Best stylus for iPad Pro 9.7
What are the best stylus for iPad Pro 9.7 – Is Apple pencil the best stylus? An iPad makes for a fantastic drawing tool, but to make the most of it, you need a dedicated iPad stylus. You may be instantly tempted by the official Apple Pencil, and while that’s certainly a great choice, there are actually loads of options out there to choose from, some of which might end up suiting you better.
So it’s worth having a look around before you buy, and that’s where we come in. There are plenty of different styluses from different manufacturers that are compatible with Apple’s iPads, and many of them come quite a bit cheaper than the Apple Pencil. In this guide, we’ve picked out the best stylus for iPad Pro 9.7 and all budgets. Take a look through to find the one that’s right for you, and then let our tool help you find the best deals available online.
In the following guide, we’ll walk you through What are the stylus for iPad Pro 9.7 with integrated buttons that you can customise for different functions, and we’ll help you decide whether an iPad stylus with a hard nib or soft nib is likely to be better for your requirements.
Read on to find out exactly what stylus for your iPad you should buy – and where to buy it for the best price. What are the stylus for iPad Pro 9.7 – Is Apple pencil the best stylus?
How does best stylus work for iPad Pro 9.7?
The iPad’s touchscreen is capacitive, which means that to register a touch, it looks for the kind of electrical signals present in your body. (This is why you can’t use ordinary gloves on an iPad.) A capacitive stylus has an electricity-conducting nib (tip) that simulates the charge your finger provides on the screen.
Over the years, manufacturers have come up with many creative—and often strange—approaches to building effective styluses, but the most popular and widely used techniques fall into five categories.
Rubber nib : This inexpensive option is the original approach for capacitive styluses, designed to imitate a finger. Such nibs originally measured 8 to 9 mm because the first iPad simply wouldn’t recognize anything smaller, but they have since shrunk to 5 to 6 mm as displays have improved. A rubber nib provides more resistance against the screen than plastic or disc nibs, but the bigger nibs often obscure your starting point, leading to poor accuracy. They also occasionally tear with use, though most manufacturers offer replacements.
Mesh nib : These fabric-based nibs have been around almost as long as their rubber counterparts, and they offer slightly better resistance on the screen. Unfortunately, like rubber nibs, mesh nibs can be bulky and prone to tearing; you can also encounter slowdowns with that excess resistance.
“Other” nib : This category is dominated by disc nibs, though we’ve also seen capacitive paintbrushes, wands, and more. This type gained popularity thanks to stylus maker Adonit, whose disc tips use a 6 mm clear disc with a metallic center point that gives you finger-size touch input while allowing you to see precisely where you’re drawing. Plastic-disc nibs can be a little finicky to draw with, however, due to their lack of resistance; some models also may drive you crazy with their click-click-clicks as you pick up and put down the stylus.
Active (powered) fine-tip nib : This stylus type offers a much thinner nib (1.9 mm on average), similar to the tip of a traditional pen. Because the iPad’s screen doesn’t normally recognize inputs this small, these models use an internal battery to supply an electric charge to the tip that lets the stylus fake the diameter necessary for an iPad screen to recognize input. When the technology works correctly, the thin nib offers excellent accuracy and minimal resistance, but it can also produce imprecise lines—Ten One Design CEO Peter Skinner told us that “you may notice the line seems to be offset from the tip.” In addition, it may not work with every iPad, because different iPad models have used different screen technologies. Such styluses also draw a heavy amount of power: As Skinner told us, the “AAA-size battery usually only lasts about 10 hours before recharge or replacement.”
Bluetooth-powered nib : Originally created to provide Wacom-tablet-style performance and features for artists, Bluetooth styluses include additional hardware for features such as pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, greater precision, and custom buttons. However, Bluetooth styluses are usually the most expensive kind, and because Apple doesn’t provide a way for third-party styluses to provide system-wide support, stylus makers must rely on app developers to add model-specific support within their apps—which means that these features work with only those apps. And because each app supports a particular Bluetooth stylus in its own way, you may find that the stylus works differently in each app, and some features may not be available at all in some apps.
Today, rubber and mesh nibs are the most popular and least expensive options. They offer the surface area and general resistance of a finger in a pen-style body. This design comes at the expense of visual precision, however—even the best 8 mm stylus will feel a bit more clumsy than a precise pen nib.
How we picked and tested best stylus for iPad Pro 9.7?
We narrowed our last big search by picking three to five top styluses from each of the five stylus categories described above, based on Amazon popularity, outside recommendations, our own stylus experience, and comparison testing. That gave us 19 models (including Apple’s Pencil) for our first round of hands-on tests. We’d tested some of these models multiple times previously; others were brand-new additions to the field. Since then, we’ve monitored new models as they’ve become available.
We put that initial group through three rounds of tests on three iPad models: an iPad Air 2, a 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and a first-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro. (Though we didn’t test with non-Apple screens, all of the styluses but the Apple Pencil and Adonit Pixel should work just fine with the capacitive screen on any phone, phablet, tablet, or touchscreen laptop.) As for the app, we used Apple’s Notes, which provides a good baseline for drawing features without too much over processing, along with the Paper app for precision and balance tests. In 2018, we tested the second-gen Apple Pencil with both the 11-inch iPad Pro and the third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
We designed our initial tests to evaluate the four most important characteristics of a great stylus: comfort, resistance, balance, and precision. Though we’ve presented our results grouped by nib style, we tested all of the styluses in random order to prevent acclimation bias.
Comfort: Recommending a single stylus design and grip for everyone is difficult because some people prefer a thicker body while others want rubberized grips or angled grip surfaces. However, if a stylus cramped a tester’s hand or dug into skin, we dropped it from consideration. Also, if we found it impossible to grip a stylus without dragging a hand on the screen or contorting fingers, we eliminated it. Beyond that, you want a tool that feels good when you write with it.
Resistance: A good stylus offers the right amount of resistance—the friction between the nib (drawing end) of the stylus and the iPad’s screen. If the nib is too slick, you won’t have the line control that you might get with a pen on a piece of paper. If it’s too sticky, you’ll find yourself making erroneous marks or getting sore hands from gripping the stylus more tightly to drag it across the screen.
Balance and weight: A stylus’ weight should be distributed evenly along its body—a stylus with most of its weight at the nib and little at the other end (or vice versa) is uncomfortable to hold and difficult to control. This is especially true for styluses that don’t support palm rejection, which means you have to keep your hand upright over the pen. Weight is also important: A stylus that’s too heavy will cramp your hand over time, and one that’s too light will suffer from the same problems as a slicker pen nib—you won’t have the same control over your lines.
Precision: If you’re handwriting text, you want to be able to write consistently, without overlapping letters or inconsistent vertical spacing. If you’re drawing, you want to be able to ink over the same line precisely and repeatedly.
The best stylus for iPad Pro 9.7 in 2022
In response to what are the best stylus pens for iPad, we have listed here 4 best iPad stylus in 2022 as below.
01. Apple Pencil – Is Apple pencil the best stylus
The best stylus for iPad overall – if your iPad is compatible with it.
Is Apple pencil the best stylus? The new Apple Pencil (2018) works with the third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro or the 11-inch iPad Pro. The original Apple Pencil works with iPad Pro 12.9-inch (second and first generation), iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch and iPad (6th generation).
The Apple Pencil is, of course, the natural choice of stylus for iPad – but only if you own one of the two iPad models that are compatible with it: an iPad Pro or sixth-generation iPad (2018). If you do, there isn’t a better stylus to write and draw with on the market. Not only is it exceptionally comfortable to use, Apple has eliminated many of the issues that can dog other styluses – such as inadequate palm rejection and clear lag that instantly makes you feel disconnected to what you’re producing on the screen. The astonishing pressure levels mean that the Apple Pencil reproduces your movements perfectly, at even the most acute angles, and it enhances all your favourite creative iOS apps. The bottom line is that if you’ve forked out the cash for an iPad Pro, you’d be daft not to swallow the extra expense and go straight for an Apple Pencil.
Compare best stylus for iPad Pro 9.7
02. Wacom Bamboo Sketch – best iPad stylus for note taking
The best stylus overall for all other iPads. Wacom Bamboo Sketch is one of the best ipad stylus for note taking.
Wacom boasts an industry-leading reputation thanks to its fabulous range of dedicated drawing tablets. So it’s only natural that the company produces an attractive line of styluses as well. As well as being our favourite iPad stylus for artists, the Wacom Bamboo Sketch also takes the plaudits for general use on the iPad Air and iPad Mini series thanks to its compatibility with iOS devices. Rather than trying to exactly mimic a traditional rounded pen, the Bamboo Sketch favours an ergonomic triangular design for better grip. It’s an excellent all-rounder, but its fine tip and pressure-sensitive nibs make it just about as close an experience to sketching on paper as you can get. With an epic battery life (recharged via USB) it uses Bluetooth to connect to your iPad, which brings the integrated shortcut buttons into play, too, enabling you to set up handy shortcuts within your chosen iOS apps.
03. Hahakee iPad Stylus
Hahakee iPad Stylus is an impressively well-made budget option, with generous battery life.
Despite the fact that you can snag one for less than £30, the Hahakee iPad stylus does a good job of feeling like a premium product, thanks to an aluminium alloy build with a polished finish. It’s pleasant to hold and use, and thanks to the healthy forty-hour battery life, you’ll find yourself easily getting lost in your projects before it needs a charge. Charging is accomplished via the micro-USB port concealed in the top. With a fine tip, the Hahakee stylus is pleasingly precise, and spare nibs in the box ensure it’ll keep on being usable for a long time (indeed, probably considerably longer than the iPad you’re drawing on). It’s no Apple Pencil, but for the money, it’s a great
04. Adonit pixel stylus stylus iPad
Adonit pixel stylus stylus iPad is a top-quality third-party stylus for drawing and note-taking
Adonit has been refining its stylii for more than eight years now, and the Pixel is still one of its best for drawing on iPad. Bluetooth enabled and compatible with many of the sorts of apps creatives will likely be using on their tablets, the Pixel boasts 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and a range of function buttons on its body that can be assigned to the user’s preferred tools (though be warned these can be easy to knock accidentally if you’re not paying attention). The battery should last for about 15 hours of use, allowing you to get really stuck into your projects, and the sleek design makes the Pixel stylus genuinely enjoyable to use.
5. The Friendly Swede 4-in-1 stylus
The Friendly Swede offers a stylus that’s adaptable and useful for any digital artist, and comes with four different tips: A paintbrush, a micro-knit fiber tip, a precision disc, and a regular ballpoint pen. The brush tip acts just like a real paintbrush, which makes it perfect for painting, but it certainly won’t work if you want to execute a fine-line drawing. Luckily, you can switch over to the precision disc if pinpoint accuracy is needed. For more regular stylus use, you can use the micro-knit fiber end. Finally, having a ballpoint pen to hand is just useful.
It comes in an aluminum finish and looks just like a normal pen, and can be added to any pencil case or just slipped into a pocket. Each of the tips is replaceable, and the stylus comes with several replacement tips. Unfortunately, you’re unlikely to get the same level of pressure sensitivity you’d get from more expensive styli. However, at this price and with this versatility, you can’t go wrong.
06. Adonit Mark
The best cheap iPad stylus
Pressure levels: N/A | Weight: 22g | Length: 140mm | Connectivity: None | Battery life: N/A
If you’re not sold on the idea of spending upwards of $20/£20 on a simple pointing device, and don’t need the specialised functioning of the iPad styluses above, then Adonit’s budget option – the Adonit Mark – is worth considering. Despite its cheap price tag, this stylus has been designed to feel as comfortable as possible in your hand, with its triangular anti-roll design. It retains the precision you’d expect from the sole-purpose stylus manufacturer, largely thanks to its smudge-free mesh tip. The Adonit Mark won’t win any innovation awards, but if you just want a stylus for navigating around your iPad, you won’t find a better cheaper iPad stylus than this.
7. Adonit Dash 3
Simple but effective, with a long-lasting battery
Pressure levels: n/a | Weight: 12g | Length: 141mm | Connectivity: Wireless | Battery life: 14 hours
An affordable and simple choice of stylus, the broadly compatible Adonit Dash 3 works well on most iPads and provides a straightforward, stylish drawing experience. The different choices of finish are a nice touch (we like the bronze colouring in particular, though they all look good), and the long-lasting battery combines with fast charging times to ensure that you’ll be able to keep on drawing for longer. The lack of Bluetooth connectivity means a lack of features like palm rejection, which is a shame, but for an affordable and reliable basic stylus, the Dash 3 ticks all the boxes and more.
8. Adonit Note Plus
Digital artists who draw and paint on their iPads have a welcome new choice with Adonit’s Note Plus. Made specifically for newer iPad models, including the 3rd-generation iPad Pro, 6th- and 7th-generation iPad, 3rd-generation iPad Air, and 5th-generation iPad Mini, the Note Plus has critical features such as palm rejection and 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity to facilitate art creation with apps like Concepts, Zen Brush 2, Noteledge, and ProCreate. You can program shortcut buttons for your individual painting habits, like an eraser, undo and redo features, and tilt your stylus against the screen to create a shade effect in a drawing with specific brushes. Charge it up with a USB-C connector.
9. Adobe Ink & Slide
If you’re invested in Adobe’s Creative Cloud, the company’s Ink & Slide stylus and ruler combo may be the perfect tools for you. The Ink & Slide connects to any iPad 4 or later, iPad Air, or iPad Mini via Bluetooth LE. It’s also synced with Creative Cloud, so every drawing or preference gets stored in the cloud for you to access on your computer or other devices later. The Ink & Slide also works with Adobe’s Photoshop Sketch apps.
The Ink stylus has a fine-tip, pressure-sensitive point and feels like a normal pen in your hand. The Ink uses Pixelpoint technology from Adonit for enhanced accuracy. A status LED on the stylus even shows you what color you chose, so you don’t make any mistakes. The Slide ruler can be used to make perfectly straight lines, circles, and other shapes. The Ink & Slide comes with a USB charger and carrying case.
10. Logitech Crayon
A cheap and cheerful Apple Pencil alternative
Pressure levels: n/a | Weight: 18.1g | Length: 163mm | Connectivity: Wireless | Battery life: 7 hours
While Apple originally announced the Logitech Crayon would only be available for schools and educators, it later changed its tune and made this cheaper Pencil alternative available to everyone (albeit at a slightly inflated price point). The lack of pressure sensitivity does hurt this one a little when weighing it up against other options, however it does pack in plenty of useful features such as palm rejection, instant wireless connectivity to compatible iPads and tilt support, which lets you adjust the thickness of a line by altering the angle at which you’re using the Crayon. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s affordable and reliable, with a decent 7-hour battery life.
11. FiftyThree Pencil, digital stylus for iPad
Unfortunately, FiftyThree knocked its hardware section on the head in 2016. It’s a real shame as Pencil is one of the best all-around artistic styli around. Using FiftyThree’s own Paper app, you can produce remarkable watercolor paintings, fine line drawings, pen and ink sketches, as well as dynamic comic-book-like images with the marker function.
FiftyThree specifically designed Pencil to feel solid and comfortable in your hand. It’s shaped like a carpenter’s pencil and even comes in real walnut wood. Pencil even touts a built-in eraser on the end, so you can just flip it around when you want to erase. You can also use Pencil to smudge lines and create a nice blurred effect. Although Pencil works best with Paper, it is also fully compatible with popular drawing and painting app Procreate and Noteshelf. It connects to your iPad via Bluetooth, and once you’ve paired it, you’ll never have to do so again. When it runs out of battery, you can just remove the tip and pop the USB into any standard USB port.
As mentioned, FiftyThree no longer makes the Pencil, so it’s hard to find for new. Thankfully, you can find Amazon refurbished units that work just as well.
12. Studio Neat Cosmonaut
The Cosmonaut stylus may look huge and bulky, but it’s actually the ultimate stylus for whiteboard and marker artists. This stylus won’t give you the thinnest line you’ve ever seen, but it will give you a nice, solid line. The Cosmonaut is easy to grip and it certainly isn’t delicate, so it can take a knock in your bag without suffering any ill effects.
It’s a short, squat, round rubber stylus with no other defining features. It looks like a fat, black crayon. The Cosmonaut seems like the perfect stylus for those who like to diagram lectures and take notes in a visual style. It works with both Android and iOS. The company says it should also work on any touchscreen.
13. Nomad Flex
If you’re looking for a paintbrush instead of just a stylus, then the Nomad Flex may be the tool you need for your iPad. The brush is made of aluminum and has synthetic bristles, which make it feel more akin to a real paintbrush. The Flex will work perfectly with apps such as Paper or Procreate, but in an app like Penultimate, a traditional stylus would be more appropriate. Nomad’s offering includes a plastic carrying case inside the box, too, so you can safeguard the brush from unwanted abuse.
How does it compare to other brushes? The Flex is going to feel thinner and lighter than 4-in-1 pens like The Friendly Swede, and the Flex’s bristles will feel “mushier” by comparison — but which you prefer is going to come down to personal preference. Another great thing about the Flex is that it is compatible with iPads, Android tablets, and Microsoft’s Surface lineup. The brush also comes in a variety of colors, including charcoal, pink, silver, blue, and red.
Best styli for notetakers
There are almost as many styli for note-taking as there are for drawing. Although there are scads of fine-tipped styli for taking notes, these are four of the best we’ve found for precise writing on tablets.
1. Adonit Switch
While the Adonit Switch may have a low price tag, that certainly doesn’t mean it lacks in style or usefulness. That’s right, the Switch doubles as a stylus and an actual pen. Roll the striped grip-end and a ballpoint pen slips out. Rotate to take off the cap on the other side, and voilà, you have a precision stylus.
The precision stylus has a disk at the end, allowing for more precise marks on your tablet. It feels and weighs about the same as a normal pen, and can easily be mistaken for one. It can be used to draw, but you’re better off sticking with writing notes with the Adonit Switch. The ball-point pen writes fairly well and adds an immensely useful function if you happen to always carry a stylus around.
2. Adonit Pro 4
Adonit offers the most precise and fine stylus tips of any manufacturer. Although the Jot Script is well-liked for its extra-fine tip, it only works with iOS devices, which limits its reach. The benefit of the Adonit Pro 4 is that it works on most touchscreen devices, including iPads, Android tablets, and Windows tablets.
The Pro 4 has a very fine point, which makes it perfect for taking notes. It has a solid, well-built 9.25mm aluminum body, and feels smooth and sleek. It offers a pen-like experience, with equal distribution of weight throughout the device’s body. The Pro 4 looks and feels like a regular ballpoint pen, with the addition of the PET Precision Disc, a polycarbonate disc tip to protect the screen. The stylus comes in three color schemes: Black, silver, or gold.
3. Adonit Pixel
Adonit is one of the best styli manufacturers in existence, one that recently added the Adonit Pixel to its already impressive lineup. The Pixel stylus is compatible with iPhone 5 and higher, third and fourth-gen iPads, all iPad Minis, the iPad Air, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Like Adonit’s other wears, the Pixel has a 1.9-millimeter tip instead of a disc, allowing for easy drawing and sketching. The stylus’ tip has improved drag performance as well, to make it feel like you’re writing on paper. A USB dongle also allows you to charge the stylus via your computer, while a host of programmable buttons let you perform a variety of customized actions on the fly. If you’re looking for a blue-ribbon stylus that touts solid functionality across the board, you can’t go wrong with the Pixel.
4. Elzo 3-in-1 stylus
If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to some of the premium offerings in our roundup, then look no further than Elzo’s 3-in-1 stylus. It’s the perfect low-cost option, as it provides three tips in one slimline body. There’s a soft nanofiber tip for general stylus use, but there’s also a precise disc tip for more accurate work, and a gel pen tip for writing on real paper. It has a solid aluminum body and comes with a soft grip for writing comfort. One of its best features is its compatibility. It works with a multitude of iOS and Android devices including iPads, iPhones, Samsung devices, HTC devices, Motorola devices, and pretty much anything with a capacitive touchscreen.
