Many Laptops Fail Within 3 Years

According to a new study by Squaretrade, about one third (31%) of all laptops will fail within three years of being purchased. This includes both malfunctions and accidents, but malfunctions alone make up 20% of laptop failures. While the survey should be taken with a grain of salt - Squaretrade sells extended warranties - according to PC World, their last annual survey returned similar results. In addition to the number of unreliable laptops, Squaretrade also found that Asus, Toshiba, and Sony laptops were more reliable brands than MacBooks.

The study had many other findings that related to laptop durability. For example, the amount of time you spend on your laptop correlates to how likely it is to have problems, with Netbooks giving people the most trouble. The Netbook finding was surprising, considering the computers really just have one good year's worth of data to rely on, but Netbook users experienced 20% more malfunctions than those with more expensive laptops. According to Squartrade, Netbook malfunctions are likely to hit 25% in the next three years, compared to 21% for entry-level laptops, and 18% for more expensive notebooks.

When the study was broken down by brand, Asus had the best malfunction rate at 15.6% with Hewlett Packard the worst with a 25.6% malfunction rate within three years. Toshiba came in second, followed by Sony, and Apple. According to Squaretrade, failure rates are so high because of the sophisticated and delicate parts that make up a laptop, as well the amount of abuse portable computers receive. With numbers like this, it's no wonder more and more people are relying on inexpensive Laptop Rentals for their computer needs.