Apple MacBook Tops Consumer Reports List for Reliability

According to the consumer testing mavens over at Consumer Reports, Apple is the top of the heap when it comes to long-term reliability of your laptop.

CR found that most MacBooks and PC laptops survive the first couple of years of ownership unscathed. It’s once three years have passed that the computers have higher rates of failure. And after five years, you can expect one out of every four laptops to require substantial repairs or replacement.

The magazine polled around 58,000 subscribers and asked questions about what kinds of computers they used, how old they were, and how often they needed repairing.

Apple came out in first place – and by a substantial margin. After three years of ownership, just 10% of Apple MacBook owners can expect to suffer from a serious issue. The next closest company is Samsung with 16%, which ties with Gateway, also at 16%. Acer and Lenovo come in at 18%, and HP, Dell, and ASUS tie for last place at 19%.

In a different set of surveys, Consumer Reports also ranks Apple has having the best tech support, where the difference between it and its competitors is even greater.

Despite the fact that Apple’s MacBooks suffer from lower rates of failure, it’s worth pointing that when they do, they often cost more to repair. Thanks to new, thinner designs, MacBooks can be difficult to fix without replacing major components, which inevitably bumps up the labor and parts costs.

iFixit, a site known for its in-depth repairability guides on most popular electronics, ranks Apple’s Retina MacBook and MacBook Pro as some of the most difficult to repair electronics being sold today.