(Credit: Getty Images/Nick David)
The PC industry has changed considerably over the past few years, as the pandemic forced so many of us to work from home. While many of us are still working remotely, plenty of employees are back in the office at least part of the time. Decreased demand for work-from-home computers has caused PC sales to plummet.
Still, plenty of us need new computers for the workplace. To ascertain which brands are best for work, both for laptops and tablets, we conducted a Business Choice survey. This year, we did so with the help of our colleagues at Spiceworks and its Aberdeen Strategy & Research division. The results of our co-sponsored effort (the first business-focus survey for laptops and tablets since 2021) are below.
Business Choice: Laptops 2023
Apple's MacBooks Remain the Top Choice
Apple’s first official Business Choice award for laptops was awarded in 2016; before that, we included business laptops in our Readers’ Choice results, which Apple won regularly. The brand's overall-satisfaction score in 2016 was 9.0, a number it equalled in 2021. Now, two years later, Apple is back on top—this time with a rating of 9.1. Apple is the clear winner in the category; MacBooks are loved by those using them for work.
Apple’s Achilles' heel is the price of its products. The company earns its lowest score for cost (which isn't the lowest cost rating among the vendors in this survey, thanks to Microsoft). In almost every other category, Apple’s scores can’t be topped. In particular, it garnered exemplary ratings for ease of use, setup, reliability, and screen quality.
The other area in which Apple earns a second-place score is repairs, which is not surprising for a company (among others) that has fought the customers' “right to repair” for as long as it could. Apple’s repair score isn’t the lowest in our results, but it places the company behind Dell and Lenovo. The worst rating for repairs goes to HP.
Windows Users Prefer Lenovo
Of course, millions of laptop users use the number-one desktop operating system at work. For Windows users, the company on top this year is Lenovo, for the first time in our survey's history.
Lenovo is a Business Choice win for Windows-based laptops because it earns most of the best ratings among the Windows systems. It ties Microsoft for overall satisfaction—the category we consider most important when deciding a winner. But Lenovo edges ahead of Microsoft thanks to a better likelihood-to-recommend rating.
The Business Choice award belongs to Lenovo this year, but don’t count Microsoft out. It won each year from 2016 to 2020, and the close numbers this year bode well for a Microsoft comeback in 2024.
Business Choice: IT Laptops 2023
By asking the Spiceworks community and the Voice of IT panel at Aberdeen to take our survey, we found a new opportunity to ask IT managers directly about the brands they deploy and manage on a larger scale. We didn’t get a huge response, but the results indicate the brands used the most in a corporate setting. For our respondents, those brands are HP and Dell. (We were surprised that Lenovo didn’t make the cut, since it apparently has been outselling the others in the US for a while.)
HP Is the Top Pick for IT Managers
Between HP and Dell, when it comes to satisfaction, HP laptops take the crown. HP earns not only the best overall-satisfaction rating but also garnered top scores in 10 out of 12 subcategories. That includes particularly strong numbers for ease of use, durability, and securability.
Dell has the edge on price and tech support over HP, and the two brands tie in the repairs rating. As for recommending the brands to others, HP has a slight lead, but Dell is only a tenth of a point behind. IT managers certainly like both—but HP devices earn the Business Choice award.
For our in-depth reviews, read The Best Business Laptops for 2023.
Business Choice: Tablets 2023
It's not a stretch to say Apple owns the tablet market: It claims more than half the market share for slate-style computers worldwide. Samsung’s tablets earn second place.
The Apple iPad Is Preferred for Work
Apple and Samsung were the only tablets that made the cut for use at work. Apple’s overall-satisfaction rating of 8.8 was more than enough for it to earn a third Business Choice award. That’s the same satisfaction rating Apple earned the last time we conducted this survey, in 2021, but lower than the 9.1 it earned for office-use tablets in 2020.
Apple takes or ties for the lead in all subcategories but one: cost. This is a constant with Apple products in almost every survey we run—people appreciate nearly everything about them but don't love paying so much for them.
Android Users Should Consider Samsung
Because not every office opts to use iPadOS, we’re also giving an award to Samsung, which earns more-than-respectable scores, even though its second to Apple in most categories. The exception is cost, as noted above. The two vendors tie for battery life and are within a tenth of a point of each other in size and weight, display quality, and likelihood to recommend.
For our in-depth reviews, read The Best Tablets for 2023.
Full Results
The PCMag Business Choice survey for Laptops and Tablets was in the field from January 9 to January 29, 2023. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.