Business Choice Awards 2020: Desktop PCs
For gamers and home users, computers may shrink and get all sorts of new and wacky designs, but for business users desktop PCs are all about harnessing enough computing muscle to get the job done. That’s why these machines are typically more powerful and come with IT-oriented configuration and management tools. Yet because they’re meant to be sold in bulk, they’re also often more affordable than their laptop (or smartphone) counterparts.
In the past, our Business Choice Awards have
stemmed from a survey that asked about laptops and desktops together, but this year
we gave desktop PCs their due with an individual survey. While we did ask about
desktop PCs that are used for both work and home, the results fell in line
directly with our Readers’
Choice results, where Apple and Alienware got top marks. So if you are an individual
working from home (and who isn’t these days!), check them out.
We will make it back to the office someday, and thus, we
focused this story on the business-oriented, mainly corporate-use PC
providers rated by our readers. Only three vendors had enough responses to make the cut. You won’t be surprised to read who they are, but the brand on
top may make you think twice the next time your office gets a technology upgrade.
Desktop PCs for Work 2020
BUSINESS CHOICE WINNER
Dell
While it didn’t score astronomically higher than the competition in
this survey, Dell’s got a solid edge when it comes to office desktop PCs. It
should always be the first brand you consider when making purchases for the
workplace.
Last year Dell won this award on the Windows
PC-provider side with an overall satisfaction score of 8.1 out of 10. This year, it takes it again, despite a slight dip in satisfaction to 8.0. At the same
time, Dell’s other important score—the likelihood to be recommended to colleagues—saw
a tremendous increase from 7.0 to 7.9 this year. Dell also earns top
marks when it comes to cost/value (8.0) and tech support (8.1).
It should be noted that the other two vendors in the
results, HP and Lenovo, are not brands people in the office are upset with using.
They both earned matching 7.9 satisfaction scores, which is on par with what
they earned last year. HP also had a stellar increase in its likelihood to be recommended score, from a pretty poor 6.2 in 2019 to 7.9 this year. We don’t usually see improvements like that year to year
in any of our surveys. (Lenovo didn’t have enough responses last year to get a recommendation
score, but this year it got a 7.5.)
Where else do these brands stand out? Ease of use goes to HP
with an 8.6, higher even than Dell’s 8.4. HP also wins for reliability with an
8.4 and has the best repairs score at 7.9.
It is
interesting to note that the Net Promoter Scores for business desktop PCs are
all pretty weak. We calculate the NPS using the likelihood to recommend
question and every year quantify them in our Best Brands story, where any brand
with the best NPS over 50 makes the cut. None of these brands will do that this
year, as Dell only managed to get a 28 out of 100 NPS, the highest score in this category.
Apple, meanwhile, didn’t qualify
this year because it only garnered enough responses for desktop PCs that were
dual use for home and work, not work-only systems.
Below is the full table of results for Business Choice
2020: Desktop PCs.
The PCMag Business Choice survey for Desktop PCs was in the
field from March 30, 2020, through April 20, 2020. For more information on how
the survey is conducted, read the survey methodology.
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