I would like to use a Surface Pro 3 pen with another tablet.

Close James...

The n-trig is an EMR Digitizer like the Wacom and will only work with a device that has the n-trig digitizer layer....

The difference is with Wacom the Active Part is in the Screen (where the electric current is spread across the screen) the passive part (receiver) is in the Pen, so when the passive part (pen) crosses touches the screen it completes the circuit.

On the n-trig the passive receiver is built into but separate from the capacitive layer of the screen, the Active Part is the pen (it sends the electric signal) but the same thing happens when the pen touches the screen it closes the circuit.

The n-trig component part of the Surface Pen will work on any n-trig equipped device (as I listed in an earlier post) and their Pens will work on the Surface Pro 3 (in fact you can buy a pen for the HTC Flyer for under $10 on Amazon to have as a spare - it uses earlier version of duosense but it is compatible).

The Bluetooth Pens that actually use Bluetooth to mimic an Active Digitizer are not compatible with Windows or Android, currently they support iOS and then only with specific apps and each ODM's implementation are not compatible with each other, so each gets 1 to 5 Apps that work with their pen. A couple of the larger Apps have some cross compatibility.

Okay, this whole thing is probably getting confusing.  It is hard to describe how they work since they are new.

There should be no hardware in the tablet in this instance.  The digitizer is in the pen and not in the tablet. The "driver" that is in the tablet controls the pen and the pen, in turn uses the touchscreen as the "surface" it works with.  The Bluetooth component is for software control.  Basically, it is two devices in one and that is how, if the Bluetooth fails, the pen itself will still function.  It just won't launch OneNote and possibly, may effect the button functions.

This particular pen is custom built to only work with the Surface Pro 3 tablet models (to include the possible future Mini).

The pen works with the driver installed in the machine. Without the driver, it will not function if you attempt to use it on another computer even if it does have Bluetooth.  Similar to a mouse or keyboard which require a driver to function.

Since there is no driver to install in another machine, there is no way to test if it works or not.

I don't have a Pro 3 myself yet and may end up ordering the i5 model next week instead of waiting another 300 years for the 'slow boat from China' to show up with the i3 model I was wanting.  I don't have a machine in hand to perform tests with.

I build computers myself and I know the direction that these go in function, but, without one in hand to test, cannot verify whether it would work in another device.

Since iPads and Android tablets function with apps only, that is the only way they can function a pen of this type and so far, I can only find one company that directly sells the pen itself and that is ADDONIT.  Like I said before, N-Trig builds devices for other companies and the other devices with this pen type did the same thing that Microsoft did and to have a pen built just for their device(s).

Bottom line, get the Pro 3!  It doesn't matter if the pen works with other machines or not, the need for any type of backup is probably unwarranted at this time.  The tablets just came out and are too new to know what the future is for them or their endurance capability.  The pens are also a new device on the market and chances are, there will be pens made available for the general device market and sold as an accessory like you would with anything else.  Microsoft does sell replacement pens in case you lose yours, so you don't have to worry about that.  BUT, they work with a driver.  The digitizer is built into the pen itself.

The Bluetooth portion is completely separate from the n-trig pen , it has nothing to do with the writing portion, n-trig didn't design it Microsoft did, it is a Bluetooth Device, called the Surface Pen in Device Manager, it is a Bluetooth 4.0 LE device (like a Fitbit). The n-trig Pen is listed in the HID Section as a HID-compliant Pen this is the n-trig part.

So on your Surface Pen there are two hardware devices:

The Bluetooth 4.0 LE Device - launches OneNote, Pages and Screen Captures - this is found on no other device and is not part of n-trig in any way from my understanding.

The n-trig pen used for digital ink and navigation.

So despite what has been said in this thread the Bluetooth Top of the pen has nothing to do with the n-trig digitizer.

My original belief was that one of the best things about Bluetooth digitizer pens is that they do not require special hardware to be fitted into the device like the case with Wacom's EMR technology, which the Surface Pro 1 and 2 use along with my personal ThinkPad tablet (it's the tablet 2, which runs Windows and uses Wacom; the original Android ThinkPad Tablet uses N-trig so Surface Pen would cleanly work on that). Hence, I thought that with the proper drivers installed, these pens would work universally across devices, but no, that's not the case after all.

Something hardware-wise about Surface Pro 3 is responsible for making its dedicated Surface Pen incompatible with products using Wacom and other technology, and with units that don't even support digitizer input, i.e. finger touch only. Based on what Jeff told me it likely has to be the passive receiver under the screen, something only found in N-trig Duo Sense supported devices which are listed under N-trig's support page, including SP3.

Can you figure this out for me and clear me of my concerns regarding the new N-trig based Surface Pen?