Consumer Reports (CR) in the US said that it was removing its recommendation of four of Microsoft’s notebook products and “cannot recommend any other Microsoft laptops or tablets because of poor predicted reliability”. The publication estimates that as many as 25% of all the firm’s laptops and tablets will have problems by the end of the second year of ownership.
The models with removed recommendations are:
- Microsoft Surface Laptop (128GB and 256GB versions)
- Microsoft Surface Book (128GB and 512GB versions)
Microsoft said in an email to CR that
“Microsoft’s real-world return and support rates for past models differ significantly from Consumer Reports’ breakage predictability. We don’t believe these findings accurately reflect Surface owners’ true experiences or capture the performance and reliability improvements made with every Surface generation.”
CR said that its study is based on data on 90,741 tablets and notebooks that its subscribers bought from 2014 to the beginning of 2017.
Analyst Comment
I must admit that I was attracted to the specifications of the Surface Book and thought about buying one, but the comments from unhappy owners on Amazon at the time put me off. I stuck with Lenovo, which provides a three year on-site warranty with its professional ThinkPads in the UK. Sadly, it took three visits and nearly a month to sort out a recent battery problem, but at least I did get my ThinkPad fixed last month. With an RTB warranty I would have been in trouble if the same level of delays occurred.
This problem follows quickly on the reports of the poor repairability of the Surface products. (Microsoft Surface Laptop Scores Zero for Repairability) (BR)
Microsoft’s Surface Book is no longer recommended by Consumer Reports
