Netbook Scoop

Square Trade, an independent warranty provider, has published a study on laptop failure rates.  The study, which includes netbooks, concludes that netbooks fail at a rate of 5.8% during their first year.  They say that this is is about 20% higher than the laptop failure rate during the same period.

I am always a bit skeptical when a study is published by a company who stands to benefit from the conclusions.  After all, if  Square Trade can make the failure rates sound scarily high, then they can sell more warranties.   So let’s look at this in more depth.

After reviewing the study, I couldn’t find any obvious bias when comparing netbooks to laptops – or when comparing failure rates between manufacturers.  In other words, even if the failure rates are inflated, they would be inflated across all categories.

The study was based on new laptops computers covered by Square Trade warranties.  The study dataset included more than 30,000 laptops.

Comparison of Netbook and Laptop Malfunction Rates

The chart to the right (click to enlarge) compares netbook malfunction rates to two groups of laptops: entry-level and premium laptops.  (Malfunction rates do not include accidental damage caused by users which account for 1/3 of all failures.)

The chart passes my common sense test.  Here is why:

• Premium laptops ought to be more reliable – that is one of the reasons they are more expensive.
• The study does not separate business vs. home laptops, but the largest portion of laptops sold are business-grade, which have more durable construction.  I would expect these to fail less often.
• Most people do not buy a netbook to use as their primary computer, while many full-size laptops users do.  As a result, netbooks spend much more time on the road, where they are under more stress.

OK, so netbooks fail during the first year at about a 6% rate compared to laptop’s 4-5% rate.  Got  it.  

So, out of a hundred buyers, 1 (maybe 2) additional netbook buyers have to return theirs for free repair during the warranty period.   Big deal.

One last observation: The study is based on laptops and netbooks covered under Square Trade warranties.  This is not a random sampling of the total population – and therefore, the study results are most likely not statistically accurate.

I’ve had three netbooks that I have used extensively over the past several years.  Here are my reliability results:

• Asus Eee PC 4G Surf – no problems while I used it – I passed it on to one of my sons – still in use with no problems.
• Acer Aspire One A110 – worked fine until I dropped my briefcase in the airport from about 3 feet – after which, the glide pad was hosed.
• Dell Inspiron Mini 12 – hard drive developed a lot of bad sectors – currently in to Dell for repair.

Drop a note below and describe your personal netbook and laptop reliability experiences.