The best and worst brands: how to choose a laptop that does not fail

With so many options available, choosing the best laptop can be really complicated. How to know which brands and models are the most reliable? Or what will last three or four years without becoming obsolete? It is impossible to predict the future, but you can use information from the past to try to refine your bet before buying.

Check one eye on statistics

Any laptop can break, but some manufacturers have better story than others in this regard. An independent and fairly reliable 2012 study is the SquareTrade, a service company guarantees to consumer electronics devices in the US The firm analyzed the ratios of breakdowns laptops for three years. The result is that Asus laptops are those that broke less frequently, followed by Toshiba, Sony and Apple. HP, according to SquareTrade, is the brand whose laptops give worse results. Below are the results. The figures refer to the percentage of failed equipment (on a minimum base of 1,000 units per brand) for a period of three years:

•     Asus 15.6%
•     Toshiba 15.7%
•     Sony: 16.8%
•     Apple: 17.4%
•     Dell: 18.3%
•     Lenovo: 21.5%
•     Acer: 23.3%
•     Gateway: 23.5%
•     HP: 25.6%

Some of these findings may seem surprising. If you purchase based on individual comments from friends and acquaintances, you might think that Apple computers are the ones that give best results, Asus or not so good. It is advisable to look at the statistics in full. These data reflect only one study and it is very likely that if you buy a HP laptop nothing happens, but worth having all available information before deciding. You can see here (PDF) the complete results of study of Square Trade.

Choose a manufacturer with good customer

If you want to buy a laptop that will last several years, also you want to know which company will offer best (and worst) customer. The winner in this category is no surprise. According to the 2012 study by Consumer Reports, for example, Apple received a much higher than their rivals in quality customer, followed by Lenovo and Asus score. The worst of the analyzed? Acer / Gateway (purchased by Taiwan). Below the concrete results (100 is the maximum score):

•     Apple: 86
•     Lenovo: 63
•     Asus: 62
•     Dell: 60
•     Toshiba: 59
•     HP: 58
•     Acer / Gateway: 51
•     Sony: No data available

If we combine the failure rates of laptops and customer results, Apple comes out the top of the list, followed by Asus. Unfortunately, there is no comparable data customer care to Sony, so it can not be ruled out as one of the top brands-3/5. However, numbers are not everything.

There are always exceptions

You can look at the statistics all you want, but do not always provide a complete picture of the situation. Sometimes some brands appear all the way down on the list because their teams are really bad; others suffer in the rankings because they sell to user groups with the highest percentage of returns (students, large companies ....). Therefore, it is important not to take up other statistics that you find as absolute truths. They are just one more indicator and there are always exceptions and reasons why a team can leave a manufacturer defective.

There are some tools that help you gather information beyond pure numbers. For example, sites like The Wirecutter made extensive profiles of laptops (and other equipment) based on dozens of variables, each consumer needs, price, features etc. You can also read the reviews of equipment, but by focusing on what matters exactly in that notebook. Instead of looking at just the final score, looking for information to clarify your specific questions about what you want and need in a laptop. For example, if you need a quiet and simple computer to write in public spaces (libraries, classes ...), look for product reviews talk fan and heat dissipation equipment. Small details like these help eliminate exceptions and focus on what really matters.

What do you need?

Buy a good notebook is not the same as buying a good laptop for you. You have to consider exactly what you need before you start looking for options, otherwise you end up with a good team overall, but that is not suited to what you want. Before you start looking at statistics, reviews and models, make a list of what you need: what you use the laptop, how long you want to last, budget ... If you do that, besides watching all the above information and of course, try before you buy, it is very, very likely that you end up buying the best equipment on the market.