Surface Pen Test: Pressure, Eraser, Side Button and Tilt

Checking a Surface Pen, step by step

Use Edge or Chrome on the Surface itself. Windows treats a resting palm as touch, so keep your hand clear until the badge shows Pen.

1. Scribble with varying force. Width tracks force, and a hard press should push the gauge all the way.
2. Flip the pen over and scrub the top end across what you drew. The ink disappears and Eraser lights up. Classroom and Business pens erase with a button on the barrel instead.
3. Keep the right-click button held as you draw. Windows passes it to the page, and Barrel stays lit for as long as you hold it.
4. Slant the pen mid-stroke. On pairings Microsoft lists with tilt, Tilt X and Y change with the angle; otherwise both read 0°.
5. Choose Pressure ramp and press gradually harder along one stroke. Distinct values shows how many separate force readings Windows and the browser delivered, a number that usually lands well below Microsoft’s 4,096 or 1,024.

Which Surface pen do you have?

Microsoft’s own table (as of October 2026) groups the pens like this:

• Surface Slim Pen 2: flat, rechargeable, 4,096 pressure points, tilt on Surface Pro, Pro X and Laptop Studio, haptic feedback on newer Surface Pro models and the Laptop Studio.
• Surface Pen with no clip: 4,096 pressure points with tilt on most models; 1,024 and no tilt on the Surface Laptop 1 and 2 and the original Surface Book.
• Surface Pen with a single button on its flat edge: 1,024 pressure points on the Surface Pro 3 and 4 (4,096 on the Surface Studio), no tilt.
• Classroom Pen, Classroom Pen 2 and Business Pen: 1,024 or 4,096 pressure points depending on the Surface, no tilt and no Bluetooth.

When pressure or the pen doesn’t work

• Badge shows Finger: skin reached the screen before the nib. Raise your hand and start the stroke with the pen only.
• No ink anywhere: Microsoft’s checklist begins with power (charge a Slim Pen, swap the battery in the others), restarting the Surface, and trying OneNote, Sticky Notes or Paint. A pen that inks in none of them points to the pen or the Surface; one that inks there but not here only needs this page reloaded.
• Gauge parked at 50%, every line the same width: get the latest updates through the Surface app and test once more. A worn or loose nib is the next suspect: Microsoft advises reseating or swapping it when ink comes out jagged, and warns that pulling a Slim Pen 2 nib out and pushing it back 500 or more times can damage the pen.
• Pressure here, none in a drawing app: the hardware and Windows are passing force correctly, so the app’s input mode is the suspect. In Krita, open Settings › Configure Krita › Tablet Settings and try Windows 8+ Pointer Input as the Tablet Input API, the option Krita’s manual suggests for recent Surface devices.

To compare an old nib with a fresh one, run Straight line or Diagonal line with each and look at the shake figure in pixels. The four-direction lean check measures how far a Slim Pen 2 leans in each direction, and pens from other makers have their own set-ups on the base page.