Microsoft patents Surface Pen with touch-sensitive retention clip
1 min. read
Published on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more
Microsoft is constantly looking at refining their Surface Pen, and their latest idea would make the control device a better mouse replacement.
Microsoft envisions adding a touch-sensitive retention clip (yellow) to the stylus, which can then be used in lieu of a scroll wheel. They note that a scroll wheel on a mouse makes it very easy to navigate long web pages while using a stylus normally means having to very precisely access the scroll bars.
Microsoft also has a few other ideas for the technology, including putting the pen into a low power mode and only activating it when a touch on the clip is detected.
Adding a convenient scroll function to the pen does appear to address one of the big issues I have using the pen as my primary input device day to day. Is this a feature our readers would pay extra for? Let us know below.
