If you’re making smartphones, and you’re not Apple, Samsung or Huawei, you really need every advantage you can possibly get to stand out from an extremely crowded marketplace. That’s why it’s slightly odd that Motorola’s Moto Z4 has a genuinely useful feature that the company hasn’t made a big deal of at all.
In fact, it took someone on Reddit to spot it. Hidden near the bottom of a page one the Moto Z4’s web page was the phrase “Stylus Compatible with Microsoft active pen protocol”. It doesn’t seem to be there any more, but some more Reddit digging found that this means that Microsoft’s Surface Pen works with the Moto Z4 – pressure sensitivity and all.
Related: Best Android phones
“I have the phone and a few Surface Pens,” replied one user. “It works like you’d expect, pressure sensitivity and all. Nothing fancy with Bluetooth – the eraser button seems to work as a back button. The whole setup is pretty nice for doodling in Google Keep.”
Phones with stylus support are pretty rare outside of the Samsung Galaxy Note series. And while the Moto Z4’s support is a bit more limited than that, and doesn’t have a dock to park it when it’s not in use, this is nonetheless a very useful feature for doodlers. Especially those who also happen to be deeply embedded in Microsoft’s Surface ecosystem.
Crucially, comparisons to the Galaxy Note aren’t exactly fair: the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 would set you back £899 at launch, while the Moto Z4 is a far more wallet-friendly $499 (around £395, though there is no official UK release date).
Related: Best cheap phones
To be clear, this isn’t a feature you should necessarily bank on with the Moto Z4. It’s telling that the line has vanished from the Motorola website: to me, that means that at best it’ll never be officially supported – or worse that Motorola has decided it’s not worth the trouble, and is something the company actively plans to remove from the device in a future patch.
Nonetheless, it’s encouraging that a mid-range phone could pack such a useful feature without costing an arm and a leg. Fingers crossed that more phone manufacturers toy with adding the protocol in future.
Would Surface Pen support make you more inclined to buy a smartphone? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
