Readers’ Choice 2023: Your Favorite Laptop and Tablet Brands

If you’ve wanted to buy a new laptop or tablet but have been holding off because of high prices and low stock, it’s time to go shopping again. Manufacturers have lots of inventory on hand, according to a recent IDC report.

To help you decide which laptop or tablet to purchase, you should, of course, read PCMag’s expert reviews. In addition, consider your fellow readers’ experiences with the brands that make these devices. In this month’s PCMag Readers’ Choice Award survey, we asked you about the laptops and tablets that you use every day. Are they a good value? Are they easy to set up? Does their reliability meet your expectations? You rated your satisfaction with these and many other aspects of your products. Read on to see which brands deliver the experience you’re hoping for and which might disappoint you.

Readers’ Choice: Laptops 2023

A host of companies are competing to earn your laptop business. According to our survey ratings, you could break the list down into two groups: those doing a great job of making their customers happy and those doing reasonably well. Three companies (Apple, LG, and MSI) have overall-satisfaction ratings over 9.0 on our scale, which runs from zero (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied). And the other six companies that received the minimum number of responses for inclusion here earned overall-satisfaction ratings between 8.3 (HP) and 8.6 (Lenovo). Those latter scores are good, but they’re not high enough to indicate that customers are telling others how pleased they are with their devices.

MSI Leads in Laptops

The front-runner of the top three companies is MSI. It has the highest overall-satisfaction rating (9.4) as well as the highest likelihood-to-recommend rating (9.3), earning the company its third straight Readers’ Choice Award in this category and its fifth in the past eight years.

MSI is primarily known for its gaming laptops. Our survey respondents rate it a near-perfect 9.6 out of 10 for satisfaction with gaming, but the company also scores highest on several other measures, including satisfaction with screen quality (9.5), repairs (9.2), technical support (9.1), and cost (8.9).

Last year, MSI also came out on top for satisfaction with ease of use and reliability. While MSI’s ratings in those categories are still excellent this year at 9.3 and 9.4, respectively, LG edges MSI out with a 9.4 in the ease-of-use category, and Apple’s 9.5 is the top rating for reliability.

Apple won or shared the Readers’ Choice Award in this category for more than a decade through 2021, and the company is still among the best when it comes to satisfying its customers. In addition to its aforementioned overall-satisfaction rating, Apple has the highest ratings for satisfaction with display quality (9.5, tied with MSI), setup (9.3), and battery life (8.8, tied with LG). When we look at laptop purchases within the last 12 months, Apple also claims the highest ratings on nearly every measure. This is a strong indication that the company will continue to excel.

LG is a household name in televisions and appliances. Perhaps it’s not as well known for its laptops—this is the first year that LG garners enough ratings to be included in our survey analysis. And it doesn’t disappoint: The company receives the highest ratings for satisfaction with size and weight (9.6) and ease of use (9.4), and its other ratings are impressive as well.

HP Is on Top for Hybrids

Many readers tell us that they have 2-in-1 convertible/hybrid laptops with touch screens that can be used as traditional laptops or tablets. The four most popular 2-in-1 brands among survey respondents are Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft. Of these, HP comes out on top this year in overall satisfaction with a rating of 8.8, earning it our Readers’ Choice Award. It also has the highest likelihood-to-recommend rating—but so did every other brand. The four companies tie on that measure with each earning a rating of 8.5.

Dell won this category last year but falls to a tie for second in overall satisfaction for 2023: Microsoft earns more top ratings than HP on the various satisfaction questions in our survey, but it ties Dell for second on overall satisfaction (8.6) and finishes last in satisfaction with cost (7.2), far behind Lenovo (8.4) and HP (8.1). This likely contributes to Microsoft falling slightly behind HP in overall satisfaction, with a rating of 8.6.

For our in-depth reviews, read The Best Laptops for 2023.

Readers’ Choice: Tablets 2023

Phone screens get bigger, and laptops get lighter. Still, a niche remains in between for tablets, those lightweight touch-screen slates with displays that range anywhere in size from 7 to 13 inches to suit a variety of needs. Perhaps at some point, folding phones will eat away at this market, but we’re certainly not there yet.

Apple’s iPad Is on Top Again

Apple iPads were among the first mainstream modern tablets, and they remain popular. As with most Apple devices, users tend to be quite satisfied with their iPads. This year, the company once again takes top honors in our survey, winning the Readers’ Choice Award for tablets. Apple receives the highest ratings among tablet brands on nearly all of our satisfaction measures, including overall satisfaction (9.0) and likelihood to recommend (9.0). Apple gets its highest marks for satisfaction with setup, reliability, and display quality, all of which it earns a stellar 9.3 rating. As is often the case with Apple products, the main knock against the iPad is in satisfaction with the cost; it scores only 7.7, far behind the leader on this measure, Amazon at 9.1.

Despite the iPad’s popularity and category-leading satisfaction ratings, people might choose another brand for plenty of reasons. Cost often plays a factor, but the platform and user experience are also a strong consideration: iPads run on iPadOS, and if you haven’t bought into the Apple ecosystem, you may prefer an Android tablet, especially if you also use an Android phone.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Line Tops Android Tablets

Samsung wins our Readers’ Choice Award for Android-based tablets. At the time of this writing, Samsung offers ten different tablets(Opens in a new window) running Android that vary in size and processing ability, to suit a wide variety of users’ needs. While survey respondents don’t rate overall satisfaction with Samsung quite as highly as Apple, Samsung comes in just behind on nearly every measure. Samsung receives a satisfaction-with-reliability rating of 9.1 and scores 9.0 on satisfaction with ease of use, setup, and display quality.

Samsung’s satisfaction-with-cost rating of 8.4 isn’t bad, although it trails Amazon and its line of inexpensive Fire tablets. Most of Amazon’s other ratings range between 8.2 and 8.8, yet our survey respondents give the company only a 7.9 for overall satisfaction, the lowest rating in the category. With tablets, you tend to enjoy what you pay more for.

For our in-depth reviews, read The Best Tablets for 2023.

Full Results

The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for Laptops & Tablets was in the field from January 6 to January 29, 2023. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.