HP Envy reliability?

[inm8#2]

HP's marketing is doing just what it should with the Envy series - making it look like a premium brand apart from the less-reliable consumer lines. This is true to an extent, but I just have to expect that these Envy models coming out will be afflicted with problems.

HP will always be HP.

[dookie11]

hmm.. can't wait for envy 14.

[lagitup]

Well, I was asking some people I know about this and one of them gave me next month's (not sure how that works) consumer reports magazine which talks about computers. The survey sample was 75,000 laptops bought from 2005 to 2009, the repair breakdown for laptops by manufacturers is:

Toshiba, 16%
Sony, 17%
Compaq, 18%
Acer, 19%
Apple, 19%
HP, 20%
Gateway, 20%
Dell, 21%
Lenovo, 21%

The article notes that differences of <3% are not meaningful, suggesting that the only manufacturer of laptops that is really any better than the others (they didn't have enough data for Asus) is Toshiba, and even then by a 1 point difference. Wow.

[Niber]

Uhm, first question would be.. equal representation from each company?

[Karamazovmm]

actually the first question would be what is the representative pool among the entire line up of each manifacturer

[ajreynol]

Well, I was asking some people I know about this and one of them gave me next month's (not sure how that works) consumer reports magazine which talks about computers. The survey sample was 75,000 laptops bought from 2005 to 2009, the repair breakdown for laptops by manufacturers is:

Toshiba, 16%
Sony, 17%
Compaq, 18%
Acer, 19%
Apple, 19%
HP, 20%
Gateway, 20%
Dell, 21%
Lenovo, 21%

The article notes that differences of <3% are not meaningful, suggesting that the only manufacturer of laptops that is really any better than the others (they didn't have enough data for Asus) is Toshiba, and even then by a 1 point difference. Wow.

why would that be a surprise? they all buy from the same mediocre suppliers. very few of those computers have parts in them branded and made by the company putting their name on the outside of the computer.

HP's marketing is doing just what it should with the Envy series - making it look like a premium brand apart from the less-reliable consumer lines. This is true to an extent, but I just have to expect that these Envy models coming out will be afflicted with problems.

HP will always be HP.

HP's Elitebook line is a cut above. Definitely better than the typical HP consumer-grade experience. the HP in my sig is a frekin' champ.

[lagitup]

why would that be a surprise? they all buy from the same mediocre suppliers. very few of those computers have parts in them branded and made by the company putting their name on the outside of the computer.

Its a surprise because everyone rags on HP's reliability.

Uhm, first question would be.. equal representation from each company?

The magazine is Consumer Reports, they don't break down their survey size but with a sample of 75,000 and with their reputation I imagine that its rather even and statistically fair.

[dookie11]

Read my posts about my 3 year old HP notebook. It's still running strong. Only reason why people complain is cuz they dont do the proper maintenance and they prolly toss it around and sh*t.

[lagitup]

Yeah I was wondering that myself, if maybe all the people with poor HP life/reliability were just not treating their notebooks well and had gone with HP because it was the cheapest option.

[absolut`]

I was an owner of a dv9000t about 4-5 years ago, died after a year with fried Nvidia GPU/motherboard. Bought a dv4 right after, currently been on it for 2-3 years, hasn't died yet, but HEAT is the everlasting issue in these laptops. The fan is just placed in a very low-ventilation spot (in the crack where the laptop folds). I've used a vacumm to suck out dust, maintenance was done.

I'm currently looking for a new laptop to buy for the upcoming school year (fall), and as much as I want to pull away from HP for good, all this talk about the upcoming Envy 14 makes me curious. It looks good on paper.

Has HP really done something to improve their heat issues? We won't know till they come out will we? Those of you eyeing the Envy14, what other contenders have you looked at? For me, I've been looking at Asus/Acer/Lenovo, do they compare?