Laptop Reliability

A PC management services company called Soluto had recently done a report on the best performing Windows laptops. The firm sampled data from 150000 laptops over a three month period from January to April, analyzing application crashes, application hangs, blue-screens-of-death, boot time and number of background processes to generate a comparison that shows a real user experience.

The ranking by brands and models are shown above. The lower the score, the higher the ranking. Surprisingly, Apple MacBook Pro 13 is rated as the best Windows laptop although not optimized for the operating system. One of the main reasons is that every Windows installation on it is clean, meaning that it is not loaded with crapware. Another thing to note, Dell has 5 models in the list while PC Giant HP has none.

This can be a good reference on which brand and model to choose if you are buying a laptop. I'll share with you another good report that was published in Year 2009 by SquareTrade, a company which provides extended warranties to eletronics gadgets.

The line graph above shows the failure rates over the number of months since a laptop purchase. This graph will help to answer question like "Do I need to buy extended warranty?" and "If yes, how many years do I need to buy?". Every 1 out of 3 laptops has a tendency to fail after 3 years. So you should get another extra 2 years warranty. Better be safe than sorry.

This is another interesting graph from the report that shows the laptop malfunction rates by Manufacturer. You can cross reference with the findings from Soruto. However, this graph might not be so accurate as it was done in Year 2009. Anyway, the report is still a great reference for us. You can get the full report here.

Dell MasterCard Promotion

Dell and MasterCard have paired up to bring cardholders exclusive offers since last year. Now you can even get Dell Accessories with lower prices if you own a Debit or Credit Mastercard.

The list above shows the accessories with special discounts. For other Dell Accessories, you can get 10% cash redemption. Besides, you can save 15% on cartridge purchase .

For system purchases, if you spend RM 2000 to RM 2900, you can get an external hard drive for free. If you spend above RM 3000, you can get a free 20" LED monitor. Citibank cardholders can enjoy 0% installment plan and 2X Citibank Reward Points with Dell system purchase.

Interested to know more on the promotion? Click here to access and start shopping!

Get 5% Discount Dell Computer on MasterCard

E-commerce has been gaining steady momentum in the region with potential for further growth in Malaysia. As one of the pioneers of e-commerce, Dell Asia Pacific has forged partnership with MasterCard Worldwide to offer cardholders in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan exclusive discounts, benefits and monthly specials.

Cardholders across the 10 participating countries can access dedicated MasterCard-Dell micro-sites from now till October 31 2013. In Malaysia, MasterCard credit and debit card cardholders will receive up to 5% discounts on selected Dell systems, with a minimum spend of RM 2500 when shop online at the dedicated micro-site.

When you enter the website, it will ask for the first 4 digits of your MasterCard number in order to proceed. Actually, the first 6 digits of a credit card number are known as the Issuer Identification Number (IIN). These identify the institution that issued the card to the card holder. For MasterCard, the card numbers start with the numbers 51 through 55. You may try to input any number starting from 51 through 55 and see.