The ratings service Consumer Reports thought the reliability of the Surface line was particularly pants. At the time, Consumer Reports surveyed 90,000 subscribers and found that a quarter of Volish laptops and tablets will give owners problems by the end of the second year of ownership.

However Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager for Surface, challenged the finding and said that the Surface devices were getting more reliable with each new generation.

"One of the things you're seeing is the reliability of our products over time, with every generation getting better and better and better."

Reliability issues among newer devices, such as the Surface Laptop and Studio, had been reported for only a fraction of devices, he said.

"We're talking about incidents per device of less than 0.001 per cent."