Who is most pro at making sturdy laptops? While Dell may be king when it comes to numbers, it seems that Apple and Lenovo are the most reliable. In a study done based upon issues brought to call centers, Lenovo came in number one when it came to hardware quality and Apple came in number two, with everyone else coming in a very distant third, including Dell:

Computer support agency Rescuecom studied the call data from its centres and cross referenced it against the market share of brands in different US locations.
The results on a weighted index showed Lenovo the winner at +243, Apple at +201 then HP at +12, Dell at +4 and Gateway at -12.

Of course, that won't convince everybody. There's always a small group that has terrible luck no matter what vendor they choose, but considering the bad rep that Dell's customer support has received over the years it's really not surprising to see Lenovo swoop ahead. Most interesting, "white brand" laptops received the poorest score, though that is probably largely due to the dynamic nature of a DIY laptop. Bigger doesn't always mean better, it seems, with Dell's whopping 30% share of the laptop market.