Next gen surface pen and digitizer wish list, i hope we all can agree on somethe in the end.

The performance of Apple pencil, and rumors of Gen 13 AES has raised the bar of expectations very high, especially for me.

In this thread, we will discuss and debate everything from weight distribution of the stylus, grip and to Initial activation force and Sampling rate.

This will be more of a Frankenstein monster of various Styli that have impressed us so far this year or in the past.

I have made a list of features to keep and features to lose in current generation surface pen. Name of the people who want or suggest a particular feature will be included in front of the feature. So, that we know each others ideal pen.

• Features to keep-
  • The extruded rubber tip.
  • Size and weight of the pen
  • Weight distribution of the pen.
  • Eraser click shortcuts
  • Top eraser button
• Features to loose-
  • Plastic coating on pocket clip
  • Thick eraser button needs to go thinner so that one can see the edges of the eraser pointer on the screen.
  • Plastic coating on side button, it's turning yello.
  • Replaceable battery
• Features from other famous styli-
  • 0 gram weight IAF, i.e, load sensor independent capacitive inking
  • 0.7mm nib
  • Minimum 240 Hz sampling rate
  • Rechargeable battery @darkmagistric
  • Pressure sensitive eraser @darkmagistric
  • Plastic construction @darkmagistric

 

My biggest wish list for a new pen....No More AAAA Batteries.

The need for that Battery is why ES pens require a Cold Metal Construction.......if they switch to a Supercap charger (like in the AES pens with Thinkpad Yogas/X1) or a offer a built in USB C- port to charge the pen from the tablet itself (Like the Apple Pencil) they could engineer the pens to have a Plastic Construction and make them more comfortable to hold.

Also without a AAAA battery....they wouldn't need to limit the pen specs outright like they currently do. The Pro 4's updated pixel sense digitizer corrected some of this....but the lower sampling/polling rate of the pen and the hovering lag was most likely to preserve the battery life. But if they offer a super quick charge method (like the Apple Pencil) that doesn't rely on any external cords or adapters, the Battery life of the pen wouldn't matter anymore since rechargeing it would be so simple. Much like the Apple Pencil they could seriously trick the pen performance out.

The only drawback is doing that might make retaining the back end eraser kind of difficult. Which I hope they don't lose....but if they do keep the eraser, I hope they now at least pressurize it.

The Best way I think they could do it.....configure the Supercap Charge as part of the pen clip.....and have a little slot in the Pro 4.5/5 that the clip goes into.....serving as both a quick charge port....and a more viable solution to storing the pen with the tablet then the magnetic attachment.

And I would prefer if they opted for a more premium pen design.....like if Microsoft copied and made a Cintiq Style Pen....with a bigger body, non-ressesed buttons, or even something like the Viao pens.

 

+1
My greatest fear with the aluminium pen is that if it comes off of the magnet placement in my bag and falls in front of the screen, then we all know what's going to happen, it's metal vs glass, i am not sure what the hardness coefficients of aluminium and gorilla glass are, but we know who is going to win.

+1
There are two possible reasons why Apple pencil is so sensitive i.e. artificial 0 gram weight force for Initial Activation force-

• Active tip like Active capacitive styluses like, stilo, allupen, which let's the pencil leave e-ink on the display by playing with the capacitive field of the display just like our finger does
• Or, Pre-engaged load sensors

Both these scenarios will require really good amount of battery on each use. Seriously, I do not care if i have to charge my stylus daily, i will choose better inking any day over 18 months battery life.

+1
i sure don't wanna loose this ability to erase by flip of the pen. But i am not averse to the button on the side solution. But in anycase the size of the present rubber tip is too large when you want to erase something tiny and pointy on top.

 

It is however, possible to coat AES pens in a textured lacquer which is quite comfortable to hold --- the Bamboo Smart for Select 2-in-1 Devices is so coated, and is far more comfortable to hold than my Toshiba TruPen (even after I took a steel brush to the latter).

Similarly, the old FinePoint pens were brass, but sprayed w/ paint/lacquer which w/ use became wonderfully smooth and polished and even more comfortable to hold.

As the Cross Executive Stylus demonstrated --- they should have styluses designed by people who are skilled in making pens.

 

Exactly. that's why SP4 pens turned out to be so disappointing at actual inking. When keyboard jockeys suddenly decide to make pens results are expected to be less than satisfying.