Microsoft Surface Pen for Surface Pro 3

Good product delivered on time – does exactly what it is meant to

With less than couple seconds this pen connected well with surface book 1

I had to buy a new pen last September when I forgot my original at a coffeeshop and it never resurfaced (pun intended?). At first, the replacement seemed nice, with a little adhesive holder that should be helpful to prevent future loss. However, the adhesive is not strong enough to actually stay stuck to the keyboard for long (I recommend sticking it to the actual tablet). I ended up using a wall mounting adhesive tab and adhering it to that, but it eventually fell off and I gave up–it needs some heavier duty 3M-style adhesive. Now I just try to religiously keep it in the same place in my bag at all times.

On to the actual pen itself–it is shorter than the original pen that came with my Surface Pro3, which I thought was strange. I also got the pen for $35 on Amazon at the time (Sept. 2015) to save money vs. the Microsoft Store price, but I’ve started to wonder if it was cheaper because it was a knockoff even though the documentation looked legitimate. Alternatively, Microsoft adapted a cheaper pen design since my original tablet purchase (Oct. 2014). I’ve included two pictures where you can see that the silver paint has chipped significantly over time (and it started chipping very soon after I bought it), but my original pen never chipped.

This pen also frequently disconnects and I have to take out the battery to “reset.” It also glitches where if I hold the pen above (not touching) the screen, it makes little squiggles, and I have to take out the battery and “reset” again. Maybe some of this issue is due to drivers, but I haven’t had time to do a lot of research. On the battery front, the battery that came with the pen failed after 4-5 months as my Amazon purchase history tells me. I recommend this battery source: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0044D9ZI2/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_10

I don’t recall having any of these problems with the original pen that came with my tablet, and I will note that pen never needed a new battery in the time (11 months) before I lost it.

Ultimately, I wish I had purchased my replacement pen directly from the Microsoft Store for more money, but maybe it would have had just as many problems. I never write reviews, but I was just trying to take notes in OneNote and this pen glitched out again, irking me enough that a review was worth 20-30 minutes of my time. However, since the purchase price has jumped on Amazon, maybe the item is an improved quality now.

AAAA battery was included, and it works fine!

I don’t really understand how Microsoft can get away with making you buy the one thing that makes their Surface products worth buying. In my opinion the only reason to get a Surface over any number of the cheaper alternatives is because of this pen. As a student I find it useful to take notes and draw on PDFs using the built in software from Microsoft. The pen works flawlessly with them and does an amazing job at capturing my handwriting. The quality is pretty solid although the buttons are a little loose and rattle if tapped but not pressed. I really like using the pen as a mouse alternative since it is much more compact and slides neatly into a holder on the side of the keyboard. The pen has a great feature that allows you to hover it over the area of the screen that contains a drop down menu and it acts the same as a mouse would if you hover the cursor.