I’ll be up front about this: I’ve never really used a stylus with my iPad all that much.
I own a Studio Neat Cosmonaut, and it has largely sat unused after the initial excitement of having it wore off (it’s a great product, just not my style – pun intended). I won a stylus at Macworld – and promptly gifted it to someone who wanted a stylus for their own tablet.
So I’m not a stylus person.
But the HAND Stylus is the stylus I want in my toolbox when I need one, and here’s why:
- It is incredibly well made. It feels sturdy in my hands and doesn’t feel overbearing in the process. It doesn’t feel cheap and it looks as if a great deal of thought has gone into every aspect of its design. From the choice of colours available (I chose green…naturally) to the heft of the stylus, the HAND Stylus is the most useful stylus I’ve ever had the pleasure of using without feeling weighed down by it.
- The retractable tip is a killer feature. The tip on this stylus is retractable, which is a great selling point. It’s also thinner than my Cosmonaut, allowing me to use it to sign any PDFs that come my way or take notes with something that has precision that is unmatched for any stylus I’ve tried (mind you, you do have to apply more pressure than with most styluses to get the smaller tip to really work) . But again, the ability to retract the tip — which is replaceable, by the way — is huge.
I can’t say that I’ll use the HAND Stylus every day, but I’ll use it more often than my Cosmonaut – and its design has stopped me from looking elsewhere. If you’re looking for a functional and well-designed stylus to add to your arsenal, then the HAND Stylus is a great choice.1 You can get it for $29.95 USD (a package of 6 additional tips is $9.95 USD) through the company’s website.
1 Full disclosure: I received a HAND Stylus for free as a review unit for the purposes of conducting this review.
