Microsoft draws inspiration from Apple and Samsung for cool new Surface Pro 7 feature
Microsoft's popular Surface Pro tablets are not exactly affordable, and if you want to maximize their productivity, you need to spend even more by also purchasing a Type Cover keyboard and Surface Pen. The latter accessory is about as advanced, versatile, and accurate as these things come, with 4,096 pressure points, tilt support, an incredible 21ms latency, and a rubber eraser in tow making life easy for artists looking to get some serious work done on a mainstream Windows 10 device.
But there's actually one thing the $100 Surface Pen cannot do that's been a part of both the Apple Pencil and Samsung S Pen's skill set for quite some time now. Instead of charging wirelessly by attaching to the Surface Pro, Microsoft's existing stylus uses a good old fashioned AAAA battery. That obviously comes includes in the box and it doesn't need to be recharged or replaced very often, but it appears the Redmond-based tech giant will soon make the switch to a more modern and elegant solution.
Remember the new Surface Pen that paid the FCC a regulatory visit earlier this week ahead of a prospective debut alongside the Surface Pro 7? It turns out this revised variant includes a "charging coil" (via The Verge), which most likely means the aforementioned AAAA battery will be eliminated in favor of wireless charging functionality. Naturally, we don't know anything in terms of specifics and specifications yet, so it's unclear if this new feature will actually prove convenient for Surface Pro 7 owners.
It definitely helps that the latest Surface Pen generation at the time of this writing can already be attached magnetically to the Surface Pro 6, and if the second-gen Apple Pencil is any indication, it should be easy for Microsoft to make sure the stylus will stay charged for the duration of your longest possible drawing sessions. Unless the company plans to take a page from Samsung's playbook and equip the fifth-gen Surface Pen with a rapid-charging (and rapid-depleting) supercapacitor instead of a traditional battery, which seems highly unlikely.
What we're also interested to see is whether or not the fast-approaching Surface Pro 7 will support the older Surface Pen and if the new stylus will somehow be compatible with older Surface tablets and laptops as well. Everything should become clear on October 2.
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