Hands On: With the MSI Pen 2, Sketch on Paper or Screen With the Same Stylus

pcmag.com:

If you’re a digital content creator, chances are you still sketch out ideas, layouts, or illustrations on paper—or perhaps you like to take physical notes. Pens and paper still have a place in the lives of some of the most digitally savvy and connected professionals. Some of those same folks, though, swear by a stylus and onscreen input. MSI dares to ask: Why not have both?

In comes the MSI Pen 2. Packed with the $3,599 MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio, a high-powered content-pro-oriented laptop, the Pen 2 aims to bridge the gap between the digital tablet and the paper sketchpad. I got to play around with both the laptop and the two-timing stylus during a recent meeting with MSI representatives, and I left impressed by the hardware on display.

First, a bit about the MSI Pen 2's compatible laptop. At such a steep price, the Creator Z17 HX needs to prove its mettle to stand alongside other creator laptops. The polar opposite in portability from the MSI Stealth 14 Studio and other on-the-go creative-pro machines, the Creator Z17 HX has a 17-inch 1600p display with a 165Hz refresh rate. The laptop features good muscle for editing work, too: an Intel Core i9-13950 HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics chip, and 64GB of RAM in a reasonably slim 0.75-inch-thick chassis.

The display is a 2,560-by-1,600-pixel touch panel designed to accommodate the MSI Pen 2, and it's even Calman-verified out of the factory for precise screen calibration. The touch-panel tech is supplied by TSMC, and MSI claims to be the first manufacturer to mass-produce the tech with the Z17 HX. MSI claims that this touch screen is more power-efficient, more accurate, and lower in latency than competitors.

The hardwired connectivity on the Z17 HX is truly