Wacom iPad stylus unveiled: We get drawing with the Bamboo Stylus

Wacom have revealed their Bamboo stylus, which brings their tablet-drawing heritage to the tablet leader, the iPad. The addition of a high quality stylus may keep people on iPads- who needs the HTC Flyer and its accompanying stylus?

We managed to grab some exclusive hands-on time with the stylus at the Gadget Show Live earlier this week, and it’s a nice piece of kit.

The pen is designed specifically for the iPad’s capacitive screen, and looks set to give you the precision and speed of pen-based note-taking, drawing and photo defacing.

The Bamboo Stylus itself has a proper weight to it, like an expensive fountain pen, and really embarrasses other styli we’ve played with in the past- it’s certainly no lump of cheap plastic.

The stylus itself weighs 20g, is 120mm long and is set to arrive in May, alongside several apps specifically designed to get your pen-based creative juices flowing.

We spent a few minutes drawing with the an art app, with several paint effects, giving a realistic colour drain from that paint roller, or rich oil-paint textures. Your masterpieces can then be transferred or emailed, though we were told that the apps were still in development to make the most of the stylus A few glitches were visible as we drew on the iPad, picking up the base of our palm occasionally. (UPDATE: The app is ArtRage, already available on iTunes.)

There was also a nice note-taking app for speedy handwritten notes. It’s certainly much faster and natural than finger-tip hand-writing.

Wacom promise that their stylus will also work with other capacitive screen tablets, so if you’re an Android Tablet owner, this stylus will be compatible.

The Wacom Bamboo Stylus is set to cost £24.99. Click through for some hands-on photos of the Bamboo Stylus, and the painting app in action.

Another find at the Gadget Show live; we also had some time with officially the world's lightest touchscreen phone. It's tiny.

Article Gallery

You should also read...

The top book apps on Android and iPhone BlackBerry PlayBook: Hands-on gallery and iPad comparison A Crayon for your iPad: stylus with a twist