Best to worse laptop companies per Laptop magazine

[Svnla]

Laptop magazine issue of 4/2012 has this ranking (from best to worse):

The ranking is based on these criteria (100 points total) - Reviews (20 points), Design (15 pts), Keyboard/touchpad (15 pts), Tech support (15 pts), Display and audio (10 pts), Value and selection (10 pts), Software (5 pts), Customer sastifaction (5 pts), Innovation (5 pts).

1. Apple - 88
2. Lenovo - 84
3. HP - 81
4. Dell/Allienware - 79
5. Samsung - 71
6. Sony - 69
7. Toshiba - 68
8. Asus - 68
9. Acer/Gateway -62


What say you, ATOTers? Agree, disagree, none of the above? Discuss.

I bought several Dell laptops (refurbished with 15-20% off coupons) and so far, so good, no problem at all.

 

[Anubis]

gateway still exists?

also what criteria are they ranking them on?

 

[Jodell88]

Dell should be higher than HP in my opinion.

 

[darkewaffle]

I deal with a lot of old Dell laptops on a regular basis and they are resilient little bastards. They've always been kind of ugly up til just recently and I've never had to deal with support but they certainly keep on ticking imo.

Plus the few times I've tried to use my brother's Macbook Pro I can't stand the keyboard. I don't understand all the love for chiclet keys. Also OSX is

 

[vshah]

i feel asus should be higher up on that list, and sony should be #2. vaio z anyone?

 

[Dominato3r]

Is Asus really that bad? I've always thought they were one of the better Windows laptop manufacturers

 

[Svnla]

gateway still exists?

also what criteria are they ranking them on?

Acer is making Gateway now.

They based their rankings on points in several different areas such as innovation, quality, customer sastifaction, etc.

 

[NuclearNed]

Is Asus really that bad? I've always thought they were one of the better Windows laptop manufacturers

I have an ASUS I bought a little over a year ago... It's been great. I like it much better than my work-issued Dell. One gripe, though... ASUS doesn't seem to offer much in the way of BIOS/firmware upgrades like a lot of companies.

 

[Fritzo]

What the hell is HP doing up there? They're notorious for making designs that overheat. Go ask all the DV4 and DV6 owners out there how they're enjoying their premium products.

 

[Anubis]

I don't understand all the love for chiclet keys.

Yea i dont get it either. everyone complains about them and yet all the manufs started using them

the new HP laptops they are issueing at work have them, not a single person who has gotten a new laptop has a single good thing to say about the keyboards

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Disagree, HP sucks for lack of a better term and there is no reason for Apple to be #1.

 

[Blackjack200]

Yeah, I noticed the Asus ranking too, I always thought they made very good stuff. I haven't bought anything from them in three or four years though; I hope they haven't slipped.

 

[Red Storm]

I like Apple, Lenovo, and Asus laptops. The rest are on a lower level, IMHO.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

My personal list, leaving off Apple since I dont give a crap.

1. Toshiba
2. Asus
3. Lenovo
4. Dell/Allienware
5. Acer/Gateway
6. HP
7. Samsung
8. Sony

 

[Bignate603]

I've heard people complain about Dell laptops but I've never had a problem with ours.

 

[alent1234]

my lenovo is built like a tank

my MBP is a joy to use

 

[JulesMaximus]

I like my Toshiba laptop. Never had any trouble with them although battery life is kind of sucktacular.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I haven't had any issues with our Dell laptops. They are workhorses.

 

[Arkaign]

My DV7t has been awesome, no overheating problems even with a fairly good GPU in there.

Sony is a nightmare (to work on at least), and I hate how much crap they load, but that's most companies these days.

Dell is okay.

Not a huge Lenovo fan, but they're decent.

I've seen more than my fair share of dead/dying Asus notebooks, but they seem to mainly be ones with Nvidia GPUs, which I guess were bad in laptops for a while?

Toshiba is meh.

Acer/Gateway is hit and miss, but they're good value a lot of the time.

 

[Chaotic42]

I like my ThinkPad. It's well built, has an awesome design, and has stupendous battery life.

 

[summit]

asus didn't get love? don't know how i feel about the list.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I agree with lenovo's position. Lenovo makes some great laptops.

 

[TwiceOver]

I don't know how Toshiba possibly took 7th. Easily 9th place or worse IMO.

But again who knows on what criteria. Personally I've never touched a Toshiba that didn't have some sort of hardware problem, but then again I've never touched a high end Tosh. I think Acer makes a mighty fine laptop, but here again... I've only used their Timeline and TimelineX series laptops which are basically their top of the line.

 

[Joseph F]

Panasonic is missing. I'm not sure whether I'd put them in 1st or 2nd, though.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Disagree, HP sucks for lack of a better term and there is no reason for Apple to be #1.

One of the criteria was customer satisfaction and no one is more satisfied than a smug Apple user so it does make sense.