The new Surface Pen is now up for preorder at Microsoft

Preorders for Micorsoft's new Surface Pen are now live at the Microsoft Store (opens in new tab) online. Don't expect to get wild with the colors, however: only the the platinum color is currently up for grabs.
The new Surface Pen, revealed alongside the new Surface Pro at Microsoft's Shanghai event in May, is much faster than its predecessor with 21ms of latency. The Pen also features 4,096 pressure levels, along with tilt detection that offers some improved control with compatible apps.
Though the Pen is only currently available in platinum, other options for burgundy, cobalt blue, and black will eventually be available as well. If you're eager to get your hands on one, you can preorder now for $99 with shipments set to go out on June 15.
See at the Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
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Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl.
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The obvious question, any advantage over other pens on SP3/4. Edit: Has anyone noticed lag using pen on SP3?
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SP3/SP4, etc. will get tilt support with this pen through a driver update; increased levels of pressure; Latency won't be affected as that's a display/co-processor thing
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That is awesome! Will be looking into buying it then. Thanks Dan.
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From my talks with a Microsoft employee online the only certainty seems to be the tilt sensitivity so far. I guess we'll have to wait for reviews and tests to know if pressure sensitivity will be included.
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Latency reduction was the only feature i cared about. If 100 bucks could make the jitter disappear, I'd buy the pen. But alas, I have to buy a new Surface.
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The new Pen brings increased PS (not sure if it's the full 4096 on SP3/4 -think may be slightly less on both) & Tilt/Shading support (via a fw update), but no lateny improvement, as that requires the SP 2017 too, not just the Pen. *EDIT* My bad, I see that Dan already provided more-or-less the same answer...
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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There's definitely a big lag in the surface pen 3. I don't think it improved after I swap the old pen 3 with the pen 4 for my SP3
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That 1ms though
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Can anyone clarify that if you use the new pen with a SP4 you get the 21ms latency and 4k pressure levels, but no tilt support?
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I think you have that backwards; you DO get tilt support (will need a driver update), but not the latency thing (needs new display hardware in Surface Pro); I'm not really sure about pressure levels as that too depends on the display.
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And that is why I asked. I guess for a non-artist pen user there is not much to gain with the new pen and a SP4. I'm actually quite happy with the current pen, but was curious.
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My Surface 3 has 256 pressure using the 1024 pressure pen. So, I'll bet on the same thing.
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From my talks with a Microsoft employee online the only certainty seems to be the tilt sensitivity so far. I guess we'll have to wait for reviews and tests to know if pressure sensitivity will be included.
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Isn't pressure detected by the pen rather than the display?
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It's a mix of both according to Wacom; but will find out.
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Re: Daniel Rubino,
Wacom? I thought Microsoft bought N-Trig for the Surfaces? -
It's N-Trig, but perhaps Dan was referring to a comment made by Wacom? Unsure.
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I want a Surface Pen
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Well, (pre)order one ....
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Thanks! First, I will buy the Surface.
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Odd that this wasn't up for pre-order from the start. Hopefully my pen will arrive on the same day as my new Surface Pro
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Will the old pen get better latency improvements on the new Surface Pro?
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No .
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I lost my Surface pen, but I haven't missed it. In fact the only time it was really useful to me was on the touch screen for my lighting console.
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Any latency improvement with the top Studio with the new drivers? (First post, but huge fan of WC team).
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I'd buy the new pen to go with my Pro 4 and when I get my SL. I know there are some things that won't work better on the Pro 4 but some things will, and it's only $99, AND I will have a spare! And a cool colour, when the other colours are released.
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Are the other colours even going to be available to those not the US, or is this a 'Surface Laptop/One colour option only' deal for the rest of us? Not something i'd normally ask, but this is Microsoft we're talking about :/
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I'd say so for Australia at least as they are all showing as selectable items on the store even though non of them can be pre ordered as of right now.
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They'll probably be available everywhere. Laptop is limited in colour availability as it's a brand new and expensive product - MS don't know how many they'll sell or what colours will sell the best, so if they initially churn out loads of them with different colours they might lose money on unwanted stock/storage if the stockpile sells slowly.
These pens are considerably cheaper and they'll probably base demand off the SP4 pens' sales, so less of a gamble to produce loads of all the colours. -
In the Dutch Microsoft store you can't pre-order any of the four colors. But priced at € 109,99. It says: available soon.
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Is it worth to compete between new surface pen and new Apple pen?
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The iPad only touts a mere 1 millisecond difference in latency, so in that sense they are equal. However, I do not think the iPad can use eraser tip features like the Surface Pen can (?). The whole experience will be different in either case because of OS and GUI. What matters is what type of device you are looking for: the iPad is a tablet-first device with laptop features only being truly focused on in iOS 11. The Surface Pro has always been capable of being used as either tablet or laptop, depending on which mode suites you best. The pen is dependent on good applications on both iOS and Windows 10, and I think it will appeal to different audiences, with some overlap as well.
At work, people may want to be able to use Office the old fashion keyboard&mouse way, "laptop mode", and combine that with the pen for signing documents with their signature digitally, as well as take notes, highlight text and otherwise treat the screen as digital paper. At home, I think the tablet mode and pen will be a more hobby-focused drawing tool. The iPad in my view (I am a long-time iPad user myself), is great for relaxation and doing hobby things, like drawing stuff, watching videos, listening to music, social media, etc. I did use it on some occasions for writing an academic paper for university studies, but it was clunky and not very productive at all. In the end it was written on the iPad as well as different computers at home and at uni. Given the option, I would have chosen the Surface series of computers for studies, even going with the Surface Pen for taking notes. So, ask yourself what matters most and whether the software and OS matters as well. -
Somewhere, it talks about having a right-click button(?) but I haven't been able to detect anything in pictures. How is that solved? I'm not a fan of the long bar on the Surface Pro 4 pen - an improvement would be welcome.
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Looks to be the same as the bar on the SP4 pen, where you click the bottom in.