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

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 now “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.

Consumer Reports originally revoked its recommendations after a survey of 90,000 laptop and tablet owners found that 25 percent 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.