What Microsoft Is Saying Internally about Surface Quality and Reliability

Megalith

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Paul Thurrott has received an internal Microsoft memo indicating that the software giant is readying a broad campaign to defend its Surface line after Consumer Reports recommended against their purchase. The poor reputation may have stemmed from the quality of initial Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 units, which were supposedly plagued with issues: interestingly, Microsoft had placed blame on Intel and their Skylake chipsets, when in reality, it was poorly designed Surface-specific custom drivers and settings that were creating problems.

…here are the key takeaways. One, that the Consumer Reports findings are largely skewed by Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices, which Microsoft’s internal data proves suffered from massive reliability issues over a long period of time. Two, that Microsoft’s internal data shows that it essentially fixed those products. Three, that subsequent Surface devices launched in far more reliable states. (This may explain why the firm has ignored USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, by the way.) Four, that Surface customers—whatever the reason—are very happy with their purchases. (With the understanding that there is less correlation, I believe, between product reliability and customer satisfaction with premium products.)
 
All I know is that I purchased a Skylake device for work purposes, trusting MS to get it right. That was a huge mistake, and one that hampered my productivity for quite some time. You can put me in the never again category.
 
I got the original Surface Book at launch and there were widespread problems with power management and the screen detachment that took about five months to get fixed to the point of being what I considered solid so this makes sense to me. I've had my Surface Book for nearly two years and I consider it the best 2 in 1 device I've ever owned even with the initial problems.

I think it's good to see Microsoft take this seriously because anything can improve and I do think the Surface Book really wasn't quite ready when launched though the issues got fixed.
 
There was the Iron age, Bronze age and Post-Medieval period. We are currently in the "Passing the Blame" age.
 
Paul Thurrott has received an internal Microsoft memo indicating that the software giant is readying a broad campaign to defend its Surface line after Consumer Reports recommended against their purchase. The poor reputation may have stemmed from the quality of initial Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 units, which were supposedly plagued with issues: interestingly, Microsoft had placed blame on Intel and their Skylake chipsets, when in reality, it was poorly designed Surface-specific custom drivers and settings that were creating problems.

…here are the key takeaways. One, that the Consumer Reports findings are largely skewed by Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices, which Microsoft’s internal data proves suffered from massive reliability issues over a long period of time. Two, that Microsoft’s internal data shows that it essentially fixed those products. Three, that subsequent Surface devices launched in far more reliable states. (This may explain why the firm has ignored USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, by the way.) Four, that Surface customers—whatever the reason—are very happy with their purchases. (With the understanding that there is less correlation, I believe, between product reliability and customer satisfaction with premium products.)

I have had both the original surface book and the surface pro 4 since release and I've not hated them nearly as much as everyone seems to. I had a minor issue with the Surface Book early on (just the warranty registration) and they exchanged it for that oddly. I keep multiple higher-end machines around too though. I would love the little more powerful version of the Surface book for gamecube emu tho :p
 
We trialed the Surface in our IT department. While it was usable as a tablet, it was a half-assed notebook and the reliability of docking was a joke. Add that the damn thing is un-servicable in the field and they all got shelved after a few months. Not as "sexy", but Dell's convertible can be disassembled and repaired/upgraded.
 
We trialed the Surface in our IT department. While it was usable as a tablet, it was a half-assed notebook and the reliability of docking was a joke. Add that the damn thing is un-servicable in the field and they all got shelved after a few months. Not as "sexy", but Dell's convertible can be disassembled and repaired/upgraded.

We're doing the same with our VP's. So far there hasn't been too many issues. Mostly with docking, and one guy who is more used to using macOS.
 
Hopefully, Microsoft will say something along the lines of "Yes, we screwed up. The product had issues, but we've fixed them and here's the stats to prove it."
 
Interesting. I've had the original surface book since March 2016 (I think I waited like 6 months for the beta test to finish) and haven't had any real issues to speak of. I don't use it much, as most of my computing is done on the desktop.

Hard to get any real work done on such a small screen - it's mostly for client presentations and light work at a coffee shop.
 
IMHO all the sleep/resume/connectivity issues hinge on the terrible Avastar WiFi/Bluetooth chip. As they have never done anything besides half ass "did that fix it?" driver updates for 13 products in a row its apparent they are not serious about reliability.
 
I've had Surface Pro 4's with defective charger's out of the box. Confused the hell out of me as the Surface Pro 4 is the only mobile device I know of that ships with a 100% flat battery - There was literally nothing to tell me just why the device wouldn't turn on.
 
"He also suggests that what Consumer Reports calls a “failure” is perhaps overly-broad and that some incidents—like a frozen screen or unresponsive touch—are not “failures” but are rather just minor incidents that are easily rectified by the user."

It’s the customer's fault!

Not quite bad as saying you're holding it wrong, but saying you're complaining wrong is pretty bad. Sure, Jerry's Kids complain about anything, but for Consumer Reports purposes, this is true of everything they're getting data on. What bullshit.
 
Microsoft Blamed Intel For Its Own Bad Surface Drivers

https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/64095/welcome-to-surfacegate
Multiple senior Microsoft officials told me at the time that the issues were all Intel's fault, and that the microprocessor giant had delivered its buggiest-ever product in the "Skylake" generation chipsets. Microsoft, first out of the gate with Skylake chips, thus got caught up by this unreliability, leading to a falling out with Intel... Since then, however, another trusted source at Microsoft has provided me with a different take on this story. Microsoft, I'm told, fabricated the story about Intel being at fault.

The real problem was Surface-specific custom drivers and settings that the Microsoft hardware team cooked up. The Skylake fiasco came to a head internally when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Lenovo last year and asked the firm, then the world's biggest maker of PCs, how it was dealing with the Skylake reliability issues. Lenovo was confused. No one was having any issues, he was told. I assume this led to some interesting conversations between the members of the Microsoft senior leadership team. But the net result was that Microsoft had to push out some existing designs quickly to get ahead of the reliability issues.
 
I've had the Surface RT, Surface 2, Surface Pro 3 and now the 4 (couldn't see any reason to change to the Pro)
I did have issues with the 4 initially, but now its working like a charm.
Couldn't fault them in any way, but like with anything, I wanted a while before I changed to each platform
 
I've had the Surface RT, Surface 2, Surface Pro 3 and now the 4 (couldn't see any reason to change to the Pro)
I did have issues with the 4 initially, but now its working like a charm.
Couldn't fault them in any way, but like with anything, I wanted a while before I changed to each platform
I had the surface rt... It was a piece of shit, i actually tossed it rather than trying to replace again..too pissed to care hehe
 
I had the surface rt... It was a piece of shit, i actually tossed it rather than trying to replace again..too pissed to care hehe
The RT did annoy me in fairness. It smacked of trying to copy the iPad yet with no ecosystem to back it up
the 2 was better...not by much though
 
"He also suggests that what Consumer Reports calls a “failure” is perhaps overly-broad and that some incidents—like a frozen screen or unresponsive touch—are not “failures” but are rather just minor incidents that are easily rectified by the user."

It’s the customer's fault!

If I had employee laptops that where hanging or freezing several times a week, I'd never hear the end if it.

Some people like to bash Dell, but their business laptops, desktop and servers have been extremely reliable for me.
Most the 8-10 year old laptops I have still work. They are just to big/bulky (and a bit slow) to be used in the office.
When I finally decide to retire them, I load a fresh dell image and make them available to the employees who are happy to get them.
 
"He also suggests that what Consumer Reports calls a “failure” is perhaps overly-broad and that some incidents—like a frozen screen or unresponsive touch—are not “failures” but are rather just minor incidents that are easily rectified by the user."

It’s the customer's fault!

Not quite bad as saying you're holding it wrong, but saying you're complaining wrong is pretty bad. Sure, Jerry's Kids complain about anything, but for Consumer Reports purposes, this is true of everything they're getting data on. What bullshit.

Yep. Consumer reports would be getting the same complaints from Dell, HP, and other products. The only group of buyers I've seen unwilling to blame the company for the faults are the devoted Apple users. They have a tendency to deny that anything ever goes wrong.
 
Yep. Consumer reports would be getting the same complaints from Dell, HP, and other products. The only group of buyers I've seen unwilling to blame the company for the faults are the devoted Apple users. They have a tendency to deny that anything ever goes wrong.

For what it's worth, MacRumors is chock full of people beating Apple over the head for everything conceivable.
 
Yep. Consumer reports would be getting the same complaints from Dell, HP, and other products. The only group of buyers I've seen unwilling to blame the company for the faults are the devoted Apple users. They have a tendency to deny that anything ever goes wrong.
Huh? Every Apple forum has people bitching about things about Apple products and that's from people who own their products.
 
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