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Consumer Reports gives its recommendation back to Microsoft’s Surface laptops

Consumer Reports gives its recommendation back to Microsoft’s Surface laptops

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The laptops had previously lost Consumer Reports’ approval over reliability concerns

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Consumer Reports has announced that it is once again recommending Microsoft’s Surface laptops, after stripping its “recommended” badge from the line of computers last year over marked reliability concerns.

But “Microsoft’s reliability is now on-par with most other laptop brands,” says Martin Lachter, a senior research associate at Consumer Reports — which is good news for both Microsoft and anyone considering buying a Surface, especially with the company rumored to announce refreshed hardware in October.

Good news for Microsoft ahead of its upcoming Surface event

Consumer Reports originally revoked its recommendations after a survey of 90,000 laptop and tablet owners found that 25 percent of Surface users reported having problems by the end of their second year owning the device. Its latest survey concluded that that’s no longer the case (although the recommendation site didn’t disclose the exact numbers for this year’s polling).

The newly re-gained recommendation applies to most of Microsoft’s Surface lineup, including the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, and Surface Book 2. Notably missing is the recently released 10-inch Surface Go, although that isn’t getting the recommendation badge due to poor performance in Consumer Reports’ lab testing, not reliability concerns.