Report Finds MacBooks Overwhelmingly More Reliable Than PCs

Report Finds MacBooks Overwhelmingly More Reliable Than PCs
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It’s no surprise to Apple users that MacBooks are viewed as highly reliable based on a survey conducted by Consumer Reports. For those of us who use Macs, we know there is no fear of the “blue screen of death.”

Apple computers do have occasional issues, though. They can crash or freeze – spinning pinwheel anyone? And every once in a while there is a bad egg, but in general, Macs just work.

Report Finds MacBooks Overwhelmingly More Reliable Than PCs
A survey conducted by Consumer Reports, involved 58,000 participants who purchased laptops between 2010 and 2015. The report examined failure rates on a per-year basis and saw only a 20% rate of some kind of malfunction within the first 3 years. Apple only saw a 10% failure rate for that period. The MacBook Air was 7% and the MacBook Pro 9%. That’s 3 to 4 percent for Apple’s line of laptops combined, per year.

While Apple does have a good record on reliability, there are some PC laptops that fared well. Gateway’s NV laptop had a 13% fail rate. Their LT product brand was estimated at 14% as well as Samsung’s ATIV Book. Lenovo ThinkPads and Dell’s XPS laptops tied for third at 15%. For the repeat offenders, Apple had a 42% rate of computers that continuously malfunctioned while Windows notebooks had 55%. The report also 71% of the respondents from the survey were satisfied with their MacBook’s reliability while it was only 38% for Windows users.

Yahoo News adds that the report shows usage data showing MacBook users spend 23 hours a week using their computers in comparison to 20 hours for the average Windows user. Yahoo also mentions that Apple has a reputation for reliable designs, which is validated by the Consumer Report research. Even so, macs are more expensive to repair than PCs.

If a video card in a PC over-heats or if the CPU breaks down, the cost to replace either part can be fairly reasonable, and the task of doing so is fairly simple. This cannot be said about Mac computers. So, while Macs are designed with specific hardware which allows the software to function well, if something is physically damaged in a Mac it might be better to just buy a new computer. With PCs, Windows struggles to be as reliable as OS X because there are so many different configurations, while Apple just has a select few. In fact, people can build their own PCs. That adds to the challenge of building a successful PC operating system.

The bottom line is that Macs and PCs have their own strengths and weaknesses. People are either going to like PCs or Macs based on their own experiences. Traditionally, Macs have been preferred for work, artistic creation, and for government agencies. Gamers tend to use PCs. However, for the average person, a MacBook might be the best bet even if it comes to spending more. With AppleCare, you’re covered from potential unexpected hardware failures. And like we stated previously, Macs just work.

Up Next: 5 Major Reasons Windows PCs Suck Compared to Mac

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