[ajcletus500]

Correct me if I'm wrong but when I was looking at whats in the box for the surface pro, I notice that they have not included the pen along with it like with the previous models. that means I'm gonna have to shell out an addition $100 for a pen.

Going by this if I decide to get the i5/8gb/256 model I will have to spend close to $1550 for the pen and keyboard as well which seems pretty steep for a laptop with an i5/8gb config.

[meattray]

There was another thread that stated only 30% of people utilized the surface pen. I use it quite a bit for work but it sounds like a lot of people aren't. I would assume this is a way for them to kind of allow people to choose whether they want it or not.

[convergent]

I believe the reason it was unbundled is that it is now colored to match the keyboard cover. If they included it, they'd need to have 5x the number of SKUs. Or they could do something stupid like Apple does with their watch and forces you to pick a color you may not want. My understanding is the price point is reduced from the original Surface Pro 4 price accordingly, but don't know that to be fact. Bottom line is that by coloring it they pretty much made it a separate item.

[hoyty]

If they had lowered price by $50-100 to account for removing Pen then I agree. Otherwise it is just a price increase to me.

[convergent]

My understanding is they did lower the price by that amount, relative to the price of the SP4 when it originally rolled out.

[convergent]

OK, a little digging and I believe I'm incorrect on that... so it is $100 more.

But its a nicer pen and prettier!

[ajcletus500]

If they had lowered price by $50-100 to account for removing Pen then I agree. Otherwise it is just a price increase to me.

Yup that would have been great

[CrippsCorner]

Pen looks great but I hardly ever used the previous one, so won't be buying it. My partner would love it though, so maybe she'll buy it instead!

[anon(5327127)]

You could always just buy a Surface pro 3/4 stylus instead.

[coolbreeze78]

If they had lowered price by $50-100 to account for removing Pen then I agree. Otherwise it is just a price increase to me.

Yep. They were all "only 30% of people used it so we excluded it and passed this savings on to the customer via a lower price!"

The price stayed the same. Hm.

[rdubmu]

Yep. They were all "only 30% of people used it so we excluded it and passed this savings on to the customer via a lower price!"

The price stayed the same. Hm.

Well it is an upgraded design and most likely the internals cost more. Maybe they didn't want to raise the price.

[L0n3N1nja]

Could always get a different 2 in 1, Surface is beginning to carry a premium for the name.

[onlysublime]

get one of the older pens if you really want a pen on the cheap. they're still good pens and are cheaper to start. You can buy them from $42-60 (some colors are cheaper than others) off Amazon brand new.

while the newer pens are much nicer, they're also much more expensive at $99. I think they're just trying to follow Apple because Apple has always charged $99 for their Apple Pencil.