PC Magazine - 2009 11.pdf - Libertad Zero

More documents

Recommendations

Info

DesktopsREADERS’ CHOICEApple John Hodgman’s campaign againstthe Mac continues to be a losing battle, atleast among the readers of PC Mag, whofor the umpteenth year in a row gave Applehigh marks.Sony Sony’s media-centric line of desktopsare the favorites among the Windowsbasedcomputers in our survey, despite asmall market share.When it comes to the overallsatisfaction users have withtheir computers, Appleonce again reigns supreme.The company’s Macintosh PCs—which wecan all state unequivocally are actually WindowsPCs too, if you want them to be—haveconsistently proven to be favorites amongPC Mag readers. Apple’s significantly betterthan average (SBA) overall score (9.1 outof 10) marks it as a clear Readers’ Choice.The company moved up significantly inscores for tech support since last year, too(8.6 SBA, up from 8.1). It suffered a little inthat more of its desktop computers neededrepairs this year (12 percent, instead of the9 percent needing repair in 2008), and thelikelihood of someone recommending a Macto a friend dropped slightly to a score of 9.2SBA. Still, these are very high marks.Even though we can call Apple computers“Windows machines” since they’re poweredby the same Intel chips (and can runthe same operating system), we still averagethe Windows-only system vendors separately,since consumers view the two OSsin such different light. And in the world ofWindows vendors, not much has changedsince 2008, when the average overall scorewas 7.6. The same goes for this year.That number held steady in part becauseof a nice showing this year by Sony. In fact,Sony almost didn’t make the final results in2009, as a lower number of responses overallled to one-third as many Sony desktopowners participating in our survey. However,Sony owners who did respond are prettyhappy with their VAIOs. Sony is the secondReaders’ Choice vendor, with a better thanaverage (BA) overall score of 8.2 this year—that’s half a point higher than the nearestWindows PC manufacturer, indicating satisfactionindeed. The company dropped thepercentage of its desktops needing repairsby half (from 14 percent to 7 percent) fromlast year as well. Sony’s likelihood of receiv-HOW TO READ THE TABLES Overall scores are not based on averages of other scores in the table; they arebased on reader answers to the question “Overall, how would you rate this product?” All scores not representedas a percentage (%) are on a scale of 1 to 10, in which 10 is best. A dash in a table indicates that we do not haveenough survey data to give the company a score in that column.We use a t-test measure on each score against the average of all the scores and determine whether they aresignificantly different at a 95 percent confidence level. The t-test helps calculate the confidence interval for eachscore—the range in which we are 95 percent certain that the score is representative. If the score is more than oneconfidence interval above or below the average, we state that it is better than or worse than this average. Formore than two confidence intervals, we say that the score is significantly better or worse.50 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION NOVEMBER 2009
DESKTOPSa Significantly better thanaverageb Better than averageWithin the average rangec Worse than averaged Significantly worse than averageProduct name in RED indicatesReaders’ Choice.OVERALL SCORE†RELIABILITYTECHNICALSUPPPORTREPAIRSPERCENTAGENEEDING REPAIRLIKELIHOOD OF BEINGRECOMMENDEDALL DESKTOPSApple (285 responses) 9.1 a 9.2 a 8.6 a — 12% b 9.2 aSelf-built (1,000) 8.5 a 8.7 a 7.7 a 8.4 a 21% d 8.9 aLocally built/Clone (551) 8.3 a — — — — 8.1 aSony (56) 8.2 b 8.4 b — — 7% b 8.4 bHewlett-Packard (HP) (1275) 7.7 b 8.0 6.6 7 17% 8.0 aDell (2157) 7.7 b 8.0 b 7.0 a 6.8 19% d 8.0 aGateway (252) 7.6 7.7 6.1 — 21% 7.1 cAcer (88) 7.6 7.9 — — 11% 7.6eMachines (105) 7.2 7.7 — — 14% 7.2Lenovo (120) 7.1 c 7.4 c — — 19% 6.9 cAvg. of Windows PCs 7.6 7.9 6.6 6.9 15% 7.6BUSINESSApple (67 responses) 8.8 a 9.1 a — — 15% 9.1 aSelf-built (223) 8.3 a 8.6 a 8.0 b 8.5 a 23% c 8.8 aLocally built/Clone (149) 7.9 a — — — — 7.7 bDell (1,100) 7.4 a 7.9 7.4 b 6.9 20% c 7.9 aHewlett-Packard (HP) (472) 7.4 b 7.9 6.9 7.2 18% 7.7 aLenovo (81) 7.0 7.6 — — 12% 6.8Gateway (76) 6.9 — — — — 6.1 cAvg. of Windows PCs 7.2 7.8 7.1 7.0 17% 7.1more on next page >>* At least 2 confidence intervals from the average.** 1 confidence interval from the average.† Overall score is based on answers to the question “Overall, how would you rate this desktop PC?”It is not the average of the other scores in the table.Except for numbers indicated by a percentage, scores are based on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is best.A dash indicates that we do not have enough survey data to give the company a score.NOVEMBER 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 51
Page 3: 22263033FIRST LOOKS16 SOftwareNorto
Page 8 and 9: FEEDbackThe Web browser is also ver
Page 10 and 11: frontsideWhile doctors, hospitals,
Page 12: frontsideBEST of our blogsGOODCLEAN
Page 15 and 16: Samsung Rogue SCH-U960(Verizon)$99.
Page 20 and 21: FIRst looks SOFTWAREAdobe Photoshop
Page 23 and 24: MUSICBROWSERTomTom (iPhone OS)$99.9
Page 26 and 27: FIRST looks hardwareFujitsu LifeBoo
Page 28 and 29: FIRST looks hardwareEpson Stylus NX
Page 30: Quick looks HARDWAREDESKTOPSLAPTOPS
Page 34 and 35: FIRst looks CONSUMER ELECTRONICSApp
Page 36 and 37: Quick looks consumer electronicsSMA
Page 38 and 39: FIRST looks businessSMALL-BUSINESS
Page 40 and 41: FIRST looks businessWestern Digital
Page 42 and 43: FIRst looks business3M Pocket Proje
Page 44 and 45: jOHN c. dvorakLost ProductivityLame
Page 46 and 47: SASCHA SEGANA World WithoutApple?Im
Page 48 and 49: DAN COSTAApple, Take Note:My iPad W
Page 50 and 51: Our readers rated 46,434 tech produ
Page 54 and 55: DESKTOPS (continued)a Significantly
Page 56 and 57: NOTEBOOKSa Significantly better tha
Page 58 and 59: competition in the likelihood of be
Page 60 and 61: PRINTERSa Significantly better than
Page 62 and 63: CELLULAR PHONES (By Provider)a Sign
Page 64 and 65: CELLULAR SERVICE PROVIDERSa Signifi
Page 66 and 67: among the worst on our survey.Of th
Page 68 and 69: SolutionsThe Truth AboutWi-Fi Route
Page 70 and 71: SOLutions WI-FI ROUTERSboth frequen
Page 72 and 73: sOLutions office/OSMake the Mostof
Page 74 and 75: sOLutions office/OSBROWSING THE LIB
Page 76 and 77: sOLutionsTipsUseful tidbits from PC
Page 78 and 79: Editors’ Choicesin Key Categories

PC Magazine - 2009 11.pdf - Libertad Zero

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?