Apple Pencil Review: Best iPad Stylus

Paying an extra hundred dollars on top of the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil is one of the most expensive iPad pens you can buy. Is it really worth the money? Find out all the details in our Apple Pencil review.

If there’s one thing Apple is good at, it’s exaggeration. Whether a new Apple product is magical, revolutionary, or the “funniest” thing ever, Apple’s marketing team is likely to score a few punches.

Over the years, Apple has expressed a certain disdain for the idea of ​​a stylus. A famous quote from Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and former CEO, suggested that if a company was using a stylus, something went wrong in the design process. So what’s the big comeback? Is Apple a hypocrite for coming out with its own stylus? It’s a little more complicated than that.

Apple has a love/hate relationship with the pen

Back then, mobile devices—both smartphones of that time and tablets when they finally came along— is necessary use of pens. Everything is still designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse, and even when it comes to a touchscreen, using a precision touch stylus was easier than trying and using the fingers. These devices got the job done overall, but it was a frustrating experience.

When Mr. Jobs talked about the idea of ​​a stylus, in response to products like these, they were products where a stylus was needed to make something usable. For example, I would go so far as to argue that it wouldn’t say the same for the Microsoft Surface, because these products use a stylus as an optional extra. to lengthen functionality, not to complement it. It falls into this category of devices where both the iPad Pros and the Apple Pencil fall.

Apple Pencil review: features

Like several third-party options, the Apple Pencil is a powerful stylus. It has a rechargeable battery inside its hollow tube and connects to your iPad via Bluetooth; It is not just a simple device. It measures just under seven inches in length, measuring 0.35 inches in diameter and weighing less than one ounce (just 0.73 oz).

Unlike some of the other active pen options, the Pen is pretty straightforward for the end user. There are no buttons on the muzzle; You can write or draw with the included tip, that’s all. Instead of turning the pencil into an eraser when you flip it over, it has a removable cap attached with a few magnets. Below it is a Lightning plug similar to the one you find at the end of your iPhone’s charging cable.

Apple has ingeniously changed the way the Lightning port on iPad Pros works. Rather than being a one-way connection like the iPhone and iPad until now, an iPad Pro is essentially how most people charge their Apple Pencil. It looks weird and to be honest, but it’s mostly used in short moves.

If your Pen runs out of juice while on the go, you can pop it into your iPad Pro – Apple promises that just 15 seconds of iPad charging will get you an hour of Pen usage (ten minutes will get you from 0 to 0). fully charged). Due to the nature of the pen, it’s impossible to set a reasonable figure for battery life, but it’s safe to say you can draw for a few hours or more without worry.

When you get home, you can long connect it to the iPad Pro or connect it to a USB port using a special cable that comes from the Pencil case. It sounds hectic, but it’s a really great way to charge your Pen. I’ve had one of these stylus since mid-December and my charging cable is still in the Pencil case; I just used the iPad Pro to charge it.

An extra nib is included in your box, along with the charging cable and the Pen itself. Eventually, the nib of your Pen will wear out over time and you will be able to remove and replace the old nib. Sadly, Apple has been mum about how sensitive the Pencil is; IT to do whoever it is, compare favorably with Wacom’s app.

Apple Pencil review: performance

The pen itself is extremely comfortable in the hand. Despite being made of plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap at all; Being battery-charged, it feels pretty solid (for example, it weighs about twice as much as a standard pencil). Despite being completely round, Apple designed it so that if it rolls a little on your desk or table, it will stand on its own and the Apple logo is always facing up.

To talk about how well the Pencil works, it’s first necessary to mention other iPad pens, none of which offer a great experience. Most have capacitive protrusions that mimic the touchscreen, suggesting you’re dragging your fingertip across the screen. I’ve collected a handful of these over the years, and my current favorite (Wacom Bamboo) only manages a slow, laggy experience.

This is like the pinnacle of my drawing skills. You’re welcome.

Several enterprising companies have created powerful Bluetooth models that, in theory, look like Pencils. The most well-known of these are Adobe’s Ink and Slide, 53’s Pencil (it had the name) and Adonis Script or Touch. In some applications these stylus are actually pretty good. Unfortunately, none of them offer very widespread support, and aside from a handful of these apps, you’re limited to using them more like one of these capacitive models (still your only option if you want a stylus for the iPhone, iPad Mini or iPad Air).

It sounds like I’m being harsh on the pen manufacturers, but they’ve done an admirable job of getting around iOS’s limitations – one of the reasons the Pencil feels so much better is because of its tight integration with the iPad Pro, it’s something only Apple can do.

One result of this tight integration is that Apple Pencil is supported on almost all iPad. The experience is better if an app has been updated with open Pen support, but even if it isn’t, you’ll still be able to do basic drawing and writing.

Apple has really worked to make the Pencil feel like a real pen, and it shows. The lag, though, is almost undetectable – especially if you’re not moving too fast on the screen. It’s completely different from using a non-electric pen where you can see the line following your pen a second later; just like using a traditional sketchbook.

A key aspect of this experience is Apple’s extremely outstanding palm rejection technology. When using the Pen on your iPad Pro, you can put your hand directly on the screen, just like with a stack of papers – iPad completely ignores your hand, focusing instead on what the Pencil is doing. If you’ve spent time trying to use a stylus with an iPad Air, the iPad Pro’s palm rejection is self-explanatory.

Another fun aspect of the pen is its tilt support. If you’ve drawn in pencil before, you’ve probably tilted an area to shade it – the Apple Pencil behaves similarly. If you choose a pencil in your drawing app, you will feel just like a pencil. Other drawing tools will tend to create a small dot if you hold it perpendicular to the iPad and a large one if you tilt it to the side.

What the pen does not do well

All that being said, the Pen offers a truly immersive experience, but there are definitely things it can do better. Even now, writing or drawing on glass with a Pencil is not as comfortable as using an analog tool and a piece of paper, and just tap while typing and it will be noticeable in a quiet room.

Unlike any other device with Pen support, there is nowhere to put the Pen when not in use. Even with a loop attached to iPad Pro smart covers, it would be handy to have a place to stash the stylus that iPad always has with it. It’s easy to see why they didn’t decide – the Pencil is an optional accessory after all – but it’s annoying nonetheless.

Additionally, I tend to lose things and I think it’s only a matter of time before the cap on the Pen is lost forever. It’s held in by pretty strong magnets, but it’s easy to imagine charging your pen at the coffee shop and accidentally knocking the cap on the floor. Already, there seem to be third-party solutions to fix both this and the storage issue; this is one of the less underrated benefits of buying the Apple ecosystem.

Should you buy an Apple Pencil?

I think many people see the Apple Pencil as a tool for artists, sketchers, and others similarly inclined. But even non-artists who bought one of the two iPad Pros should seriously consider getting the Pen to go with it – I’d go so far as to say it’s a better buy than the Apple Smart Keyboard.

If you need to take a lot of notes that are not conducive to writing – anything related to math or scientific formulas, for example – the Pen is outstanding. You can take your notes, upload them instantly and share them with other students or colleagues. The pen is also great for annotating and signing PDFs.

Still, that’s an extra hundred bucks depending on where you are, and that’s money that could go into an iPad case, keyboard, or other accessory. If you don’t think you’ll ever want to scribble, take notes, or markup a document, you can safely skip the Pen. But if you find yourself staring at the Pen, then look for cheaper, third-party alternatives, do yourself a favor and use Apple’s pen.