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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 11 2017, @03:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the color-me-surprised dept.

Consumer Reports has revoked its recommendation of Microsoft Surface laptops and tablets due to poor reliability compared to other brands, as reported by its subscribers:

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.

Microsoft objects:

"Microsoft's real-world return and support rates for past models differ significantly from Consumer Reports' breakage predictability," Microsoft said in an emailed statement. "We don't believe these findings accurately reflect Surface owners' true experiences or capture the performance and reliability improvements made with every Surface generation."

Also at CNN, CNBC, and Reuters.

Update: Microsoft blog post.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @05:48PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @05:48PM (#552456)

    A number of survey respondents said they experienced problems with their devices during startup. A few commented that their machines froze or shut down unexpectedly, and several others told CR that the touch screens weren’t responsive enough.

    I have to wonder if the customers can distinguish between the OS being trash, and the device itself being trash. Though, the line is definitely blurred here - they shove firmware updates through WU and many features are only really supported on surfaces.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @05:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @05:58PM (#552462)

    I have to wonder if the customers can distinguish between the OS being trash, and the device itself being trash.

    To the average consumer I don't think they perceive a difference. And since this device has no user-serviceable parts, and cannot have the OS replaced, the hardware and OS are tied together in such a way that it doesn't really matter which one is the bigger problem.

    • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Saturday August 12 2017, @02:36AM

      by jmorris (4844) on Saturday August 12 2017, @02:36AM (#552704)

      Actually, it appears that after all the drama about insisting all tablets be locked, Microsoft itself decreed the Surface line to be laptops and thus eligible.

      Have a look at this random link [microsoft.com] to a discussion at Microsoft's own forum about whether dual booting voids the warranty by counting as "internal tampering" or not. I have seen other online resources that imply you can even disable secure boot on various Surface models like on many laptops. There are pages devoted to sorting out the details of various distros running on various specific Surfaces so apparently it is a "thing" to upgrade a Surface. Holy Hell, were the GNOMEs right when they built a tablet OS? I always laughed at them that "nice idea, too bad there ain't going to be any unlocked tablet hardware." Joke is on me if the exception is the Microsoft Surface. Who said the Universe lacks a sense of humor?

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday August 11 2017, @06:01PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday August 11 2017, @06:01PM (#552465) Journal

    I have to wonder if the customers can distinguish between the OS being trash, and the device itself being trash.

    If other devices it is compared to also have Windows installed but have better reliability scores, it does not make a difference.

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