With so many iOS styluses on the market, some developers are trying more aggressively than others to set their designs apart from the rest of the market. We’ve recently seen interesting innovations with unique capacitive tips, while others are focusing more on the stylus’s base — or lack thereof. Today, we’re examining seven recently-released models from four different companies, a handful of which are truly unique. The list includes Acme Mobile Products’ MicroStylus Jack, Imymee’s Crayon Touch Stylus Pen, Stylus Diamond, Stylus Presenter, and Stylus Titanium from Logiix, and oStylus Design Studios’ oStylus and oStylus Dot ($38 each). Each works with all iPads, iPhones, and iPods, although some are better suited to a larger or smaller screen.
oStylus Design Studio’s oStylus and oStylus Dot are a couple of designs that buck the rubber dome trend; rather than including traditional soft tips, these pens have either a ring or dot of stainless steel attached to titanium arms at the end of their 5.5” aluminum handles. Since they’re coated with a thin layer of vinyl, they won’t scratch your iOS device’s screen.
The original model was developed for drawing and sketching, while the newer Dot is better suited for writing; we’d prefer if there was one solution designed to do both equally well. oStylus’s large tip takes some getting used to, but being able to see the end of your line as your drawing it in the center of oStylus’s ring is pretty cool. We look at it as closer to a brush than a pen, and found it more comfortable to draw from the wrist while holding the shaft towards the back end.
Dot, on the other hand, feels like it’s designed to be held right towards the tip. In our experience, Dot more commonly failed to register strokes than its counterpart, possibly due to the vinyl coating being slightly off-center. It wasn’t a frequent issue, but did happen on a number of occasions. In terms of writing, it’s pretty good, permitting greater accuracy than most rubber-tipped styluses do.
For their simplistic design and task-specific purposes, both oStylus models are somewhat overpriced. The materials are quite nice, and nothing about either model feels cheap, but neither feels like it justifies a nearly $40 price point.
