In fact, you don’t have to pair or connect your Surface Pen to start sketching or drawing on your Surface device. However, pairing the Surface Pen with your laptop or tablet lets you access the full suite of Surface Pen functionalities and information. Battery life varies significantly based on usage, network and feature configuration, signal strength, settings and other factors. See Surface Battery Performance for details. Instead, it feels like Microsoft is far more inspired by its upcoming dual-screen devices, which will likely herald the future of the company’s hardware design – depending on how successful they are. Some older devices will be limited to support for 1,024 levels of pressure due to limitations of earlier MPP protocols, but for the most part, all these devices will support the Surface Pen. It's also worth noting that the Surface Laptop lineup, as well as the Surface Pro 3, do not support magnetic attachment for the pen. All the others let you store the pen on the side in some way. However, with chunky bezels and minimal changes since last year's model, the Surface Pro is starting to look dated compared to the competition. If you're cool with iOS, the iPad Pro 2020 is a great alternative; same goes for the Galaxy Tab S7 for Android fans.

Surface Pen is an essential tool you should get for your Surface PCs since all Surface except Surface RT, Surface 2, and Surface Laptop Go models are compatible with Surface Pen. It works best on Surface Go, Surface Pro, Surface Laptop Studio, and Surface Studio.

Kickstand adjusts nearly 180 degrees

Aside from magnetic attachment, third-party pens also support all of these features, so they're a great choice too if you don't think you need to store the pen magnetically on your device. The Surface Laptop Go doesn't support active pens As for the most major Surface Pro 7 design change, we get USB-C at long last, but it’s on the USB 3.1 standard and not Thunderbolt 3. With that, you get the versatility of this new connection without the raw throughput of the Thunderbolt 3 technology. Battery life varies significantly based on usage, network and feature configuration, signal strength, settings and other factors. See Surface Battery Performance for details. Once your pen is paired, you'll be able to use the top button. The top button does different things depending on how you interact with the button. To change these shortcuts, go to Start > Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink . All of these options will technically work on any modern Surface device, and in fact, on a lot of modern Windows laptops. Many of these devices, including any Surface PC released after the Surface Pro 3, feature the Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP), which all these pens support. Prior to that, Surface devices used Wacom technology, so these pens won't be compatible, but any of these is technically functional for other devices. However, there are some things to be aware of. The Surface Slim Pen 2 is ideal for newer devices

Battery life varies significantly based on usage, network and feature configuration, signal strength, settings and other factors. See here for details. The latter should contribute to stronger media streaming, especially at higher resolutions, as well as a slightly expanded gaming profile. Your pen can be used throughout Windows, similar to how you would use a mouse or keyboard. Here are some actions you can start with. Like just about every Surface before it, the Surface Pro 7 isn’t necessarily feature-rich or has many key pieces of software to discuss, which has its pros and cons. The major pro here is that there is practically no bloatware on this tablet at all, as it’s issued directly from Microsoft.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is more of a (mostly) good thing

Choose the first option with “Bluetooth”to connect to any Bluetooth device including the Microsoft Surface Pen. The Surface Pro 7 was the first of its kind using one of Intel’s 10-nanometer (nm) processors (CPUs) across all specifications, and the numbers certainly show that. Now having issued practically the same tablet for two years, it’s becoming clear that either Microsoft has reached its limits on the original Surface Pro design, which is unlikely, or the company is simply no longer interested in tweaking the Surface Pro any more – except for tinkering with the Pro X. Rest your hand on the screen, like you would on a piece of paper, then start writing. Your Surface is designed to ignore your hand and other inputs while you write. Use the pointer that appears under your pen tip to guide you while you ink.

Make sure Bluetooth is on, then select Add device. Choose Surface Pen in the list of devices. Follow any other instructions if they appear, then select Done. Now, Microsoft has improved the device's studio microphones for stronger accuracy when using Cortana with your voice, but that's such a minor improvement it's hardly worth mentioning.If you want to change the top button shortcuts, change the hand you write with, or change other pen settings, go to Change pen settings for more info. The first reason for this, as we've mentioned, is the design. For the Surface Pro models, starting with the Pro X, Microsoft removed the magnetic attachment from the side of the tablets. Instead, you're supposed to store the Surface Slim Pen 2 inside the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard, where it also stays charged. At the same time, the Surface Laptop Studio and Laptop Studio 2 are designed to store the Surface Slim Pen 2 on its underside, and with the Surface Duo 2, you can attach the Slim Pen 2 magnetically to the outside using the Surface Duo 2 Pen Cover. All of these options also charge the pen at the same time.

You would normally expect battery life to increase when moving to supposedly more efficient processor architecture. However, Core i5 and i7 versions of Intel’s CPUs made major boosts to graphical performance, which could come at the expense of battery life. Microsoft's 2-in-1 endured through just 7 hours and 52 minutes of Wi-Fi web surfing on our battery test, which is down significantly from last year's Surface Pro 6 (9:20). The Surface Pro 6 of 2018 employed a 14nm Intel Core CPU, which was fine for the job (and arguably still is), but this CPU has brought that transistor size down to 10nm, which means more transistors in the same overall CPU die space. Basically, with more transistors comes better performance, and it shows in the numbers.Your pen is receiving power and trying to pair with a device. Restart your Surface and try pairing it again.