Microsoft Surface Pro Keyboard Bundle with Slim Pen (Platinum) for Surface Pro (11th Edition)

After shutting your Surface down completely (fully off), wait ten seconds before shutting the keyboard- that will avoid the Surface not recognising the keyboard on startup where you have to disconnect and reconnect the keyboard to get it working. I haven’t had the keyboard not recognised once since I started pausing it before closing it. The Surface Pro seems to need to shut down fully first.

The pen is excellent and I like how the keyboard holds and charges the pen but I would prefer a pen that charges on top of the device like my Apple Pencil does on my iPad to save wear and tear opening the cover to get the pen. The pen is an odd shape, I...view more After shutting your Surface down completely (fully off), wait ten seconds before shutting the keyboard- that will avoid the Surface not recognising the keyboard on startup where you have to disconnect and reconnect the keyboard to get it working. I haven’t had the keyboard not recognised once since I started pausing it before closing it. The Surface Pro seems to need to shut down fully first.

The pen is excellent and I like how the keyboard holds and charges the pen but I would prefer a pen that charges on top of the device like my Apple Pencil does on my iPad to save wear and tear opening the cover to get the pen. The pen is an odd shape, I once again prefer the Apple Pencil but it’s ok. The pen does work well either for drawing or as a ‘finger’ for navigating the touch screen.

The keyboard is fine. Feels no different than the one I bought in 2015. I hope this one lasts longer. That one quit working entirely for unknown reasons shortly out of warranty and is still used as a screen cover only on the SP4 I bought it for.

The keys deserve a mention.
You can hit the F5 button to set either no or about 3 levels of backlighting. Backlighting is nice in dim conditions.
The other F keys are assigned various functions which mean you need to use the FN button to use them as F keys. I would prefer it the other way around. I haven’t got around to trying to change that yet. The keyboard has the right CTRL button replaced by an AI button which can only be mapped in the Surface Pro settings to either AI or I think it’s Office is the second choice. I really want the ability to set it to CTRL because I use shortcuts on that side of the keyboard that require CTRL. I expect a software upgrade to enable that hopefully sooner than later. I don’t want key mapping software running in the background to change it.

I do kind of wish I’d bought the detachable version of the keyboard for use on the couch. I have another Bluetooth keyboard I could use detached instead. I partially bought this keyboard because I wanted a pen and I wanted a screen cover and I didn’t really want to have to carry my bulkier Bluetooth keyboard when out of the house.

Minus one star for the AI key which is really unnecessary and a pita since I can’t change it, minus another star for the price. Otherwise it’s fine as long as it doesn’t quit working like my 2015 one did.

The pen is good! Wireless charging through the keyboard and doesn't get lost due to it's charging slot.
The keyboard may even be a downgrade over last generation. The build is maybe sliiiightly better but I have constant issues with it needing to be disconnected and reconnected. Id expect better of the cost The pen is good! Wireless charging through the keyboard and doesn't get lost due to it's charging slot.
The keyboard may even be a downgrade over last generation. The build is maybe sliiiightly better but I have constant issues with it needing to be disconnected and reconnected. Id expect better of the cost