Microsoft Surface Touch Cover 'Splits Within Days'

An anonymous reader points out a report at the Guardian of a potential problem for early adopters of the Microsoft Surface tablet. The Touch Cover is one of the available protective covers for the device; it acts as a keyboard, and has both a gyroscope and an accelerometer on board. Unfortunately, some users have found that the edges of the Touch Cover have split open after only a few days of use. "The defect is identical in each case: the cover ... begins to split at its seam where the device attaches magnetically to the main computer. [One developer] was told to return his Touch Cover to Microsoft for a replacement, and Microsoft has been swapping faulty covers for users where it has retail stores. It's unclear whether the problems that people have encountered are due to a faulty batch or are a subtle problem that will become more apparent as more people use it for longer — but the fact that users in the US and the UK have reported the problem suggests that it is not isolated to a single manufacturing batch."

Comments

My experience with Surface

[iolek]

I would say that this story might be a bit over-sensationalist. I have Surface and the touch cover and it's working well. Actually, the whole thing is much better than Android based tablets or iPad. It just works, and you have Windows underneath.

Re:My experience with Surface

[Anonymous Coward]

No, not every manufacturer. Not Apple, Microsoft's competition.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/19/blogger-victorious-over-apple-in-small-claims-case-on-nvidia-gpu-failures/
It seems that the actual article is down at the moment, but apple actually sent two lawyers to court, and tried to file a counter suit against a man even though Nvidia would be paying the actual cost of the repair.

So no, not every manufacturer. Microsoft is actually pretty great at customer service in that sense.

It was the same thing with the xbox 360s, if you had an xbox 360 that was 3 years old or less and had the most common hardware failure, it got replaced. Microsoft caught a ton of flack though, because their agreement to replace all these xboxes actually brought more attention to the story.

I had three(yes, 3) original playstations that didn't last 3 years without a hardware failure. I also had a PS2 that failed in 3.5 years after receiving maybe 1/10th of the use my xbox 360 received. Original nintendos were notoriously unreliable at reading cartridges. Nobody talks about those screwups though, meanwhile here's Microsoft replacing xbox 360s left and right, replacing all these touch covers, and people treat it as a negative. At least they're showing good faith to make it right.

Re:So what?

[benjymouse]

That's exactly what they are saying: don't use it the way you see us using it in the adverts and you'll be fine.

Citation needed. Hint: You seem to be confusing one user's suggestion for a Microsoft statement.

Re:No testing?

[Attila Dimedici]

This is Microsoft. They are testing it as we speak. What did you think users were for?