StylusHome Pen review: an Apple Pencil clone for a fraction of the price

I have been dishonest on my Apple Pencil for the previous few months. as an alternative of utilizing Apple’s $129 pen I take advantage of an alternate with my iPad Mini to take notes, which I purchased from Amazon for about $25. It appears to be like nearly the identical, works nearly the identical, and even plugs in and prices your iPad. And whereas this $25 pen does not fairly match all of the options of the Apple Pencil, it’s totally near offering an analogous expertise for a fraction of the worth.

The pen I’m utilizing is from a random model known as “StylusHome”, however there are numerous comparable pens listed on Amazon for about the identical worth. It precisely mimics the styling of Apple’s second-generation Pencil – with out the first-party brand, I would not have the ability to distinguish them visually. It has a flat aspect that magnetically snaps to the sting of my iPad Mini (and an iPad Professional or iPad Air as properly) the place it prices its battery as properly. It even comes with a spare nib within the field ought to the unique put on out.

Amazon lists this Pen clone for about $30, nevertheless it was about $25 after I purchased it a number of months in the past. On the time of writing, there’s a low cost plus a ten % coupon, which brings it all the way down to about $24. Evaluate that to the common $129 worth of the Apple Pencil, and even the $90 to $100 it prices when it goes on sale, and that is a reasonably extensive hole.

On condition that worth distinction and the truth that other than Logitech’s Crayon, the world of third-party Apple Pencil choices does not actually exist, I actually did not anticipate it to work this properly. However the StylusHome Pencil is as lag-free and responsive because the Apple Pencil when writing on the display. It is quite a bit lighter (17.9 grams versus 15.2 grams), however apart from that it feels precisely the identical. Helps curved shading however lacks strain sensitivity. That is effective with me as all I take advantage of is to write down notes, however should you’re an artist you may miss this function.

What I miss extra is the Apple Pencil’s double-tap function that lets me swap between writing and erasing with a fast double-tap on the aspect of the pen. StylusHome does not help this in any respect – similar to the first-gen Apple Pencil – so it’s important to use the onscreen controls to modify between pencil and eraser each time.

The StylusHome additionally, surprisingly, does not combine as tightly with iPadOS as Apple’s Pencil. For instance, whenever you stick it on the aspect of the iPad, you will not get a bit pop-up notification telling you about battery life. Nonetheless, it does help displaying battery life in Apple’s battery widget, which you’ll be able to place in your iPad’s house display or within the widget tray to the left of the house display. It is a good workaround for me as I by no means use the pen lengthy sufficient to fully drain its battery.

The Faux Pen makes use of Bluetooth to speak with the iPad, and there’s an preliminary pairing that you have to do the primary time you employ it from the iPad’s Bluetooth settings menu. And whenever you use the pen once more after some time, it won’t write on the display as a result of it goes into sleep mode. The answer right here is to stay it on the aspect of the pill for a second or two to wake it up and check out once more – from there, it responds immediately, similar to Apple’s Pencil.

For severe iPad Customers, maybe those that create digital artwork for a residing, I’d nonetheless advocate utilizing the first-party Apple Pencil. However should you’ve ever questioned if an Apple Pencil might add to your iPad expertise for on a regular basis scribbling, navigating software program, or taking handwritten notes, however feared the excessive value of the Apple model, a faux model like this is likely to be so as. provides you most of the identical options for a fraction of the worth.

Picture: Dan Seifert / The Verge