Steve S
05-22-2011, 02:56 PM
For those who might be interested, I took my Slate over to Best Buy this morning and spent a few minutes (with the BB salesman nervously standing right next to me) trying the Flyer pen on my slate.
Inking and drawing worked, of course, as did the right-click button, but I was disappointed that the erase button didn't. Anticipating that the salesman wouldn't be too enthusiastic about someone who was likely a looky-loo, I had set up several applications in advance so I could test things quickly. I thought I had also set the check box for "erase if button is available" in the Pen and Touch window, but after returning home, I discovered that I had not. That may have been why that pen function didn't work during my test.
As for the pen itself, it looks to be the same length as the other N-trig battery-powered pens (just with two buttons, not one) and it has a relatively smooth silver finish, similar to the HP pen. The cap is solid metal, with no plastic ring. Of particular interest to me was the nib, which looks different. Rather than being dark gray, with rings, the nib is light gray with no rings. While inking, the pen seemed quieter to me than the stock HP pen (but bear in mind that I was standing in the middle of a busy store, with lots of background noise). Is this the "quieter" N-trig pen that we've been promised? I don't think so; but the pen did seem less "clanky" to me. Other than this subtle difference, the pen handled and inked the same as the other N-trig pens.
The price, as I think everyone knows, is ~$80. For myself, I intend to wait until closer to the end of the year to see what N-trig can come up with in the way of a better pen...
Inking and drawing worked, of course, as did the right-click button, but I was disappointed that the erase button didn't. Anticipating that the salesman wouldn't be too enthusiastic about someone who was likely a looky-loo, I had set up several applications in advance so I could test things quickly. I thought I had also set the check box for "erase if button is available" in the Pen and Touch window, but after returning home, I discovered that I had not. That may have been why that pen function didn't work during my test.
As for the pen itself, it looks to be the same length as the other N-trig battery-powered pens (just with two buttons, not one) and it has a relatively smooth silver finish, similar to the HP pen. The cap is solid metal, with no plastic ring. Of particular interest to me was the nib, which looks different. Rather than being dark gray, with rings, the nib is light gray with no rings. While inking, the pen seemed quieter to me than the stock HP pen (but bear in mind that I was standing in the middle of a busy store, with lots of background noise). Is this the "quieter" N-trig pen that we've been promised? I don't think so; but the pen did seem less "clanky" to me. Other than this subtle difference, the pen handled and inked the same as the other N-trig pens.
The price, as I think everyone knows, is ~$80. For myself, I intend to wait until closer to the end of the year to see what N-trig can come up with in the way of a better pen...