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IT professionals agree: Acer makes the worst notebooks

Popular tech site TechRepublic recently polled their audience of IT professionals, asking them which vendors make the most and least reliable notebooks.

While the numbers were not huge in their favor, TR's audience says Dell makes the most reliable notebooks. Acer being the least reliable was more unanimous.



Says the site: "TechRepublic recently asked its massive audience of IT professionals which vendors make the most reliable laptops and which ones make the least reliable laptops. Since most IT departments tend to use multiple vendors and/or switch vendors every 2-3 years in order to land the best deal, we thought IT departments would have a great perspective on this."

Of the 4609 IT pros polled for the "most reliable" study, 21 percent claimed Dell makes the best notebooks, followed closely by HP at 18 percent and Lenovo at 17 percent. Acer and Asus bottomed the list, at just 6 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

7370 IT pros were polled for the "least reliable" study, and 24 percent found Acer to have the worst notebooks. HP and Dell followed closely behind at 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively.




Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 20 Aug 2010 2:03

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• 42 comments

• ajsmsg78

  This has to be the most unreliable survey ever!!
  

  20.8.2010 02:32 #1

• flyingpen

  Is it just me, or does this seem a little skewed? From my experiences and the experiences of most of my IT friends, Dell's home notebooks are cheap and unreliable, their professional computers are very reliable. The home notebooks of Asus and Acer always seemed to me to be much more stable. But then again all of this is opinion. I would really like to see numbers including how many damaged, returned, etc out of the total number of notebooks sold for each company. I think that would make this very interesting.
  

  Carpe Noctem

  20.8.2010 02:40 #2

• flyingpen

  Also, its kinda weird. 20% say Dell is the most unreliable, but then 21% say its the most reliable. 1/5 of the voters love Dell then another 1/5 of the voters hate Dell... The same with HP. I think the whole poll seems messed up.
  

  Carpe Noctem

  20.8.2010 03:18 #3

• KillerBug

  Dell? The company that uses 18V power supplies with 18V capacitors? Clearly, the people interviewed did not have much experience with end-user Dell models.
  
  Personally, I find the Toshibas to be the most reliable (or at least the most rugged) laptops of those listed here. In my experience, they last an average of about 5 years in a semi truck...HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Apple all last less than 2 years.

  20.8.2010 03:59 #4

• Mysttic

  All I know is, the more you spend into a notebook usually the better it is. 4 years ago I spent $3k into my DELL laptop and the only thing that died was my dvd burner which my warranty replaced. Otherwise my laptop still runs fine, even on Windows 7 ultimate and for over 2 years straight left it on 24/7. These IT professionals likely spent close to about the same as I.
  
  But again, I spent over 3k. If I had spent say, $500-$1000 on a Dell, I would never expect it to last a year, and would be amazed if it did. So to say something that Quote:Dell, HP, Acer, ASUS, and Apple all last less than 2 years. Well again how much are you spending? Not everyone has 3k tho, and not everyone knows how to treat a laptop so that it can last 5 years, mine is coming up on 5 next month so now you know a Dell that can keep up.
  
  I bought a close friend a $500 HP-Compaq laptop that a group of people pitched in for; the mother was in charge of what to buy. I TRIED to plead don't get this laptop, it'll die within a year and for only an extra $25 more we can get him an Acer which I trusted more, but no... The price was right to her eyes and because I couldn't name word for word the type of shit that could go wrong exactly, we ended up getting that HP. Well sure enough it broke in the first month, *don't even care I wasn't the one to fix it or even use it*; then coming up on a year, it just died. Wouldn't even turn on. Luckily it was a week before warranty was over, so it'll be covered, but to what end? To die another month down the road?
  
  I agree about Toshiba, they don't seem to get much notice tho cause they don't sell anywhere near as much as the other companies. I've seen only a handful of bad toshiba laptops, maybe less than 5 models in a decade, where as I could name HP and Dell models a plenty through the last decade that could/would blow up on your lap.
  
  Bottom line, take care of your hardware, keep cool as possible, spend as much care and maintenance as you can on a laptop and give it a little love and its very possibly that you can keep it for a long time..

  20.8.2010 05:27 #5

• zachm1

  I just bought an Acer Aspire 5251. Don't seem to have any problems with it. Guess it comes down to preference, how you use it, and how you maintain it. Same as my desktop. I am running Vista Home Premium 32 bit without a stitch of problems for over a year and a half. I am always leary and cautious about reviews and take them with a grain of salt. Just do your homework I guess.
  

  20.8.2010 06:18 #6

• nonoitall

  I don't agree with the survey either. I've been called on to fix quite a few laptops and by far, most of them are Dell. Another thing that bothered me about most of the Dell laptops I've seen is that you could cook eggs on the the bottom of them if you flipped them upside down. Me thinks a lot of them don't have adequate cooling. I dunno, maybe they've improved things on their current models though.
  
  I got a sub-$500 Acer laptop a few years ago, and aside from the hour or so that I spent clearing off all the bloatware, it has been a great machine. A few buddies I know who have gone with Acer have also seemed pleased.

  20.8.2010 06:36 #7

• DSWarrior

  True, I don't agree with that survey...it really does seem skewed. I do agree that ACER makes bad notebooks (because I've had to fix quite a few of them), but by far HP and Dell break down a lot more. Out of every 10 computers I fix 5-7 are HP/Compaq, and quite a few Dells (including my dad's computer). In my experience Toshiba (I own one), Lenovo (I own a netbook), Apple (a few of my friends have/had them) and Asus (I've used some of their models) make good notebooks, and none of them get the recognition they deserve. My Toshiba cost me $800 and it's been working flawlessly for the past 3 years, except for the common heating problem in most notebooks, but nothing too serious.
  

  DS Warrior ! ! !

  20.8.2010 06:53 #8

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by Mysttic:
  But again, I spent over 3k. If I had spent say, $500-$1000 on a Dell, I would never expect it to last a year, and would be amazed if it did. So to say something that Quote:Dell, HP, Acer, ASUS, and Apple all last less than 2 years. Well again how much are you spending? Not everyone has 3k tho, and not everyone knows how to treat a laptop so that it can last 5 years, mine is coming up on 5 next month so now you know a Dell that can keep up. Most of the laptops I deal with are in the sub-$700 range; but I really don't feel like Toshiba is getting a free card here, as the toshibas I mention are almost all absolute-base models...rarely over $400 before tax. If paying more gives a better laptop, and a $700 Dell does not last half as long as a $350 Toshiba, then that says something rather terrible about Dell. Yes, I have dealt with some higher-end Dells that seem to be very reliable (other than the hinges)...but at that point, everyone is reliable...and for that kind of money, you could get a ToughBook.
  
  You know that case against Dell, and how they lied about what they knew and when...well, I really don't care about the outcome. The fact is, they knew they had a bad product, they knew a quick and easy fix, and they knew that it would cause their customers lots of problems. In spite of all of this, they put the systems on the market. The case that is in the news is only one in a long line of such cases against dell; they usually don't get this much attention, but they are always going on because in the end, Dell makes a little more profit doing things like this...do you really want to buy from a company where this is the corporate policy?

  20.8.2010 07:23 #9

• pirkster

  Originally posted by ajsmsg78: This has to be the most unreliable survey ever!! Exactly. Dell is the second least reliable, yet also shows as most reliable.
  
  Anyone that's used Dell, at home or professionally, knows they simply do not measure up to the reliability of Toshiba, HP, or Lenovo laptops. Not even close. Similarly, Dell's micro desktops are/were garbage. The only Dell I'd even consider are their full size desktops. Even then... I pass on them in favor of another brand if I had a choice.

  20.8.2010 10:37 #10

• DVDBack23

  For everyone thinking this is skewed, be reminded that Dell and HP sell MANY more notebooks than any other company on the list.
  
  I have had an XPS notebook for over 2 years now, and it has been the most reliable notebook I've ever had. I will completely agree with the poster that said Dell's overheat. I've had to have my heatsink replaced (for free thanks to warranty) once per year.
  

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  20.8.2010 10:57 #11

• Mysttic

  Quote:You know that case against Dell, and how they lied about what they knew and when...well, I really don't care about the outcome. The fact is, they knew they had a bad product, they knew a quick and easy fix, and they knew that it would cause their customers lots of problems. In spite of all of this, they put the systems on the market. The case that is in the news is only one in a long line of such cases against dell; they usually don't get this much attention, but they are always going on because in the end, Dell makes a little more profit doing things like this...do you really want to buy from a company where this is the corporate policy? Again you pay for what you get get; my laptop costs $3k cause $600 of that went to their best warranty money can buy, and thankfully I only ever had to use it once. But it's also as you said, low range laptops suck comparing to Toshiba's low range. I never argued Toshiba was worse. All I said was not "ALL Dell etc.. laptops" as you said in your first statement are crappy.
  
  I custom built my laptop through Dell as well, which costs a pretty more, I didn't just go to Best buy and say I want a store build. When I want a laptop I always custom build because I want to know the parts they use aren't cheap crap ass shit. This all boils down to "Let the buyer beware". Does Dell lie, yes they do, but so does every other *note the other, that doesn't mean all of them* lie. HP has, MS has, Apple has, etc...
  
  So you can state, do you really want to support those companies, but no I don't. I didn't tell everyone to go buy a dell and spend 3k, I didn't say I love DELL they are the greatest. All I said was, they can be good if you willing to pay for it. As can HP, as can Acer and even Sony. Its also why I haven't bought another laptop, as 5 years and still running today's shit is impressive as is, and it does what I want; until that aspect stops, I won't get another.
  
  Will I buy a Dell? I dunno, I was happy with my current laptop from the time I built it back in 2005, that's a long time ago man, where lots of shit happened since from burnt batteries to god knows what else. I for a long time wanted to buy an iBook, but in the end they really are over priced units that doesn't offer anything more than what I can get for my needs on a PC. Keywords is "my needs not yours, or anyone else looking at laptops".
  
  So I understand where you are coming from, I can only hope you understand where I come from. Is dell good? No, I said they have good units if you willing to spend. Should you have to spend that much to get a good unit? No.. But then you warranty will suck ass, even with Toshiba, and then what kind of specs do you have? I could have spent that much on Toshiba, but then it would have lasted as long as the Dell, which is my point. As for your Toughbook comment, I could have bought a Toughbook sure, but 3k for a Toughbook is shit, they are hard to get from retail at a good price. I worked for distribution I know the markup for Toughbooks, and so 3k would have gotten me a kick ass shell, at half the specs I had with the Dell.

  20.8.2010 10:59 #12

• jerred121

  Originally posted by ajsmsg78: This has to be the most unreliable survey ever!! Yeah, how can dell be the 2nd most unreliable and then the most reliable... This is retarded, Acer does make some crap but what about compaq? They have no idea what they are talking about - I specialize in actual solder repair of notebooks and I can tell you that Compaq, Dell and HP have by far been the most poorly constructed machines. Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo and newer HPs are by far better than Dell, who has only gotten worse with time.

  20.8.2010 11:11 #13

• jerred121

  Originally posted by DVDBack23: For everyone thinking this is skewed, be reminded that Dell and HP sell MANY more notebooks than any other company on the list.
  
  I have had an XPS notebook for over 2 years now, and it has been the most reliable notebook I've ever had. I will completely agree with the poster that said Dell's overheat. I've had to have my heatsink replaced (for free thanks to warranty) once per year. All laptops overheat eventually. Had your heatsink replaced? you mean your fan? How does a piece of aluminum just break and need to be replaced?
  

  PSP-modded, ps2 fat-modded w/fliptop and swap magic, PS3-I wish was modded, DS Lite w/ Acekard 2i, Xbox 360 - JTAGed with no dvd-rom
  

  20.8.2010 11:13 #14

• DXR88

  Originally posted by jerred121: Originally posted by DVDBack23: For everyone thinking this is skewed, be reminded that Dell and HP sell MANY more notebooks than any other company on the list.
  
  I have had an XPS notebook for over 2 years now, and it has been the most reliable notebook I've ever had. I will completely agree with the poster that said Dell's overheat. I've had to have my heatsink replaced (for free thanks to warranty) once per year. All laptops overheat eventually. Had your heatsink replaced? you mean your fan? How does a piece of aluminum just break and need to be replaced? its dell where talking about, doing the impossible.
  

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  20.8.2010 11:19 #15

• jerred121

  Originally posted by Mysttic: All I know is, the more you spend into a notebook usually the better it is. 4 years ago I spent $3k into my DELL laptop and the only thing that died was my dvd burner which my warranty replaced. Otherwise my laptop still runs fine, even on Windows 7 ultimate and for over 2 years straight left it on 24/7. These IT professionals likely spent close to about the same as I.
  
  But again, I spent over 3k. If I had spent say, $500-$1000 on a Dell, I would never expect it to last a year, and would be amazed if it did. So to say something that Quote:Dell, HP, Acer, ASUS, and Apple all last less than 2 years. Well again how much are you spending? Not everyone has 3k tho, and not everyone knows how to treat a laptop so that it can last 5 years, mine is coming up on 5 next month so now you know a Dell that can keep up.
  
  I bought a close friend a $500 HP-Compaq laptop that a group of people pitched in for; the mother was in charge of what to buy. I TRIED to plead don't get this laptop, it'll die within a year and for only an extra $25 more we can get him an Acer which I trusted more, but no... The price was right to her eyes and because I couldn't name word for word the type of shit that could go wrong exactly, we ended up getting that HP. Well sure enough it broke in the first month, *don't even care I wasn't the one to fix it or even use it*; then coming up on a year, it just died. Wouldn't even turn on. Luckily it was a week before warranty was over, so it'll be covered, but to what end? To die another month down the road?
  
  I agree about Toshiba, they don't seem to get much notice tho cause they don't sell anywhere near as much as the other companies. I've seen only a handful of bad toshiba laptops, maybe less than 5 models in a decade, where as I could name HP and Dell models a plenty through the last decade that could/would blow up on your lap.
  
  Bottom line, take care of your hardware, keep cool as possible, spend as much care and maintenance as you can on a laptop and give it a little love and its very possibly that you can keep it for a long time.. wont last 2 years? 1 year!?!? What are you people doing to your notebooks? I've never had one of my personal notebooks just die or not last. Right now I have an Acer that I got for $60!! that's right, I didn't leave off a 0 - I bought it with a locked hdd and it was a $500 notebook - no probs thus far. I also have a Toshiba Dynabook that I got about 4 years ago 2nd hand for $250 - my girl uses this everyday to go on myspace, play games and watch movies.
  

  PSP-modded, ps2 fat-modded w/fliptop and swap magic, PS3-I wish was modded, DS Lite w/ Acekard 2i, Xbox 360 - JTAGed with no dvd-rom
  

  20.8.2010 11:21 #16

• jerred121

  Originally posted by DXR88: Originally posted by jerred121: Originally posted by DVDBack23: For everyone thinking this is skewed, be reminded that Dell and HP sell MANY more notebooks than any other company on the list.
  
  I have had an XPS notebook for over 2 years now, and it has been the most reliable notebook I've ever had. I will completely agree with the poster that said Dell's overheat. I've had to have my heatsink replaced (for free thanks to warranty) once per year. All laptops overheat eventually. Had your heatsink replaced? you mean your fan? How does a piece of aluminum just break and need to be replaced? its dell where talking about, doing the impossible. A notebook CPU could never generate enough heat to just crack a heatsink.
  

  PSP-modded, ps2 fat-modded w/fliptop and swap magic, PS3-I wish was modded, DS Lite w/ Acekard 2i, Xbox 360 - JTAGed with no dvd-rom
  

  20.8.2010 11:24 #17

• R01010100

  Dell, HP, Acer, Gateway, eMachine, Sony, ASUS= Absolute SHIT
  
  Toshiba, Lenovo, Apple= Trustworthy
  
  This is has been my experience for the past 10 years as a computer technician. I work for a local repair shop in cocoa beach florida and I see broken computers daily. It's interesting that there is no "Other" category. The shop I work for is an Intel Chanel Partner and we sell laptops that are designed by Intel and only available through Intel Chanel Parters. According to Intel, the Chanel Partner Program is their single largest customer base (almost half of their business). We rarely ever see one of our laptops come in the shop for hardware related issues. I would think that if this customer base was so big, we would see this line of laptops as a choice. Perhaps the survey did not give the option for "Other". Then again my perception could be skewed as I don't know well these laptops are being sold country-wide.

  20.8.2010 11:29 #18

• thargor

  I have 30+ Acer laptops that are in my hire stock. They are hired out to all and sundry. In the 3 years I have had them, only had 2 psu's go down.
  
  When working on a conference, I despair to see a Dell appear as I know there is a good chance of a problem, especially trying to get it to output to a graphics switcher.
  
  Me personally, wouldn't even throw a Dell onto a rubbish tip.

  20.8.2010 11:36 #19

• Snipes_

  Just goes to show...surveys...you can make them say whatever yo want them to say.
  
  I have been building, repairing, recommending for about 20 years(as a hobby). Yes ACER is what I call a "lower end" offering, but they sell a brazillian of them (how many in a brazillian)?? I own 4 gateways (I love my P-7801U-FX)and an ASUS. Not a lick of trouble with any of them. Had a Toshiba, the only problem with that one was the DVD right out of the box. Replaced it and it work excellent for 3 years (upgraded to the ASUS).
  
  I never recommend DELL or HP, and I know a lot of tech's who do this for a living, feel the same.

  20.8.2010 12:50 #20

• MrFawlty

  I worked in a Comet workshop for a couple of years and Acer was their biggest seller, followed by HP. We got 3 times as many HPs in for repair than Acer and the Acers that came were easily fixed whereas the HPs where by and large written off because it was usually a new motherboard that was needed which cost more to replace than the original cost of the laptop!
  
  I have worked self-employed as an IT engineer since 1998 (the Comet job was in the middle of that time) and Acer are easily the simplest laptops to fix, even to replace a whole motherboard. Toshiba are almost as reliable. Haven't had much experience of Lenovo or Asus but I like what I've seen so far. Sony are a nightmare to fix or get parts for.
  
  Just my 2p worth.
  

  "Dont mention the war!"

  20.8.2010 13:01 #21

• Virgil_B

  You have to consider who they polled. IT professionals generally work on the products that their company buys. I think the survey simply shows the market penetration of the particular brands. I have a Compaq (HP) that is 3 or 4 years old and is still going strong. It has been across the world from Hawaii to Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, Connecticut, so it hasn't been given kid gloves treatment. I also know of several people that have Acer notebooks and have had good luck with them too.

  20.8.2010 13:01 #22

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by jerred121: Originally posted by DXR88: Originally posted by jerred121: Originally posted by DVDBack23: For everyone thinking this is skewed, be reminded that Dell and HP sell MANY more notebooks than any other company on the list.
  
  I have had an XPS notebook for over 2 years now, and it has been the most reliable notebook I've ever had. I will completely agree with the poster that said Dell's overheat. I've had to have my heatsink replaced (for free thanks to warranty) once per year. All laptops overheat eventually. Had your heatsink replaced? you mean your fan? How does a piece of aluminum just break and need to be replaced? its dell where talking about, doing the impossible. A notebook CPU could never generate enough heat to just crack a heatsink. I'm nowhere near an expert on internals of notebooks (at all), but yeah it was the heatsink and fan, something about the thermal paste I believe. They cleaned it up or replaced it, and my notebook runs about 30 degrees cooler afterwards.
  

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  20.8.2010 13:05 #23

• Jemborg

  We've had an ASUS EeePC netbook for a while that's going great. I have not heard good things about the Acer netbooks but that's admittedly anecdotal.
  
  Toshiba comes across as a good brand -- then again they make (and sell to others) all the bits and bobs that go in their products. Y'know capacitors, resistors and suchlike. They're meant to reserve the best tested quality stuff (A+ rating) off the line for themselves.
  

  Its a lot easier being righteous than right.
  
  
  

  20.8.2010 15:04 #24

• xnmalletx

  My three year old, $2700 Dell XPS notebook is still running great, and never had any problems with it other than me dropping it and the screen having to be replaced, (under warranty :D ). Oh yea, the power supplies are junk but they replaced it for me.

  20.8.2010 22:51 #25

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by Jemborg: We've had an ASUS EeePC netbook for a while that's going great. I have not heard good things about the Acer netbooks but that's admittedly anecdotal. Most acer netbooks last a long time, but that it because netbooks in general will last well; they are not very complicated, and they are built with the knowledge that they will be treated not as a laptop, but as a mobile device.
  
  Originally posted by jerred121:
  wont last 2 years? 1 year!?!? What are you people doing to your notebooks? I've never had one of my personal notebooks just die or not last. When I said that, I was speaking of people that use their notebooks hard...people that fly all over the country with them, drive from coblestone bricks in the city to dirt roads in the country, occasionally spill coffee all over it, etc... Also, truckers seem to use their notebooks very hard...even a toshiba will be in bad shape after a few years with a trucker; it will still work, but the thing will be held together with duct tape from all the times it was dropped far enough to crack the plastic.

  20.8.2010 23:45 #26

• ddp

  agree on the truckers as a customer is 1 & he broke 1 hinge pin by dropping his hp laptop a number of times & doing in the hard drive which is how i acquired my sony laptop as it's hd was used to replace the hp's drive.
  

  20.8.2010 23:52 #27

• AndroidOS

  What about Gateway??

  21.8.2010 14:08 #28

• omendata

  Who wrote the survey - Dell?
  Utter nonsense
  
  HP are terrible laptops - they are currently in court for problems i personally have had to fix in my workshop for numerous HP laptops and thats the graphics chip separating from the motherboard due to excessive heat amongst other regular faults!
  
  Ibm used to make the best but its still Toshiba from the number of laptops i get to fix i havent seen a Toshiba, Ibm/Lenovo for months now!
  
  Heat generation in my experience causes separation of components from the motherboard of quite a few makes that dont have adequate ventilation or decent cpu fan - the best models use two cpu fans or even extra ventilation fans - can be fixed by reflow soldering but its tricky - you can use a domestic temp controlled oven to fix your laptop if it is completely dead but its tricky and not guaranteed but if your laptop is fecked then its worth a try.
  

  21.8.2010 15:13 #29

• lissenup2

  Originally posted by ajsmsg78: This has to be the most unreliable survey ever!! No sh*t huh????
  
  How can one survey show Dell and Acer being the worst and the other showing those two being the best. They clearly pooled a bunch of speds and retards..........or average American business owners and politicians.......one and the same.
  
  I'm glad I read this because even being an IT professional and network manager, you learn something new every day and I had no clue or opinion about Acer. Actually.........always thought they were pretty good. Guess not and will never buy one now as I'm trusting my fellow IT peeps.

  21.8.2010 16:31 #30

• tompilon

  probably best way to interpret the charts is to combine them by calculating most% minus least% which yields:
  
  Apple 15 - 7 = 8
  Acer 6 - 24 = -18
  ASUS 8 - 8 = 0
  Dell 21 - 20 = 1
  HP 18 - 21 = -3
  Lenovo 17 - 8 = 9
  Toshiba 15 - 12 = 3
  100- 100= 0
  
  I've always been an Apple and Dell hater and have loved my HP and ASUS notebooks so I'm being objective here.

  21.8.2010 20:20 #31

• Zealousi

  saw a old nerd with a Acer Laptop with paw print stickers all over it running a linux distro and trying to do speed tests with a 3.5G Telstra USB Modem.
  
  It was only the other day this article came out and got me thinking about the product itself, yes some laptop's are crap as but with the right hardware and a custom built OS example: Linux. Could it really be as bad as people say.
  
  I have owned Mostly Toshiba Laptops (L300D) and i find it a great laptop that can have the living shit kicked out of it and still works. Also another reason i love this model that it came stock with a Atheros wireless card for Injection attacks.
  
  Brand is 1 factor but like anything with computers there is all ways 500 different solutions which is why i want a recount of this study.
  
  There is no supporting data apart from asking a small percentage of computer users, i am sure the few people in the office gave great reviews.
  

  21.8.2010 23:02 #32

• pmshah

  My own personal experience is almost reverse of this opinion poll. Dell products in general and laptops/notebooks in particular are the worst I have come across.
  
  BTW if one is truly IT professional they would not be using / recommending either of these two top/worst rated brands !!!!

  21.8.2010 23:23 #33

• DoomLight

  i call BS. i use an ACER laptop. granted i only use it once and a while. its hasn't been a bad laptop to me in anyway. i only use it for surfing and holding files. i dont expect more from it.
  

  22.8.2010 22:17 #34

• IguanaC64

  I haven't been in IT for a few years...so my experience might/might not be relevant now. I've supported HP, IBM (prior to Lenovo), Dell, Toshiba, and Compaq notebooks. You have to realize that there is a difference between consumer grade laptops (those sub $500 laptops you can get) and the $1000-$2000 laptops that large corporations buy. If you're polling these guys then Dell doesn't look so bad. If you're polling the repair shop guys that see the cheap laptops abused on a daily basis by consumers then Dell is going to look like crap.
  
  HP - Just crap when I supported them.
  Toshiba - Solid hardware...horrible re-image disks (I prefer a Windows OEM reinstall CD) and all sorts of custom mini-utilities that had to be installed for extra function buttons, power management, etc.
  IBM - had the unfortunate habit of using IBM hard drives (Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive division and carried on the tradition of probably being the most unreliable hard drives ever).
  Compaq - The old Compaq Armada series was pretty reliable, but the hardware was usually last year's tech.
  
  Dell's business support was always easy to work with (I've used their consumer level support and it was awful).
  
  My Latitude D620 has lasted me 3 years with no repairs other than to fix a cracked LCD screen that was my fault. It gets hot as hell when I play 3d games on the road, but those laptop cooler pads work great at keeping temps down. It doesn't get hot at all if I'm not gaming. My D610 I had prior to the D620 had 2 failed hard drives (Hitachi...), but that was the only issue I had for the 3 years I had that one.
  
  If you want to slam Dell on the capacitor issue then you need to slam nearly every major computer manufacturer buying capacitors around that time. I personally had Soyo, Asus, and Abit motherboards that had those same faulty caps. Dell is just the only one being held accountable for it. Dell was always good at shipping out replacement motherboards with good caps if I told them I saw capacitors with bulging tops.

  23.8.2010 11:53 #35

• evohold

  I've always had good luck with Dell as far as reliability. Customer service has been a pain at times.

  23.8.2010 15:12 #36

• juventini

  I demand a recount :P

  23.8.2010 21:59 #37

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by pmshah: My own personal experience is almost reverse of this opinion poll. Dell products in general and laptops/notebooks in particular are the worst I have come across.
  
  BTW if one is truly IT professional they would not be using / recommending either of these two top/worst rated brands !!!! What if they are worried about getting downsized? Sometimes I think that HP and Dell only make systems like they do to make sure that IT departments can't downsize.

  24.8.2010 08:56 #38

• Eliel

  Originally posted by zachm1: I just bought an Acer Aspire 5251. Don't seem to have any problems with it. Guess it comes down to preference, how you use it, and how you maintain it. Same as my desktop. I am running Vista Home Premium 32 bit without a stitch of problems for over a year and a half. I am always leary and cautious about reviews and take them with a grain of salt. Just do your homework I guess. Got an Acer Aspire 52xx, 1yr 2mths ago, the battery is the only thing that have degraded, I use it for online videos, games, music, etc and I leave it on sometimes for a week and have never cleaned fan. Acer is pretty much the best Laptop I've had. Hardware components dont degrade as easy as with a Dell laptop. Dell have the worst laptops, when I was in college we had lots of physical(mouse pad, screen, overheating) and software problems pop up.

  24.8.2010 15:34 #39

• Mr-Movies

  Originally posted by KillerBug: Dell? The company that uses 18V power supplies with 18V capacitors? Clearly, the people interviewed did not have much experience with end-user Dell models.
  
  Personally, I find the Toshibas to be the most reliable (or at least the most rugged) laptops of those listed here. In my experience, they last an average of about 5 years in a semi truck...HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Apple all last less than 2 years. Very true, Toshiba is probably the best notebook made these days but that really is a mood point as they all suck to some degree.
  
  Dell, HP-Compac, and Acer are the worst and I'm sorry but Dell desktops pro or not are cheap too. Dell is living on their laurels just like HP however HP's support is sooooo poor that they are finally starting to get the BAD rep they deserve.
  
  The only reason that some IT people prefer business solution Dell’s is that they get support from Dell like IBM use to offer it isn’t that the PC is more reliable.
  
  A custom PC is really the way to go these days but with the prefabbed cheapies out there most people would solicit that cost difference and therefore go with the junk, which is fine but if you choose to do that it is smart to spend the $150+ for a 5 year support plan to cover failures that are apt to happen especially with notebooks or hand helds’.
  

  4.9.2010 18:28 #40

• ps355528

  these days dell make junk.. (go back 10 years and it's a different story.. a dell p2-400 will outperform most p3's) followed by packard-bell.. they never seem to perform up to spec for some reason.
  
  toshiba lappys are decent..
  
  the worst I have come across are those gateway crap things.. just awful.
  
  acer seem ok.. except they seem to be set up by retards.. mirrored raid on the same hdd fat32 ffs?? what moron thought that up? with the junkiest so called dvd burners it is possible to buy.. 5 burns and dead...
  

  
  
  irc://irc.villageirc.net/afterdawn

  4.9.2010 21:43 #41

• MrFawlty

  Software setup is another story again. i don't think ANY of the big manufacturers know what they're doing with software! Sony are possibly the worst - there is so much crapware installed on a new Sony it's crazy. Acer seems to have stopped the stupid fat32 mirrored hdd thing now which is better but they're still filling it with crap. The first thing I do with a new lappy is to format and do a clean install. :)
  

  "Dont mention the war!"

  5.9.2010 06:46 #42