Computers: new considerations.

For years, laptop and desktop computers could handle just about anything you could throw at them. As speed and storage capacity rose, prices fell. That trend still holds, according to our latest tests of moderately priced computers.

As we expected, these "workhorses" performed very well. Indeed, because computer performance is uniformly quite high, reliability and technical support may dominate the final choice of hardware.

Computer reliability has held steady, although repair rates are higher than for most products we track. Manufacturers' tech support has been different. Three years ago, we saw a drop in satisfaction with tech support; it's now one of the lowest-rated services we evaluate. Our latest survey indicates that outsourcing--moving some tech-support call centers overseas--may contribute to that low rating.

What we found. Our surveys include questions about long telephone hold times, difficulties navigating voice-messaging systems, and the like. This year, in our survey of subscribers to our Web site, we learned that technicians" problems with English interfered with phone support.

* Of the more than 4,900 subscribers to ConsumerReports.org who had phoned for support for their desktop computer in the prior 16 months, 28 percent had some kind of communication problem.

* Dell was worse than average at delivering service that was free of problems with English. Overall, though, Dell was average for communication problems. And on average, Dell's users were still fairly satisfied with the company's support.

Communicating in understandable English is "certainly an area of concern and we're paying attention to it," said Jennifer Davis, a Dell spokeswoman. "The vast majority of our customers don't have this problem."