Canstar Blue’s review of desktop computers has seen Lenovo, HP, Apple and Dell compared on their performance & reliability, design, user-friendliness, customer service, value for money and overall satisfaction.
See our Ratings Methodology.
It’s hard to beat laptops and tablets on convenience, but in terms of performance there’s a long way to go before they can outdo desktop computers. If you’re a professional, having a fast and reliable PC can be the difference between being in the good books with your boss for meeting your Friday deadline or being in the doghouse on Monday. If you’re a gamer, it’s a matter of life or death in the virtual world.
You get it, having a good quality PC is important and sussing out your options even more so. In fact, 40% of the Aussies we surveyed researched their computers before buying anything, and that’s also where we come in handy.
We’ve canvassed the opinions of nearly 300 Australians on the desktop computer(s) they’ve recently bought and used. Respondents were asked to rate their respective brands on important factors of satisfaction such as performance & reliability, design, user-friendliness, customer service and value for money. The brands which received the minimum survey sample size of 30 responses are included in the table above.
Lenovo won our customer satisfaction award for desktop computers in 2020, earning five-star reviews for performance & reliability, value for money and overall satisfaction.
Here are the best brands of desktop computers, as rated by consumers in Canstar Blue’s inaugural review:
While Lenovo rated best in the key categories mentioned above, Apple managed to edge out this year’s winner on user-friendliness, customer service and appearance & design, with five stars in those categories. HP beat Lenovo on user-friendliness with five stars and scored similarly on performance & reliability.
Read on for a quick overview of the brands in our report, including the products, prices and specs they offer.
Lenovo is one of the world’s largest PC vendors and smartphone company. If you’re looking for performance at a low price, it’s hard to beat Lenovo and our consumer ratings certainly attest to that. The brand offers a wide selection of desktop towers and monitors, as well as all-in-one computers, which can you browse on the Lenovo website by use (i.e. gaming, student etc.), by type, specs and so on.
For work, Lenovo has PCs starting from just over $1,000 for the ThinkCentre M630e Tiny 8th Gen Intel and going up to $1,999 for the ThinkCentre M90a AIO PC 10th Gen Intel (pictured). This is an all-in-one PC with boasts smart security safeguards with biometrics (hybrid IR camera optional) and a Trusted Platform Module which encrypts your data and passwords. This model is also said to help boost productivity, thanks to its time-saving features like modern standby, which enables your system to stay up to date even in sleep mode, with Outlook even staying synced (as long as a suitable network is available).
Here are some other models from Lenovo’s desktop computer range:
Lenovo was rated five stars for performance & reliability, value for money and overall
satisfaction.
Check Desktop Computer Prices Online^
HP short for the Hewlett-Packard company, is a leading brand in the space of home electronics, with a range spanning across laptops, printers, toners, desktops and more. HP offers a wide selection of new and refurbished home and work PCs, including monitors, towers and all-in-one computers. Prices in the range start from $699 and can reach up to $5,000 for newer and more advanced models. There seems to be a noticeable difference in price between models sold on HP’s website and through electronics retailers like Harvey Norman, so it’s definitely a good idea to shop around for the best deal.
If you need a desktop for ‘every day’ use, a sensible option is the HP 23.8-inch (i3-9100T/8GB/512GB SSD) All-in-One Desktop for $1,296 (pictured). It comes with everything you need to get the job done, including a quadcore i3-9100T processor and 8GB RAM for extra performance, a 512GB SSD for plenty of storage and a user-friendly interface to boost productivity.
Here are some other models from HP’s desktop computer range:
HP was rated five stars for user-friendliness and performance & reliability and four stars in the remaining categories and for overall satisfaction.
Check Desktop Computer Prices Online^
Tech giant Apple is often the pick of the bunch for the latest tech from earphones, to tablets and laptops and more. The brand also has its very own range of desktop PCs under the iMac banner, with prices starting from $1,599 and going up to almost $10,000. All new Apple desktops are eligible for AppleCare+ protection which provides up to three years of expert technical support and additional hardware coverage from Apple, including up to two incidents of accidental damage protection every 12 months.
If you’re looking for an iMac to take home, the Apple iMac 21.5-inch Retina 4K is a good mid-range ($1,999 RRP*), feature-packed option (pictured). It comes with a 21.5-inch Retina 4K display with 1 billion colours and 500 nits of brightness for great image quality and sharp text, plus an 8th Gen Intel Core processor and ultrafast SSD storage and Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) connectivity.
Here are some other models from Apple’s desktop computer range:
Apple earned five stars for user-friendliness, customer service and appearance & design. It got four stars for performance & reliability and overall satisfaction and three stars for value for money.
Check Desktop Computer Prices Online^
Dell is another well-known multinational computer technology company which spins a decent selection of desktop towers and monitors, all-in-one PCs and gaming computers. The brand often has sales or limited-time deals on certain Dell computers, so it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for those to score yourself a bargain. More broadly, prices in the range can start from under $1,000 and reach up to $6,000 or more.
If you’re looking for a home or office computer, the Inspiron 27-inch 7000 All-in-One PC (pictured) is a sensible option that won’t break the bank. Retailing for $1,499, it features a 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10210U processor, plenty of memory and storage and a Windows 10 Pro operating system with remote desktop capability, so you can have access to your PC no matter where you are.
Here are some other models from Dell’s desktop computer range:
Dell rounded up the scores with a four-star rating for design & appearance and three stars in the remaining categories and for overall satisfaction.
Check Desktop Computer Prices Online^
With all the new tech jargon and specs being spat around these days, buying a PC can seem like you’re playing a game of code decrypting. Don’t worry, we’ll cover the basics of what you need to know in this section, so that you can make an informed decision on your next purchase.
Once you’ve figured out what to look for, settling on a particular PC to take home is the next step. Our survey respondents found the biggest factors influencing their purchase decision were:
We also found that one in four respondents (27%) purchased their computer on sale, with only 11% of people surveyed wishing they’d purchased a more expensive model. This suggests that sticking to a budget-friendly model with all the specifications you need is probably a good choice. And, if ever in doubt, keep our review in mind.
This report was written by Canstar Blue’s Home & Lifestyle Content Lead, Megan Birot. She’s an expert on household appliances, health & beauty products, as well as all things grocery and shopping. When she’s not writing up our research-based ratings reports, Megan spends her time helping consumers make better purchase decisions, whether it’s at the supermarket, other retailers, or online, highlighting the best deals and flagging anything you need to be aware of.
*Prices taken from respective retailers and correct as of October 2020.
Picture credits: Fizkes, Shutterstock.com/ TZIDO SUN, Shutterstock.com/Sdecoret, Shutterstock.com/Anton Marchenkov, Shutterstock.com/Gorodenkoff, Shutterstock.com.
Canstar Blue surveyed 3,000 Australian adults across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who have purchased a new computer (desktop) in the last three years (note: this does not include tablets) – in this case, 284 people.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criteria.
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*Prices correct as of publication date.
^By clicking on a ‘Shop Online’, ‘Buy Online’, ‘Check Latest Prices’, ‘Download through Microsoft’ or similar button, you will leave Canstar Blue and be taken to our referral partner to compare. Canstar Blue may be paid for this referral. You agree that Canstar Blue’s terms and conditions apply to this referral.
Canstar Blue may earn a fee for referrals from its website tables, and from sponsorship of certain products. Fees payable by product providers for referrals and sponsorship may vary between providers. Generally, sponsorship fees are payable in addition to referral fees. Sponsored products are clearly disclosed as such on website pages. They may appear in a number of areas of the website such as in comparison tables, on hub pages and in articles. Sponsored products may be displayed in a fixed position in a table, regardless of the product's rating, price or other attributes. The table position of a Sponsored product does not indicate any ranking or rating by Canstar. The table position of a Sponsored product does not change when a consumer changes the sort order of the table. For more information please see How Are We Funded.