14 DAY TRIAL // Apple and Microsoft have become two fierce rivals in the hardware market after the latter started investing aggressively in its Surface brand.
And while Microsoft Surface models have gained praises from users and reviewers alike, a survey conducted by consumer group Which? shows that Apple is still number one in terms of reliability.
The research, which included 9,278 Which? members, reveals that Apple has a reliability score of 81%, while Microsoft is far behind with just 66%. What’s even more worrying for Microsoft is that the lowest score for a brand in terms of reliability is 65%, so it’s pretty close to building the least reliable products.
And yet, it’s not all bad news for Microsoft. The software giant has a customer score of 78%, being placed second just after leader Apple with 88%.
Which? says the most common problems on laptops are battery faults (11%), hard disk failures (8%) and freezing screens (7%). However, these happen less often on Apple devices, as after 7 years, no less than 85% of MacBooks are still running flawlessly. This is quite an impressive score given that the lowest score was 70%.
MacBook and Surface issues
The average price that customers pay for an Apple laptop is £1,037 in the United Kingdom, the home market of the consumer group, while for a Microsoft Surface, buyers pay on average £1,083.
By the looks of things, there’s a huge difference in terms of reliability, though the customer score shows that Microsoft still has room to grow.
However, it’s worth noting that Apple’s devices themselves experienced several issues lately, including problems that affected keyboards. Microsoft’s Surface models have also been affected by widespread issues, like screen flickering.
Microsoft has recently launched new Surface models, and they are now available for purchase in a number of markets, including the United Kingdom.