PC Magazine - 2009 11.pdf - Libertad Zero

Notebooks less than a year old, just likedesktops of that vintage, always get highermarks. This year is no different, and, in fact,brings us to the highest number amongcomputers: Apple’s SBA 9.5 overall ratingfor one-year-old MacBooks. Its youthfullaptops received a 9.6 in reliability andlikelihood to recommend, too. Asus madeanother fine showing—after barely makingthe cut in this part of the survey with only 55responses—with an SBA of 8.9 overall, and atremendously low percentage of productsneeding repair: 2 percent. Apple itself wasat 5 percent needing repair.And what’s with Lenovo and Dell? Some16 percent of their new notebooks neededfixing, according to our readers.PrintersREADERS’ CHOICECanon Ever consistent, Canon once againcomes out on top of printers overall and inseveral printer subcategories.Brother The come-from-behind vendorof the year jumped ahead in the lineupenough to garner the second Readers’Choice in printers for 2009.HP HP is the 400-pound gorilla of printers,considering the sheer number of responsesit received, but users also give the companyhigh scores.Canon’s middle name is consistent,at least when it comes to how PCMag readers feel about its printers.The vendor’s overall score hasgone up a little, from an SBA of 8.2 in 2008to an SBA of 8.3 this year. In fact, it hadmodest gains across the board for printersoverall, with a nice jump in its tech supportnumber from a BA of 7.3 last year to a BAof 7.7 this year. That’s more than sufficientto keep the company’s status as Readers’Choice.Our second Readers’ Choice is a slightsurprise. For the previous two surveys,Brother managed a score of BA 8.0—betterthan average, but the competition is verytough. That score was usually on par withHP, but HP’s overwhelming response ratein previous years helped it get SBA scores.This year, Brother surged ahead with an SBAoverall score of 8.2 (compared with HP’sSBA 8.0 overall for 3 years running). Brotherremains a clear second place to Canon inbusiness printers, home printers, and printersunder a year old, as well.Finally, HP is back in our Readers’ Choicespotlight. Its SBA overall score of 8.0 wasnice enough (and in keeping with the company’shigh marks last year and the yearbefore), but we felt HP deserved recognitionthis year for great scores almost acrossthe board, especially a very good showingin printers for the home market, with SBAscores overall (8.0), for reliability (8.3), andin the category of likelihood of being recommended(8.4). The company takes a drubbingmost of the time for its tech support,where it is frequently the only vendor thateven earns a score (such as with businessprinters and printers less than a year old).The big surprise of last year’s survey wasKodak, which burst onto the printer sceneNOVEMBER 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 57