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Why no second magnetic port for the pen?

mitchellvii

Well-Known Member
One nice feature of the Surface Pro 2 is the addition of a much stronger magnet in the power/pen port. It takes a pretty good pull to remove the power dongle this time whereas the lightest brush made it fall out before.

Well done Microsoft, but why not just add a second magnetic port so I can securely store the pen while charging? Right across the top would have been nice. The top is the best place for the pen anyway because I can then hold the tablet in landscape without knocking the pen off with my hand. I mean, did you not hear the public screaming at you that this needed to happen? Did you not notice that every single competitor offering a pen provides secure storage?

Who is it in product development at MS that makes the decision to just ignore what the market is telling them we want?
 
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One nice feature of the Surface Pro 2 is the addition of a much stronger magnet in the power/pen port. It takes a pretty good pull to remove the power dongle this time whereas the lightest brush made it fall out before.

Well done Microsoft, but why not just add a second magnetic port so I can securely store the pen while charging? Right across the top would have been nice. The top is the best place for the pen anyway because I can then hold the tablet in landscape without knocking the pen off with my hand. I mean, did you not hear the public screaming at you that this needed to happen? Did you not notice that every single competitor offering a pen provides secure storage?

Who is it in product development at MS that makes the decision to just ignore what the market is telling them we want?

I wish they wouldve just designed it similiar to the samsung note tablets
 
If I were to guess, it is for fear of users trying to use the 2nd mag strip as a charging port and MS cust svc getting calls from disgruntled users that their power supply no longer worked. Just a guess.
On a separte note, MS could have developed the pen with a smaller mag holder so that the power tip would not fit to prevent the confusion. Maybe these changes will be in SP3 Pro, we can only hope. I will wait for that generation before I consider upgrading as I am very happy with my SP and mostly use it for Office, One Note, and web browsing as well as SkyDrive (or what ever it will soon be called).
 
One nice feature of the Surface Pro 2 is the addition of a much stronger magnet in the power/pen port. It takes a pretty good pull to remove the power dongle this time whereas the lightest brush made it fall out before.

Well done Microsoft, but why not just add a second magnetic port so I can securely store the pen while charging? Right across the top would have been nice. The top is the best place for the pen anyway because I can then hold the tablet in landscape without knocking the pen off with my hand. I mean, did you not hear the public screaming at you that this needed to happen? Did you not notice that every single competitor offering a pen provides secure storage?

Who is it in product development at MS that makes the decision to just ignore what the market is telling them we want?

1) I didn't know the magnet was stronger. That's great news, IMO.
2) You're right on point. Wow - that would have been so sweet to have a holder on top. My case does that now, but a magnet would have been superior.
3) I can only imagine the roll-out of the SP3 - following Apple's move and similar to the movie, Spinal Tap, "...but this one goes to 11". "This one has a magnet."
 
It's because this is a annual revision not a new model (which is exactly how apple do it), a new magnet port would have required a different shell.
 
It's because this is a annual revision not a new model (which is exactly how apple do it), a new magnet port would have required a different shell.

It only would've been an incremental change to the shell. By your logic they couldn't have made adjustments to the kickstand or used a stronger magnet.
 
Any Spinal Tap reference gets an instant "like" from me :). Now that they are releasing more keyboards and a dock, the exterior dimensions/shape are less likely to change. I imagine some kind of magnetic connector on the top is possible. I'd still like an internal silo. The least they could do is give you a little elastic loop on the side of the keyboard we could slide it into.
 
Well they could have been thinking that most people use a case anyway and the magnetic holder would be unnecessary (and probably wouldn't work anyway). There probably is simply no room inside for a silo. But the case idea would negate the need for an adjustable kickstand and they did that so who knows.
 
One nice feature of the Surface Pro 2 is the addition of a much stronger magnet in the power/pen port. It takes a pretty good pull to remove the power dongle this time whereas the lightest brush made it fall out before.

Well done Microsoft, but why not just add a second magnetic port so I can securely store the pen while charging? Right across the top would have been nice. The top is the best place for the pen anyway because I can then hold the tablet in landscape without knocking the pen off with my hand. I mean, did you not hear the public screaming at you that this needed to happen? Did you not notice that every single competitor offering a pen provides secure storage?

Who is it in product development at MS that makes the decision to just ignore what the market is telling them we want?
I'm travelling coast-to-coast and on the plane I find that the pen is better than the mouse, but I always have to "worry" about where I have stored the pen inflight.

Sometimes I have dropped it; other times I have left it on the Type Cover, in between the SP and the Type Cover; other times it has been on my seat; etc. Though I initially thought that I would not be a pen user, I have obviously come to love it while using my SP inflight.

Yes, MS definitely needs to incorporate a permanent storage location for the pen.
 
The pen is only $30 so I'm not overly concerned about losing it.
 
I'm travelling coast-to-coast and on the plane I find that the pen is better than the mouse, but I always have to "worry" about where I have stored the pen inflight.

Sometimes I have dropped it; other times I have left it on the Type Cover, in between the SP and the Type Cover; other times it has been on my seat; etc. Though I initially thought that I would not be a pen user, I have obviously come to love it while using my SP inflight.

Yes, MS definitely needs to incorporate a permanent storage location for the pen.

I find the fact that Microsoft must have considered this in their redesign and decided it unimportant a bit frightening.
 
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