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It's a just reward for Samsung, which has long been close but has never before had its name inscribed on the Notebook Award plaque.

Few, however, would have predicted Gateway's rapid return to the top. The company disappeared from the UK market after the dotcom crash, but now appears to be making a rather successful comeback.

Purchased by Acer in October, Gateway has gone on to better its already successful parent company in this year's awards, with 93% of customers satisfied or very satisfied with their notebook's reliability.

Slightly behind these two outstanding manufacturers comes Lenovo, which continues to produce the ever-popular ThinkPad. A recurring winner in our awards, the company seems to be maintaining its high standard of customer service, even if it fails to hang on to last

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year's winners title.

Despite recalling more than 200,000 laptop batteries earlier this year, you still sang its praises in the reliability stakes, too.

One to watch?

Asus also faired well this year, and may well be one to watch for next year's awards if the initial success of the Eee PC is anything to go by.

The ultra-portable, ultra-cheap notebook is selling in its thousands, and its popularity may well be enough to push Asus to the top spot next year if its reliability matches its impact.

There were a couple of surprise results towards the top end of the table, but the bottom half features many of the same names as last year.

PC World's Advent brand has dropped from its already lowly 2006 position, to score a minimal ranking for reliability and customer support. Packard Bell has also taken a turn for the worse as far as customer satisfaction goes.

Overall, though, the news is good. Our survey shows industry-wide improvements on value for money, reliability and customer support.

See the full list of winners here