We'd be here for days if I detailed every single stress test I saw — something I can't even do because there were many that my tour didn't cover. (Microsoft tells me that, during my tour, the workers had to discretely remove or cover some in-development products that may or may not ever see the light of day.)

Ultimately, the purpose of the visit was to get a better understanding of how end-to-end integration — from idea concept, to prototyping, to stress testing, to packaging — leads to better products, which in turn results in higher customer satisfaction. And of course, happy customers are more likely to become evangelists.

Ask anyone who owns or uses a Surface device and there's a good chance that they love their device the way Apple fans love their iPhones, or iPads, or MacBooks.

As a technology reviewer, I can tell you Microsoft's been hitting home runs with its Surfaces devices. They're beautifully designed and thoughtfully built, and now I can confidently add that they're aggressively tested to exceed customer satisfaction.

Whether it's the Surface Pro, Surface Book, Surface Studio, or accessories like the Surface Pen or Dial, Microsoft's been nailing the hardware with more people taking notice; Surface revenue grew 32 percent year-over-year in Q3 2018.

I can't speak to how other companies' device testing compares to Microsoft's, but the extensive and expanding testing labs I saw are clear evidence to me that Microsoft, whose product division is led by the ridiculously detail-oriented Panos Panay, has plans to keep building devices for years, if not decades, to come. Its foundation may be in software, but Microsoft's ascent as a hardware force to be reckoned with is only beginning.