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Wacom Bamboo Stylus for iPad Review

Before the iPad rocked into town with its finger-based tablet for the masses, Wacom were synonymous with the term tablet.

Offering a range of high-end professional tablets for designers and graphical types, they’ve now brought their years of stylus know-how to the iPad. This is the Bamboo Stylus for iPad.

The great thing is, the stylus works across any capactive screen. It was a welcome break to have a precise stylus to use on our phones, although it didn’t play nice with the HTC Flyer, which is already optimised for its own battery-powered smart pen.

When we talked to the guys from Wacom earlier this year, they told us how the squishy tip of the stylus was optimised for the iPad- a device that’s aimed at finger-tip control.

Of course, with twenty years of pencil and pen experience, some things are better done with something you can grip between your fingers- and that’s what the Bamboo Stylus is aimed at.

Although its a premium product, currently priced at under £30, it’s a satisfyingly premium product, and has the weight of a quality fountain pen, and a stylish charcoal and metallic finish.

We were a little surprised by the less-than-premium packaging it came in, given the very Apple-ish feel to the whole thing.

Wacom has just released its own notepad app, pictured below, again optimised to make the most of the Bamboo stylus. In short; it works. Scribbling down notes and doodles is easy, although we were unable to find a redo button to recover from erasing accidents.

The cleverest bit is that the Notepad app seems to, 90% of the time, ignore the base of your hand, meaning you can rest your wrist on the iPad as you write or draw.

One niggle we had was, despite the squashy nib, the metallic edges of the tip of the stylus can easily connect with your screen. We’re sure it won’t scratch the iPad screen without a fair amount of welly behind it, but it did make us feel a little uneasy scribbling high-speed notes.

This isn’t a stylus for professionals, though it does offer a higher degree of control than your fingers.

There are several apps that offer great uses for the stylus, like Art Rage, as long as you have the artistic chops for it. The stylus isn’t pressure sensitive, though the size of your brush or pen’s footprint changes depending on how much of the nib touches the screen.

Conclusion

It’s a welcome addition to the range of iPad accessories, and it’s great to see companies branch out into the world of iPad.

It comes as no surprise to say that no other stylus out there at the moment matches the feel of the Wacom offering. It’s also great to see that the capacitive nib, although not optimised for them, works across other devices.


 

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