Apple’s reputation as the world’s best laptop maker took a serious hit in 2016, due to the new MacBook Pro’s adoption of USB-C.
In the latest brand rankings by Laptop Magazine, Apple’s slipped five spots as Lenovo and Asus surged to the top of the pack with their affordable and dependable wares.
Check out the full rankings:
The folks behind the rankings credit Lenovo’s rise to its “groundbreaking technologies and vastly improved customer support.” Asus scored high points for value. Meanwhile, Dell somehow made the top 3 with its premium laptops and solid warranty coverage.
As for Apple, Laptop Magazine says using USB-C as the only port option really hurt the company’s reputation, because owners must carry around a bunch of dongles.
“The company’s MacBooks are slim, powerful and well-built, but you’ll need a pile of money and a bagful of dongles,” writes the magazine, before tossing Cupertino a bone. “The company’s support and warranty options are second to none.”
Apple released its new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar at the end of 2016. While many reviewers praised the new Touch Bar, some professionals panned the new machines for not having enough power.
In a surprise roundtable interview last week, Apple execs revealed the company is working on a new Mac Pro machine. Big updates are also on the way for the MacBook Pro and iMac lineups as well, so hopefully Apple will be able to recover the laptop crown in 2018.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
32 responses to “Apple drops to fifth place in 2017 laptop rankings”
The chart shows Apple in 6th place but the headline says 5th.
Ha! Someone can’t read a chart, or can’t count. LOL
it says , it dropping by 5 positions i.e. from 1 to 6.
no, it literally says “Drops to 5th place”. Not “drops 5 places”
Apple is in 5th with Acer.
The chart literally has Apple in the 6th row. With a big #6 on it. #charttrolling #6
“Apple has taken the top spot since the survey started in 2010, so which brands outrank the MacBook in 2017? Lenovo takes the top spot followed by Asus, Dell, and HP. Acer tied Apple for fifth place.” (9to5 Mac)
Always read the article.
This is just a return to the bad old days of 15 years ago with the bogus “Apple Premium.” Price is the last criteria to use to compare laptops. Lenovos’s cheap models can’t touch anything from Apple, or even the MS Surface. If you want one that can match the performance of an Apple you’ll likely pay MORE than the Apple. You don’t need “dongles.” Maybe A dongle, but not plural. And when you buy a $1300 computer (no matter the brand) you carry it in a bag. With pockets. For the extra items you need. Like a dongle. Even Microsoft seems to have gotten a raw deal. They rave about the Surface speed, screen, functionality, even the pen. But because it gets about 30-60 minutes less battery time they tank it’s rating?
And how seriously can we take a review from a “technology” publication whose website seems to have more dead links than good ones? I’m using the “exotic” IE 11, so it must be me…
Check the ad pages for these brands. That’s probably the best clue to the rankings.
The rating isn’t tanked because of the battery life, its tanked because of the USB-C idiocy./
But they showed courage by only having USB-C
The people who write this stuff are….um, not experts. The shallow travel of the new keyboard along with the new touch bar mean TONS OF TYPOS, plus routinely brushing the escape symbol and losing your work. Apple already said they are doing another complete rebuild, after it took them three years to make this piece of…. They say they will completely replace the keyboard again…as they don’t have a clue what to do now that Jobs is gone…
I love how people say Apple is “forward” thinking (with the USB-C) yet are always behind regarding screen resolution. No 4K screen on the Macbook Pro is a joke. I have all 2011 Apple Products and thank God I do – it’s the last of the great machines. Won’t even consider anything until their product line makes sense. I’m with them because of the OS and no other reason. We live in a world of video and most people are using their devices to watch or produce video. Pro’s and producers need a 17″ and an anti-glare option, as embarassing as it will be, they need to return the ports. The current Macbook Pro’s are designed for botique users and fashionistas. They are not for business people or pros. The laptops can’t utilize the screen on the iMac (mine does). Apple is just lost using gimmicks like a touch bar. You have the big trackpad – incorporate the pencil if you want to give users a touchscreen experience. Until Tim Cook goes – Apple is just all over the place. The day Hackintosh’s become stable, I’ll go that route because PC hardware is the better performance and value.
Retina isn’t 4K. Sure you could see it. They are on cell phones and laptops already. Forward thinking with USB-C but stuck in 2012 with Retina. They are with USB C and no 4K for profit margins. As long as Apple people buy they enable Tim Cook to keep downgrading product and surviving.
Troll. And an ass.
Retina display is an apple marketing term – nothing more. It isn’t a standard, an absolute, something you can measure quantifiably – it’s whatever apple tell you is good enough.
It used to describe a display a screen that was generally of higher resolution than the competition; now it seems to be used to make excuses for a screen that isn’t as good as the competition’s.
Well, firstly you’re quoting something i didn’t say. Retina has nothing to do with the human eye, it’s what Apple’s marketing dept have told you is adequate for your screen. It used to be retina was better resolution than others and then dickheads like you would boast about it. Now they’re not as good as the competition’s and you morons say that everyone else’s is too high resolution. Whatever the marketing feeds you eh?
Secondly we’re not talking about mobile phones are we? I’d agree that 4k on a 5 inch screen is a little extraneous, but this article is explicitly about laptops. I recently replaced my 15” laptop from a 1080p to 2160p screen and it’s noticeably sharper and better for graphically intensive work like Photoshop, InDesign as well as for viewing high density of text like outlook so there’s real world benefits, as you well know.
And as for things i don’t comprehend? Your explanation of retina: “retina is retina”. Well glad you’ve cleared that up for me.
As for uses for a 4k screen on a macbook pro? Well, it happens to be the modern standard for video. There used to be a time when the whole production industry ran exclusively on macs and fcp and the macbook pro was a tool for these types of truly professional users.
Wow. What a monumental bellend you are.
Haha
So, how does Johny Ive’s asshole taste?
Apple are hung up on ‘form over function’ in their laptop range.
I certainly won’t be getting rid of my mid 2010 Macbook Pro until they sort themselves out. Currently far too much money for far too little computer!
Lenovo deserves to be in first place.
No, it’s not. And Apple does not deserve NOT to be in first place.
Your name gives you away as a biased fanboy. As someone who really doesn’t give a shit about who makes my hardware as long as it does what I want it to do, I’m one of the few unbiased people here. For an in-depth comparison of Apple’s virtues Vs Lenovo’s, check my other comments. However, Lenovo’s recent models (P50, among others) are easily in the same league as the most high-end macbooks. I could recreate almost all the specs except the graphics card for a p50, and I had money enough to spare for doubling the RAM AND the SSD storage, then adding an accidental damage warranty for a year as well, and STILL get it cheaper.
Apple’s main virtues are screen quality, portability, Intercompatability and battery life.
Lenovo’s main virtues are power, customizability and innovation.
in 2015 they were low in the ranking because their laptops were full of bloatware. they removed that later on, somewhere in 2016, and their ranking shot up.
The reason why the macbook has tanked so far down is mostly because people dislike only having thunderbolt ports, and dislike the keyboard layout a LOT. Which surprises me, because Apple used to be so good at interface design, yet now one of their main – points is a clunky interface.
Troll
Apple will no longer in the market after 5 years (maximum). All the companies are trying to be more innovative in new fields, Ex: Microsoft looking forward in augmented reality (Hololens), A OS which runs in all devices, Azure maturing to support Cortona in cars, Amazon Alexa already rocking and growing fast, Google moved with Google home, pixel devices (good try) and even facebook coming out of box (from just a social network), HTC vive, etc etc. All the companies are travelling in a new level with new technologies. But apple still releasing only iphones, macs, ipads with new feature or new hardware.. No improvement in company from last decade. They lack future vision, if it continues then they will be out of competition soon.
Still Apple fans (kids) feels new mac, iphone and ipad are best in the world when real men’s play with hololens, voice assistance at home level(not just on phone to ask sex questions), live in virtual reality, etc.
Lol “Real men play with hololens…live in virtual reality.” That’s funny.
Apple will still be in the market, they just won’t have nearly as big a share.
Dell is still in the market too, despite having a long history of meh premade products. I still regret spending $550 on a premade Dell Inspiron, if i’d built a PC I would’ve had 4 years of being able to play games reasonably well instead of maxing out at 20FPS on borderlands 2.
Apple fucked up with the interface of this generation, and that has cost them some rep, but they can still recover. Their main thing is device portability, and thats something where they’re still decent. If money is not an issue, you can get a small thing with decent power. If size isn’t an issue, you can get a more powerful laptop for less. I have not yet found a laptop that beats the macbook in price, size AND power. usually it beats it in 2 of the 3.
Also, those innovations you mention are nice, but the Hololens is not gonna be the sort of thing that is in every household. Virtual reality will still remain mostly a gamer thing for a while yet.
If they don’t start innovating truly new in the next 10 years, I agree they’ll have trouble in the future.
Thats what im trying to say bro, you have mentioned 10 years here. But as far as i know how fast the innovation and technology is growing nowadays it will be only 5 years… If we are 2000 you can say apple still amost have a decade…
The unfortunate reality is that the best phones aren’t Apple. The best laptops aren’t Apple. The best desktops aren’t Apple. And Apple hasn’t made a server the world cares about in….ever.
Fashion tech is for fashionable people. For normal folks and professionals, there are actual computers.
Sad but true: Apple has made some bad choices over past few years…
Lack of supporting standards (for no good reason), lack of needed I/O (for no _good_ reason), formfactor too much over functionality, etc.