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Finder Retail Awards 2022: Best Personal Tech Brand
How well did some of the best known personal tech brands fare in our customer survey? We reveal the winner and the close contenders.
Welcome to the Finder Retail Awards 2022: Best Personal Tech Brand
If you get onto a crowded train, most of those around you will be using their personal tech. Whether it’s a student doing a last minute essay on a laptop, someone checking their step count on their smartwatch, rock music blaring out of the person’s headphones next to you or those flicking through their smartphones to avoid eye contact, personal tech is integral to everyone’s modern lives.
There are many brands of personal tech to choose from, so we think it’s important you get the opinion of the people who matter most: the customers who’ve used their products. We asked customers of the major personal tech brands to tell us about their experiences. Now we can reveal how they rated them.
Our awards are designed to find personal tech brands that excel in 5 categories: value for money, reliability, performance, customer satisfaction and whether they’re worth a recommendation to a mate. The winner had the highest average score on all these categories combined. Let’s see who stole the show!
Best Personal Tech Brand Winner:
Apple
Apple pipped other famous brands to the top spot, getting a 4.5 star overall customer score, plus a whopping 95% of customers would recommend its products to a friend.
Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world, having kicked off with a rudimentary personal computer in the 1970s. Now, the company boasts a huge range of products like iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple Watches and AirPods. It has a huge loyal following, so much so that many customers won’t buy any other brand since all Apple devices can connect to each other, and they are so familiar with the interface.
Best Personal Tech Brand Brand of 2022 – Customer Voted
| Brand | Overall customer score | Reliability rating | Customers who’d recommend (%) | Review | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 95% | There’s no need to introduce this brand. The company dominates the personal tech space with its sleek, durable and user friendly tech, and constantly develops and adds to its ranges year after year. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 94% | As well as its iconic search engine, Google makes earbuds, watches, laptops and phones, with the Pixel range growing increasingly popular amongst consumers. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 94% | Samsung is a top dog in the smartphone market. Its Galaxy range rivals other brands and it also makes tablets, laptops, watches and earbuds. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 90% | Huawei is a Chinese company with a strong focus on quality smartphones and laptops at a more affordable price. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 90% | Acer is famous for its computers, with a large range of laptops, desktops, monitors and tablets. Its Nitro laptops are great for gamers. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 90% | This global company makes far more than personal tech including the famous PlayStation range, but its Xperia smartphones and headphones are some of its devices on show in this category. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 90% | Remember the Motorola flip phone everyone used to rave about? The company still makes it and other smartphones in the affordable price bracket. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 89% | Don’t confuse this American tech brand with the sauce. HP makes many models of laptops, including foldable and gaming models. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 88% | Fitbit specialises in smartwatches and activity trackers that can monitor your heart rate, sleeping patterns and even pay for your groceries. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 85% | Garmin makes different smartwatches for different activities, like running, cycling, golf and swimming. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 83% | Lenovo’s laptops are designed for different purposes: work, home and gaming. It also makes tablets and gaming monitors. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 79% | Asus is another brand famous for its laptops, but it also makes mobiles and smartwatches. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 78% | The famous Windows logo cannot be mistaken. Microsoft makes laptops and Surface models, as well as the Xbox games consoles. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 78% | Beats headphones burst with bass and style. The company is famous for its overhead wireless headphones but makes earbuds too. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 71% | Bose’s headphones and earbuds pack a punch. It also stocks Bluetooth speakers so you can bring the party with you. | |
 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | 68% | Dell is an American company that makes laptops for the whole family, including its Inspiron 2-in-1 range. |
Customer star ratings methodology
In June 2022, we ran a customer survey about well-known personal tech brands. 1,963 people responded and gave us their opinion on smartphones, laptops, headphones, earbuds, tablets and smartwatches which they had purchased in the last 2 years.
The survey asked respondents about their experience with the products they own. They were asked if they found their personal tech item as being value for money, if it was reliable, if it performed well and if they were satisfied with their overall experience (using a 1–5 rating). They were also asked if they would recommend the brand to a friend.
We converted the responses into overall customer score star ratings and used these results to decide our award winner. Where there was a draw in terms of star ratings, we used the recommendation score (the percentage of customers who said they would recommend the brand to a friend) as a tie-breaker.
Full details of how we calculated star ratings for this sector are on our methodology for retail brand customer ratings page.
Personal tech brand ratings
★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor
The overall customer score is based on a survey of 1,963 customers carried out in June 2022.
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