Digital Home Thoughts: SquareTrade Says One Third of Laptops Fail Within Three Years

"SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 30,000 new laptop computers covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans and found that one-third of all laptops will fail within 3 years. SquareTrade also found that netbooks are 20% more unreliable than other laptops, and that Asus and Toshiba are the most reliable laptop brands."

Image courtesy of Eyestare.

The study also pointed out that expensive laptops last longer than cheap laptops, which last longer the really cheap netbooks. I was a little surprised that Asus came out on top in reliability. Squaretrade sells a 3rd party warranties, so the statistics don't seem to cover laptops that fail immediately and are returned to the store, which would make the real numbers higher. Some of the companies are responding that SquareTrade is fudging the numbers to sell more warranties. For instance, Lenovo is claiming that their own internal numbers are two thirds lower. Maybe I have just had good luck since I don't travel too much, but one third in three years is much higher than in my experience.