Time to re-evaluate just what we consider “good brands” vs. junk. 

I could not resist the summer back-to-school discounts and upgraded two laptops – one of them is already making funny noises. Tired already?   It’s an HP.  Perhaps just a co-incidence -  but my desktop monster, just two years old has long been pretending it was a turbine – at least in terms of the unhealthy hard disk whining it makes.  Oh, it’s an HP, too.  Noticed it while under warranty, but did not have any desire to deal with  HP Support again. So be it.

Of course I had not seen this report before those purchases.  Yes, shocking as it is, every fourth HP laptop fails within three years.

That’s awful.  My personal experience prior to the recent purchases has been a lot better.  I can’t possibly recall how many computers I’ve had since the mid-80’s, but not one of them died on me. They slowly became obsolete – like the trusted old Sony after 7 years or so.

But there’s another name worth paying attention to: Asus.  They had been manufacturing component for PC makers, but were not exactly a household name until they emerged out of nowhere riding the netbook-wave.  And wow – look at the stats: the formerly no-name “cheap Chinese” (actually Taiwanese) laptops have become #1 in reliability. So just who has a better brand now?  Or: would you rather pay for brand or quality? 

Oh, before I forget.. as they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s one of the three Windows 7 Upgrade packages waiting to be installed.

Amazon mailed the retail version in proper packaging on October 22nd, Win& Launch Day.   
Sony took their time, they were 3 weeks late, but it still came in a decent plastic box.
HP?  Over a month late, 2 DVD’s stuck in one paper sleeve.  Reminds me of the tech-savvy admin assistant from the mid-80s who happily reported she overcame the technical difficulties, and finally managed to stick the 5.25” floppy disk in the drive.  Too bad it already had one inside.

Update (12/8/09): Somehow I forgot to publish the link to the reliability study - thanks to Lee for reminding me.

The data comes from a SquareTrade study, and since I really hate PDFs online, here's an easy-to-view version by Zoho Viewer.  SquareTrade is in the business of selling warranties, so one might suspect bias in the overall reliability issue, but I doubt it would result in distortion of the comparative data between brands.