Thirty-five years ago this month, PC Magazine launched on newsstands. Over the years, we have dedicated ourselves to exhaustively testing and analyzing technology products to help you determine which one would best suit your needs. However, after five years we realized there were certain aspects of a product that we couldn't judge through labs-based testing. In order to determine if technology products could stand the test of time—and if the companies that made these products would stand behind the products—we launched our reader surveys. Using them, we can consider the opinions of thousands of our readers.
In the early days, we bound a copy of the blank survey questionnaire into the print magazine. These days, as we enter our 30th year of surveying readers, we're able to reach out by email and the Web to solicit feedback about the products and services you use. No matter the survey mechanism, the value of the feedback is still the same. The companies that receive the highest satisfaction ratings in the survey results earn PCMag Readers' Choice Award.
Throughout 2017, we will launch Readers' Choice Award surveys on a wide array of product and service categories from smartphones to Internet Service Providers and streaming media devices. But it seems fitting that we start each year with the PC categories. Laptops and desktop computers may not have the sex appeal they once had—though if you own a state-of-the-art ultraportable or gaming PC, you may beg to differ—but they still are at the heart of most of our computing experiences. You can do amazing things with smartphones and tablets, but if you really want to get work done, it's hard to beat a good PC.
In every Readers' Choice Award survey, we ask how satisfied you are overall with the product or service that you're rating, and how likely you would be to recommend the company that makes the product. These two questions provide the key assessment, but we dig deeper, asking about the whole product lifecycle from satisfaction with initial setup to satisfaction with reliability, technical support, and repairs. The answers to these questions will help you get a more complete picture of the experience readers are having with the products they use.
The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for Laptops and Desktops was in the field from January 6, 2017 through January 31, 2017. For more information on how the survey is conducted, read the survey methodology.
Each person who completed the survey was entered into a drawing to win an Amazon.com gift card valued at $350.
You can win! Sign up for the Readers' Choice Survey mailing list to receive invitations for future sweepstakes.
Looking for expert opinion? Read The Best Laptops of 2017 and The Best Desktop Computers of 2017.
Laptops 2017
There's a wonderful range of laptop choices available to consumers today. You can find laptops that are ultralight, ultrafast, and ultracheap, though not surprisingly, you might have a hard time finding one that has all those characteristics. Many laptops are now convertible devices that can adapt to the situation, quickly switching between traditional clamshell design and tablet. Some, including Microsoft's very popular Surface Pro line, are tablet first with a detachable keyboard for when you need to use them like a laptop.
Apple hasn't really embraced the new form factors. Despite steady upgrades to its product line, there are no convertible, touch-screen MacBooks, only clamshell-designed MacBooks that seem to get sleeker and faster with every release. This consistent, focused approach seems to be just fine with Apple laptop users in our survey, who give the company the highest satisfaction ratings, earning Apple the PCMag Readers' Choice Award for laptops for the tenth year in a row.
On our scale from zero (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied), Apple received satisfaction ratings of 9.0 or better on overall satisfaction (9.1), overall reliability (9.3) and likelihood to recommend (9.0). In addition, Apple's rating of 8.8 for satisfaction with technical support is two points better than the next highest rated company, Dell (6.8), and an improvement over last year's excellent 8.3 rating.
While you can run Windows on a MacBook, it's safe to say that most people use macOS as their primary operating system. If you want a Windows laptop, your best bet is MSI, according to our readers. You might not know MSI (known back home in Taiwan as Micro-Star International), but it's a big name among gamers. This year, MSI earns its second straight PCMag Readers' Choice Award.
MSI's overall satisfaction rating of 8.8 is down from the 9.1 it received last year, but it's still the best among Windows laptops. In addition, the company's likelihood to recommend rating actually improved from 8.7 to 8.9. MSI received its highest satisfaction rating for its reliability (9.2), and the company tied Apple for the lowest percentage of units needed repairs within the last 12 months (6 percent).
Approximately one in five of the laptops rated in the survey were either tablets or hybrid (a.k.a. 2-in-1 or convertible) PCs. Microsoft remains the standard-bearer in this group, winning its second straight Readers' Choice Award for tablets and hybrid PCs. Microsoft received the highest ratings in this category for overall satisfaction (8.6), satisfaction with reliability (8.7), and likelihood to recommend (8.7). In addition, Microsoft had the lowest percentage of machines needing repair in the category (7 percent).
Lenovo and Dell had the lowest overall satisfaction ratings among tablets and hybrids last year, but this year they improved to second and third (8.3 and 8.2, respectively). Interestingly, Asus had a higher likelihood to recommend rating (8.3) than anyone but Microsoft in this category, but it had by far the highest percentage of units needing repairs (18 percent).
When we looked at the laptops used primarily for personal or home use, Apple and Microsoft come out on top. (MSI didn't have enough responses to be considered on this chart.) Apple received a rating of 9.5 for satisfaction with ease of setup. (We only ask this question for laptops less than a year old.) Microsoft received a 9.0 on this measure, as did Asus. However, Microsoft's overall satisfaction rating for home laptops was 8.6, considerably better than Asus's 8.2. If you're open to getting a MacBook, Apple did even better with an overall satisfaction rating of 9.2.
We continue to consider Chromebooks along with Windows and macOS laptops but these simple, reliable laptops haven't caught on among PCMag readers yet. Maybe that'll change this year when new Chromebooks support Android apps. For now, no brand of Chromebook received the minimum responses required to be included in our survey. Yet as a category, Chromebooks continue to deliver higher satisfaction ratings than Windows laptops (and both are well behind macOS, no surprise). ChromeOS is certainly worth considering if your computing needs are not too demanding.
See all of our survey results for laptops.
WINNERS: LAPTOPS
Categories: Overall, Home Use
Apple
It's been Apple's decade, according to PCMag readers, whose ratings have earned Apple a Readers' Choice Award for an amazing 10 straight years. The company continues to set the standard for customer satisfaction in computing.
Categories: Overall
MSI
MSI wins the Readers' Choice Award for the second straight year. This maker of high-end gaming laptops is the overall brand of choice among respondents who use Windows PCs.
Categories: Home Use, Hybrids
Microsoft
Microsoft's foray into the hardware business continues to be a success as the company wins its second straight Readers' Choice Award. The company is dedicated to hybrid, touch-screen devices (both tablets with keyboards and laptops with detachable screens) and the focus has paid off. They're beloved for home use.
Desktops 2017
The common wisdom remains true: If you don't need portability, you can get a lot more computer for a lot less if you choose a desktop over a laptop. You get faster machines, more storage, and larger displays. You're not going to lug it all over town with you...although the increasingly popular all-in-one PCs, which integrate the computer into the monitor, provide a modicum of portability.
Apple seems to always win the Readers' Choice Award for desktops, and this year is no exception. It is the only company to receive satisfaction ratings of 9.0 or better and it does so on every measure in which it got enough responses: overall satisfaction (9.0), satisfaction with reliability (9.3), and likelihood of recommending (9.1).
In general, computers seem to have become more reliable. In 2016, Asus had the lowest repair rate (7 percent). This year, Acer and Apple had repair rates of 4 percent and no company had more than 8 percent of their desktops needing repairs in the last year. Acer's low repair rate helps it share the Readers' Choice Award with Apple. Acer had the best overall satisfaction rating (8.4) for Windows-based desktops, as well as the highest satisfaction with reliability rating (8.7). These ratings were big improvements over last year when Acer received the lowest overall satisfaction rating in our survey: 7.8. We're hopeful the company will only continue to be able to deliver this higher level of gratification.
Among desktops that our respondents said they specifically use for home or personal use, Apple again comes out on top with the highest satisfaction ratings across the board. If you prefer a Windows computer for home, consider Dell, which also won a Readers' Choice Award this year for home use PCs. While Dell tied with Asus for the best overall satisfaction rating among Windows desktops for the home (8.4), and indeed it tied for reliability and the amount of tech support and repairs needed by customers, respondents were more likely to recommend Dell (8.4) than Asus (8.2).
All-in-one computers have been around since the earliest Macs (and arguably even before). While Apple has long believed in the idea of a desktop PC built into a monitor, other companies were slower to embrace the form factor. They're starting to come around, as are consumers. About 20 percent of respondents said their desktop PC was an all-in-one. Apple skews those numbers, however, since 70 percent of the Apple desktops rated were the all-in-one iMac; that number is even higher, at 87 percent, for Apple desktops less than a year old. By contrast, only 12 percent of the non-Apple desktops were all-in-ones.
Given Apple's predilection for the all-in-one form factor, it's not a surprise that they're the Readers' Choice Award winner in this category as well. Dell and HP also had a significant number of all-in-one PCs rated, but they had mediocre overall satisfaction ratings of 7.9 compared to Apple's 9.0.
See all of our survey results for Desktops.
WINNERS: DESKTOPS
Categories: Overall, Home Use, All-in-Ones
Apple
Apple remains the desktop PC of choice. Its all-in-one iMacs continue to define what an all-in-one computer should be according to our readers. It's easier than ever to run Windows on a Mac so don't feel like you can't make the switch.
Categories: Overall
Acer
If you want a pure Windows desktop, Acer is the brand of choice this year among PCMag readers. We were very excited to see the company make big strides in customer satisfaction this year.
Categories: Home Use
Dell
Our readers told us their desktop Windows PC brand preference at home is Dell. No Windows PC company was more likely to be recommended than Dell. It also scored very high for ease of setup and reliability.