business day service which comes to you. And they're delicate creatures. My ThinkPad T 510's survived spastic cerebral palsied me more than a few times, which would have killed the Apple or high $$$ repair costs. My muscles have a mind of their own. Businesses who have Apple have to have lots of spare machines as they must go to the depot for repairs. Which means Consumer Grade build. Until Apple builds a laptop which is like business grade PC laptops, this is reality. I love Apple's BSD based OSX. I dislike MacBook Pro build quality. I like Latitudes a lot, my other laptop is an old reliable E 5510 which is 6 years old and running like new. Apple's discrete graphics is not a good feature, as Apple MacBook Pros cooling is very lacking under load. Got to have the thickness and a bit more weight to not overheat and throttle.

[dsvochak]

As reported by Business Insider, Network World and Information Week, it seems that IBM agrees with the Consumer Reports survey.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-sa ... pc-2015-10
http://www.networkworld.com/article/299 ... ments.html
http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/m ... id/1322698

[brchan]

Many people at my university use macbooks, especially CS students for programming. I will admit that the QC is pretty tight, and quality in general (at least from the outside) is above most consumer laptops. Trackpad implementation is better than any PC I have ever used.

That being said, the screens + lid are delicate. The uni-body dents easily, but rarely cracks, thanks to the soft aluminum casing. However, the smaller macbook air and the new macbook flex quite a bit because of the incredible thinness. Usability and serviceability are other big issues, of course.

I have also noticed that apple users tend to treat their macbooks with a lot more care than most regular PC users. Mac users will almost always carry the macbook in some padded sleeve and gently store/remove the unit. This is probably because they don't want to scratch the flashy case. This could also skew the data.

[pianowizard]

As reported by Business Insider, Network World and Information Week, it seems that IBM agrees with the Consumer Reports survey.

IMO, the best explanation isn't that Apple computers are easier to support, but rather the fact that IBM is letting employees choose what they want. In the past, IBM forced everyone to use Wintel computers, including employees who were used to Apple, so of course many of the latter needed support. I bet that if IBM were to force all employees to use Apple exclusively, many of the Windows users would now need additional support. As a 100% Windows user, I am sure I would be constantly calling for help if I were forced to use Apple all the time!

[MrMaguire]

Quality is relative to cost. Always has been, always will be.

[KentT]

By consumer machine standards, Apple is really the best overall. And they are well built in that class, nicely styled, perform well for most needs. If I had to live with consumer grade machines, a MacBook Pro would likely be what I would run. Keep it very protected in a tough case, and all the AppleCare I could buy. And get a new one when AppleCare was about to run out. So by Consumer Reports standards, we agree. But being ThinkPadders we hold support and service policies to higher standards of yore. I still would love to see a Business Class, user upgradable and repairable, MacBook real Pro with business grade support and warranty policies. I think that Apple will likely consider this with the big IBM deployment of MBP machines. For business users, maybe IBM support and Apple Hardware in the form factor I envision would be the best of all worlds. Something for us to ponder. Modular MacBook Pro business model would be ideal for business adoption of Apple MacBook Pros.