I’m not sure whether this is because of new technology, poor quality control or if user expectations are set too high; but apparently the return rate of machines with an SSD drive is an alarming 20%-30%. Normal (spinning) drives only see a 1%-2% return rate.

Notebooks with flash-based hard drives cost a lot and, according to managing partner Avi Cohen at Avian Securities, they don’t work very well either.

A large computer manufacturer is getting around 20 percent to 30 percent of the flash-based notebooks it is shipping sent back because of failure rates and performance that simply isn’t meeting customer expectations, the firm stated in a report on Monday. Avian gathered this information on a recent swing through Asia.

It’s no secret that performance on current SSD drives is not what some users expect, especially when dealing with small files (like email). But return rates like that put it up there with the Xbox360 in terms of reliability. Not a good thing.

Source: Crave