Should you buy the new Surface Slim Pen for the Surface Pro 7?

Should you buy the new Surface Slim Pen for the Surface Pro 7?

Best answer: You should buy the new Surface Slim Pen with the Surface Pro 7 if you plan on drawing or plan to use the Surface as a tablet extensively. If you don't have much use for a stylus, you should probably pass.Newest stylus: Surface Slim Pen ($150 at Microsoft)Latest Windows tablet: Surface Pro 7 (From $749 at Microsoft)

Should you buy the Surface Slim Pen?

Microsoft's new Surface Slim Pen has been redesigned to take advantage of wireless charging (Surface Pro X only, for now) in a cradle charger. If you enjoy drawing on your tablets and plan on making full use of what a stylus brings to the table in terms of functionality, the price may be worth it.

You could always buy the Surface Pro 7 without one to start with and see how you go.

Microsoft's refreshed Surface Pro

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 7 as the next step in the Pro line, taking everything that made the previous Windows-based tablets so good — including the familiar Surface 2-in-1 design — and adding a few notable improvements.

The aging USB Type-A port has been replaced with a USB Type-C port, allowing you to connect a whole manner of new accessories and other devices that share the same connector. Fear not if you have USB Type-A hardware as a Type-A port still exists alongside the newer Type-C port.

For specifications, you're getting a 12.3-inch Pixelsense display and options of 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM. The RAM type, in particular, should represent a decent performance increase over the LPDDR3 RAM included in the previous Surface Pro. Additionally, Microsoft went with Intel's latest 10th Gen CPUs, with Core i3, i5, and i7 options available. It's quite the Windows tablet.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.