Consumer Reports flips its recommendation for Microsoft Surface laptops/tablets due to breakage rates.

[Keg Ops]

Quote

Consumer Reports is removing its “recommended” designation from four Microsoft laptops and cannot recommend any other Microsoft laptops or tablets because of poor predicted reliability in comparison with most other brands.

To judge reliability, Consumer Reports surveys its subscribers about the products they own and use. New studies conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center estimate that 25 percent of Microsoft laptops and tablets will present their owners with problems by the end of the second year of ownership.

The decision by Consumer Reports applies to Microsoft devices with detachable keyboards, such as the new Surface Pro released in June and the Surface Book, as well as the company’s Surface Laptops with conventional clamshell designs.

Source

 

This is honestly a bit surprising to me considering how well built Microsoft's Surface Laptops felt in the past when I demo'd them (minus the cheap attachable keyboards to the tablet models.) This could become a selling issue for Microsoft as Apple's Macbook & possibly iPad lineup may start to appeal more due to their better lifespan & quality control. If Microsoft responds I'll update this. 

 

Update: Response from Panos Panay / Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Devices

Quote

The Surface Team’s mission is and has always been to make devices that deliver great experiences to our customers and fans. It’s the motivation for everything we do, and we are proud of the Surface devices we have built.

 

This is why today’s Consumer Reports survey is disappointing. While we respect Consumer Reports, we disagree with their findings. Surface has had quite a journey over the last few years, and we’ve learned a lot. In the Surface team we track quality constantly, using metrics that include failure and return rates – both our predicted 1-2-year failure and actual return rates for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are significantly lower than 25%. Additionally, we track other indicators of quality such as incidents per unit (IPU), which have improved from generation to generation and are now at record lows of well below 1%.

Surface also ranks highly in customer satisfaction. 98% of Surface Pro 4 users and Surface Book users say they are satisfied with their device*, and our Surface Laptop and new Surface Pro continue to get rave reviews.

A part of being product makers is listening to our customers and pushing ourselves to evolve and improve with every generation of devices we create. We’re forever seeking innovation, encouraging positive change. It’s what we do, and what our customers do, but I can promise you one thing that will never change is our commitment to our customers and our dedication to ensuring your Surface experience only gets better.

We are proud of our products and the amazing things our customers are doing with them. We stand firmly behind the quality and reliability of the Surface family of devices, and I can confidently tell you there has never been a better time to buy a Surface.

 

[Sauron]

This may have nothing to do with the external construction but rather with the reliability of the circuitry

[DrMacintosh]

Doesnt surprise me, Microsoft doesnt know how to make a laptop. 

 

They say that the Surface is more of an example of what things should be, yet they continue to release them every year and they market them like its a competitive product. 

 

They should just stick to what they do "better" than their other stuff *cough* Windows *cough* 

[Suika]

One of the demo devices (which is a retail unit with demo software) at my store randomly decided it no longer had any sort of storage attached to it, so it's something I could believe.

[The Benjamins]

Cool, I just got a Surface Pro i5 model through the Surface Plus program, But I did get the extra damage insurance. (since I broke my surface 3 by accident)

[Keg Ops]

3 minutes ago, Sauron said:

This may have nothing to do with the external construction but rather with the reliability of the circuitry

That seems like the only other logical answer. For the premium they're charging for "meh" tier specs (like all laptops in it's class in this price range) you'd think that the build quality all around would be better. 

[Delicieuxz]

In addition to reliability concerns, Microsoft Surface products have extremely low repairability - which means that if a person encounters an issue with one, they might be out of luck in being able to do something to get it working again.

 

Microsoft Surface Laptop Teardown

Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Teardown

 

Quote

Final Thoughts

- This laptop is not meant to be opened or repaired; you can’t get inside without inflicting a lot of damage.
- The CPU, RAM, and onboard storage are soldered to the motherboard, making upgrades a no-go.
- The headphone jack, while modular, can only be accessed by removing the heat sink, fan, display, and motherboard.
- The battery is difficult and dangerous to replace, giving the device a limited lifespan.

 

It sounds to me like Microsoft's Surface products are the epitome of designed-to-fail / design-to-not-be-repairable, AKA "forced obsolescence," and are designed to force somebody who buys one to buy a new one again in a couple of years. I'd stay away from them, personally.

[The Benjamins]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Doesnt surprise me, Microsoft doesnt know how to make a laptop. 

 

They say that the Surface is more of an example of what things should be, yet they continue to release them every year and they market them like its a competitive product. 

 

They should just stick to what they do "better" than their other stuff *cough* Windows *cough* 

The reason the surface line started was Microsoft annoyance of 3rd party manufacture making crappy cheap systems. The goal of the surface line is to spur OEM's to make better systems, which I feel they achieved.

[Nicnac]

Mbp ftw ✌?

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Kek Ops said:

you'd think that the build quality all around would be better. 

You would think, but this is MS right now

 

 

[TheGlenlivet]

The worst part of the surface for me has always been the advertising-

Dancing college students, stupid songs, beautiful people staring at shiny screens, people doing activities that have nothing to do with computers.  Never a mention of specs, usually no mention of price.

I guess I am not their target audience.  Sorry old man rant over...

 

[Guest]

Reviews i have read always pointed Surface Laptops and Surface Pro tablets as very well built.

 

Could this just be an attempt to downgrade a solid manufacturer in the market for past injuries , which clearly aimed to topple Apple MacBooks and iPads?

 

I never had any of these products tough, they cost so much money its way over 2000...

[Bananasplit_00]

Expensive crap, just like Apple! 

[vanished]

They certainly overcharge for the things as much as any other company you could name on a $/"power" hardware level so there's really no excuse for this.

[captain_to_fire]

1 hour ago, Kek Ops said:

The decision by Consumer Reports applies to Microsoft devices with detachable keyboards, such as the new Surface Pro released in June and the Surface Book, as well as the company’s Surface Laptops with conventional clamshell designs.

Oops, another quality control issue.

 

41 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

The worst part of the surface for me has always been the advertising-

These ads? Yup, they're cringy.

Some of their ads are a bit disingenuous. Microsoft launched their official Office apps for iOS and Android later that year.

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

They should just stick to what they do "better" than their other stuff *cough* Windows *cough*

Macintosh ?, the computer for the rest of us. 

 

[mr moose]

I'd like to see the actual return rates.   We hear about this sort of thing all the time. It usually turns out to be a storm in a tea cup or a flawed study.   Remember blackblaze trying to insinuate seagate had a failure rate of 5% or whatever stupid number? 

 

It might be true, but generaly it is rare. 

[captain_to_fire]

 

[SansVarnic]

Personally I never a had a hardware issue with any Microsoft branded product I have purchased, but then again I take of my stuff so.... Except for my phone I drop almost daily and it has a just a sleeve like case, it has no issues that I have noticed as of yet. (then again its a Nokia the indestructible phone)

 

As for the tablets I have never owned or really used one so I cant speak on those. I have no use for tablets really.

 

Besides MS has always been a software focused company.

[PlayStation 2]

Apple without the build quality?

[Nowak]

3 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

In addition to reliability concerns, Microsoft Surface products have extremely low repairability - which means that if a person encounters an issue with one, they might be out of luck in being able to do something to get it working again.

 

Microsoft Surface Laptop Teardown

Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Teardown

 

 

It sounds to me like Microsoft's Surface products are the epitome of designed-to-fail / design-to-not-be-repairable, AKA "forced obsolescence," and are designed to force somebody who buys one to buy a new one again in a couple of years. I'd stay away from them, personally.

They're just as bad as Apple in that regard, trying to make it impossible for consumers to do their own repairs.

[RagnarokDel]

considering freeze and unexpected shutdown as breakage is retarded.

[mr moose]

33 minutes ago, RagnarokDel said:

considering freeze and unexpected shutdown as breakage is retarded.

especially when its a prediction based on other products. 

[LAwLz]

I am not a big fan of Consumer Reports. I think they are very hit-and-miss. Sometimes great, sometimes bad.

This article seems to lean more towards the bad end of the spectrum if you ask me. But I guess that depends on how much trust you put into their recommendations. I mean, I would never recommend a Surface laptop because I think it's a piece of shit in several important areas, without taking reliability into consideration. Those specs, at that price, with those ports and a locked down version of Windows? No way.

 

11 hours ago, Goku-sama said:

Reviews i have read always pointed Surface Laptops and Surface Pro tablets as very well built.

A lot of people (and reviewers for that matter) gets "it feels premium" confused with "it has high build quality".

This is something that has been bothering me since the iPhone 4 came out.

 

Anything that has a material that feels premium on the outside will get praised for being "well built" these days, even though the inside might be held together by a massive amount of glue and dried up thermal paste.

 

 

3 hours ago, RagnarokDel said:

considering freeze and unexpected shutdown as breakage is retarded.

I don't agree.

Unexpected freezes and shutdowns can often be caused by hardware issues. Since they have a sample size of over 90,000 tablets and laptops it is fair to say that all models will have an equal share of "dumb users causing issues and inflating the numbers". If some brand gets more freezes and shutdowns than another one then it is reasonable to suspect that it is from issues with the product rather than the users.

[themctipers]

11 hours ago, Nicnac said:

Mbp ftw ✌?

before i really wanted a macbook

 

then i started to watch louis, oh god

[mr moose]

3 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

 Since they have a sample size of over 90,000 tablets and laptops it is fair to say that all models will have an equal share of "dumb users causing issues and inflating the numbers". If some brand gets more freezes and shutdowns than another one then it is reasonable to suspect that it is from issues with the product rather than the users.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if they shared their metric on what constitutes a freeze and how it is reported.   For all we know they might be counting a screen blank when a new app loads as freezing.