The Best Places to Buy Laptop Computer Supplier Online and In-Store

In its annual poll in 2022, SWNS Media Group found that US adults increased their impulse buying by 64% year to year. And 27% of what we impulsively buy is tech products. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) thinks tech sales in the US will hit a full $485 billion this year. That's a lot of spending on gadgets and electronics. Nevertheless, all that personal-tech acquisition raises an important question: What's the best place to shop for technology? In a first for PCMag Readers' Choice, we're asking that question. The results may not be what you expect—and you might wonder why some of the top-rated brands aren't bigger than the retail behemoths. A total of 45 US retailers—including online-only shops, brick-and-mortar stores, and brands that are a combination of both—earned enough survey responses to include in this story. Our charts cover all the store brands and offer separate ratings for e-commerce and in-store sales. Finally, we report on more-granular retail categories, such as tech vendors that sell their products directly to cut out the retail middleman, big-box chains, and the massive warehouse-club stores. Read on to see which merchants you should consider first the next time you require some retail therapy.

The Top Tech Retailers for 2023

Online and Brick-and-Mortar Tech Retailers

For our first-ever survey on tech retailers, we ask PCMag readers to rate up to five merchants from which they've purchased technology products, both online and in-store.

We ask readers for to rate these retailers on pricing, customer service, product selection and quality, and return policies. For online stores, we ask a few more questions regarding shipping speed, mobile shopping, and product descriptions and images. The two scores we consider most important are a store's overall satisfaction rating and the respondents' likelihood to recommend a store to friends.

In our inaugural look at tech retailers, the overall Readers' Choice award goes to Costco Wholesale. This beloved warehouse club store takes the top scores for overall satisfaction as well for membership value, customer service, pricing, and return policy. It doesn't earn the highest marks for online sales—B&H Photo Video steals that more specific category (see more below). But Costco outscores or ties even Amazon in many online-specific categories.

"It's no surprise to see tech shoppers rating Costco so highly," says Kristin McGrath, editor and shopping expert at RetailMeNot. "Costco's promise to shoppers really resonates when it comes to the big-ticket stuff like tech. It's basically telling people, 'Pay us for your membership, but then we've got your back.'"

RetailMeNot is owned by PCMag parent company Ziff Davis.

(Click the down, left, and right arrows in our interactive charts below to view different elements of our survey results.)

Several tech makers that sell directly to customers—Apple, Dell, Logitech, and HP—fill out the top 10. Amazon also made that list; it ties for overall satisfaction with the technology-only online retailer Newegg.

Note that Amazon's membership/club value—in this case, Prime Membership—doesn't score nearly as high as do the memberships people pay for with Costco, Sam's Club, and even Apple. (Admittedly, it's not entirely clear which membership readers are rating with Apple. They might mean Apple One, Apple Care, iCloud, or another service with recurrent fees; Apple has quite a few.)

McGrath says, "It's interesting to see Amazon not winning for membership/club value, since so many shoppers have Prime membership, and Amazon has been building it up for years now. There are some possible reasons for this. For one thing, Prime is more expensive, and Amazon recently raised the fee and made some benefits less rich. Also, Prime free shipping isn't as unique as it once was, as plenty of retailers offer free and pretty darn fast shipping these days. Amazon's benefits are also complex and might seem nebulous to shoppers, who may not even be aware of all they get out of Prime."

Other standout scores include Apple Store's top marks for product quality, mobile shopping, and product descriptions, images, and video. B&H Photo Video and Micro Center also earns many high scores, which we spell out below. Note that Micro Center, with its stunning high score for likelihood to recommend, tops even Costco.

Every retailer below fifth-place Dell has an overall score of less than 8.0. Several big-name chain stores have relatively low rankings—including US mega-retailers Target and Walmart. Circuit City is at the bottom.

Online Tech Retailers

For stores rated for online shopping only, Manhattan-based B&H Photo Video takes the win. Well-regarded by video and photography enthusiasts and pros, B&H has the top scores in almost every category but comes in second in a few places to Amazon. The latter scores slightly better for product selection (unsurprisingly), return policy, shipping speed, and mobile shopping.

"B&H is definitely more niche, and it's clear why it gets top marks for site experience," says RetailMeNot's McGrath. "It caters to a shopper who knows exactly what they want. It's not throwing a lot of noise at you and isn't in your face about deals. B&H truly knows its shoppers, and shoppers clearly appreciate that."

Amazon places third for online stores because of the weight we give to the likelihood-to-recommend score. Because of that, Dell.com ranks higher than Amazon by just a smidgen; it ties Amazon for overall satisfaction (along with Logitech). But none of them hold a candle to the overall satisfaction score for B&H online.

Most online stores have middling scores that don't really stand out; one exception is CDW, which does well for customer service and return policy. Other interesting insights are found at the bottom of our list, where Walmart—the "most impactful international retailer"—sits in last place in every category. Our readers do not like shopping on Walmart.com.

Brick-and-Mortar Tech Retailers

What about old-fashioned, real-world shopping? Many retailers support both e-commerce and physical sales—even Amazon, a name synonymous with online shopping, earns ratings for its physical locations, despite recent shutdowns. Amazon definitely receives the most ratings in our survey; 68.2% of survey respondents shop there.

"Shoppers may not adore Amazon in the way they adore Costco, but they sure use it," McGrath says.

That said, our in-store list is shorter than its online counterpart—only 12 merchants receive the minimum number of ratings to qualify. The results indicate that our survey takers respond well to niche sellers, one in particular.

Ohio-based Micro Center has 25 stores across 16 states (as of 2021, according to Wikipedia). Those locations are making a lot of computer buyers happy. For in-store categories on our survey, Micro Center rates highest overall and for likelihood to be recommended, the weightiest metrics, as well as for customer service, payment options, and product selection.

It's not surprising that our overall winner, Costco, also does very well here. Micro Center narrowly beats it for overall satisfaction; and Costco is the top-rated merchant for membership value, prices, product quality, and return policy.

Costco's rival, Sam's Club (the warehouse club store owned by Walmart), is in third place and ties for overall satisfaction with The Home Depot, and Lowes is right behind—the mega-hardware centers sell tech in the form of smart home devices and home security, not to mention miles and miles of wiring.

The bottom of this list: Target, Walmart, and Amazon. The latter does not fare well when it comes to real-word retail. Our readers don't consider it worthwhile to shop at a physical Amazon store for their Echo, Kindle, or Fire devices.

Retailer Ratings by Type of Store

Not all retailers are created equal. After all, few could claim the shiny Apple Store in the mall competes with an upstart app-only store out of China such as Temu.

So while it's nice to have an overall winner like Costco Wholesale, we want to highlight some specific types of retailers with a closer apples-to-apples comparison. (All the charts below derive from our overall list, thus include a mix of real-world and online store experiences.)

Manufacturer Stores

The first set of merchants arguably most germane to PCMag readers are the makers of computers and technology that sell directly to customers, both online and off--but most sell online exclusively. Only a handful have actual storefronts.

The Apple Store (including Apple.com) claims the top spot here. The brand's walled-garden approach to hardware (as well as software, though our results don't include the App Store), its easy-to-navigate online shopping, and the boutique feel you get when shopping in its physical locations gives Apple retail a distinct edge. Some try to imitate it, but few succeed. Apple's on top in every category except prices and payment options.

Second-place Dell.com receives top scores for prices and payment options, the only categories in which it outdoes Apple.

Logitech, HP, and Microsoft round out the top five with a few standout scores, including Logitech's site ease of use rating and HP's shopping cart and checkout process. Most of the direct-selling tech makers earn average scores at best. The two you may want to avoid buying from directly are Acer and LG.

Mobile Carrier Stores

Mobile wireless carriers offer a particular type of retail store that's more about selling you a service but they still carry plenty of gadgetry and accessories. They may be among the most ubiquitous storefronts in America these days; there are 5,491 AT&T stores, 6,480 T-Mobile stores (plus 6,841 Metro by T-Mobile locations), and 6,289 Verizon locations in 3,161 cities. That's according to ScrapeHero, which says that the Metro by T-Mobile store number makes it the largest computer and electronics chain in the US, even though hundreds of Metro locations closed during the pandemic and the carrier plans to close more this year.

T-Mobile trumps the rest—that is, the other two carriers on the big-three US list. T-Mobile has the top scores in all but three categories, and also won our Readers' Choice award for major mobile carrier earlier this year.)

Verizon's rating shine for product quality, online checkout, and product reviews from users. AT&T's only boast is a tie with T-Mobile for return policy. All three lack overall satisfaction scores above 8.0, placing them squarely in the take-it-or-leave-it category. Only T-Mobile has an edge.

Big-Box Stores

There may not be a perfect definition of a big-box store (aka superstore or megastore), but you probably know one when you see it. We compiled this list of the big-box chains that compete against one another directly (Target versus Walmart, The Home Depot versus Lowes) along with Best Buy, which stands alone to a degree: You could note that it competes with our winner above, Micro Center, but the limited number of Micro Center locations take that brand out of the running as a big-box. We also don't include the warehouse club stores here (see below) as they're unique thanks to the membership requirements.

Both Best Buy and The Home Depot put on a fight here, with tie scores for overall satisfaction and customer service. The Home Depot has superior numbers for prices, product section, and return policy—but the other categories belong to Best Buy. In particular, it beats the Depot across all the online shopping questions and for the likelihood to recommend.

Best Buy's 1,044 locations are dwarfed by others on this list—Walmart has 4,630 and Target has 1,948, according to ScrapeHero. But bigger—or in this case, more—isn't always better. Nor does having a giant e-commerce presence make much difference. Target and Walmart again, fall toward the bottom of the rankings.

McGrath points out that Best Buy "has revamped its whole membership program this year and is leaning into tech support and exclusive-deals access as a way to prove itself and stand out." That helps keep its membership-fees score higher than the rest, especially Walmart's: "Walmart is treading water a bit with its Walmart+ membership, which is sort of the new kid on the block and is more focused on groceries than tech anyway," says McGrath.

Warehouse Club Stores

It's possible you live in a place that lacks a warehouse club store—a big-box megastore that sells products in bulk and typically requires you to have a membership to shop there. Of the three major warehouse clubs in the US, Walmart's Sam's Club (named after founder Sam Walton) has the biggest US footprint, with 600 locations.

Costco has fewer locations in the States but is more financially successful. It also happens to be our readers' preferred spot for buying tech. As noted above, it's the all-round favorite of every retailer in our results.

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