Tablets are great for apps, email, games, and more, but they can also be useful for note taking, annotations, or even drawing. When you start doing those things though, a good stylus is extremely useful to have. This week we're looking at five of the best tablet styli, based on your nominations.
Earlier in the week, we asked you which styli you thought were the best for tablets with capacitive touch screens—you know, tablets like the iPad or the Nexus 7. You responded with some great nominees, and here's your top five, in no particular order:
Adonit Jot Pro
Adonit's Jot Pro trades the traditional rubber or felt nib at the point of many capacitive styli for a fine point and a clear plastic disc that offers more accuracy and a precise fine drawing or writing point for note-taking and drawing. The tip is dampening and has a slight springing motion at the tip so your lines draw more naturally. The stylus itself has a metal case that can attach to your tablet's case magnets for easy storage, and features a rubber grip for comfortable use. Best of all, it'll only set you back $30 direct or at Amazon. While the Jot Pro is marketed for iOS phones and tablets, it works just fine with any capacitive touch screen, so Android and Windows phones and tablets can use them too.
In the nominations thread, I (full disclosure, I nominated it because I own one and love it) pointed out that I've had great experiences with it on multiple devices, and while some people have complained that the plastic disc at the tip has scratched their screens, I've never run into that problem. Many of you noted that it's beautifully precise and easy to use, and once you get the hang of it, it's definitely more flexible than a rubber-tipped stylus. Read more in its nomination thread here.
Musemee Notier v2
The Musemee Notier is another disc-tipped tablet stylus, except it tries to bridge the precision of the fine, disc-tipped stylus with the flexible, tap-anywhere easy use of a rubber-tipped stylus. The disc tip is easily removable, and unlike the Jot Pro, the cap of the Notier can rest on the back of the stylus while you use it. It's long, narrow and you won't mistake it for a regular pen, but it's still easy to use and works on any capacitive tablet or phone screen. If you're interested in one, it'll set you back $16 direct or at Amazon.
Those of you who nominated the Notier v2 pointed out that it gives you the precision of a disc tip and saves you a few bucks compared to the Jot Pro and a few other similar styli. Many of you specifically noted that you preferred the longer, narrowed body design of the Notier, and of course that the cap screws into the back when you're using the stylus so you don't lose it. You can read more in its nomination thread here.
Pencil by 53
You may remember the name 53 as the team behind Paper, one of our favorite tablet drawing apps, and sure enough the Pencil stylus works really well with the Paper app. It's a broad, large stylus shaped like a carpenter's pencil that's clearly designed for drawing and art-related tasks (and not so much note-taking of handwriting and annotation.) The stylus comes with a number of additional sensors and features, including an eraser rear tip, and Bluetooth that pairs with your tablet for features like blend and palm rejection (so the tablet ignores where your palm may be touching the screen.) Most of the Pencil's best features are only available in 53 apps like Paper, and other apps that use 53s APK, like Procreate and Noteshelf. For every other app though, you can still use it as a normal stylus that you can tap to open apps, jot down notes, or draw. It's available in two styles, graphite and walnut (with a magnetic strap that'll attach to your iPad), available for $60 and $75 respectively, direct or at Amazon with a $15 digital coupon.
The Pencil is a very powerful stylus if you're an iPad user and use your tablet for drawing and sketching tasks—if you're using it to write or take notes, it's clearly not the best choice. Plus, since the tablet is designed to work with Paper and apps that support the Paper SDK, Android users won't find it useful at all. Even so, it earned praise in the nominations thread for its utility in drawing and sketching, and the fact that the SDK means that other apps will support its high-end features soon. Read more in its nomination thread here.
Adobe Ink and Slide
Adobe's Ink and Slide is pricey compared to most other styli in the roundup—it'll set you back $199 for both the "Creative Cloud Pen" and "Digital Ruler" that come in the package. Both the Ink and the Slide are both machined aluminum that are comfortable to use for long periods, and it adapts to the way you hold it. The tip of the Ink is a rubberized nib that uses Adobe's pressure-sensitive "Pixelpoint" technology for precise drawing, writing, or annotating. You can choose your color and have it displayed on the top of the Ink, and then use the Slide "digital ruler" to draw perfect shapes, lines, and grids with ease.The Ink and the Slide both connect with Adobe's Creative Cloud software for your iPad (and you have to have an iPad 4th generation, iPad Mini, iPad Air, or iPad Mini with Retina display to use it) and make use of the tools, files, and settings you have saved in the cloud. You can pick up files you've been working on on other platforms, browse all of the files in your cloud clipboard, and more.
In the nominations round, the Ink and Slide picked up a few solid nominations, mostly because it's a professional product designed for a professional audience. If you're the type who does professional illustrations, design, or graphic work, you probably know whether or not you need one already. A student taking notes in class will find the Ink and Slide overkill, but a graphic designer getting some work done on a plane may find the tools extremely powerful and useful. Read more in its nomination thread here.
Lynktec TruGlide Pro
Lynktec's TruGlide Pro has a 5mm microfiber/metal-mesh fabric tip that looks like a traditional rubber nib, but is far more precise. The TruGlide Pro is a small stylus, about the size of a small pen, and can be clipped to the side of your tablet when not in use. It works with any capacitive touch screen, functions just as well for writing and annotation tasks as it does for drawing and sketching, and is small enough to hold easily and use with smaller or larger tablets. Best of all, it's affordable, and will only set you back $15 direct or from Amazon.
In its nomination thread, you noted that the combination metal/microfiber tip means that the nib, while exchangeable, won't wear out as quickly as cheaper rubber-tipped styli do, and praised the TruGlide Pro for not requiring a bunch of additional software to be useful—it works with just about everything, and won't demand you pair your stylus first or install any specific apps. You can just tap and go. We should also note that if the size or shape of the TruGlide Pro isn't to your liking, there are other variations, including one that's a stylus on one end and a pen on the other, or a longer version with a pocket clip you can carry around without fear of losing. Read more in its nomination thread here.
Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the community favorite.
The honorable mention this week goes out to the Wacom Bamboo Solo , a $20 stylus that comes in a variety of colors and is a bit of the standard when it comes to capacitive styli. It's thin, portable, easy to store, and has a soft rubber nib tip that tracks well on phone or tablet screens. When paired with Wacom's Bamboo Paper and Bamboo Loop apps, the Bamboo is even more useful.
Speaking of Wacom, a few of you noted that capacitive styli have their own limitations as a category, and suggested you should get a digitizer instead—which is a great option if you're willing to spend a ton more money or buy a specific device with a specific tablet stylus because you plan to take notes or do some light drawing. If you're looking for a stylus that'll work with whatever device you may already have, the ones above are a good option. If you haven't purchased anything yet and you're thinking about buying a tablet that a stylus will work with, consider a digitizer.
Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
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