Apple's MacBooks: Still the Most Reliable

Megalith

Megalith

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The latest survey out of Consumer Reports suggests that Apple desktops and laptops have the best reliability and tech support: the trouble rates are considerably low at 15 percent and 17 percent, respectively. The reader score for the company’s tech support is also admirable at 82 percent. Based on the dependability of the company’s products, the writer believes that the so-called Apple Tax is perfectly justifiable, assuming the mythical premium truly exists.

Among the top laptop brands, Apple's "broken or not working as well" percentage is 17. Other brand percentages: Samsung 27; Dell 29; HP 30; Lenovo 31; and Asus 33. Among desktops Apple's trouble rate is 15 percent. Other brands: Lenovo 24; Samsung 25; Dell 27; HP 27; and Asus 29. CR cautions that differences of 5 percentage points are not significant. Essentially, there's Apple and then everybody else. The differences are even more stark on tech support. The reader score for Apple was 82, while number 2 Microsoft earned a 68, with Dell at 56. A reader score of 80, means respondents are very satisfied on average; 60, fairly well-satisfied; and 40, somewhat dissatisfied.
 
Of course all these results are skewed against Dell and HP and even Lenovo because they're not typically taking the business class laptop and desktop side of things into consideration, it's all focused on the consumer purchased hardware more than anything else.

Been a fan and owner of ThinkPads, Latitudes, Precisions, Elitebooks, Probooks, and some other stuff that is classified as business class hardware and I wouldn't touch a consumer class laptop these days and that includes Apple products - I have owned Apple hardware in the past and it was defective, literally, and problematic trying to make a proper in-store return where I purchased the items from (both laptops and desktops). Never had such issues with my Dell hardware, and the always available CompeteCare on-site warranty service that comes to me wherever I happen to be for a repair (only once in 10+ years) or a brand new replacement machine (twice, and the fault lay with me both times but they don't ask questions, they just issue the replacement which is unbelievable).

I'm sure there are people that truly do find Apple products outstanding pieces of hardware and software, I'm just not one of them based on past experience and ownership.
 
Have used tons of laptop before, and I can said I am not surprised by this results. Macbook Pro so far is the only laptop that last the longest, except the one prior to the old nVidia GPU problem.

There is a reason why most company provide Macbook for their employee.
 
Base on my own experience with Latitudes, Thinkpads, and Macbooks. Macbooks are pretty damn reliable.

Even with the awful nvidia chipset plauge during the core 2 duo days, most companies extended the warranty to 3 years. Apple extended it for 4 years. It is also nice not having to talk to India tech when I deal with Apple support.

I know there are folks who will disagree and some folks will disagree on anything related to Apple with little to no experience. However I do agree Apple is pretty top-notch with their customer service. I never been on hold longer than a few minutes with them except one occasion where they decided as a favor to fix my sister's 2013 Macbook Pro Retina FOR FREE! She cracked the LCD and dented the corner. I told them the cost was too expensive after they re-quoted me and they decided to do a one-time favor to repair the laptop. It came back with all new parts except the SSD. They even threw in a new battery! This is 3 years past its warranty already. Of course I assume they did it to keep our business so our next purchase will be another Macbook. I have to say, Apple is doing a good job keeping our business.
 
Uh my Lenovo t530 is lasting way longer than Apple devices.

Things like this never truly are comprehensive studies, they seem more like bias validation.
 
Since the only difference between a mac and a pc is the os, i wonder what percentage of pc's that scored "broken or not working as well" is due to malware/adware.
 
So? Is Plastic somehow more durable than Aluminium? Plenty of Apple devices have been made with plastic chassis. A lot of Lenovo/IBM/Thinkpad laptops were designed to be durable work horses that last a long time, not a lifespan-tied consumerism device like Apple devices are. You can't even replace the batteries in Apple devices any more, so eventually you're fucked no matter what you do. Where's the "tax" justification there?

Apple puts a lot of work into their product, sure, but it's intentionally designed to have a finite life, because that's their business model.

diehardman said:
Yeah those macbooks definitely never last longer than a plastic laptop.
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So, just to be clear... Apple's laptops are priced as business products, correct? I really hope they're not comparing a $1200 macbook to a $300 windows system, they should only be compared to similarly specced or priced PC products, otherwise it's an "apples to oranges" comparison, isn't it? :p
 
Well I agree with it, Macbooks are the best built laptop on the market and Apples customer service is about as good as it gets.

My old Macbook lasted 5yrs and had the GPU failure. My work mate is on year 6 with his.

Specs wise they last alot longer than Windows based laptops especially with the bogging down of the OS
 
Maybe I'm just lucky, but those failure rate are much higher than I experience.

I buy Dell Latitude's at work, and my failure rate is much lower.
I had several old Latitude D830's I gave out to employees because they where just to slow (and big/bulky) to use in the office. Even after over 8 years of use, 85% or them still worked.
I've just started retiring the E6510's (6+ years old). They all still work fine, but they don't have HDMI ports, and they are looking a bit beat up after so many years.
Haven't had a single failure.

Meanwhile I have a niece who got a MacBook air for college. Within 3 months the screen was cracked.
Her dad replaced it with a Dell Latitude (low cost refurbished one)
Bigger and heavier, but it lasted though 4 years of college with nothing more than the DVD drive going out after laptop was dropped for the 20th time.
She used it so much, she literally wore the letters off the keyboard.
 
Yeah it's bs. I've had plenty of them all apart and can tell you right now Dell especially is building great laptops for the money, takes almost double the price tag to start getting builds that compete (Not saying specs). I dunno what crack they used, but it's good stuff.
 
I don't like Apple, for many reasons. That's all I have to say about that.
 
Logan321 said:
So, just to be clear... Apple's laptops are priced as business products, correct? I really hope they're not comparing a $1200 macbook to a $300 windows system, they should only be compared to similarly specced or priced PC products, otherwise it's an "apples to oranges" comparison, isn't it? :p
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Except it might mean there is a reason Apple's are "over priced". Let's be honest, the number one complaint people have around here for Apple anything is that they cost too much.
 
westrock2000 said:
Except it might mean there is a reason Apple's are "over priced". Let's be honest, the number one complaint people have around here for Apple anything is that they cost too much.
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Sure, but that's not my point. Are they comparing Apple's laptops to only business-class products (Apple only makes business class products, they don't have a "consumer" line) to other business-class laptops, or to all business and consumer lines of windows laptops? The latter is clearly an unbalanced comparison.
 
BloodyIron said:
So? Is Plastic somehow more durable than Aluminium? Plenty of Apple devices have been made with plastic chassis. A lot of Lenovo/IBM/Thinkpad laptops were designed to be durable work horses that last a long time, not a lifespan-tied consumerism device like Apple devices are. You can't even replace the batteries in Apple devices any more, so eventually you're fucked no matter what you do. Where's the "tax" justification there?
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As someone who has seen hundreds of laptops and the condition they are in over the past 10 years, this is absolutely false.
 
I would really like to see them limit to business lines and see how apples fare. Out of ~1400 users, I'd say it's a minimum of 2:1 Apple:Dell hardware issues.
 
aokman said:
Well I agree with it, Macbooks are the best built laptop on the market and Apples customer service is about as good as it gets.

My old Macbook lasted 5yrs and had the GPU failure. My work mate is on year 6 with his.

Specs wise they last alot longer than Windows based laptops especially with the bogging down of the OS
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And, my Asus G73 is going on 7 years. Is been through some rough travel in my old work truck and is still kicking along.
 
As someone who's been servicing computers for even longer, and I've dealt with a larger volume, Lenovo laptops very rarely need servicing based on any sort of early ware on the chassis/frame compared to other manufacturers. Their chassis being plastic, just like almost every other laptop manufacturer out there does, does not inherently make them more prone to failure. They aren't "toughbooks" (product name, not concept) as in very rugged, but they are far from the flimsy shit like Sony and Toshiba that I've had to work plenty on.

diehardman said:
As someone who has seen hundreds of laptops and the condition they are in over the past 10 years, this is absolutely false.
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Apple makes great laptops. I've had Apple aluminum keyboards since 2008 and they still work like the day I bought them. Apple makes great products that can be bought for very affordable prices on ebay. Mackbook Pro are great.
 
For anyone questioning whether MacBooks are that reliable, go watch some Louis Rossman repair videos. The guy has steady consistent aka "always available" business at his very small repair shop in Manhattan and while his attitude towards many things in life can be rather like listening to a human cheese grater, the fact that he does board level repairs - a true art in this day and age and practically black magic considering Apple's entire forced obsolescence practices especially with them fighting tooth and nail to prevent such repair shops from getting the schematics necessary to do the actual repairs - is rather awesome.

Now I'm not saying that other computer manufacturers don't have issues either but, if you're actually paying attention during a visit to a physical Apple Store in your area (if you have one, that is), the next time you might happen to stop at an Apple Store take note of just how many actual customers are there specifically for visiting the "Genius Bar" and how many of them aren't there just because they can't do a specific task on their devices but instead are in need of a genuine repair on their products.

It'll be a lot more than you might imagine. ;)

As for the ThinkPad "plastic" thing, that's the outer shell which is hard ABS plastic most of the time because it's proven itself to be more durable over the years to typical scrapes and scuffs that the body of the laptop happens to suffer. The inner chassis is not plastic and is in fact magnesium which is lighter and stronger than aluminum is. If there was ever a case of something really awesome being hidden inside, it's with ThinkPads that hide their true strength - that magnesium chassis - under that outer layer of the protective plastic. Dell uses magnesium in their Latitude and Precision laptops as well, so does HP in some Elitebooks.

Get some some scuffs and scrapes or even cracks in a plastic part, order a replacement for a few bucks - do the same thing to most any of the aluminum unibody MacBooks and, well, you're gonna be paying a lot of ducats to get that aspect back to the way it was with replacement parts.
 
BloodyIron said:
As someone who's been servicing computers for even longer, and I've dealt with a larger volume, Lenovo laptops very rarely need servicing based on any sort of early ware on the chassis/frame compared to other manufacturers. Their chassis being plastic, just like almost every other laptop manufacturer out there does, does not inherently make them more prone to failure. They aren't "toughbooks" (product name, not concept) as in very rugged, but they are far from the flimsy shit like Sony and Toshiba that I've had to work plenty on.
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No, the plastic doesn't inherently make the laptops fail, it just makes them look like trash over time. Chassis build quality matters, and ive seen G4 unibody Powerbooks still holding up better than 5 year old Thinkpads and Precisions.
 
I'm still using a T530 and the chassis looks almost like it was new. So that statement is plenty subjective.

As for material in terms of holding sheen, sure, there's merit to that. But the topic is "most reliable", not "keeps it's appearance longest".

diehardman said:
No, the plastic doesn't inherently make the laptops fail, it just makes them look like trash over time. Chassis build quality matters, and ive seen G4 unibody Powerbooks still holding up better than 5 year old Thinkpads and Precisions.
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Every time I pass by the Apple Store by me, the Genius Bar is so crowded, I can't even fathom what headliner vulnerability just wreaked havoc on Apple products this time.

When I worked in retail, we were always sending out Macbooks and iPads back to our returns processing center. A lot of the stated issues were failure to boot up, dead non-replaceable batteries, or screen issues of varying kinds. I think for every Lenovo or HP product we were sending to the returns DC, we had 3 Macbooks or iPads going back. Some of the ones that failed weren't even out of the store and in the customer's possession for a week.
 
One thing worth noting is ease of repair. We use mostly thinkpad T-series in our shop, but those things are remarkably easy to service/upgrade on the rare occasions when something goes wrong. One screw, and you access the RAM. One more screw, and you've got the keyboard out. Want to replace the optical drive with a battery or a second hard drive? Put the screwdriver away, you don't need it.
 
Apple are generally well built, yes they have their flaws but I would generally call their failure rate the same as any others for mechanical related issues, (screen failure, faulty ram chips, etc ...) but those are few and far between. I will say though they do not handle abuse well, you can drop a latitude or an elite book with out doing too much damage to your flooring but you will likely damage any similarly dropped macbook. Though since apple has moved away from having any moving parts in their machines it really helps with longevity. I see more failed hard drives come across my desk than anything else, we have started replacing all machines that come in with SSD's and all new machines if they don't have SSD's they are replaced with them as part of the imaging process. Since doing this the only time those computers come back to us is when we are transferring user data to their new machines.

But for businesses who can use an all apple environment they do tend to pay off in cost savings if they don't have an in house tech department good techs aren't cheap.
 
Reliable and sensible right up until you need to repair it or fix a single part... Sort of how you'd do to double the life of another common PC brand...
 
I am involved in mobile app development. I bought a Macbook in 2008 - this has been, and still is, a nice laptop. I've had to replace the batteries a few times. I also upgraded the memory and swapped out the HD for an SSD. This system is still usable and I felt like I got my money out of it. Apple no longer supports it with OS upgrades, but time has moved on...it was the only Mac I've ever personally owned. I might buy another Mac at some point, who knows.

My employer recently bought me a new MB Pro 15" - it's nice and I've got to say Apple has done a fantastic job integrating iOS devices with macOS. I'm not a fan of the new keyboard, but it's not the worst I have used. If I were buying this for personal use, I would hate the fact that I can't replace the battery, replace the HD, or upgrade ram.

I've used Macbook Air's, Mac Minis, Macbooks, and other generation of MB Pros. I've ran into a defective GPU (common issue with the model I had) and a bad hard drive or two. At the same time, I've also used a few Dell laptops. I didn't have any issues with those either. Maybe I'm just careful with my systems. Ever see some of the abuse company owned equipment gets? Some people should be fired for what they do.
 
aokman said:
Specs wise they last alot longer than Windows based laptops especially with the bogging down of the OS
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Huh? Spec wise, Macbooks release with outdated hardware compared to Windows based laptops. That or they release with slower hardware. Then they stay on that outdated hardware for a full year, if not longer. Hell, look at the current Macbook. Core m3 or m5. While similiar PC products sport i5s and i7s.

I can easily restore an OS. I can't swap out the proc.
 
krotch said:
Huh? Spec wise, Macbooks release with outdated hardware compared to Windows based laptops. That or they release with slower hardware. Then they stay on that outdated hardware for a full year, if not longer. Hell, look at the current Macbook. Core m3 or m5. While similiar PC products sport i5s and i7s.

I can easily restore an OS. I can't swap out the proc.
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I was refering to OSX and Mac hardware outlasting Windows vs PC hardware long term. OSX is a very lightweight OS compared to Windows and MAC OSX apps are heavily optimised for GPUs etc
 
When the complexity of your userbase revolves around the ability to open a web browser and go to www.facebook.com while at a Starbucks coffee shop for 8 hours a day... It's not exactly hard to keep them satisfied when the requirements are so low.
 
aokman said:
I was refering to OSX and Mac hardware outlasting Windows vs PC hardware long term. OSX is a very lightweight OS compared to Windows and MAC OSX apps are heavily optimised for GPUs etc
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Why I said you can just restore the OS. Which is built into majority of OEMs computers. That or you're given restore CD/DVDs. Even if you don't do any of that, the OS will run fine. If you're the type of user to install, uninstall random programs over and over again, yes. You'll notice some OS performance degradation. Nothing a decent registry cleaner can't resolve.

It's probably less noticeable on a Mac, cause Mac users probably upgrade the OS whenever I new one comes out. It's about the same I saw when ppl moved to Win 10 and noticed a performance improvement, cause they were on like a 5 year old Win 7 build.

OS issues are fixable. What isn't is the hardware that's soldered onto the board. If your CPU/GPU is slower than the PCs, it's still going to be slower in 5 years or 10 years. Long term, the PC is going to last longer with it's higher specs.
 
Doesn't surprise me. My 4-year old MacBook Pro runs better than when I purchased it (thanks, Metal API) and has had no issues.
 
krotch said:
Why I said you can just restore the OS. Which is built into majority of OEMs computers. That or you're given restore CD/DVDs. Even if you don't do any of that, the OS will run fine. If you're the type of user to install, uninstall random programs over and over again, yes. You'll notice some OS performance degradation. Nothing a decent registry cleaner can't resolve.

It's probably less noticeable on a Mac, cause Mac users probably upgrade the OS whenever I new one comes out. It's about the same I saw when ppl moved to Win 10 and noticed a performance improvement, cause they were on like a 5 year old Win 7 build.

OS issues are fixable. What isn't is the hardware that's soldered onto the board. If your CPU/GPU is slower than the PCs, it's still going to be slower in 5 years or 10 years. Long term, the PC is going to last longer with it's higher specs.
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If you are tech savvy yes... 80-90%of the population isnt which is why when a windows laptop "slows down" consumers assume its time to upgrade.

Yes most OSX users update straight away because its very rare for an update to brick the OS...
 
aokman said:
If you are tech savvy yes... 80-90%of the population isnt which is why when a windows laptop "slows down" consumers assume its time to upgrade.

Yes most OSX users update straight away because its very rare for an update to brick the OS...
Click to expand...

So in other words, the OS is a moot point, as anyone can repair or replace it. There's also plenty of shops that can do it too.

All that's left is hardware. The Macbook is going to be lower spec, when compared to a Windows laptop at the same price. So...Windows laptop is going to last longer. Hell, just the fact that most PC laptops have user replaceable batteries means it'll last longer.
 
Wow. Apple wins something and this place becomes a Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh factory.

wahmbulance.jpg
 
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