HP upends Apple as the most preferred PC; Microsoft, Acer plunge
We always knew that consumers preferred Windows PCs over Macs, but the numbers now back it up.
HP topped Apple as the most preferred PC maker in the 2025 iteration of the American Customer Satisfaction Survey — though general consumer satisfaction with PCs fell slightly compared with 2024 sentiments. Big names, like Microsoft, suffered in the eyes of their consumer critics.
Customers polled by the survey, however, said that the overall design of computers has improved, and that they marked that aspect as the best of the computing experience. The worst? The agony of calling and then navigating through a call center to receive customer support.
ACSI, which runs the study, said that it sent out thousands of email surveys to random customers, and the 16,205 completed surveys it received were used as the foundation for its 2025 report. Customers were asked about their experiences with the largest customers as well as an “all other” category. The ACSI received customer inputs on expectations, quality perceptions, and perceptions of value and used them as inputs to generate a score.
The biggest slips in perceived quality were Apple, Microsoft, and Acer, all of which lost three points in the ACSI rankings. Last year, Apple topped the charts with a score of 85. Yet its score of 82 placed Apple second; Dell’s ACSI score also decreased by a point compared to 2024. However, ACSI assigned Dell a score of 83, making it the most popular computer company for 2025.
ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Study 2025 / American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC.
The ACSI also included tablets in this category, and added Amazon to its list of manufacturers. Tablet satisfaction scores plunged, from 81 in 2024 to 77 in 2025.
In general, computer satisfaction declined across every PC maker save Dell, which saw an increase in the satisfaction score from 2024’s 80 score to its 2025 score of 82.
ACSI measured several aspects of the computing experience — design, availability of software, ease of operation, graphics and sound quality, and more — and generally found that customers ranked them essentially the same as in 2024. Customers expressed the least satisfaction with a computer’s ability to prevent crashing, the general state of “features” like the OS or preloaded software, and call-center satisfaction. (They apparently hadn’t moved past our first review of Windows 11.)
ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Study 2025 / American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC.
“The service experience may be a factor in the deviating levels of satisfaction between desktops and tablets,” the ACSI found. “Manufacturers continue to expand their repair networks to connect users with convenient outlets for service, but high repair costs and inconsistent parts availability continue to hinder the service experience for some.”
Interestingly, customers ranked the desktop experience higher than that using a laptop, though aspects like “website satisfaction” should have been mostly thee same for both.
ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Study 2025 / American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC.
Still, the category with the most need for improvement isn’t PCs, but tablets. Amazon clearly has its work cut out for it. 
© 2025 PC World 0:05am  
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