In case anyone is considering trying out one of the new(ish) MPP 2.6 pens out there, I recently got my hands on the Asus Pen 3.0 (SA205H) and MSI Pen 2. I have the SP11 in both lunar lake and snapdragon configurations, both OLED. Unfortunately, my lunar lake model is suffering from the "leaking" ink issue detailed here with the Slim Pen 2. This happens with these other two pens too, but much less. Asus Pen 3.0: In terms of the handrwriting experience (I pretty much just use the stylus for note-taking and photo editing), the Asus Pen 3.0 is nearly perfect. The accuracy on both SP11s and the SLS is just as good as the Slim Pen 2, but the haptics are way better. It's simply the best MPP pen I've tested (it's even more accurate on the PX13). The difference of the pen feel on screen vs the slim pen is very subtle, but it feels a little nicer in this regard too. Unfortunately, it requires a silly wireless charger, which will be an extra expense. There's also a weird bug where the pen side button works on some MPP devices, but not others. It works on my Surface Pro 11 Snapdragon and Surface Laptop Studio without a hitch. Also, on the Intel SP11, for some reason you have to hold down the side button for about 3 seconds before it registers. (Ironically, it's even worse on the PX13, where the button isn't usable at all. See my post here. At the moment, the pen is only available bundled with the new Asus PX13 GoPro edition (2026) and PZ14. But if you have an SLS or Snapdragon SP11, it's a nice option to know about once it's available separately, especially if you can find one used. MSI Pen 2: I was so excited about this one, because it checked so many boxes. USB-C chargeable. Two of the three included nibs can even write on paper like a real pencil! Unfortunately, on both SP11s and the SLS, the MSI Pen 3 is hilariously bad. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's the infamous diagonal line test (done by hand, no ruler): https://preview.redd.it/x1d76jbp2nog1.png?width=1656&format=png&auto=webp&s=bfa64f1397e7285054d60734e32c6b83b8dd2ed1 The wobble is so bad you can barely write text, let alone do any kind of sketching. It's like this on all three Surface devices in my possession. Note: this does not necessarily mean this pen is bad on other MPP devices. It might even be great on MSI screens. But it just goes to show that the MPP 2.6 designation basically says nothing about how the pen will interact with your screen's digitizer. This also tells me that Microsoft needs to start enforcing some protocols around how MPP pens and digitizers interact. It's ridiculous that there should be this much variability in performance. submitted by /u/DumplingsEverywhere [link] [comments]
