(gentle music)
(zipper unzips)
- There's certain magic to the combination
of the iPad and the pencil.
With the right apps,
it's like, you're working with the real thing.
It's not cheap.
Depending on the iPad you have
a pencil could cost you $130.
And if you buy one for the base iPad
a pencil is almost a third of the cost.
But, the pencil isn't the only stylus that works
with the iPad.
There are alternatives which could be worthy.
So today I'm meeting up with a local artist to compare them
with what up until now seemed like the only option.
(gentle music)
Vancouver-based Audrey Lemond will be helping me out.
A predominantly digital artist, the pixel is her medium.
And her work you might have already seen.
- So I work right now as a background artist
at a studio called Bardel.
Most recently I was working on season five
of Rick and Morty.
I would say I'm a mostly digital artist.
I use a lot of Photoshop, some Procreate.
- When it comes to alternatives to the Apple Pencil,
what you wanna look for is an active stylus,
ideally with tilt support.
Audrey and I are going to try
four good options on the market,
which are similarly priced.
There's the official Logitech Crayon,
which was the first active iPad stylus option
to become available.
The Zagg Pro stylus has a passive capacitive end.
Or there's this a Adonit Note+, which has two buttons
and pressure sensitivity, but not system-wide.
And then there's this one from Amazon, which is cheap.
Now back to Audrey.
For most of her career she's been drawing an Wacom Cintiq,
but she added an iPad and pencil to her toolbox
when her boyfriend bought her both last Valentine's Day.
- I mostly use Photoshop and my Cintiq
to do more final pieces that I wanna take
to like a really polished level.
And then on the iPad,
I use it mainly for sketching or anything like line work.
Inking definitely does have a very traditional feel
like you're using like your pen on actual paper
because you can have it in your lap physically.
So it feels way more like, oh yeah,
I'm like, drawing, you know.
- But what are you most curious about
with these alternative styluses that we're gonna try?
- I'm really excited to see how it feels
and how that compares to the Apple Pencil,
which I'm used to, which has a really hard,
you know, kinda like "tick, tick, tick" feel.
- You ready to try a pencil case full of style?
(Audrey laughs)
Well, let's go do it.
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So here are the options again, laid out
and to evaluate them Audrey and I will both draw something
in Procreate, switching between each stylus
after a couple of minutes or so.
And to get us started, we're using the Apple Pencil first,
which Audrey has come to appreciate.
- The reactivity of the original like Apple Pencil.
- Yeah.
- It's really nice. Really fast.
It's very sensitive,
like any sort of even small move that I make.
- Okay. So, let's, you know what the pencil's like
but I want you to try now this Logitech Crayon.
- Let's give it a go.
So how do these active styluses work?
When you touch a capacitive screen
it senses your finger drawing energy
from the digitizer and registers that location.
However, an active stylus does the opposite,
sending energy to the digitizer.
It's why these things need to be charged.
And it's how palm rejection works.
You've been using that.
Have you noticed anything different?
- I would say that the sensitivity isn't as nice
as the Apple Pencil.
I noticed that it's not too bad, but
if you do any sort of like, swirl or thing like that
you get kind of a bad jitter, which kind of sucks.
But overall, like it's not unworkable.
- Okay.
- You know, like, so I could draw with this.
- You could, you could. Oh, okay.
Well that's good now.
- But, yeah.
- There is one thing I should let you know about.
You see the one thing about all these alternatives
is they don't support pressure sensitivity.
- Mm. Which is...
- Ah, this is what I was a little worried about
because for artists that's important.
In terms defining sensitivity,
is it like the latency between like
when you put it down and how quickly it draws,
or is it?
- It's sort of hard to describe.
It's, that is part of it.
So using, putting your pencil down and having it
be really responsive, but it's also like if you
shift your hand and it starts to do almost like
like you're sliding this side of the pencil
and you get a larger, more softer stroke
which I know Photoshop does have.
And like, Cintiqs do have
but I found it was way more sensitive on the iPad than uh...
- So the tilt's more sensitive.
- Yeah.
- That's a tilt sensing.
And then the pressure's the other one, yeah,
the pencil does.
- Pressure. Yeah.
Pressures. Pressure is good.
- Well why don't we switch to the next one
and see if you could tell, but they still support tilts.
- Let's try this one.
Where is this?
- That's the Adonit Note
- Oh.
- And I will use, I'll use the Logitech pencil.
Do you use layers a lot in Procreate?
- Yeah. I really like to use layers.
I'm kind of used to using layers
now since I do so much digital art
that going without them sometimes feels so scary,
but, well.
- That's interesting.
- Yeah. Normally I do.
- I wish I'd done layers.
Can I still do a back layer?
What was it like when you first got the iPad?
Like, what was that experience?
- Just kind of overwhelming.
It's like, ah, this is so many, it's very minimal and they
they don't throw a bunch of stuff in your face.
So, you kind of have to go through
and discover kind of the different functions.
Thankfully, they've made quite easy
if you're familiar with digital painting.
- So you've had some time to use both of these.
How is the tilt sensitivity?
- It's pretty nice.
If I'm being honest, it, I don't really notice that big
of a difference with the Apple pencil as far as
tilt goes.
- Okay. That's pretty good.
- Yeah.
- The tilt sensitivity is pretty neat too.
These styluses output two signals down
onto the iPad screen
and then the iPad can actually from that calculate
just how deep the angle is of your pen.
- This is honestly not too bad.
I don't mind the, the Adonit.
I was expecting it to be somehow worse just because
of the lack of pen pressure.
And, and I love pen pressure.
- Right.
- But like for drawing like this, it's not terrible.
You do have to kinda work around it.
- Yeah.
- By using opacity and stuff, but you can work around.
- Oh, right. That is the -
- I'm not, I'm not hating it.
- What about the tip?
- The tip?
I actually quite like the tip.
I prefer it to the Apple Pencil.
- Oh wow.
I find it's, it's kind of nice.
And like, you get a little bit of squish.
- There's a suppleness to it.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- It's, it's probably the best feeling
of all the options
- For sure. I would think so.
- Okay. Do you wanna switch now?
I think we should switch.
- Yeah!
- Okay. So you're gonna use the Zagg.
- Okay.
- And I'll use the, Adonit.
- Yeah. I really do miss the pen pressure though.
- You're noticing it particularly with the Zagg?
- Yeah, I think so.
I find the Adonit -
- Yeah.
- I found even,'cause it doesn't have pressure sensitivity.
- Well, not exactly.
It actually does have pressure sensitivity
but it's not system wide.
That's exclusive to the pencil.
It's only in supported apps,
which Procreate is not one of them.
Well, why don't we switch now to the last option
before we get to prices.
Wow your drawing's really good.
So you're gonna use the Amazon one.
So one of the interesting things I've noticed is
the Amazon stylus and the Zagg Pro stylus -
they kind of look similar
like in the way they're made.
- Oh, they do.
- But the one thing these two styluses do do
is they actually do magnetically attach to the side of
the iPad.
I mean, that is the cheapest option.
How is it compared to the other ones you've been using?
- I haven't noticed a huge difference between this one,
the Amazon pencil,
- Mhm.
- The Logitech one and the Zagg.
- Mhm.
- I would say they're all very similar.
- Yeah.
Okay. Are you done?
- I mean, I think I'm as done as I'm gonna be.
- Alright, pencils down.
Okay. So these three actually cost the exact same price.
These are $70 and this is actually $30.
Are these savings worth it?
- For someone like me? I would say no.
If you are drawing and painting a lot and pen pressure
and sensitivity is something that you're looking for.
I think it's more worth it to
buy something like the Apple Pencil
and use a program like Procreate.
- So these aren't for artists
but a group of people who aren't artists,
they might be engineers or students who need something
for note taking or doing math.
But which is the one to recommend to them?
- If it were me, I would say go for the Adonit
just because it feels really nice.
But honestly you probably can't go wrong with any of them.
- I think I agree with you.
I think the Adonit would be the one I'd recommend
to non-artists.
- Mhm
- Mhm.
Well, thank you so much for all your help.
- Yeah.
- Now you wanna see what I drew and I wanna see you drew.
- Yeah, I wanna see, here.
- Okay.
- Wow. (laughs)
- This is much better than mine.
So for artists, it looks
like the Apple Pencil is the only game in town.
Pressure Sensitivity is super important
but that doesn't mean the alternatives don't have a place.
If you're a student or an engineer working in a field
full of math, you don't need pressure sensitivity.
And so you're much better off saving the money
and going for one of these.
And the one that Audrey and I recommend
is the Adonit Note+.
Thanks for drawing this Mac address.
If you're someone who loves the Apple Pencil
why not give this video a like?
And if you're someone who just signs documents
with a regular stylus, why not subscribe?
Now, I'm curious how important something
like pressure sensitivity is to you.
Let me know in the comments below.