Recently, we wrote an article about the Mac tax and how ridiculous some ridiculous statements had been made by the media in regards to the cost of Macs versus PCs. Today, we come against another form of media claiming that Macs are indeed better than PCs. This time, though, the bias is blatantly shown by what was once considered a respectable measure of product quality and value, Consumer Reports.
It had been brought to my attention by a blogger on laptopmag.com by the name of Dana Wollman. The blogger specifically responds to a claim by AppleInsider that MacBooks swept the latest Consumer Report scores. Unfortunately for AppleInsider all they do is cheer about the huge point differences between the Macs that won each category and the PC laptops that they had “steamrolled”. The blogger does point out a few noticeable discrepancies in the Consumer Reports claims that they are looking for Performance, Ergonomics, Features and Display. Since we cannot actually view how the scores were tabulated since it requires a subscription to even view, we’ll have to take the word of AppleInsider on those numbers.
While they compared the different laptops they seemed to ignore the fact that both the laptops in the 15″ and 17″ categories were both nearly 500 dollars more than their PC counterparts and that equated to approximately a 25% higher price. The same thing happens in the 13″ laptop category, but get this, the MacBook Air actually scored higher than the HP Pavilion dv3. The reason why such a statement sounds absolutely ludicrous is because when they compared the laptops they gave the MacBook Air a good rating for the CPU and a very good rating on the display, when not really validating these scores whatsoever with any sorts of benchmarks. Not to mention the fact that the battery life on the MacBook air is pitiful at best, and yet it earns a 2nd place? Any notebook user knows that the MacBook Air is not a laptop that one would consider as a work laptop let alone one to compete with something like an HP dv3 series. The reviews are not transparent and they do not show you why the product scored what they did, not to mention the field of laptops tested is miniscule at best.
The fact of the matter is, these reviews are not only very biased and opaque but that there is no way for the consumer to validate the claims that Consumer Reports is making. The vague scores that are given that range from very poor to excellent and don’t really detail how or why those points were given. The problem is that their rating system is vague and that bias is very easy to hide. Not to mention the fact that their entire testing method is shown by this cute little page. Most of us know what needs to be in a computer hardware review in order to really determine which product is the best, it just seems like Consumer Reports refuses to let us know why they gave the scores they did and that we just have to trust their judgment as being right.
Bottom line: When you compare six laptops, of course Macs will win. Then again, what would happen if they only reviewed a small gem called the HP Voodoo Envy 133, a multi-touch enabled notebook built out of carbon fibre? What would happen if they reviewed Acer Ferrari, ASUS Lamborghini and some other premium notebooks… alas, Consumer Reports, you’ve definitely botched this one. Badly.
Update:After doing some more searching i have found what appears to be a laptop buying guide on their site that seems to detail somewhat on how they test laptops. Which can be found here. The funny part about this is, they claim that “macs are pracitcally immune to most viruses worms and spyware” and that they have outstanding technical support. Both claims which can be easily refuted with the fact that there are already Mac Botnets and that there are plenty of other computer builders out there with unparalleled levels of support compared to Apple. Doing a simple google fight also yeilds you quite a bit of hits when you search Apple tech support fails, more so than anyone else. But then again, thats just an unscientific and fairly insignificant measure.
Original Author: Anshel Sag
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