Re: Does Microsoft offer an exchange program too?
"The only time a user has to repair a laptop is if it fails after the 3 year warranty period but before it so outdated as to be no longer useful..."
Well, two points there.
(1) I've never seen a laptop with a three-year warranty (according to the MS site, the Surface Laptop comes with a one-year warranty and a whole 90 days of technical support), and
(2) Now that Moore's Law has stalled, a laptop can easily be useful many years after the first three (and certainly past the first year), although this one's lack of upgradeability limits that future usefulness too.
SSDs in particular don't last forever (not even mentioning the battery!), and they're definitely a consumable part with a known and finite service life. I have a SSD in the PC I am using now that would be close to end of life (by TBW) if it were some of the ones I've seen in reviews and not a Samsung 840 Pro with better-than-average endurance. While most people probably won't wear out a SSD, it's still not something that ought to be part of the motherboard.
My laptop was manufactured in late 2008, approaching nine years ago, and it's still my go-to when I am out and about, despite its age. While it was decently responsive in stock form even by modern standards, it's even better now with a few upgrades, and that's something that won't work with the Surface Laptop.
I expect something costing a thousand dollars or more to last until it is obsolete, which could easily be ten years or more these days, and that includes these kinds of simple upgrades that not long ago were pretty much universally available.
Disposable items are supposed to be cheap, but this one isn't. It's a premium-priced throwaway laptop.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
