Surface Dial

Surface dial has great potential, although just like with the surface touchscreen it is very limited what you can do by default. Until either Microsoft or someone else creates for this what has been created for the touch display with Touch me Gesture Studio (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/touchme-gesture-studio/9wzdncrdg0l8) or similar http://alternativeto.net/software/gesturesign I can not find good uses for the surface dial.

Exceptional for fine artists, but some hardware and software improvements are needed for all other creative/design pros. Two crucial feature updates would be 1: A joystick style 360º tilt function for CAD/CG app 3D navigation and 2: An intuitive app that enables custom function programing per individual software including a preset list for the most popular art/design/productivity apps.

I have wrestled with this question and determined I wasted my money. Rumor was a software update will allow the dial to work on all surface devices as it does on the studio, that proved to false thus far. I talked to agents, store personal. and supervisors but no one has the same answers. I'd say if you don't have the studio, pass. the performance on the surface book, and surface pro is horrid. too in consistent and too expensive to do so little.

Using this with StaffPad music app on my Surface Pro 4 is a dream come true, greatly increases workflow. But I REALLY wish they would deliver and give on screen dial support from Surface Pro 4 as well (not just studio), is this actually coming? Also, big design flaw is that while device is not in use and inside your backpack say goodbye to your battery on your computer. The Dial gets easily activated while in your backpack (even tried to use its original packaging to keep it from activating, it still does). I want to be able to travel with my dial and use it in cafes and such aswell, not just bind it to my office desk. There is NO power management options to make it not activate the surface while the surface is in sleep (even tried running CMD commands to see if i can disable wake from sleep, but no access to the surface dial). I dont see anyone using the dial to actually wake their computer, so please disable its wake from sleep function.

It feels intuitively right in actual use, and since the controls are manually configurable it can be made to function for other apps as well. Two days of average use have me made to find it appealing. However, a serious compatibility issue showed up: I have a Surface 3, and it appears that the Dial Bluetooth disrupts the Wifi-functionality of the S3 such that connectivity breaks.. I have a 2.4Ghz Wifi access point in my room, but I had to remove the Dial batteries in order to be able to use the internet. Changing Wifi channels (1-14) did not help either. I opened a chat with MS - support in The Netherlands (my home country, a friend bought the Dial is Seattle) and they concluded in the end that the S3 and Dial are not compatible ... . The site states full compatibility with all W10-hardware ... So that leaves me a bit unsatisfied, since I would need to upgrade to 5GHz Wifi or a Surface pro.. There may then be other PC hardware then for which it may not function ...

It's a recent purchase so I did limited testing only. Even though currently it cannot be used for many things I still like it a lot and believe it holds a great promise. I'm looking forward to native support especially from Adobe in their Creative Cloud applications.

is slow to respond to use if it's been sitting there unused, so is not a very helpful gadget unless you use it constantly without interruption (if a wireless mouse was this unresponsive you'd never use one)...the battery saving implementation is horribly conceived, and while the fit and finish seem okay (not like plastic junk) the functionality is minimal, even if you are one of the few people who could find a use for it...on top of that it is absurdly overpriced for what it is

I am not able to get it to work with my surface pro at all

Received my Dial ahead of the published schedule from Microsoft. Great surprise! Pairs immediately with my Surface Pro. I am using my Pro with 2 external monitors and it seamlessly transitions between screens / commands for different programs open. I.E. Drawboard open to review submittals ZOOM and web browser on the other screen to SCROLL. Besides, it's fun to use and makes the Fruit Computer fanboy in the office jealous. Well worth the asking price, it's both PRODUCTIVE and FUN!!!

I was hoping I could replace my Powermate with this. The actual Dial is wonderful. It has a nice feel and scrolling is buttery smooth -- when it works. Unfortunately, the way it works seems kind of hinky. I'm basically using the Dial for scrolling around pages using my left hand while my mouse is in my right. The Powermate will scroll any window the mouse hovers over. The Dial doesn't seem to work that way. Frankly, I'm not real sure how the Dial determines what window to scroll. For example, when I open a File Explorer it will sometimes allow me to scroll the active pane. Sometimes it only gives me a volume option and I end up inadvertently turning up/down my speaker volume. Not cool. In Visual Studio 2015, it will only scroll the first open text editor window no matter what window/pane is active. In Chrome/Edge it works very well and as it should. My Surface Dial wish list includes: - Being able to change the default scroll direction when turning the Dial clockwise/anti-clockwise. - Make it more obvious that adjusting the Mouse Roll options also affect the Dial behavior (took me a while to figure that one out) - Have the Dial respect the 'Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them' option If those three things worked, this Dial would be extremely helpful. Right now it's more of a toy that I wished worked then switch back to the Powermate to get any real work done.