Apple

I just had MOST of my macbook replaced because of an idiot tech that wrecked the bluetooth while swapping out the worn out superdrive.

Now, that sounds terrible, but that machine has been rock solid otherwise, cdroms DO wear out (and when it travels in my filthy bag with crumbs and screws flying everywhere, its not surprising). This macbook has been solid and will probably last ME another couple years. That is to say, I will be tired of playing with it then, not it wore out (I suspect its got MANY years of life down the road).

So how good is a warranty for a mac though? Thats a good way to judge a product. I asked the tech to replace the keyboard, bottom plate, and lcd hinge plastic for wear cracks - done and done free of charge. Thats a good warranty. You can bet if you mac isn't playing well, someone somewhere is there to help and get it right, even if its minor hairline cracks in plastic.

i had my iphone replaced for cracked plastic, dust under the screen, and dead pixels. all within the original 1 year warranty. now is that a sign of good product engineering, or good product management?*

answer: latter, not the former. i love my phone, but i know what really makes it great.

*-some people think this is called customer service.

The best warranty service I ever had... a few weeks before the 2-year extended warranty was due to expire I had them put a brand new motherboard in my dv8000 because of random hangs and crashes. Well it took them a day to send me a box and they made me take out the HDD and memory before shipping it to them but it left my house Tuesday night and was back on Friday morning, with new motherboard.

IMO, the best way to measure build quality is to see how hard you have to throw it at the wall before it breaks

BUT... Do a web search for dv8000 if you want to see a good example of "cheap, low-quality, consumer laptop". It runs great though, and should stay that way since it is very rarely moved or handled at all.

really? because I've seen lots of thinkpads that are nearly 20 years old and still going strong. I have a magnavox 386 laptop that is 22 years old and runs fine. 4 D-cell batteries will power it for about 5 hours.

Or I can take my Mac into the Apple Store and get (somewhat condescending and annoying, but quick) instant service for many issues (broken keys, hard drives, battery, etc.) or 3ish days with in-store pickup for anything else.

"low quality" definitely describes the dv8000 - if you need something to set on a desk at work or something it might be okay, but 8.1lb is absolutely ridiculous to actually use as a laptop. My experiences with HP laptops have been quite poor as well - my dad's dv6000 died (there's a motherboard recall on it), he sent it in, got it serviced, and then it died again promptly a few weeks later. Every HP rep (we tried calling 5+ times) swore up and down that because it had had the warranty replacement there was absolutely no way the board could have been defective and they would absolutely not service it. A few hundred bucks down the drain, and I will never, ever buy an HP again.

My dad ran over his work-issue 17" MacBook Pro in its bag with a full-size Chevy pickup truck (long story, stupid accident), popped the dents out of the aluminum, and it runs as beautifully as it did when he got it. That's build quality.

that's random luck.

alright, you got me, I can't top that one. but ... My dad had his thinkpad t43 stolen and we haven't seen it since.

Well, at the time I bought it (early 2006) it had a very fast 64 bit CPU and radeon graphics, 17 inch screen, and two hard disks for about $600. It was among the fastest and also among the cheapest machine in the store. I didn't buy it to carry around, I bought it to replace my 166 mhz pentium. I was in high school and my primary source of income was mowing my neighbor's yard.

So for the price of one thinkpad x40 (when new) one could have bought 3 macbooks or 4 and a half dv8000s.