Consensus opinion on the new Surface Pro released this week is that the Microsoft "laptop" is, at best, a refinement of a proven design, with no breakthrough headline features.

But the same can't be said for the new Surface Pen, which offers a major step up to 4,096 pressure levels, lower activation force (~9 grams) and tilt recognition. On paper at least, this is the pen that Surface users have always wanted.

The new pen's tilt support works exceptionally well on the new Surface Pro, opening up shading possibilities that were previously inaccessible to Surface artists.

I'll have more to say about that in my Surface Pro review coming in the next few days. (UPDATE: See the review here.)But for most of you, the burning question is whether the new Surface Pen will do anything to improve your ink experience on your existing devices.

Surface Pro 3 and 4, Surface Book and Surface Studio users will definitely see a difference with the new pen, but whether that difference is worth the $100 upgrade price is a different story.

The Microsoft Store listing for the Surface Pen contains the following footnote: "Surface Pen tilt functionality is available now with Surface Pro. Coming to other Surface devices via Windows Update soon."

"Other Surface devices" doesn't necessarily mean all of them. It's very possible that Microsoft might draw the line at the Surface Pro 4, or worse, at the Surface Studio which shares a Pixelsense accelerator chip with the new SP that older devices don't.

To be safe, I'm going to assume that tilt functionality is not part of the equation for the sake of this review. And in that light, the $100 Surface Pen is a very Spartan offering.

UPDATE: Windows Central is reporting that Surface Pro 3 and 4 will not get tilt functionality. https://www.windowscentral.com/new-surface-pen-improvements?utm_medium=slider&utm_campaign=navigation&utm_source=wp