We have a Winner! (so far) - the Battle of the iPad Styli

A long, long time ago, I bought the first US Robotics Pilot 5000. Using Graffiti, I could actually take notes for the first time in a meeting that I wouldn’t have to type in later (although I did have to correct missed letters periodically).

I used PalmOS and a Stylus to take notes up through my Kyocera 7135, which I loved. But when it died, I couldn’t bring myself to get another phone with that outdated OS, so I made the jump to Windows Mobile with a Verizon xv6600 in 2004 or so. And up until recently, I still didn’t have a device I could take good notes on. I still take notes writing much faster than I do typing with my thumbs, so once I got my iPad, I went looking for a way to take notes.

Turns out, I don’t write very quickly with my index finger, and what I do write is even harder to read than my “normal” writing. So then, I had to look for a Stylus.

I’ve tried 3 so far, the Ten One Design Pogo Stylus was the first, but its tip is spongy and inexact. The Mybat Stylus Pen was even worse. It felt “sticky” - it just wouldn’t glide smoothly across the surface (which might be why Amazon says so many people buy it with screen protectors (I’m not using one). Then, after a couple of months of waiting to find one with promising reviews, I found the Boxwave Capacitative iPad Stylusand it showed up yesterday. I can’t think of anything I would rather have different. It’s the right size, seems durable enough, is comfortable to use (at least after 1 day), takes wonderful notes in Penultimate (shown here), and has made me much more productive in OmniGraffle.

My favorite part (although I would love it even with out it) is a lanyard that has a plastic plug that holds into the headphone jack on the iPad. It keeps the stylus handy, and is far more useful that I would have expected before I used it.

There may be another stylus that comes along that I prefer, but for now, this one has won. And even if I find a better one someday, this one will still be the one that first met the requirement that it was good enough that I will stop and look for it when I don’t have it handy, rather than just doing what I was going to do without it. And that’s the primary bar for usability, to me.