Best and Worst Laptop Brands 2016

[Dale_4]

I don't have a solution, everybody has mixed experiences. I am using an Asus mid to high end 550 series...2+ years old. It has been rock solid. Has an aluminum top and bottom. Great HD display, lighted keyboard. Had some issues with the keyboad missing strikes early on, maybe 'use' made it better or else I learned the right pressure to use. I would buy another without pause.

Bought an Acer 4 years ago my daughter now uses. And it still runs like new. She is into graphic arts and fights me when I insist to get her a better one. *just picked up a new Wacom pad for her* ..I think she will want a new laptop to get the best of that upgrade.

In the past, had a great Sony, very solid and for the most part very troublefree..worst was a Dell..did not work right the 1st day due to a power problem. tech fixed in house.. worked OK after that but did not go more than 2 years when the hinges started to go out.. rebuilt those as well as the screen support which was made of something resembling more foil than tin. New keyboard 6 months after that.. I think the later Dells (last 3 years) are much better from what I can surmise.

Wife has the small Asus T100..built cheap but amazing full Windows 8 machine for around 4 bills.. and an excellent display.. glitchy, machine. but somehow keeps going.
She also has an all in one HP ..the early edition. .. just keeps going....

I would have thought the Acer would be dead by now and the HP limping. but has not happened.
all these machines get a pretty good workout..likely the daughter's Acer more than anything and to think I bought that one as a 'bargain'. Upgraded everything we have with SSD and more RAM over the years.
4 months ago.. ordered a Lenovo from their website for our other daughter..had a friend working there. got me a decent discount.....arrived DOA...since it came back from repair she claims it is fine. ..that's it! Mixed bag.. the chart may be accurate over thousands of users but I can't relate to any of it, with respect to my own experiences.

 

[Edgars_Ab]

At first, excuse me for my English, if I get lost in translation somewhere, since it's not my native. With 8 years of pure experience as a computer technician, I have made some pretty clear conclusions about this. The worst brand from my experience, which I will not recommend to ANY of my clients certainly is HP / Compaq. This brand has ruined its reputation since the mass wave of dead HP/Compaq laptops (with defective NVIDIA chips) started to emerge.

Most ridiculous thing was their policy at the moment, they realised their **ckup - instead of recalling all those DV series cripples (most commonly dv6000 series), HP extended their *1 year warranty* for one extra year. Warranty, as we all know, is not even close to a recall, because the computer must first become faulty (and not by hitting it with a hammer, or drowning it into a beer), before you can turn it in. Even after a motherboard replacement, the defective chip was still there.

Guess what happened after warranty period was over - a lot of computer technicians enriched their equipement with BGA reballing stations, because those DV6 series laptops came in as rain drops from the sky. There was even a specific *home remedies* for the famous "Nvidia chip problem", which involved a heat gun and a tin foil. I've heard real life stories, that some housewives cooked their laptop motherboards in bakery ovens, instead of baking pies, hah. People paid a lot of money for reballing or reflowing those defective NVIDIA chips, and in fact - they still do.

I don't want to dive into this story too far, you can read about it on Wikipedia, or plenty other resources, but I have a couple questions for those ones who think HP is still a good brand - is it a good policy, to intentionally sell a bad product, and not to recall it before it reaches the consumer? is it a good policy to offer a one year warranty for a laptop and then extend it to one extra year, because of a huge f**kup? I don't think so. I think it's still too early to forget this trickery. I will start to reconsider my thoughts, when for at least 5 years I will not see a broken HP laptops over other brands on my table.

What would be the second worst brand for laptops? Well, I can't say it for sure, but it could be one of those: Asus, Acer, Samsung, Dell. I've seen those brands with various kinds of hardware problems, but not even close as much as HP.

The best laptop brands from my opinion are IBM/Lenovo, Sony, MSI, Toshiba and the shiny Apple. Till today I haven't seen a single IBM/Lenovo laptop with a defect, which was not caused by improper usage.

 

[Dale_4]

At first, excuse me for my English, if I get lost in translation somewhere, since it's not my native. With 8 years of pure experience as a computer technician, I have made some pretty clear conclusions about this. The worst brand from my experience, which I will not recommend to ANY of my clients certainly is HP / Compaq. This brand has ruined its reputation since the mass wave of dead HP/Compaq laptops (with defective NVIDIA chips) started to emerge.

Most ridiculous thing was their policy at the moment, they realised their **ckup - instead of recalling all those DV series cripples (most commonly dv6000 series), HP extended their *1 year warranty* for one extra year. Warranty, as we all know, is not even close to a recall, because the computer must first become faulty (and not by hitting it with a hammer, or drowning it into a beer), before you can turn it in. Even after a motherboard replacement, the defective chip was still there.

Guess what happened after warranty period was over - a lot of computer technicians enriched their equipement with BGA reballing stations, because those DV6 series laptops came in as rain drops from the sky. There was even a specific *home remedies* for the famous "Nvidia chip problem", which involved a heat gun and a tin foil. I've heard real life stories, that some housewives cooked their laptop motherboards in bakery ovens, instead of baking pies, hah. People paid a lot of money for reballing or reflowing those defective NVIDIA chips, and in fact - they still do.

I don't want to dive into this story too far, you can read about it on Wikipedia, or plenty other resources, but I have a couple questions for those ones who think HP is still a good brand - is it a good policy, to intentionally sell a bad product, and not to recall it before it reaches the consumer? is it a good policy to offer a one year warranty for a laptop and then extend it to one extra year, because of a huge f**kup? I don't think so. I think it's still too early to forget this trickery. I will start to reconsider my thoughts, when for at least 5 years I will not see a broken HP laptops over other brands on my table.

What would be the second worst brand for laptops? Well, I can't say it for sure, but it could be one of those: Asus, Acer, Samsung, Dell. I've seen those brands with various kinds of hardware problems, but not even close as much as HP.

The best laptop brands from my opinion are IBM/Lenovo, Sony, MSI, Toshiba and the shiny Apple. Till today I haven't seen a single IBM/Lenovo laptop with a defect, which was not caused by improper usage.

 

[Dale_4]

First of all your English is not that bad, in fact better than some American-born I have run across. I appreciate your experience and some interesting things you discovered.
But it still goes to prove that most brands go merrily along their way with no problems. A brand with a 10% failure rate is very high, twice as bad as one with only 5% failing, correct? So we still have 90% of HPs (just an example) with no issues. That's why it is hard to come to terms with which is the worst on a forum, where mostly bad problems show up. Very few come here to praise a product because it has no problems. They mostly come here to resolve issues they are having. So you end up with a distorted perspective that can only be resolved with actual numbers.
The same holds true on other electronic forums, car and truck forums, and the list goes on.
One person who did service on TVs in a store said he saw so many Samsungs returned, almost on a daily basis. That's how many came in the back door. But he admitted, the greatest number of new TVs sold going out the front door, were also Samsungs.
Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing with your own personal experience. I can only say there is no easy answer that does not require sitting down and researching or collecting actual data that show one brand is in fact worse than the other.
What bothers me more, is when I see data like we have associated with this topic, it often seems to change year to year. The real good ones like Apple tend to stay near or on the top, but I have seen other brands jump around from year to year. I find it hard to believe things can change that fast. Then there are differences between publications as to ranking. But again, Apple generally is at the top. This may well say more about Apple than the others.
It certainly may be a case where more money does (and should) buy you better quality. I don't think there are easy answers. Everything is mostly worse than Apple, but that's about all I can say just looking at a chart, since the ranking will be different a year later or in a different publication or website.

 

[RoyTaylor]

Worst laptop is when it bought it on china, but it's okay because it's very cheap. Best laptop i guess it's dell.

 

[neoplo]

Fujistsu is my friend, i have the second notebook now from them and I am still happy and satisfied, not coming up to the level of an apple but well, who cares.

 

[RoyTaylor]

Hey Neoplo, I heard fujitsu is good but i'm afraid to buy it. Is fujitsu a china notebook?. Apple as well came from china.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Well basically all laptops are manufactured in China or Taiwan. But most of the name brands design the laptops and the ODM's in China and Taiwan manufacture them (Foxconn, Quanta, Compal, Wistrom). Do you mave have some models of Dell manufacturered by the the same company as Apple. Plus dell will use one ODM for 1 model and another for another model.

 

[D3AD]

Our sister site Laptop Mag posted their Best and Worst Laptop Brands for 2015.



What do you think are the best and worst laptop brands? Let us know!

I have used Dell, Acer and lenovo. I have been using Acer Aspire E1-571 since late 2012. Except for changing Battery i never had any kind of issue with this machine. My daily laptop usage on average is around 7 continuous hours. and on holidays it gets to 9-10 continuous hours with Acer. I was astonished to see it is most underrated in that list.

 

[boomsky]

I think I have to agree that Acer is the last. I read a lot of positive reviews about Dell and I think I'm finally getting one. I'm looking at this Dell laptop: http/www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/inspiron-15-3521/pd...any comments?

 

[RoyTaylor]

I think I have to agree that Acer is the last. I read a lot of positive reviews about Dell and I think I'm finally getting one. I'm looking at this Dell laptop: http/www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/inspiron-15-3521/pd...any comments?

Your link is error dude. Well if your buying laptop if it is a dell i'm sure it's a durable one.

 

[hardy12]

My suggestion is to buy an HP laptop because they have great manufacturer's warranty unlike any other laptop brands (in my opinion) I've been using an HP laptop for 3 years and never had to take it back to the customer service because it's that good.Don't get Dell, they have horrible customer service, and the laptops themselves have horrible durability. I would suggest HP or Compaq.

 

[Pavel Horniak]

I dont think that brand matter. For me is priority performance and price.

 

[RoyTaylor]

I dont think that brand matter. For me is priority performance and price.

Yeah you're right dude, well said.

 

[RonWesley]

I have interacted with many brands including Dell, HP, Samsung, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, Acer etc. however i would like to assure you that Lenovo outshines these especially the Lenovo Thinkpads. Its sturdy, good quality and good performance. Lenovo comes ahead with hardware quality.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Well the laptop magazine had Dell ranked higher than Lenovo for 2016. But a 400 Dell and a 400 Lenovo will be about the same.

 

[RoyTaylor]

Well the laptop magazine had Dell ranked higher than Lenovo for 2016. But a 400 Dell and a 400 Lenovo will be about the same.

ill go for DELL if you compare it with lenovo.

 

[Flashgo1]

Each brand has its pros and cons, and each line for that brand have there own. I believe it's all in personal preferences.
I have a 5 year old Toshiba satalite series that is still going strong. Has better graphics then my Dell I got 3 years ago for IT school. Dell insperon series is more of a work horse I use more for everyday and RAM heavy games.
Mother had 2 laptops one Toshiba satellite. Mobo died after 4 years. Then Lenovo with broken hinge that was a design flaw that I fixed last year, is 4 years old and still going strong.
It is all down to what you use it for and quality of parts it is made from. Some have better graphics, other processor, others are, like my Dell, just work until they die/explode/melt/break.

 

[cspj]

The following things should be totally or almost totally disregarded from a serious rating:
-Performance, because anyone who can read can compare specs and objectively determine performance, with the exception of battery life and thermal properties for high end machines
-Value, because anyone can compare prices and specs and more or less objectively determine value
-Innovation, because actual innovation by laptop manufacturers is exceedingly rare and often already accounted for by specs anyway
-Software should be almost entirely disregarded, but considered as an afterthought in tiebreaker scenarios, with the exception of apple vs PC which is a debate almost entirely irrelevant to a serious laptop rating effort.


Ok now that that is out of the way - this is how a rating should be done:
-Build quality should be by far the most important thing because this is what we are actually paying the laptop companies for. This is about the only thing we can't easily do ourselves

-After build quality should be design and ease of use, because although important, it is somewhat subjective what people will find a functional touchpad, or keyboard, etc.

In summary, build quality and design are the only factors that should significantly affect ratings because that is what we are paying for, and what is difficult to determine without spending extended time with the computers ourselves.

This criticisms of apple for being too expensive are quite obtuse in my opinion because you know exactly what you are paying for when you buy the thing, if you are smart enough to look up the specs, which we at Tom's presumably all are.

I came to this thread hoping that someone could point to a laptop model, brand, or manufacturer equal to apple in build quality, because the quality of the Mac OS and mac computers in general is in decline. What I found was a bunch of people pointing out the utterly obvious which is that you pay a premium for apple hardware. Duh! That is what happens when you get something carved out of a solid block of aluminum! Please don't waste our time by pointing this out! We can all read the specifications quite easily, or at least I thought we could.

An answer to the question "What car company has equal build quality to Rolls Royce" is not "Rolls royce are totally overpriced for the performance! I could get another car at half the price with a better engine".

/rant

 

[Solandri]

This criticisms of apple for being too expensive are quite obtuse in my opinion because you know exactly what you are paying for when you buy the thing, if you are smart enough to look up the specs, which we at Tom's presumably all are.

Apple consistently has a 20%-25% profit margin. Other laptop brands are usually around 5%-10%. So a good chunk of the higher price for a Macbook is for Apple's profit, not better build quality. They do work at putting certain better components in their laptops. Notably the screen in the Macbook Pros - they go out of their way to calibrate it for 100% sRGB coverage. If you work in graphics art, photography, or video, the answer to which laptop should I get is almost certainly a Macbook Pro. But inside they use the same components as other brand laptops. Intel CPU, Micron memory, Samsung SSD, etc.

The unibody metal case is a plus and minus. It's tougher and conveys a sense of quality. But it traps heat inside, forcing Apple to make design tradeoffs. This is one of the reasons the 15" MBP sucks for heavy video processing - Apple can't put in a stronger GPU because it overheats too easily. (And before you ask, yes metal transfers heat better. But only if the metal is in contact with the heat source. Inside a laptop, you have a thick layer of insulating air between the heat source and the metal exterior. So all the unibody does is trap the hot air. Other laptops have vent holes to allow the hot air to escape and be replaced with cool air.)

I came to this thread hoping that someone could point to a laptop model, brand, or manufacturer equal to apple in build quality, because the quality of the Mac OS and mac computers in general is in decline. What I found was a bunch of people pointing out the utterly obvious which is that you pay a premium for apple hardware. Duh! That is what happens when you get something carved out of a solid block of aluminum! Please don't waste our time by pointing this out! We can all read the specifications quite easily, or at least I thought we could.

Personally I think the Thinkpads are better than the MBPs (the MBAs have junk screens so I rarely recommend them). But each person has different requirements and I do see the MBP being a better choice for many people.

An answer to the question "What car company has equal build quality to Rolls Royce" is not "Rolls royce are totally overpriced for the performance! I could get another car at half the price with a better engine".

You're coming dangerously close to what I call just right-itis. The belief that one product is "just right", so if a competing product is superior at a certain feature (like the engine), it doesn't count as a plus because the one in the product you like is "just right". If you apply that sort of reasoning, it is impossible to point to a better product than the one you're enamored with, because you assign no value to anything that is in fact better.

All designs involve trade-offs. Picking the "right" laptop means finding the one whose trade-offs best match up with your personal requirements. There is no single right answer to "what's the best laptop?" There is only a right answer to "what's the best laptop for me?"