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Consumer Reports Pulls Purchase Recommendation for Microsoft Surface Devices

maflynn said:
Not good news for MS, though I will say that my Surface Book has been problem free (knocks on wood).
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I bought the Surface Pro 4 when the price was knocked down to $850 (which included the keyboard and pen). The main reason I bought was that I just gave up on Apple coming out with the refreshed MacBook and the Surface was $350 less.

I bought it mainly for traveling. So far it's been a great unit for the price. Does everything I want. Far as I'm concerned, it's a keeper.
 
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I don't know about the reliability of mine. My Surface was handed down to me by my husband. I didn't ask for it and after using it a few times haven't really taken it off the shelf. It's awkward to use. It's too heavy for a tablet and is a battery hog. And Cortana is so nosy.
 
I haven't consider CR a source for making buying decisions since the '90's, so I wouldn't normally consider something like this pulling of a recommendation as being meaningful. But it's also not surprising to see this, as I believe MS has had issues with their in-house Surface products, iteration to iteration. And I'm not just talking about 2 years into ownership.
 
outskirtsofinfinity said:
Consumer Reports still exists?
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I've been a subscriber for a long time. It's still one of the few places to get objective reviews of consumer products.

That said, I've found that the magazine has tended to steer clear of Apple products. They usually will promote PC desktops or Android mobile devices over Apple's offerings, even though Apple's products always score high on reliability and customer satisfaction. And they rarely compare those products fairly. For instance, a recent review of desktops compared an HP PC to Apple's upcoming iMac Pro. Naturally, they said to get the PC because it cost thousands less -- without ever having the iMac Pro to review. Why not compare the PC to the current 27-inch iMac, which does cost thousands less? So I've learned to take their tech reviews with a grain of salt.
 
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This is exactly the problems we had. The failure rate was much higher than dell and other manufacturers. No longer buying them.
 
The LCD touchscreen is so fragile on the Surface Pro. The wedge design focuses any impact straight to the touchscreen. Problem is, you can't just replace the digitizer, it's almost impossible to remove the LCD without breaking it. If you don't have Microsoft Complete, you are screwed if your touchscreen cracks or chips. No way to fix out of warranty other than to buy a new unit.
 
Reminds me of their problems with the XBOX360 ;)
But they will learn from their mistakes.
 
My Pro has been problem free in the few short months I have had it.
Then again, in the last few years I take the information from CR with a grain of salt and treat it as just a data point when shopping for major items. I generally place more emphasis on long term consumer reviews and technical bulletins.
 
maflynn said:
Not good news for MS, though I will say that my Surface Book has been problem free (knocks on wood).
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My Surface Pro 4 was also problem free. I thought it was a superb device. However, there was someone in my engineering classes that had numerous problems with his Surface Book. It would regularly BOSD, so I’m not completely shocked by CR’s findings.
 
A lot of the issues are fixed with updates (firmware and otherwise). Must people avoid updates at all costs for some reason. This is why Microsoft had basically made them mandatory.

I have a Dell 9365. Out of the box it's horrible. After bios updates it's perfect.
 
So funny. When Consumer Reports criticizes Apple it's all about how CR is bad, old, antiquated, etc. When they criticize Microsoft...

Shows what a lot of us said back when CR reported the battery issue: independent reviewers are essential and important. CR doesn't play favorites despite what fans want. And in this era where personal recommendations (often influenced or purchased) seem to be what people trust it's even more important to have an independent group that doesn't accept corporate sponsorship, money, or influence to cut through the marketing spin.
 
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tigertazz said:
This is really weird timing. I was just in pc world with the sales guy trying to get me to buy one of these over the MacBook I went in for as the tweet notification came in.

Needless to say his arguments soon changed to getting the Mac instead
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You went to PC World to buy a Mac? That is really weird, indeed! :p
 
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whiteonline said:
The statistics are based solely on feedback from CR subscribers. It's a pretty targeted pool IMO.

“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.”
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What makes CR subscribers a "targeted pool?" Is there something about being a CR subscriber that makes you more likely to have a problem?

Microsoft will be aware of every return claim and support call made for each of their products, so it's certainly a valid measure (presuming they're telling the whole truth - if CR is suspect, shouldn't Microsoft also be suspect?). However, return claims and support calls aren't the only measures of trouble. Microsoft may not be as aware of issues that occurred out of warranty, or issues the owner self-solved. CR's statistics cover all those circumstances, and are measured over a longer time frame.

CR is dealing with a statistical sample. The sample size must reach a particular size in order for it to be statistically valid. 90,000 reports is a far, far more valid sample than the kind of anecdotal reports people rely upon around here. "I had trouble (or great experience), and I read on the internet that other people had trouble (or great experience)."
 
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pat500000 said:
Sounds like cr is bias.
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When CR reported bad battery life with the Touch Bar MacBook Pro, CR was "not bias", then they found out that it was an intermittent bug, Apple fixed, and they reported 18 hours of battery life out of 10 announced by Apple, they were ignored.

Now that CR is reporting what everyone knows, Apple is the best in reliability, Microsoft products simply suck, they are "bias"...

Yeah...
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dorsal said:
It can not be repaired without physical damage:

http://bgr.com/2017/06/19/surface-laptop-repair-ifixit/
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And how about this, isn't this the most blatant case of planned obsolescence?

LXKDjmu.jpg


While the computer technically works, it's something that nobody wants to use.

And no, there's no way to wash this, or take it and remove or replace it.
 
stevie grant said:
Sounds like you don't know what words mean.
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Sounds like you have no idea what you are talking ...even if siri had to translate it for you.
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critter13 said:
agreed, could we get a publication that isn't biased towards facts and statistics? We need an Onion version of Consumer Reports to properly represent the people.
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Yes...onion report.
 
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Oh no! Where are all those people who constantly complain about the price of Apple devices!?

Now we know where that extra money goes... Proper R&D to ensure that a 25% failure rate doesn't happen.
 
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