iPad Day 5: Pogo Stylus Review

Well, it’s been a few days now that I’ve had the iPad. I’ve played a few games on it, and started to read some of my PDF’s I put onto GoodReader. Overall, I’m liking the form factor, for reading while sitting in my recliner, it’s a pretty good experience, and beats flipping pages on some of those large books.

A few days ago, I ordered a Pogo Stylus which arrived in the mail today. I know there are plenty of no-name brand styluses out there, but I figured I’d go with the name brand first before jumping onto a generic. The question you must be asking is why buy a stylus? The iPad doesn’t need one! But I miss my stylus! I’ve been using tablet pc’s for such a long time, and not having a stylus for some tasks just doesn’t feel right. For example, if I boot up Sketchbook, or Adobe Ideas, I have a hard time using my finger to draw… It just feels like I’m in kindergarten finger painting with my stubby index finger. It’s times like this I miss the pressure sensitive pens on my Wacom penable tablets (even though they are not without fault). So to quell my desire for a stylus, I bought a Pogo. So, how is it?

It came in an unassuming box, and it was see-through and the pen was red… Not sure if  I ordered that color, but I don’t mind, I guess it stands out amongst all the Apple minimalistic toned stuff I own.

Look it's squishy!

The first thing that you’ll notice about this stylus is it’s skinny when compared to a regular pen, but it’s thicker than a Nintendo DS stylus. The tip is a nub with a soft foamy like material, which squishes…

Something I’m not too fond of so far. This is quite different than a plastic nib that I’m used to in my Wacom’s. But I can’t expect that, since the iPad/iPhone precision is a finger, which is about 20 pixels round…

My first attempt using it was with Adobe Ideas. The response was ok, but as I drew around on my Zagg surface, I noticed the tip pull and bend away more than it probably should… I think it has something to do with the Zagg surface, because it is smooth, but has a bit of tack to it, unlike the plain unprotected glass of the iPad. It did respond better on my iPhone though, but the screen protector I have on the iPhone is a cheaper smooth type, and not a Zagg… I’m not planning on pulling the Zagg off to try it out, considering how much effort it was to put the thing on, so we’ll see how it survives long term use. It does make the use of the iPad and iPhone a little different, I found myself more accurate on the iPhone when typing, since the stylus point is a bit more accurate than my stubby index finger.

All in all, it looks nice and it works, and it’s probably the closest thing I’ll ever get to a real stylus on the iPhone/iPad. Is it worth the $20 price tag? Hmm, I would say no… But luckily you can buy it for almost half that at other retail locations. I’m going to see about ordering some of those generic ones and see how they stack up. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can get used to drawing with this stylus.