Laptop Reliability

A recent SquareTrade, Inc. study of 30,000 laptops reported that 31% of the brand new laptops failed within three years — 20.4% from hardware malfunction and 10.6% from accidental damage. The most reliable brands were found to be Asus, Sony and Toshiba and the least reliable to be Acer, Gateway and HP. Those tiny netbooks failed from hardware malfunction in their first year 20% more often than regular laptops. The three-year projected malfunction rates for netbooks, entry-level laptops and premium laptops are 25.1%, 20.6% and 18.1%, respectively.

The flowing graph summarizes 2-year actual and 3-year projected hardware malfunction rates by manufacturer and appears on page 6 of the 8-page study report.

The November 16, 2009 report contains more information, including study methodology and limitations, and is available from http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf.  California-based SquareTrade, Inc. is in the business of selling extended warranties. These are not necessarily the extended warranties offered by computer retailers.

I recommend extended warranties for laptops because of their higher initial cost, fragility and higher cost of repair.

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