Gadgetory

well this is Ellis with the verge and today we're looking at the best styli for your iPad for writing drawing scribbling sketching or whatever you need to do we'll be using paper new iPad app to test out these styli which we found reproduces marks pretty nicely and is a good judge of character for these styli first category we're going to launch into is the most populous category of style.i which is the rubber tipped group the 24.95 value pen is by far the most distinctive looking stylus with a round tip and it looks like one big chunk of aluminum feels really nice in your hand it's weighted well and there are no seams at all it is a hexagonal prism which means it kind of looks like the old Dixon Ticonderoga pencil you used to use in school the tip is really nice except for the fact that it kind of drags across the screen as you use it which is unlike some of the other round tips styli i used but maybe it's just because i haven't warned it in that much the $29.99 bamboo by Wacom is highlighted by 53 and it's promotional videos for paper for a reason because it's one of the best styler you can buy for your iPad it's expensive but it's exceptionally well rounded as a stylus it has a removable pen clip it has a removable tip it's a very nice length it has a great weight from back to front and overall it just works very well it is a smaller diameter rubber tip and some of the other rubber tips style I tested and I actually like it better because it allows you to be more precise when you're writing or drawing next up is the Amazon basic stylus which is exactly as it sounds it's a basic stylus that you can buy from Amazon it's the cheapest on our list its eleven dollars and there's really not much to it it is a nice enough tip and it's black plastic body with chrome accents and there's a little annoying lanyard on the end of it which we would just rather not have but besides that it's pretty decent we would actually expect this to be a little bit cheaper from Amazon considering what it is but it's nice to throw in your pocket it's cheap you won't care if you lose it and it works well enough the 1999 stylus from Griffin is really just like the Amazon basic stylus but twice the price there is a dingy little pen clip on here that's removable but the build quality of the stylus as a whole isn't very good and considering it's 20 bucks there's no reason to buy it the $15 kensington virtuoso stylus pen combo is a great deal it's a lot like the Amazon in terms of performance and the tip but it's longer it has a soft touch rubber coating and when you pop off the cap it actually exposes a pen so it's a really nice deal for 15 dollars especially considering the build quality is good and there's a nice ball clip to attach it to your pocket the Kensington is perfect for a businessman with tablet it's just the same length as the ballpoint pen you're accustomed to using the qlh 10 at 1295 is also a great deal and at half the size it has a textured grip that I like and the tip is the real standout feature here because it's about the same diameter as the bamboo except it actually has a little nib inside of it so that when you press it down on the screen you can actually feel the stylus making contact with the screen I've read a few places that after a couple weeks the tip can degrade down a little bit but from my experience it worked very well another key feature is the top that comes off and the top is attached to a little string that's attached to a little plastic dongle that you can plug into the headphone jack of your iPhone or iPad next is a brief pitstop in the lonely foam tip stylist category Pogo sketch plus is a relic of the old days where styli were ugly and metallic and thin and uncomfortable to hold and the Pogo sketch plus is no different the tip is made of a conductive foam that you could buy at the local RadioShack and it's kind of glued to the tip here in such a way that it's mushes down when you use it and it just isn't very responsive and isn't very comfortable to use and it just doesn't evoke and sense of quality it does have a pen clips you can hold on to it but at $15 it's not a great deal doesn't stand out in any way and it's the only stylus with a foam tip which is not good in stark contrast is the studio neat cosmonaut which is a big dry erase marker typed stylus that uses the same rubber tip as the first category but this time the rubber tip is embedded which means there's nothing to poke or lose or smush down and the cosmonaut has a great tip because of that it doesn't compress as much as any of the ones in the first category cosmonaut is very overt about its capabilities as a stylus it's not trying to do too much it's not trying to let you write in cursive on your screen it's really just for sketching doing some casual drawing writing diagramming it's really great for kids adults the elderly it's super easy to use it's kind of like an extension of your finger and it's kind of a no-brainer and it's really durable so nothing's going to happen to this thing it's twenty-five dollars which isn't cheap isn't expensive but it's really category unto its own and finally we have the Adhan it Jack Pro the jot Pro by Adonit is unlike any other stylus on the market it really doesn't look much like a stylus it looks more like a tool an architect would use it's really just this long piece of aluminum with a soft touch rubber grip that culminates in this pointy end and the end touches this little plastic disc that somehow conducts electricity through the screen and because it's a clear plastic disc you can actually see more precisely than any other stylus where you're writing so I think this is the most precise stylus you can get but the plastic discs are fragile they're going to cost you eight dollars for a pair of two of them to replace it and it's you know it looks fragile but it looks very sturdy one other cool thing about the jot Pro is that it uses magnets just like your smart cover to attach to the side of your iPad and stay there so your jot doesn't roll off the table or if you just want to put your iPad under your arm and walk around with the jot Pro attached to it and it's cool it's generally pretty reliable it doesn't fall off and even if you have a smart cover on it will generally stay put one thing to note about the jot Pro is that it's really not great for sketching simply because when you're sketching you're picking up your pen you're putting it down very quickly and because the jot Pro connects with your screen a little piece of plastic there's actually an audible tapping almost like you're tapping your fingernail on the screen every time you pick up and put down the stylus to sum it up none of these styli are perfect I wouldn't even say any of them are stellar because the fact is it's just not that pleasurable of an experience to be writing on a piece of glass no matter what instrument you're using that's why this is designed with your finger in mind because that's really the only thing that feels natural on the screen but if you want to do some note-taking or drawing there are some pretty great options so our all-around winner is the Wacom Bamboo with its understated modern look and it really hits all the right points no matter what you're doing but there are some options that excel in other categories so if you're doing mostly writing which I'm not really sure why you'd want to be doing a ton of writing on your iPad but if you are jot Pro is unbeatable because it is the most precise and it will mark the screen almost exactly where you think it's going to as far as diagramming or writing some flashcards or notes the cosmonaut is very easy to use it feels nice in your hand and just about anybody can pick it up and use it it's also just good for browsing your iPad as far as quick scribbling goes the SGP Kuehl h10 at under $15 is just about perfect you're not going to be doing any extended drawing or scribbling or note-taking on there but considering it attaches to the headphone jack on your iPhone or iPad you won't lose it it's small tip is nice and the textured grip means you won't drop it you