Adonit Jot Pro review

There are lots of times when a stylus is really handy, especially when using an iPad. Great apps such as Noteshelf, or Brushes turn the iPad into brilliant notebooks and painting canvases, but if you just use your finger, it can be tricky to make precise movements.

The problem with styluses for touchscreens such as the iPad's is that the screens are designed to recognise fingers - and without wishing to cause offence, fingertips are chunky things compared to a pen tip. If you make the nib of a stylus too small, the iPad won't register it - Wacom claims that the nib of its Bamboo Stylus is as small as you can go.

Adonit, however, has come up with a clever way to make a stylus that has an (apparently) fine point, but is still detected by the iPad. It has attached a small, clear, plastic disc to the end of a pen on a ball joint.

The disc has a little metal cross embedded in it, to give it the required electrical conductivity for the iPad's capacitive screen.

It sounds delicate, but it's actually surprisingly robust - and a screw-on cap protects the nib.

It also sounds like it might be a pain to use, but it's actually a joy. We'd still recommend the Just Mobile AluPen or Wacom Bamboo Stylus as a sketching tool, but for writing, the Jot Pro is unbeatable.

The only possible reason you might delay buying one is that Adonit is developing a pressure-sensitive version, the Jot Touch. We worry that the hardness of the unresisting tip hitting against the screen in the Jot Touch would feel a little stilted for digital painting.

It's the Jot Pro we're reviewing here, however, and it's a corker.

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