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Microsoft's Surface Book Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft dismissed Consumer Reports’ Surface reliability ratings last week, but a new internal memo sheds some light on the issues that the software maker has faced. Consumer Reports surveyed 90,000 tablet and laptop owners and found roughly 25 percent of Surface users have encountered issues by the end of the second year of ownership. Paul Thurrott has obtained an internal memo about Microsoft’s response to Consumer Reports, and it appears to suggest that high Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book return rates could have impacted Consumer Reports’ findings. In...

Following the subscriber survey of over 90,000 readers, Consumer Reports estimated that 25 percent of devices would have issues by the second year of ownership. The issues included freezing, unexpected shut downs and unresponsive touch screens, but the non-profit didn't list how many of each complaint it got.Microsoft disputes the survey.  “While we respect Consumer Reports, we disagree with their findings. Microsoft’s real-world return and support rates and customer satisfaction data show we are on par if not better than other devices in the category," a Microsoft spokesperson told Laptop Mag. "We stand firmly behind the quality and reliability of...

It turns out that support page name-checking the Surface Pro 3 wasn't a typo after all. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the all-new Surface Pro 3, but this version is more than a mere spec boost over the Surface Pro 2: It's a whole new entry in the Surface lineup, and one designed "to replace your laptop." The Surface Pro 3 blends full Core i7 power—Surface head Panos Panay calls it "the thinnest Core product ever created," designed in close conjunction with Intel—with true tablet sleekness, sheer screen size aside. The Surface Pro 3 measures in at a mere 0.35-inch thick...

With its new Surface Tablet, Microsoft didn’t just break the mold. It smashed it into a million little pieces, chucked them all into the furnace and set the temperature to obliterate. There really is no precedent for what Microsoft did this week. What was once recognizable is gone. The expected is no more. There are no rules, only supply and the possibility of demand. Microsoft finally built the tablet it wants to use for its platform: an ultra-thin, superlight, kick-stand-sporting, brainiac-cover wearing, touch screen wonder that elicited dozens of “I wants” in Mashable’s live blog chatter. Surface is still wrapped...