How Long Will Your Laptop Last?

Electronista.com points us to a recent study that ranks the top notebook manufacturers by the reliability of their products. Take a look at the graph above and see if you're a bit surprised like we were.

If we had to rank these 9 laptop manufacturers for having the most reliable hardware, we would have had a list more like this:

1. Apple
2. Lenovo
3. Sony
4. Toshiba
5. HP
6. Dell
7. Gateway
8. Asus
9. Acer

So, as you can see, we were a little off with our prejudices. The study, carried out by SquareTrade, definitely caught your old friends here at Magna Techa by surprise.

The small manufacturer, Asus, completely threw us for a loop. And Lenovo? Ranking number six when we thought they would come in at number two? Wow. We previously owned a Lenovo Thinkpad that we believed could survive a pretty mean beating.

And what is Apple doing at number four? The supposed "premium" hardware that Mac OS X is thrown on shouldn't be less reliable than a Sony or Toshiba laptop, if you ask us.

So why do laptops fail?

The difficult part of a study like this is all the variables that go into how long a notebook computer survives. It all depends on the environment in which they are used, the owner's habits, as well as the care with which a laptop is handled. Maybe Apple laptop owners like to throw their stuff about more than we thought... Maybe you treat your Asus baby like a queen? You never know.

Here's a graph of hardware malfunction rates in light of form factor:

As expected, that $250 netbook might not outlast your Dell Adamo or even your $500 Gateway lappy. But you weren't counting on it to be around forever, were you? Remember: all laptops go to Heaven...

So today was day of learning at Magna Techa. What do you think about the study's findings? Are the results different than what you expected? Tell us your order of manufacturers for "most reliable hardware" in the comments!

[Via Electronista.com]