Hold off on buying a Microsoft Surface tablet or laptop.

Consumer Reports said on Thursday morning that it’s pulling its recommendation on Microsoft Surface laptops and tablets (including the Surface Pro, Surface Book and Surface Laptop) because of “poor predicted reliability in comparison to most other brands.”

“25 percent of Microsoft laptops and tablets will present their owners with problems by the end of the second year of ownership,” Consumer Reports said, noting this warning applies even to Microsoft’s brand new devices that launched just a couple of months ago.

CNBC reviewed the new Surface Pro in June and found that, while it was a powerful tablet that also doubles as a competitive laptop, the configuration options are far more expensive than what most consumers could buy from Microsoft’s competitors.

Consumer Reports said that responses to its annual survey revealed that consumers weren’t pleased with their Microsoft products during the lifetime of ownership. Frozen computers, unexpected shutdowns and unresponsive screens were noted as complaints.

Microsoft Surface Pro is designed and built with performance and reliability in mind,” Microsoft told CNBC. “Microsoft’s real-world return and support rates for past models differ significantly from Consumer Reports’ breakage predictability. While we respect Consumer Reports, we don’t believe these findings accurately reflect Surface owners’ true experiences or captures the performance and reliability improvements made with every Surface generation. We’re proud of the high performance and versatility marks Surface Pro received in Consumer Reports’ laptop lab evaluations.”

Microsoft is new to the hardware business and has generally been met with favorable reviews of its laptops from consumers and pundits in the industry. Surface revenues were down 2 percent during the last quarter, though there were expectations revenues would increase this quarter with newer models on the market.

Source: Tech CNBC
Consumer Reports says 25 percent of Microsoft Surface computers will break within two years