Customers are impressed with the Surface Dial's drawing capabilities, ease of use, and build quality. They find it particularly useful for scrolling and controlling volume. However, some customers have expressed concerns about its compatibility with a limited number of apps and its price.
This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.
The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
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Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Functionality overload
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Bought this Surface Dial for my Microsoft Surface Book 2. This device gives the SB2 added functionality. Ease of use is a hallmark feature as well.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hi there,
We're delighted to hear that the Surface Dial has been an excellent addition to your Surface Book 2 so far. We're delighted to offer our customers this unique tool to help you stay in-the-flow with all your day-to-day tasks. We hope you continue to love navigating your Surface Book 2 with Surface Dial!
Cheers,
Jessica Surface Customer Care
Cons mentioned:
App support, Stability
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Great Build Quality, Lacks Support
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Overall the Dial works and feels great. It is a pretty hefty metal puck with a semi grippy material on the bottom.
It can be used on the screen (On Studio) or off the screen (normal Bluetooth) and can be programmed to a degree to do certain keyboard inputs when you twist it.
My biggest issue with it is that it lacks a lot of meaningful support from the Adobe CC collection so if you use those programs you don't really need this item.
Another kind of bummer is that even with the Studio screen in full draft position the puck will still slowly slide down the screen so you definitely have to keep a hand on the puck if you put it on the screen.
On the plus side I was able to program it to give me 100,000 Simoleons in Sim City every tick when I turned it so that was entertaining.
Really well built item that lacks support from Adobe (there is some official support but just not a lot) so it is hard to justify the high price for ultimately a volume knob unless you use the art programs provided with the Surface Studio.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hi there,
Thanks for giving Surface Dial a try. We're thrilled you're loving the unique way you can program this tool according to your preferences. If you're looking for more ways to make the most of your Surface Dial, try checking out all compatible apps here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/collections/AppsforSurfaceDial?rtc=1.
We hope you continue to discover all there is to love about Surface Dial!
Cheers,
Jessica Surface Customer Care
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Cons mentioned:
Size
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Specialized use cases
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
It is a great, well built device, with some unique use cases. Not sure the average person would need one. You can use it to scroll, or zoom in many programs, which is just as easy and more familiar using a mouse and touch pad. Other applications, largely graphics/photo oriented allow you to select many things that can be varied, such as color, line width, saturation, etc., either independently or while you are using the mouse or pen. This creates some interesting new capabilities for artists (I'm not one of those). It does require some learning, as do most professional tools. It will work 'on screen' with the new surfaces, but it takes up a bit of real estate using it that way. Works fine from off screen as well. Really suited for on-screen on the Surface Studio, but considering what those cost, picking up a dial would be trivial and a no-brainer. The one star off is just because this is such a niche device, it has limited utility for most. If you need one this is a 5 star unit.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hi there,
Thanks for giving the Surface Dial a whirl! We appreciate you giving us your honest insights for us to improve in the future. The Surface Dial is definitely a powerful tool for artists to stay in the flow. We're glad you mentioned that! In addition to being useful fort art, we have many other apps that the Surface Dial is designed to work with. Check out more of what the Surface Dial can do here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/collections/AppsforSurfaceDial?rtc=1.
Kindly,
Jessica Surface Customer Care
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Cons mentioned:
Stability
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Cool thing for those with a bit of cash to spare
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Posted . Owned for 1 week when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I give this thing five stars because it does exactly what it says it would do, and looks great, but I do admit that it's for a very specific group of people. First, I got it with reward points from buying the surface book, so I only paid $30 for something that's $100 - I'm a student so I would NOT have bought it full price. And then even so, I only bought it because I am a creative and this is a huge boost to productivity since it can pick colors, redo/undo, change my brush size, etc....If you just use your laptop for browsing the web and writing word docs I don't think it can do much for you besides scrolling and looking pretty.
I also have to warn you that it doesn't work on-screen (yet?) for the Surface Book 3 - microsoft is fully capable of doing it so I assume they're just going to release the driver as an update in a few months? I don't mind it a lot, though it sure would be neat to get the extra functions.
If you are rich, good for you, this review is not for you ;) What's one more shiny toy in your stash?
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Scrolling
Cons mentioned:
Price, Size
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Very nice device, if you can find your "niche" for
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Posted . Owned for 1 week when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Bought this thinking it would be a great accessory for my surface book. For the price is very gimmicky. You can't really use it in many applications, much less any outside of Microsoft. If you are an artist and using windows apps, it's a nifty tool. If you don't have a big screen it takes up a huge amount of screen space. But you can also use it off screen to scroll, so if you scroll a ton. this will save you.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Cons mentioned:
App support
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Very handy with a lot of flexibility
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is a surprisingly handy little device. For only having three basic controls (left, right, press) it gives a lot of potential for your workflow. At the time of this review, native app support is very skeletal, as developers work in functionality for it. Photoshop seems to be the main go-to. But it makes a great shuttle control for video editing, and if I'm seated at the desk, I was surprised at how much I used it to scroll web pages versus using the mouse or dragging my finger on the touch screen.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hi Ryan,
We're so happy to hear that you're enjoying your Surface Dial! We really appreciate all the input, and to see how our customers are using their Dials for their work.
Thanks again,
Victoria Surface Customer Care
Pros mentioned:
Scrolling, Volume control
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Nice addition to PC Navigation
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Been looking forward to this little device since I first laid eyes on it. First thing first I have it setup on an alienware laptop and not a Microsoft Surface. Works great, sometimes is a little slow to respond after you haven't been using it for a little. Dial does volume, zooming and rotating features with nice feedback. So far so good.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Cons mentioned:
App support
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Too few apps support it
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Posted . Owned for 3 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The concept is great and it’s easy on your wrists. But only a handful of apps support it. Seems it would be perfect for the largest screen. I returned it because using the mouse is more practical on Surfacebook
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to leave some feedback about your experience with Surface Dial. We regret to hear you ended up returning your Surface Dial, but we're glad to hear you found an accessory that works well for you with your Surface Book. We always appreciate getting honest feedback from the community, and we'll be sure to pass this information along to the rest of our team.
Best,
Heather Surface Customer Care
Cons mentioned:
Price
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Surface Dial
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Kind of a niche product for a surface tablet. Works great for me. Probably priced on the higher side unless you have clear usage.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Sweet little device
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Although it does not currently work on-screen for the Surface or Surface Book; it is very powerful off screen.
I am a developer and was able to write functionality for this in my apps and inject functionality for this into other apps.
It is fairly simple, the number of clicks can be adjusted by a developer (resolution) and it provides feedback through a haptic motor. The response time is impressive.
I wish MS would allow users to add multiple custom tools, because then other people could map it to key strokes in their applications - this would open it up to more than just developers.
Where Apple once used to release cool add-ons for their valuable hardware, it is now Microsoft who is stepping up to the plate -- and knocking it out of the park.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Drawing, Ease of use
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
A dial???
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
At first, I thought “why” - then I tried it! Now I wish I had more time to use it!
The Surface Dial is a handy tool for design, edits and drawing. I use it primarily for editing photos and sketching.
The Dial allows fast findings for color, pen nib sizes, types of tools and so much more!
Well worth the extra investment.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hello,
We're glad you took a chance on the Surface Dial, and haven't looked back! It sounds like it's been a great fit for your artistic projects, and we appreciate you taking the time to give us some insight on your experience so far!
Kindly,
Victoria Surface Customer Care
Cons mentioned:
Price
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Overpriced MSRP and useful for designers
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
For the $100 MSRP, unless you do some serious design work that the application supports it, I wouldn't recommend it. Just because of the high price.
On sale, here at Best Buy about $60, it's okay buy. You can configure the dial features in Windows 10, but it is mostly simple things like volume control. Not sure about Windows 11.
To really take advantage of this, the application has to support it.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Well made, still pretty new
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Dial is a nice piece of hardware. It has a very solid feel, and the turning mechanism is very smooth. It is a fairly new device, so there is not a lot of functionality outside of Microsoft programs. I have found that it is easy to take out when web browsing to scroll up and down. Much better that using arrow keys or trackpad. I think as it becomes a more known device, software companies will begin including it's use in their programs.
I would recommend this to a friend
Cons mentioned:
Price
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Happy with Fuctionality in Adobe Light Room
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Over all happy with how it performs with Adobe Lightroom. I have used it a little with Photoshop pleased but I need more time setting up.
I am not using it on the screen for any of that color picking functionality. I am not good with hot keys so I use the dial in my left hand and the mouse in my right and I can do a lot of basic functions in light room.
it feels well built and I like the slight feedback it gives you.
If you are not a great keyboardist it is a nice addition.
I did not test against other products and I took one star off for price even with a 15% discount.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from MicrosoftOutreachTeam
Posted .
Hi Geoff,
We appreciate your honesty and detail about your Surface Dial and where you think we can improve! We have passed your feedback along to our team, and appreciate you taking the time.
Kindly,
Victoria Surface Customer Care
Pros mentioned:
Drawing, Ease of use
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
great
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
love using it for drawing and so on and works good but when you have it stored away and not using it and your just using the surface the dial menu pops up randomly asking if you want to change brightness or undo and whatever the other option is but still good
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Making life easier
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Dial is a fabulous tool for any designer, photographer, or just someone who likes a new gadget! It is relatively easy to learn, connects right away, and can eliminate many searching steps in just a twist of the wrist.
Best to use with the Surface Studio! I have multiple Surfaces and have exclusively used Surface products for at least five years! I do use this with my Surface Pro also.
This product is small enough to fit in any laptop pocket.
Makes life easier!
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Cons mentioned:
App support
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Very promising
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Great addition to Surface Pro 3 once more app support catches up. Very promising especially for creative applications.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Cons mentioned:
Battery life
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Works ok
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I only use this for a tactile volume/mute knob near my PC and it works well, but it does go to sleep and needs to be pressed to wake up. This make it difficult for quick muting because it takes a couple seconds to wake up.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Nice add-on
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
When I first got the dial, I have to say that I wasn't sure if there were any benefits to it. Once I learned to customize it towards Lightroom and Photoshop, I quickly changed my mind. This helps speed up my workflow tons, especially when I have the Surface Studio in draft mode. It's pretty fast, although at times there can be a slight delay in Lightroom when scrolling between thumbnails. This and needing more advanced customization are my only complains so far.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Ease of use
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Surface Dial
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Posted . Owned for 1 year when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This thing is a game changer for the amount of work I do in photoshop. I can't believe how quickly I can work now by being able to adjust a multitude of brush settings, zoom, brightness volume etc. I was afraid that the sticky underside that keeps it stable on the desk would get dirty and ruined but its cleans off easily and works on the screen when flat or on the desk next to keyboard nicely too.