Microsoft Defends Surface Products After Consumer Reports Pulls Out Recommendation
In a sudden turn of events, Consumer Reports no longer recommends several Microsoft Surface products. Meanwhile, Microsoft responded and defended the laptops in question.
Consumer Reports issued a statement on Thursday discussing several reasons why variants of the Surface Laptop and Surface Book had been kicked off their list of recommended laptops.
The laptops involved in the report were the 128 GB and 256 GB variants of the Surface Laptop as well as the Surface Book with 128 GB and 512 GB configurations.
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Consumer Reports is a renowned nonprofit organization focused on delivering reviews, ratings and recommendations of products based on independent research and consumer product testing.
According to the organization, their National Research Center surveyed "90,741 tablets and laptops that subscribers bought new between 2014 and the beginning of 2017" and concluded that as much as 25 percent of those products needed some sort of repair within two years from the time of purchase.
Consumer Reports stated: "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."
With that, the organization maintained they can no longer "recommend any other Microsoft laptops or tablets because of poor predicted reliability in comparison with most other brands."
Meanwhile, Consumer Reports also stated that their decision not to recommend Microsoft's Surface products is also effective for the newest Surface Pro tablet released in June.
On the other hand, Microsoft refuted Consumer Reports' claims and said the predicted breakage rate of Surface products was much lower than 25 percent, based on a separate study conducted by the company.
Microsoft added: "Additionally, we track other indicators of quality such as incidents per unit, which have improved from generation to generation and are now at record lows of well below 1%."
The company also claimed that 98 percent of consumers using the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book "are satisfied" with their devices, based on a June 2017 study conducted in several countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, Japan, and Australia.
