Choosing the Right Laptop Is the Most Important Decision for Law Firms

Published July 2024. Reviewed July 2026.

Choosing the right laptop is your firm's most important technology decision this year. We manage laptop fleets for law firms every day, and the difference between a reliable fleet and an unreliable one shows up directly in billable hours. Here's why.

The Challenge

Our client, a busy law office, had multiple ongoing cases. Seemingly out of nowhere, their laptops would fail, disrupting their work. We often had to rush the next day to get them a spare, set up all their documents and programs, and get them back to work.

In another instance, a lawyer was delivering an important presentation, and their laptop didn't work as expected, leading to an embarrassing moment.

When you buy technology for your firm, especially laptops, you decide how much downtime and interruption your team will experience for the next 3 to 4 years. For a law firm, that downtime is not just an inconvenience. It is billable time lost and deadlines put at risk. That's why it's crucial to choose the right brand and model.

Our Solution

We analyzed ticket data from the firms we support, collected over a decade, and found some interesting discoveries about laptops:

1. Reliability: We worked with about a dozen different laptop brands. Apple and Dell laptops were by far the most reliable over time. Other brands experience hardware breakages three to four times more often.

2. Cost of Downtime: Each breakage can cost an employee a full day's wage in downtime, plus IT support costs to coordinate the warranty repair.

3. Software Updates: With less reliable brands, software updates break the laptop two to three times more due to poor driver compatibility. Issues like wireless internet not working, battery problems, and system glitches are common, requiring more IT support and raising costs.

4. Maintenance Costs: Some popular but unreliable brands cost $3,000 more to maintain over the laptop's lifetime compared to $500 per laptop or less for a reliable business model.

Case Study: Switching from an Unreliable Brand

Initially, several popular brands were some of the most unreliable in our data. We received four to five monthly tickets for laptop hardware or software incompatibility issues.

Time Spent Before: 16+ hours of support per month.

We phased out the unreliable brand over 12 to 18 months and switched the firm to a Dell model. Once all the laptops were Dell, we received on average one monthly ticket from the whole firm related to laptop hardware or software update issues.

Time Spent After: 1 hour of support per month.

Why We Prefer Apple and Dell

Over time, Apple and Dell stand out for their consistent performance and dependability. Other brands, particularly Acer, Lenovo, Asus, and HP, tend to experience up to four times the problems over the life of the laptop.

Here's why Apple and Dell are better:

• High Build Quality: They use metal and high-quality plastics that last.

• Reliable Software Updates: They release reliable and compatible updates on schedule.

• Rapid Customer Support: They have next-day hardware support to get you back up and running.

• High-Performance Options: Plenty of configurable power for everyone, enabling a standardized solution from one brand.

• High Reliability: Over the laptop's lifetime, you can expect three to four times fewer hardware and software incidents than with other brands.

Why You Should Stay Away from Other Brands

Although they may be cheaper and offer more warranty for the price, you will need it, because these manufacturers do not have the same quality standards. That's why the first thing we often do for our clients is get them onto reliable machines they can trust and rely on.

A standardized fleet has a second benefit: when something does go wrong, a spare can be set up and ready the same day instead of scrambled together overnight.

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Takeaway

If you're currently facing many issues, talk to someone with experience before buying your next laptop. They'll point you to proven models.

Choosing the right laptop can make all the difference in your law firm's productivity and satisfaction with its technology. Make the right decision, and enjoy fewer disruptions and lower IT costs.

Hardware selection, replacement, and lifecycle management are included in ALT Care Plus, our managed IT program for law firms, alongside Apple device support and cybersecurity.

Talk to an IT Consultant