More than a year after being kicked out of Consumer Reports" roster of recommended laptops due to poor reliability, Microsoft Surface has reclaimed the magazine"s recommendation. Consumer Reports, which publishes product testing and consumer-oriented research, announced today that the Surface laptop is now back in its "recommended" ratings.
As usual, the rating is based on a survey of its members. Consumer Reports takes into account a number of factors including brand reliability and owner satisfaction, noting that this is the first time it factored brand reliability in the overall scores for the products it tested.
Martin Lachter, a senior research associate at Consumer Reports, said the laptop brand regained that designation as "Microsoft’s reliability is now on par with most other laptop brands."
On the other hand, Consumer Reports is still not recommending the Surface Go, a 10-inch tablet announced in July. The decision is based on the results of a lab testing conducted by the non-profit organization, not on a member survey. Consumer Reports said the Surface Go failed to match other brands in terms of performing certain tasks like "cycling through different windows."
Still, it"s not altogether bad for Microsoft as its other models including the Surface Pro and Surface Book 2, which lost that status late last year, have managed to be in the recommended ratings.