[PeterKG]

I found this post on the Apple forums................

The newest Consumer Reports has a laptop comparison. Guess which one rates #1?

In a comparison of repair history (which laptop is LEAST likely to need repair)...

Apple is #1. I know that's hard to believe what with all the latch, warp and white spot posts. But apparently, the other guys have it worse. That includes, in decending order from best to worst: Toshiba, Sony, IBM, HP, Dell, Compaq and Gateway. Apple is 15% likely to need repair. Dell is 20% likely and Gateway is almost 25% likely to need repair.

As for Technical Support, again, no matter if you spent 20 minutes on the phone listing to hold music while waiting for Apple Care...you still had it better than if you'd bought a laptop from one of the other guys. Apple has the BEST technical support. In fact, it rates an 82 out of a possible 100 points for solving problems, staff support AND how long one has to wait on the phone. Next up is IBM at a mere 62 points. In decending order from there: Gateway, Dell, toshiba, HP, Sony and Compaq.

The "quick pick" was also an Apple, neck and neck this time with Toshiba as being the most reliable and portable laptop.

Finally, there's a survey of similarly priced models. This includes things like the Sony Vaio, Dell Inspiron and the iBook 14". In this, the iBook doesn't get #1--but it does rate highly compared to the others. Price wise, the Inspiron was the cheapest, the iBook among the most expensive (though still $60 cheaper than the IBM G40).

The iBook rated "very good" along with all the others for convenience, "very good" beating out Inspiron's "good" for speed, "good" but, alas, not as good as the Vaio for multimedia, equal with all the others in being "good" on display, "good" but falling short of the Inspiron's "very good" on energy--but there's a reason for that: the Inspiron gets a whopping 4 hours of battery life and has good energy, BUT it's 2 pounds heavier than the iBook! Compared to the others, the iBook has one of the best battery lifes (3 and 1/2 hours) and is the lightest in weight.

The only place where the iBook fell really short, with a sad, "fair" instead of good or very good was in "Expansion." The Vaio, by the way, rated excellent in expansion, but it has only a 2 and 1/2 hour battery, weighs 1.5 pounds more than the iBook, and, as noted above, has one of the lowest ratings when it comes to customer service.

Remember, these were comparably priced, so this was the iBook G4, 933mhz 14".

[mdc]

thanks for that, very cool to hear.

i have to agree with the apple customer support. i have had nothing but good luck with them over the phone and face to face a the apple stores.

[Lateralus]

[SEkker]

You get what you pay for. I've had terrific experience with Apple technical support. And with two Apple stores within driving distance, I have the best of both worlds -- onsite AND quick repairs.

[gif32]

Originally posted by PeterKG:
I found this post on the Apple forums................

Can you post a link? Preferably to an original article, not just a forum post.

Thanks

[beachmark]

How did Apple score on battery life as far as portables are concerned?

[Simon]

Originally posted by beachmark:
How did Apple score on battery life as far as portables are concerned?

Because the only comparable PC notebooks that beat an iBook when it comes to battery life in real world use also cost three times as much.

[all2ofme]

Interesting. Apple coming first in these areas is a good thing, but to me this only means that they're the best of a bad bunch. I've had terrible experiences with Apple each time I've had things repaired.

<off topic>In my opinion this sort of poor service is becoming more and more common in almost every type of industry I deal with. Anyone getting poor service should complain bitterly about it and make a stand until remedial action is taken by the company/individual in question. Complaining online to people who can't help things won't help, either

[EdipisReks]

when i had terrible problems with Apple support, i called the world wide director of applecare. that fixed my problem. you shouldn't have to go that high up the chain, however.

[gperks]

Originally posted by gif32:
Can you post a link? Preferably to an original article, not just a forum post.

You can find Consumer Reports at most newsstands... the article is in the current issue.

http://www.consumerreports.org might have the article up, but most are for paid subscribers.