Survey: 33% Of All Laptops Break Within 3 Years

Computer DoctorA survey made by an American electronics insurance company, SquareTrade, reports that 33% of all laptops break within just three years. Hardware issues makes up for 66% of those cases.

Cheap netbooks (small notebooks) are even more likely to break, in fact the failure rate is 20% higher and the chance of hardware failure is 40% higher.

A closer look into 30,000 laptops over a three year period shows that Asus is best with a failure rate of 15.6% and HP is the worst with more than 25% of laptops experiencing hardware failures within its first three years.

Apple is in the the middle with 17.4% in front of Lenovo, but just behind Sony.

Full report: SquareTrade – 1 in 3 laptops fail over 3 years (PDF)

21 thoughts on “Survey: 33% Of All Laptops Break Within 3 Years”

  1. The main reason for the laptops to break as rightly said by you is the hardware and the cheap one that go off easily. So when buying laptop the branded onces do a great job.

    One more thing the on the side window are took large, reading the content becomes difficult. Either put it to the left or reduce the size………. 🙂
    .-= Sandesh´s last blog ..Watch TV on iPhone/iPod Touch using 3G/Wi-Fi =-.

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    • Hi Sandesh,

      I agree – but one would think that HP would be better quality so I was surprised to find their scores to be so low.

      I’m not sure what “side window” you mean is too large, causing the content to become difficult to read? Please explain 🙂

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  2. I have been using a HP laptop for 4 years now! It’s still sturdy and looks brand-spanking new 🙂 I guess knowing the basic maintenance to sustain a lifeline of hardware is important. I cannot deter from HP. I am a very happy customer, by far 🙂
    .-= Kiran´s last blog ..I needed a break from =-.

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    • I’m glad your HP doesn’t follow the rest of the statistics, cross my fingers it will last till you decide to replace it yourself 🙂

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  3. 3yrs is a long time for a lap tops to cope up with the user needs it’ll probably get out dated in 3yrs rather than worn out.
    .-= neo´s last blog .. =-.

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    • Yeah, but a decent laptop that’s 3 years old today, will still be very sufficient for Internet surf, e-mail, pictures and such. And even better than the Netbook that sells today too, for sure.

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      • I agree with that. A little knowledge about the hardware might be useful.
        .-= steppinout´s last blog ..Office 2010 Beta Download Link Now Available For Public =-.

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  4. I also thank. My friend used HP laptop, but after one year his laptop gone damage, I think the company must take precuation on it.
    .-= chandan´s last blog ..15 most effective twitter tools =-.

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  5. Well the hard drive on my Macbook failed in 1.5 years! There weren’t any signs of it either, until one day it just froze up… I restarted it and it wouldn’t start up. I looked around the internet and found out that my hard drive had just died! Luckily I was able to get another one for about $45.
    .-= Mark´s last blog ..How to Level Up Quickly in Farmville =-.

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    • What a coincidence. I had a MacBook hard drive die on me too. Can’t remember if it was within a year, I had it replaced on the warranty, as I recall. One minute it work, then next time I turned it on, it didn’t.

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      • Yeah, pretty much the same thing that happened to me… except I wasn’t in warranty!
        .-= Mark´s last blog ..How to Level Up Quickly in Farmville =-.

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  6. I had a powerbook for almost 4 years (G4) and it had no issues because I rarely took it out of the house or really made it work too hard but before that I had a G3 and it had a dead logic board after about two years. I think a lot of the reason laptops die is because of heat damage (when you have them on your lap without air circulation underneath – pretty ironic ha? they should call it the non-lap top) or because people take them out too much in freezing weather or high humidity. That’s just my opinion though, who knows for sure. Even then, 3 years isn’t too bad, most people probably should upgrade to better technology after that anyway.

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    • I think that’s why Apple hasn’t called their “laptops” for “laptop” for several years now. If any, I think they call them “notebooks” – but mostly just MacBook and PowerBook, as you know.

      Laptops are not what they used to be, laptops, because of the air circulation being cut off.
      .-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..iPhone Free Week – Day 3: HTC Tattoo, Camera & Video Recording Quality =-.

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  7. I’m not a bit surprised, those that use laptops as they are meant…travel and such….are used way more then a desk top.
    .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Feel About A Static Homepage On A Blog? =-.

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    • I agree. They’re used more and they rarely sit in the same place all the time. Being moved to all kinds of different places, warm, cold, bumpy rides etc.
      .-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..iPhone Free Week – Day 3: HTC Tattoo, Camera & Video Recording Quality =-.

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  8. Sorry forgot to subscribe to comments.
    .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Feel About A Static Homepage On A Blog? =-.

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  9. Laptop or Desktop failures are one of the worst things that one can imagine these days. Three years is a goof life expectancy for a Laptop if there are good exchange offers, which I haven’t seen so far anywhwere
    .-= John Samuel ´s last blog ..How to create Twitter lists? =-.

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    • Laptop exchange offers – interesting idea. I never heard of such a program, maybe it’s not that popular yet (or the terms are just not good enough for most users).
      .-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..iPhone Free Week – Day 3: HTC Tattoo, Camera & Video Recording Quality =-.

      Reply
  10. Considering the way I see people beat the heck out of their laptops, somehow I’m not surprised. For some reason whenever something is portable, people seems to think they are durable too….

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  11. I have a laptop for the last four years and it is doing fine. Main reason seems to be the quality of the laptop and if the quality is good, nothing will happen for at least four years.

    Reply

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