Consumer Reports pulls all Microsoft Surface recommendations

Consumer Reports has announced is pulling its recommendations on four Surface systems due to extremely high failure rates. The organization regularly surveys its readers and members about the products that they own and use. Based on those surveys, the failure rate of all Surface laptops with detatchable keyboards is expected to be significantly higher than other devices.

This is playing out in two ways. First, Consumer Reports is pulling the ‘Recommended’ status on four systems: The Surface Laptop (128GB and 256GB) and the Surface Book (128GB and 512GB) are no longer preferred options. Second, the organization is categorically and specifically declaring the entire Surface product family ‘Not Recommended’ based on its own two-year survey results. According to CR, this is the first time Surface products have been popular enough for the company to gather data from its readers on their long-term reliability and service requirements. Here’s how the organization describes its findings:

“We’ve found that reliability is a major factor for consumers deciding on what tablet or laptop to buy,” Simon Slater, Consumer Reports surv ey manager, i n an emailed statement. Overall, CR reports that a twenty five percent likelihood that an owner of a Surface laptop or tablet product will have problems by the end of the second year of ownership.

The Surface Pro 4 had marked problems with entering sleep modes, leading to low battery life, the Surface Book had hinge problems, and the Surface Pro 3’s battery life deteriorated badly last year. Microsoft initially refused to service these systems at all, breaking a promise the head of Surface had made about MS offering a $ 200 battery replacement plan. Instead, Microsoft forced Surface Pro 3 owners to pony up $ 450 for a refurbished unit. Redmond eventually changed course on this and refunded customers their money, but the company’s initial response was still to throw its customers under the bus.