I decided to write this page as I could not find any sort of convincing data on this topic at a single place. I remember the time when I was about to buy my first notebook and how I spent endless hours going through reviews on the internet. Then when I had almost narrowed my choice to two notebooks, on account of the features and specifications, someone came up to me and told me that the brand to which these products belonged to was not as reliable.

I stay in India and have a sister who is married now and stays in the United States. As I was going to need a laptop for my studies, I decided to get a good notebook from the United States as the gadgets are relatively cheaper in the US than here in India and I also had a wide range of choices. The models that were available here in India were all Made in China, and here in India, Chinese manufactured products have a myth of dying too early. My neighbour's China made Dell had got replaced not once, but thrice. So I didn't want to take that risk.

I surfed the internet reading all kinds of reviews on notebooks falling into my budget. I checked all of them including HP, Dell, Compaq, Acer, Sony, Apple. Out of this lot Apple's were out of my budget so i removed them from my list. Being an AMD fan, I wanted to have a notebook based on an AMD processor. Out of this list, only HP and Compaq offered laptops with AMD processors, so I didn't really have a choice. So I went through each and every AMD based HP and Compaq notebook within my price range. I preferred HP though. Going through the list of connectivity options and features provided by HP at a reasonable price sounded impressive. Then I decided to go with a 15" laptop(dv5-1250us) of HP.

Having decided the product I wanted to buy, I called up my sister. She told me talk to her husband, a System Analyst in New Jersey. He being inclined to the technology side, was the right person to talk to. So I told him my choice and asked him if he could go and check out the product at a store near him. I even searched the HP site for a retailer near his address and gave him the store details. The moment I told him that I wanted to buy a HP product, he was like, man you are getting into trouble. Then he started explaining how some of his friends had numerous problems with their HPs and that he wouldn't recommend it. Then the conversation went on for some time. After being disappointed, I asked him which brand would he recommend instead. He didn't even wait for a second to say IBM. His company has given him an IBM(lenovo) notebook for work and is a lot sturdy, he said. He personally owns a Sony Vaio but he was recommending a Lenovo to me over the Vaio because of its durability and reliability. He asked me to do some more research on the internet regarding a reliable brand. We talked some more things on the phone after which I hung up as it was late night there.

The very next day I searched the Internet for lenovo notebooks. And wherever there was talk about reliability, there was IBM. I only wished IBM could offer laptops with AMD processors. The myth about AMD processors overheating is long gone now, then why can't these companies have these processors in their notebooks for AMD fans like me. I'm really not that into Intel but I don't have a choice now as I have decided to go for a Lenovo ThinkPad. But as a backup or a second choice, I will go for a Sony Vaio. I'm not making these statements as I'm biased towards these brands. I'm making these statements because I've surfed the internet for several hours and come to this conclusion.It's not that there is anything particularly wrong with these brands, they all go through bad phases, but some do it often. I'm not saying that the other brands are not worth paying for, but in terms of gadgets and electronics, I prefer to go with the best. May be I will spend more now, but I may save some later.Of course, it depends on my luck so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

But anyways, the durability of a notebook actually depends on how the user handles it. You can't expect it to continue working if you drop it often, right? I'm not saying to take this as a review. This is just my personal experience.

I found this graph on the internet.