Best Stylus for the iPad – Six Months Later

A while ago I wrote a post about the best stylus for the iPad. Since then I have run more than 10 styluses through the paces. If you want the backstory check out the other post. If you are just looking for the punchline – here it is:

At the time I rated the rubber tip styluses as the best. When you take them out of the box, they have a great smooth feel. The problem is that over time they wear out. From what I’ve observed, after a couple of months of heavy use the tip gets smoother, which then causes it to stick to the screen more and get more difficult to use. For two of them it got to the point where the tips tore because of the friction.

Fortunately, just like Balboa in Rocky 3, one of the best that got smacked down has returned better than ever – the Pogo Sketch. It uses a fabric tip that is not as fast as the new rubber tip, but is faster than the rubber tip after one month – and it stays that fast. The Pogo Sketch was the first stylus I had tested and my favorite until the plastic clip broke off, the new version has a metal clip so it looks like that problem has been solved.

The other new one I tested is the Acase 2. The same rubber tip, but a bit smaller, and a leash so you can plug it into your headphone jack (I’m not really psyched about doing that since if something goes wrong there you are screwed). It also makes some noise and I’m not into the whole jingle bell thing outside of December.

I’ll give it another six months and we’ll see how it goes.