Dell, HP, Apple Consumer Reports' Best Desktops
PCs still own the desktop.
Yesterday we took a look at Consumer Reports’ latest laptop ratings and saw that Apple cleaned up all three segments with MacBooks taking home all top scores. Could Apple do the same thing again for desktops with its iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro? Nope.
In the four desktop categories – standard, multimedia, gaming and all-in-one – HP topped one and Dell took the remaining three.
Well, actually Apple managed to sneak in at the top of the standard desktop rating with its Mac Mini as the HP Pavilion Slimline s3620f, which took top spot with 61 out of 100, is discontinued. The Mac Mini shared a rating of 59 out of 100 along with the HP Pavilion a6600f and HP Pavilion a6700y.
Dell ruled the multimedia desktop class, taking the top four spots out of the six computers ranked. The top four in order were the Dell Studio XPS, Studio Mini, Studio Slim and the Insprion 518.
Only three gaming desktops were ranked by Consumer Reports, with the Dell XPS 630 taking the highest score on the page with 81 out of 100. The other two were the HP Pavilion Elite d5000t ATX and the HP Pavilion Elite m9450f, both with 78 points and both discontinued.
In the all-in-one category, one that’s popularized by the iMac, Apple only managed to take second place with its 20-inch offering. The leader of that pack was Dell with its 24-inch XPS One Red. Dell also grabbed third place with the 20-inch version of the XPS One.
Check out the latest Consumer Reports for the full ratings (or subscribe to the website).
#1 Value
#1 Performance
#1 appearance
#1 Blending
I agree, homebuilt beats all of these.
its obvious consumer reports is not focusing on computers for gamers and techies. The focus is on PC for people at home that surf the web, pay bills online, use MS office for work/office and have a minimal understanding of PC parts and what they do.
If you want to grade gaming PCs and parts, go read tom's reviews =P
Consumer Reports is not a bunch of random users giving feedback, at least not for these ratings. These scores are garnered via a bunch of tests in labs. I know because I interviewed for a position there once, and I saw a couple dozen computers running the tests during my tour of the facilities. Funnily enough, the room where they test all the laptops looks like a Best Buy, since there are a couple of shelves with an aisle in between, and the shelves are full of shiny new laptops. All the laptops still have their stickers on them and everything.
How they decide which models to purchase and test, I don't know, but they are limited by the fact that they have to buy all of the merchandise that they test. They deliberately do not want to recieve any free items from companies, which could lead to any sort of bias towards or against someone. The company prides itself on being as unbiased as posisble with respect to any of the manufacturers of the products they test.
As ct1615 said, they are not going to rate top-of-the-line computers since the majority of the people who read their magazine are not in the market for something that powerful. Their profit comes directly from sales of their various magazines and website membership, and so they market themselves to as mainstream an audience as possible.
the laptop test throw 2grand apple laptop to 700$ laptops....
come on...
even car compare test has price range limitation.
or else why don't you compare apple desktop with the IBM mainframe.
What do you mean Blending?
Its a joke....
Should be taken off the market !!!! buyerme