There's a certain magic to the combination of the iPad and the Pencil.
With the right apps, it's like you're working with the real thing.
It's not cheap. Depending on the iPad you have, a Pencil could cost you $130.
And if you buy one for the base iPad, a Pencil is almost a third of the cost.
But the Pencil isn't the only stylus that works with the iPad.
There are alternatives, which could be worthy.
So today I'm meeting up with a local artist to compare them, with what up until now seem
like the only option.
Vancouver based Audrey Lemon will be helping me out. A predominantly digital artist, the Pixel is her medium.
And her work, you might have already seen. So I work right now as a background artist at a studio called Bardell.
Most recently I was working on season five of Rick and Morty.
I would say I'm a mostly digital artist. I use a lot of Photoshop, some Procreate.
When it comes to alternatives to the Apple Pencil, what you want to look for is an active
stylus, ideally with tilt support. Audrey and I are going to try four good options on the market, which are similarly priced.
There's the official Logitech Crayon, which was the first active iPad stylus option to
become available. The Zag Pro stylus has a passive capacitive end.
Or there's this Adonit Note Plus, which has two buttons and pressure sensitivity, but
not system wide. And then there's this one from Amazon, which is cheap.
Now back to Audrey. For most of her career, she's been drawing in a Wakeham Cintiq, but she added an iPad
and pencil to her toolbox when her boyfriend bought her both last Valentine's Day.
I mostly use Photoshop and my Cintiq to do more final pieces that I want to take to like
a really polished level. And then on the iPad, I use it mainly for sketching or anything like line work, inking.
Definitely does have a very traditional feel like you're using like your pen on actual
paper. Because you can have it in your lap physically. So it feels way more like, oh yeah, I'm like drawing, you know.
But what are you most curious about with these alternative styluses that we're going to try?
I'm really excited to see how it feels and how that compares to the Apple Pencil, which
I'm used to, which has the really hard, you know, kind of like tick, tick, tick feel.
Are you ready to try a pencil case full of style?
Let's go do it.
So here are the options again, laid out. And to evaluate them, Audrey and I will both draw something in Procreate, switching between
each stylus after a couple of minutes or so. And to get us started, we're using the Apple Pencil first, which Audrey has come to appreciate.
The reactivity of the original like Apple Pencil, it's really nice, really fast.
It's very sensitive, like any sort of even small move that I make.
Okay, so let's, you know what the pencil is like, but I wanted you to try now this Logitech
crayon. Let's give it a go. Let's give it a go.
So how do these active styluses work?
When you touch a capacitive screen, it senses your finger drawing energy from the digitizer
and registers that location. However, an active stylus does the opposite, sending energy to the digitizer.
It's why these things need to be charged and it's how palm rejection works.
You've been using that, have you noticed anything different?
I would say that the sensitivity isn't as nice as the Apple Pencil.
I noticed that it's not too bad, but if you do any sort of like swirl or thing like that,
you get kind of a bad jitter, which kind of sucks.
But overall, like it's not unworkable. Okay.
Like so, I could draw with this. You could.
Oh, okay. Well, that's good. Now, there is one thing I should let you know about.
You see, the one thing about all these alternatives is they don't support pressure sensitivity.
Which is...
Ah, this is what I was a little worried about.
Because for artists, that's important.
In terms of defining sensitivity, is it like the latency between like when you put it down
and how quickly it draws or is it... It's sort of hard to describe.
It's, that is part of it, so using, putting your pencil down and having it be really responsive.
But it's also like if you shift your hand and it starts to do almost like you're sliding
the side of the pencil and you get a larger, more softer stroke, which I know Photoshop
does have and like Sintiqs do have. But I found it was way more sensitive on the iPad than...
So the tilt's more sensitive. Yeah. That's the tilt sensing.
And then, you know, the pressure is the other one that the pencil does.
Pressure, yeah. Pressure is good. Well, why don't we switch to the next one and see if you can tell.
But they still support tilt. Let's try this one.
Where's this? That's the Adonit note. Oh.
And I will use the Logitech pencil. Do you use layers a lot in Procreate?
Yeah, I really like to use layers. I'm kind of used to using layers.
Now since I do so much digital art, that going without them sometimes feels so scary.
But... That's interesting. Yeah, normally I do.
I wish I'd done layers. Can I still do a back layer?
What was it like when you first got the iPad?
Like, what was that experience? It was kind of overwhelming. I was like, ah, this is so many.
It's very minimal and they don't throw a bunch of stuff in your face.
So you kind of have to go through and discover kind of the different functions.
Thankfully, they've made it quite easy if you're familiar with digital painting.
So you've had some time to use both of these. How is the tilt sensitivity?
It's pretty nice. If I'm being honest, I don't really notice that big of a difference with the apple pencil
as far as tilt goes. Oh yeah, that's pretty good.
Yeah. The tilt sensitivity is pretty neat too.
These styluses output two signals down onto the iPad screen and then the iPad can actually
from that calculate just how deep the angle is of your pen.
This is honestly not too bad. I don't mind the adonit.
I was expecting it to be somehow worse just because of the lack of pen pressure and I
love pen pressure. But for drawing like this, it's not terrible.
You do have to kind of work around it by using opacity and stuff.
And you can work around it. I'm not hating it.
What about the tip? The tip? I actually quite like the tip.
I prefer it to the apple pencil.
I find it's kind of nice and like you get a little bit of squishiness. It has a suppleness to it.
Yes. It's probably the best feeling. Yeah.
For sure. I would think so. Okay.
Do you want to switch now? I think we should switch. Yeah.
Okay. So you're going to use the zag. Okay.
I'll use the adonit. Yeah. I really do miss the pen pressure though.
You're noticing it particularly with the zag? Yeah, I think so.
I find the adonit, I found even because it doesn't have pressure sensitivity.
Well not exactly. It actually does have pressure sensitivity, but it's not system wide.
That's exclusive to the pencil. It's only in supported apps, which Procreate is not one of them.
Well, why don't we switch now to the last option before we get to prices while you're
drawing is really good. So you're going to use the Amazon one.
So one of the interesting things I've noticed is the Amazon stylus and the zag pro stylus,
they kind of look similar like in the way they're made.
Oh they do. But the one thing these two stylus do do is they actually do magnetically attach to
the side of the iPad. I mean that is the cheapest option.
How is it compared to the other ones you've been using? I haven't noticed a huge difference between this one, the Amazon pencil, the Logitech
one and the zag. I would say they're all very similar.
Yeah. Okay, are you done?
I mean, I think I'm as done as I'm gonna be.
Alright, pencils down. Okay, so these three actually cost the exact same price.
These are $70 and this is actually $30.
Are these savings worth it?
For someone like me, I would say no.
If you're drawing and painting a lot and pen pressure and sensitivity is something
that you're looking for, I think it's more worth it to buy something like the Apple Pencil
and use a program like Procreate.
So these aren't for artists, but a group of people who aren't artists, they might be
engineers or students who need something for note-taking or doing math, but which is
the one to recommend to them? If it were me, I would say go for the Adonit just because it feels really nice, but honestly
you probably can't go wrong with any of them. I think I agree with you.
I think the Adonit would be the one I'd recommend to non-artists.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you so much for all your help.
Yeah. Now, you want to see what I drew and I want to see what you drew.
Yeah, I want to see you here. Okay. Wow.
This is much better than mine.
So for artists, it looks like the Apple Pencil is the only game in town.
Pressure sensitivity is super important, but that doesn't mean the alternatives don't
have a place. If you're a student or an engineer working in a field full of math, you don't need pressure
sensitivity and so you're much better off saving the money and going for one of these.
And the one that Audrey and I recommend is the Adonit Note Plus.
Thanks for drawing this Mac Address. If you're someone who loves the Apple Pencil, why not give this video a like?
And if you're someone who just signs documents with a regular stylist, why not subscribe?
Now, I'm curious how important something like pressure sensitivity is to you.
Let me know in the comments below.