12/15/2005, 6:45pm, EST
Thursday, December 15th
Apple laptops, iPod top reliability survey
For the second year in a row, Apple along with PC-manufacturer Lenovo--who acquired IBM's notebook business--was tops in notebook reliability. In the notebook category, both Apple and Lenovo earned above average scores in overall reliability and satisfaction with reliability categories, while Lenovo additionally earned an above average rating in resolving any hardware or software problems.
In its report, PC Magazine said that Apple earned an above average rating for easy-of-use and satisfaction with reliability for its iPod MP3 players for the second year in a row. Of all the other MP3 manufacturers--including Sony, Samsung, Creative, iRiver, RCA, and Dell--only iRiver received an above-average rating in any category: the survey found iRiver had an above average rating for resolving any problems, but earned an below-average rating for its products' ease-of-use.
Once a leader in the reliability and service categories, Dell continued to show no signs of improvements, according to the editors.
"Our survey also confirmed the growing perception that Dell's halo is fading. Once known for its excellent reliability and service, Dell received scores for desktops and notebooks that were average overall and below average in some areas, including phone support hold time. Dell's overseas reps with thick accents also featured in many reader complaints. Recent changes by the company to shorten some warranties and alter delivery policies may tarnish its image as well."
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I think the desktop issue is all those iMac G5s with the capacitor issues...do they break it out further I wonder? Probably not.
My iPod got scratched to heck within the first day (both the metal back and enamel front) even though I was totally babying it with special care.
Apple has had such a bad record with laptops that I really don't know what to do. I guess buying Apple Care is the only safe thing to do with the next purchase to ensure a replacement laptop after repeated failure or a being numbered among the widespread problems such as those related to the displays. Shall we even mention the notable battery problems in recent products?
That said, being a computer consultant, I have dealt with some lemon Apples, and usually the problems, if any occur fairly quickly after purchase. Apple has always been very fast on the turn around replacing the bad parts (bad ram, HD etc.) A word of advice though, for those who have had multiple logic boards replaced: Perhaps the logic board failure was a symptom and not the problem. The chances for receiving so many bad replacement boards is remote at best, most likely something else is causing the failure (bad connectors, and power supply putting out just a bit too much power etc. I've found Apple employees often sympathetic to problem cases like this and have been known to completely replace the faulty computer in question.
Just to consider...I work in an IT group with a bunch of PC users and there are various compaq/Dell laptops here(30). Also Sony, Etc. 2/3rds of the PC laptops have been out for service within two years of ownership, and about half of those have been out twice.
Did anyone notice that they did not rate many categories because too few responses....this means very few problems to begin with, which I am sure cannot be said for other manufacturers.