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

Anonymous
2014-06-26T02:23:55+00:00

Hi everyone!

I'm going to try out the Surface Pro 3 soon, but I think that N-trig pen is cool, especially the click the top to open One Note feature I saw when it was introduced.

I've done a bit of research and found out the reason the Surface Pro 3 switched from Wacom to N-trig technology was to make the device thinner as the Bluetooth technology used by the pen eliminated the need for a special digitizing layer on the screen. This led me to believe that the pen would be compatible with any Bluetooth supported Windows tablet. Can anyone confirm this is true and whether purchasing the new Surface Pen is worth my money?

I'm asking this because I'm a little annoyed with the performance of the Wacom digitizer on my own tablet (which is not a Surface) and was thinking that a Bluetooth operated pen, which does not require this special internal hardware to be fitted into the device, would make an appropriate replacement and/or backup in case the Wacom fails to work at all. Better still, I'd love to see the click to open One Note feature functional on my unit as well. What do you say?

Appreciate your advice, as always!

CSD Surface Tester.

Surface | Accessories | Surface Pen

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2014-06-26T05:38:09+00:00

That is the reason why to check the specs on the pen.  The particular pen for the Surface Pro 3 only.  The pen itself functions in a dual mode capability but still needs power to do it.  It is classed as a "mechanical" pen because it has electronic components.

The two button batteries pre-installed in the top of the pen functions the Bluetooth connection.  The main battery actually communicates with the pen's driver installed in the tablet to work with the touchscreen.  No digitizer is needed.

If it was a generic pen, you would have an installation disk to install a driver for the pen and that drivers mates with the touchscreen along with adding it as a Bluetooth 4.0 device.

Now, if the Bluetooth connection fails, the pen will still function similar to a stylus where the driver will use the touchscreen like a digitizer surface.  The Bluetooth connection is for software control mainly.

It is a little complex but is a great concept in my thought.  You eliminate hardware (digitizer) and emulate that hardware with software (driver).  Believe it or not, a network adapter and a dial-up modem have been working in that fashion for years; where the driver was actually the modem (simulated hardware) and the hardware (interface card) was just a circuit and connection point.

Right now, you can get Bluetooth and WiFi adapters just slightly bigger than a USB plug.  There is only a very small chip in those and rely on the driver to do the rest.

This pen operates in the same fashion.  Since the driver for it is built in, it cannot be used with any other tablet and this particular model was designed solely for the Surface Pro 3.

Now, like I said, you can get a generic pen (probably from N-Trig) from their web site.  That one will include an installation disk and will work with any tablet that has a touchscreen and Bluetooth 4.0 adapter.  You can't with this particular model.

Was this answer helpful?

70+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

44 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-27T16:17:21+00:00

    Additional note: you may be able to go to a Best Buy or another store that sells these tablets and actually get to try it out.  Best Buy has demo models and you can test out the full function of the pen.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-27T16:01:35+00:00

    The N-Trig controller will be different and since it controls the touchscreen as well, you have access to 100% of the pixels on the screen - no dead spots.

    These pens will be different than a digitizer tablet for which, other digitizers also have dead spots as well but with the pen, every pixel on the screen is available to the pen.

    You may end up liking it better than a digitizer tablet.

    If you want to read more on the DuoSense feature, go to this web link: http://www.n-trig.com/Content.aspx?Page=DuoSenseControllerChipset

    I would say, in theory, if you attached an external touchscreen monitor to the tablet, it would control it and also give you full access to every pixel on it as well even though the screen resolution may be different.  That is the beauty of that controller chip.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-27T14:13:33+00:00

    Oh, and since you brought up this dead spots issue, I have been noticing intermittent but randomly located dead spots in the middle of the screen on my Wacom tablet PC. Perhaps this has to do with the internal hardware? And possibly this is something that would not occur, completely or at least partially, using N-trig Duo Sense as the screen digitizer is passive rather than active?

    I guess I'm going to have to try out Surface Pro 3 for myself...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-27T05:07:06+00:00

    Wacom owned this segment until N-Trig came along and is still the preferred technology for Artists as it is supported by all Art Programs. N-Trig has less parallax and better edge accuracy because of the way its digitizer is implemented.

    With Wacom there are depending of which model is used as 2 Coils or 4 Coils for the connection, and these are in the corners and spread out across the screen for coverage, but this method also causes the dead spots on the edges and the cursor bounce in the corner.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments