Study: Asus, Toshiba Make Most Reliable Laptops

When we buy a new laptop, we're often looking for something that's powerful and portable. Most of these features we can read on specification sheets, but what we can't see is predicted reliability.

Warranty firm SquareTrade has published its own report on laptop reliability and has found that smaller laptop companies such as Asus, Toshiba and Sony make laptops less likely to succumb to failure. Larger companies such as Acer, Gateway and HP ranked at the bottom of the list for reliability.

The firm also found that more expensive laptops are less likely to fail than cheap ones – something that should be comforting to those who pull out the big bucks.

Sadly, failure rates rise as years go by. SquareTrade estimates that nearly one in three laptops fail in the first three years of ownership.

Check out the full report here for more and information on methodology.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • sot010174
    Indeed... out of 10 laptops that end up in my desk at work I would say 7 are HP. Seems that Quanta and Compal doesn't like'em very much...
    Reply
  • rjkucia
    These rates seem a little high... maybe it's because my 4 year old Compaq still (amazingly) works? Or did they include battery failures as well?
    Reply
  • my_name_is_earl
    I drop (3ft) my Asus laptop (6.5lbs) on the solid wood floor and it barely had a dent. I couldn't say that to every other brand.
    Reply
  • triplanetary
    rjkuciaThese rates seem a little high... maybe it's because my 4 year old Compaq still (amazingly) works? Or did they include battery failures as well?
    I think it's because a lot of people don't take proper care of their computers. I used my Dell laptop for three years, and it still ran as smoothly as when I first got it. Then I sold it to my roommate two months ago and it presently runs like shit.
    Reply
  • frozenlead
    Lenovo needs to bring back IBM's old designs for notebooks. Those were tanks.
    Reply
  • liquidblue
    I'm actually looking forward to the Asus/Toshiba deal. When looking for a laptop for work a few weeks ago I was torn between two builds that were the same from both manufactures. Hopefully they can tag up and destroy the competition.
    Reply
  • Drag0nR1der
    surprised to see Dell doing so well (especially compared to HP) a few years ago I'm pretty sure they would have faired worse
    Reply
  • smokinu
    I find these numbers to be very off actually. We have hundreds of laptops as well as desktops and the between dell and hp's we only seem to have problems with the dell's. What is also rather funny to me is the hp laptops that I have had at my home have Asus motherboards. Heck even my hp desktop had an asus motherboard and video card. Does anyone actually even know who makes dell's boards????

    As far as the failure rates go what exactlly are they measuring for failures? Are these failure's due to HD's, Mem, Motherboards, CPU's, GPU's, etc...... Perhaps the reason for higher rate of failure from one brand to the next is due to the components used. I have a compaq that is 10 years old and still works fine. Then again I have purchased higher powered laptops that only last a year. Lets face it. typically in the past you got more for your money from HP, Acer, etc.. than lets say dell or sony. However, with a more powerful laptop comes increased heat. It should be a no brainer that heat is what kills a laptop faster than a desktop.
    Reply
  • mayne92
    I don't see how these studies have any relevance since most of these companies don't include their own hardware (except ASUS)...it seems more like a trend of bad luck to me...

    Reply
  • buwish
    I can see how this study is reliable. The HP's and Compaqs I have owned have been junk; barely lasted a year each. That has nothing to do with maintenance or luck. I decided enough with that and got a Toshiba laptop and I am quite impressed with its reliability and build quality.
    Reply