Microsoft Surface Flex keyboard + Slim Pen: Comparison, real-world feedback, and issues

[@SteveVickAK]

Thanks for doing this video.

[@ChezDoesStuff]

@@SteveVickAK you're welcome!

[@55beethoven]

Thanks for doing the video. Helpful. I’m tempted but it’s not necessarily cheap. I already have and use the pen quite a bit. Would you say it’s worth getting the keyboard for $350? I travel quite a bit and can see the use for it in planes.

[@ChezDoesStuff]

Totally agree that it's not cheap. The plane use case totally makes sense, and I would have loved to have this when I still traveled a lot for work. I'm living the grad student life right now, and the wireless keyboard is great for having the tablet flat primarily for note taking, with the keyboard off to the side or further forward for when I need to type stuff. It's also great when I want the screen a little higher and closer to eye level or when I want to put the screen to the side while I watch TV. There's unfortunately no third party accessory that works quite as seamlessly, so I just stomached the price tag and thought about it in a 3-year amortized way.

[@nayira94]

​@@ChezDoesStuff I was tempted to get this keyboard for my Surface Pro 8, since it's compatible. Like you, I mostly use it for note taking (on OneNote). There have been many times where I've been taking notes with the tablet flat and the keyboard folded under or disconnected entirely, and begrudgingly pulled up the on-screen keyboard or moved everything around to type something. I don't know why it's taken Microsoft this long to add Bluetooth connectivity to the Surface keyboards. They've been around for at least 10 years now! Anyway, your video has convinced me not to purchase the new keyboard just because the pen constantly waking up would drive me nuts. At first, I thought that the pen dock being open like that would be more convenient since you don't have to open the keyboard to get the pen out, but now seeing this causes the pen to randomly wake up, I think not. Thank you for saving me $350! Maybe a few years from now, when I'm ready to upgrade from my Surface Pro 8, they'll have figured out the kinks on the Bluetooth-enabled keyboard 🤞.

[@ChezDoesStuff]

@nayira94 happy to have helped! In my case, I still got the Bluetooth keyboard WITHOUT the pen and an off-brand pen that doesn't keep waking up.

[@nayira94]

@ChezDoesStuff I have the Slim Pen currently, and I'm loving it. What a shame it doesn't work well with the flex keyboard. It would be nice if they released a software upgrade to make it so the pen only wakes up when it's taken off the charger. Watch Microsoft release another pen instead.

[@fernandokorol301]

fn+arrow keys dont work as the home and end ??

[@ChezDoesStuff]

EDIT: yes, it works now

[@azzinny]

home end are upper keys: F9 F10

[@makeavoy]

They do for me out of the box, maybe there's been an update on the flex keyboard since this was tested?

[@fernandokorol301]

@@makeavoy in my case works fine too

[@Pucknet77]

what about compatibility? is that gonna work with sp10?

[@ChezDoesStuff]

Website says it's backwards compatible down to the Surface Pro 8.

[@javojavo1969]

THe keyboard has a big problem...... In the future ( Very soon) doesn¨t work, The problem is the wired inside the magnetic conect cut and lost the connection. The solution viodeos of youtube don´t show the real solution. I see in this new product that fold a the same place but (altought working with bluetooh conecction).....Hw could be possible to know if the problem will happen again

[@yashar9844]

That pen is absolutely tribble.