Skip to content

This laptop stylus that can strangely write on paper is my favorite CES gadget

MSI Pen 2 Render in Black and Gray.

MSI

CES is done and dusted, and I’d highly recommend checking out the best innovations from this year’s show, but I’d also spare a minute or two for this magical stylus that gaming PC maker MSI secretly demoed while I was there. It’s called the MSI Pen 2a graphite-tipped stylus that’s bundled with the company’s latest Creator Z17 HX Studio and CreatorPro Z17 HX Study laptops. You won’t find it anywhere else.

More: CES 2023 tech you can actually buy now

On a base level, the unibody stylus supports Microsoft’s MPP 2.6 haptic feedback for a tactile writing experience, 4,096 pressure levels, and should last you up to 32 hours per charge. Those features are nothing new to productivity-centric styluses, but this next one surely is.

The 14.5g Pen 2, with its graphite tip, can be used to write on both the MSI laptop display and a regular notepad I’ve dropped a demo below if you’re in just as much disbelief as I was at first.

June Wan/ZDNET

How this wizardry is achieved remains a secret. An MSI representative only shared with me that they’ve balanced the hardness of the pen tip so that it’s sharp enough to register physical imprints while being soft enough not to scratch the display.

More: Can Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i finally make dual-screen laptops a thing?

As for where and when you can buy the MSI Pen 2, the stylus will only be available as a companion accessory to the company’s upcoming content creation laptops, the Creator Z17 HX Studio and CreatorPro Z17 HX Studio, which are slated to arrive in February.