Consumer Reports has Apple top new notebook charts

Consumer Reports' refreshed notebook rankings [sub. required] gave Apple the top spot in virtually all notebook rankings. As of late May, the updated MacBook Pros led the 15-inch category with 76 to 78 points versus Dell's XPS 15 at 73 points, while the 17-inch models just edged ahead of the HP dv7 (79 points) with 80 and 81 points. All of the 13-inch models placed second at 70 to 72 points, but they were only topped by Apple's own 13-inch MacBook Air, which leapt ahead at 76 points.

The 11-inch MacBook Air scored the lowest but was still the top system in its size class at 62 points, where Gateway's EC19 was at 56. Apple only conceded the top spot in the 14-inch category, where it chose not to participate.

None of the leads were directly qualified by the testing agency. In most cases, however, Apple was above or well above the norm for portability, ergonomics, and the screen quality. MacBook Air systems took expected knocks on versatility and speed but were subjectively ranked higher, possibly owing to the even higher portability and the SSD storage.

At the bottom of the list, most of the systems were low-end models from either Acer or HP. Acer's constant focus on low-end systems hurt it since it was almost always at the bottom where HP's more even mix scattered its results across every category. [via The Loop]

By Electronista Staff