I would argue that Asus only did the best because the laptops are so shitty that they break before they can malfunction. That or they malfunction so fast that people don't want to admit to having even bought one.
Tom Tom
Seconded. Though this is probably anecdotal, my Asus had some consistent problems, both hardware and software. I wouldn't reccomend one.
Chander Ramesh
My Averatec has done remarkably well – though it's not a known brand, it's surprisingly cheap and effective. I got it as an XP, but installed the Vista skins and visual effects, and it's still never crashed/malfunctioned once. (It's been roughly two years.)
gulakov
My Dell breaks a lot because I don't take good care of it. In three years and a half on a $700 laptop, I've gone through five harddrives, six chargers, three keyboards, four batteries, two fans, three displays, two backpanels, three front covers, three CD trays, two RAMs, and two motherboards. All free- you just IM them when something doesn't work too well and they send you a new part with a box to return the old one (which they refurbish and resell) and they even pick that up from your house. Good warranty is especially key for school/viewing laptops.
Buying replacement parts for a Mac is generally more expensive since few companies other than Apple make parts, and because of their compact design you can't replace it yourself and have to send it in for weeks often to get replacements under warranty. Also macs is scam spelled backwards. 🙂
(full disclosure: parents work for Dell, I also live across the hall from where Dell started his first company)
@gulakov
I'm not sure all that damage is even possible. Do you just sit there and drop it on the floor for fun??
gulakov
That's the misconception most people have about warranties. It's not just damage, but it's that the performance of various parts decreases as you use them a lot (that's what I mean by not taking care of it–that I use it to the limit.) There is software to benchmark test this performance decrease (Dell has it built-in), and you can get parts renewed so that your laptop is good as new. A couple of times they even gave me upgrades because that's all they have available–like I started with a 80gb harddrive, they sent back 120gb harddrives twice, and the last one I got was a 160gb harddrive. My point is that it's a very simple process from my experience with Dell. They run a large refurbished parts outlet and make it very easy to "update" hardware.
It's always interesting to me how people I would generally consider to be very intelligent make irrational decisions based on anecdotal evidence in situations like this. Whenever I get a computer I fully know the odds are it should work just fine, but something could go wrong, and if something malfunctions I do not think "oh evil X corporation producing a crappy product", I realize that it is much more likely (statistically) that I was just unfortunate enough to get one of the inevitable (and small) number of their products doomed to malfunction. It does suck, but not "their fault" in the way many people think it is. It's also refreshing to see Gulakov say he recognizes he doesn't take good care of things- every summer at camp I see kids throw their backpacks down, carry the computer around by the screen, drop them etc. and then they are mystified when something goes wrong.
Long story short: Broad based customer surveys conducted by 3rd parties> anecdotes.
Brad Hall
This doesn't seem to accurately assess manufacturers like Apple who sell their own warranties/do most of their own repairs – the source for these numbers is a third party company that sells warranties/does repairs.
What is the warrant for why it is inaccurate- the company sells warranties for all products, and all the other manufacturers listed offer their own warranties/repairs just like apple does?
I have gotten countless emails (ok actually I counted and it was 5) emails from you about how sweet and reliable macs are, so to clarify my position a little please read the following points:
1. I don't care.
2. That is all
Dear People who keep sending me links about this/laptop reliability in general,
To you I say the following:
I appreciate it that you agree mac sucks. That being said, I already think that- sending me links about it is unnecessary. So below I have posted all the links you sent me, now please stop sending them.
To all,
I apologize for posting this graph. Get whatever laptop you want from whoever, just stop emailing me about it.
I have to admit that I'm surprised HP breaks that often. Why do schools get so many of them then?
I've also found Acers to work fine as long as they're used explicitly for Debate work. DO NOT TRY TO PLAY MUSIC OR VIDEOS ON AN ACER. IT WILL CRASH AND BURN.
end your fail-trolling
ACER is a decent laptop manufacturer, falling 3rd behind HP/DELL.
Mine worked fine, computers are gauged towards RAM for playing music/videos/etc.
ACER laptops with 3 of more GB of RAM are sufficient.
>>I have to admit that I’m surprised HP breaks that often. Why do schools get so many of them then?
1) Low price (or at least midrange price)
2) Brand recognizability
If you get a Mac, I suggest a re-furb. You get nearly twice the bang for your buck if you buy well.
Also, buy a $20 fan at radioshack if you get a MacBook, because when it tries to deal with big Ajax, Flash, and PhP sites it tends to have problems. It also has problems on sites that access the Amazon AWS (aka the cloud) but those problems aren't so much intrinsic to macs….per se I don't believe (the spinning ball of death sucks….period).
I would argue that Asus only did the best because the laptops are so shitty that they break before they can malfunction. That or they malfunction so fast that people don't want to admit to having even bought one.
Seconded. Though this is probably anecdotal, my Asus had some consistent problems, both hardware and software. I wouldn't reccomend one.
My Averatec has done remarkably well – though it's not a known brand, it's surprisingly cheap and effective. I got it as an XP, but installed the Vista skins and visual effects, and it's still never crashed/malfunctioned once. (It's been roughly two years.)
My Dell breaks a lot because I don't take good care of it. In three years and a half on a $700 laptop, I've gone through five harddrives, six chargers, three keyboards, four batteries, two fans, three displays, two backpanels, three front covers, three CD trays, two RAMs, and two motherboards. All free- you just IM them when something doesn't work too well and they send you a new part with a box to return the old one (which they refurbish and resell) and they even pick that up from your house. Good warranty is especially key for school/viewing laptops.
Buying replacement parts for a Mac is generally more expensive since few companies other than Apple make parts, and because of their compact design you can't replace it yourself and have to send it in for weeks often to get replacements under warranty. Also macs is scam spelled backwards. 🙂
(full disclosure: parents work for Dell, I also live across the hall from where Dell started his first company)
@gulakov
I'm not sure all that damage is even possible. Do you just sit there and drop it on the floor for fun??
That's the misconception most people have about warranties. It's not just damage, but it's that the performance of various parts decreases as you use them a lot (that's what I mean by not taking care of it–that I use it to the limit.) There is software to benchmark test this performance decrease (Dell has it built-in), and you can get parts renewed so that your laptop is good as new. A couple of times they even gave me upgrades because that's all they have available–like I started with a 80gb harddrive, they sent back 120gb harddrives twice, and the last one I got was a 160gb harddrive. My point is that it's a very simple process from my experience with Dell. They run a large refurbished parts outlet and make it very easy to "update" hardware.
It's always interesting to me how people I would generally consider to be very intelligent make irrational decisions based on anecdotal evidence in situations like this. Whenever I get a computer I fully know the odds are it should work just fine, but something could go wrong, and if something malfunctions I do not think "oh evil X corporation producing a crappy product", I realize that it is much more likely (statistically) that I was just unfortunate enough to get one of the inevitable (and small) number of their products doomed to malfunction. It does suck, but not "their fault" in the way many people think it is. It's also refreshing to see Gulakov say he recognizes he doesn't take good care of things- every summer at camp I see kids throw their backpacks down, carry the computer around by the screen, drop them etc. and then they are mystified when something goes wrong.
Long story short: Broad based customer surveys conducted by 3rd parties> anecdotes.
This doesn't seem to accurately assess manufacturers like Apple who sell their own warranties/do most of their own repairs – the source for these numbers is a third party company that sells warranties/does repairs.
What is the warrant for why it is inaccurate- the company sells warranties for all products, and all the other manufacturers listed offer their own warranties/repairs just like apple does?
http://tumbledry.org/2009/11/20/when_information_…
pwnd.
Dear mac fans,
I have gotten countless emails (ok actually I counted and it was 5) emails from you about how sweet and reliable macs are, so to clarify my position a little please read the following points:
1. I don't care.
2. That is all
Dear People who keep sending me links about this/laptop reliability in general,
To you I say the following:
I appreciate it that you agree mac sucks. That being said, I already think that- sending me links about it is unnecessary. So below I have posted all the links you sent me, now please stop sending them.
To all,
I apologize for posting this graph. Get whatever laptop you want from whoever, just stop emailing me about it.
Phillips out
http://www.technightowl.com/2008/05/just-another-…
http://www.pcworld.com/article/162091/asus_takes_…
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/news/nov…
http://www.gartner.com/press_releases/asset_15416…
http://blog.squaretrade.com/2009/11/a-rebuttal-to…
I have to admit that I'm surprised HP breaks that often. Why do schools get so many of them then?
I've also found Acers to work fine as long as they're used explicitly for Debate work. DO NOT TRY TO PLAY MUSIC OR VIDEOS ON AN ACER. IT WILL CRASH AND BURN.
@Lansing Wei
end your fail-trolling
ACER is a decent laptop manufacturer, falling 3rd behind HP/DELL.
Mine worked fine, computers are gauged towards RAM for playing music/videos/etc.
ACER laptops with 3 of more GB of RAM are sufficient.
>>I have to admit that I’m surprised HP breaks that often. Why do schools get so many of them then?
1) Low price (or at least midrange price)
2) Brand recognizability
If you get a Mac, I suggest a re-furb. You get nearly twice the bang for your buck if you buy well.
Also, buy a $20 fan at radioshack if you get a MacBook, because when it tries to deal with big Ajax, Flash, and PhP sites it tends to have problems. It also has problems on sites that access the Amazon AWS (aka the cloud) but those problems aren't so much intrinsic to macs….per se I don't believe (the spinning ball of death sucks….period).
YOU TELL THEM G-LIU ™
@George Liu
Well, mine went to hell in less than a year.
It was a netbook, though. So maybe its just because its tiny. Eh, I don't have much confidence in Acer still.