Many of the recently unboxed Surface Pro 3 pens on display at retail outlets throughout the US already show significant nib wear like mine.
If you've used soft nibs on your Wacom pens, you know those suckers wear down quickly. But you also know that most pens ship with a few extras and that replacement nibs are easy to find.
Several folks who've trekked down to their nearest Best Buy or Microsoft Store have been expressing concern online about how worn the nibs on the Surface Pro 3 display pens have become after their first weekend in service.
As you can see in the image above, I've experienced this too.
Microsoft or N-Trig will eventually market nib replacements, but it's unclear how soon that will occur. Most other N-Trig OEMs do not. So what are users to do if their pen nibs deteriorate badly?
I reached out to Markus Weickenmeier of the official Surface Blog, who oversees Surface Audience Marketing for Creators, and received this encouraging response: "If you are experiencing nib wear you will be able to call the Microsoft Surface Support Center and they will send you replacement nibs. They are free of charge and you simply remove the existing nib and replace it with the new one."
Sounds crazy and expensive to me (and I told Markus as much) but that's the current plan. I hope they'll eventually just throw five spares in every pen box or open up a self-service online ordering system soon.
N-Trig told me most of their pens' nibs last a year, but the Surface Pro's is noticeably softer than the tip on the other N-Trig pens I've tested. Perhaps Redmond is underestimating how much you guys will chew through these nibs?
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