(Credit: Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
Apple has lost its spot atop a long-running study of customer satisfaction in computers to one of its older Silicon Valley neighbors. HP is in the lead with a score of 83 out of 100, with Apple and Dell tied at 82, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) latest survey.
ACSI notes that HP dropped a point from last year’s score while Apple fell three points. It doesn’t suggest why the former stayed strong while the latter skidded beyond crediting HP for combining “high-quality products with a strong value proposition.”
Dell is the only company to improve in ACSI’s survey, gaining two points from last year’s score of 80. Four other brands earn lower scores in this category, which includes tablets as well as laptops and desktops: Samsung at 81; Lenovo at 79; Amazon at 78; Asus and Microsoft at 76 each; and Acer at 75.
PCMag’s reviewers may disagree with those ratings. Our lists of the best laptops for 2025 and our best tablets list do not include any HP machines. They do, however, appear in our roundup of best business laptops. HP also got a decent score in our February Readers' Choice survey, but not as good as MSI, Asus, Lenovo, or Dell.
The ACSI survey makes broader points about the computer industry, in particular pointing to the call-center experience (the worst-rated part of the computer user industry with a score of 78) as a missed opportunity.
“Contact centers give companies valuable opportunities for customer engagement,” it reads. “The service provided during these interactions can drive overall satisfaction higher and build brand loyalty when customers find helpful representatives who can offer knowledgeable guidance across a variety of topics.”
(Note the absence of any suggestion that AI handle customer support.)
This edition of the index also assesses customer satisfaction with TVs, appliances, and (for the first time) vacuums, in keeping with the ACSI’s habit of surveying consumer attitudes in a few related markets at the same time.
Samsung leads the TV category at 83, with ACSI complimenting Samsung as “a pioneer in introducing cutting-edge technology.” But all of the brands assessed earned high scores: Hisense and Vizio tied for second place with 82 each, LG and TCL tied for third at 81 each (TCL improved notably from last year’s score of 79), and Sony just behind at 80.
Again, our reviewers could quibble with that ranking, as no Samsung sets appear in our best TVs list. In our Readers' Choice survey from last month, however, they came out on top, returning to the winner’s circle for the first time in almost a decade.
In appliances—meaning major kitchen and laundry appliances—Samsung and Whirlpool tie for first at 82 each. LG follows at 81, with Bosch, Electrolux, and Haier (including the GE and Hotpoint brands) tied at 80 apiece. Bosch shows the biggest improvement, having finished last with a score of 78 last year.
ACSI’s coverage of vacuums includes not just robot vacuums but plain old vacuums. Samsung leads this category too with a score of 82, followed by Shark (81), Bissell, and Dyson (80 each), Roomba (78), Dirt Devil, and Eureka (77 apiece), and Electrolux and Hoover (both 76).
This ACSI report concludes with a helpful table listing overall satisfaction with these three categories, as well as every other one ACSI covers. Televisions have a score of 82, household appliances and computers tie at 81, and vacuums follow at 79. In comparison, the highest-ranked industry the ASCI covers is soft drinks, with a score of 84, while subscription-TV services land at the bottom of the list with a score of 70. (I wonder why?)
Michigan-based ASCI collected this latest set of results from 16,205 completed surveys from customers chosen randomly and reached via email between July 2024 and June 2025.