Apple Pencil

Let me start with this: you want this because of palm rejection. A standard stylus - even the more expensive ones - doesn't have it. That's what lets you rest your hand on the screen and write or draw like a normal person. If your iPad only supports the Apple Pencil 1, which this is, then this is the best stylus you can get and Apple's basically perfect palm rejection is why you want it. Don't question it too much beyond that. Everything else in this review pales in comparison to both the palm rejection and accuracy of this device. Now, *that said*, this thing has some issues. The most egregious, to me, is that it's just a glossy circular tube all the way down. It's *too* simple in a way that makes it impossible to even carry around without buying separate accessories for it. It'd be like selling you a phone that was just a smooth slab of glass because it looked cool that way and then requiring you to buy the camera lenses from somebody else to actually use it as a camera. There are various accessories out there that will make it so you don't immediately lose your charger cap, so that you can attach the pencil to something, or keep it from rolling around and off every surface you put it on. These aren't just "nice to have", they are absolutely essential. Apple sort of fixed this issue with the Pencil 2 by making it flat on one side and magnetic, but many iPads - even current ones - only support the Pencil 1. So be prepared to spend some extra cash. The second and to my eyes oddly more publicized issue is the way the Pencil charges, by hanging out of the Lightning port on your iPad. Now, this does look stupid, which is probably why there was so much media coverage of it - it's easy to take a picture of. And yeah, it *is* dangerous if you're not careful - you could snap that charger right off. But to me it's not quite as big of a deal as the lack of any way to attach the Pencil to anything, solely because it does charge pretty fast. I mean it takes maybe 30-40 minutes to fully charge it from zero. (Surprisingly, it takes slightly longer to charge if you use a wall charger, which you can also do.) But that brings me to my last point, which is the battery life. It's pretty atrocious. I think Apple says you should get about 12 hours, but that's not continuous writing, that's "normal" writing with breaks. Now, this may be normal for high-end styli, I'm not sure. But in practice, this means two things. First, the Pencil is constantly going into low power mode, and it often doesn't seem quite ready when I pick it up to write with. The first thing I try to write doesn't register. Sometimes I even have to shake it to wake it up. (It's supposed to wake up with any motion... which brings me to the second thing...) Second, while actually trying to write with it doesn't always wake it up, it seems like just walking around with it in my bag *does*. That means that "12 hours" of battery life is often really 3 or 4, and when I go to actually write with it, even having just charged it fully at the start of the day and not having used it at all, the battery is totally dead! Apple "fixed" this in the Pencil 2 by having it attach to the iPad Pro for charging as well as storage, so as you're walking around, it's charging even if you wake it up without meaning to. In practice, this makes battery anxiety a thing you have to deal with, and it's now part of my ritual to make sure my Pencil is charged shortly before I know I'm going to have to use it (I'm a private pilot; I use it in the cockpit for writing down things like weather and clearances). In their infinite wisdom, Apple has made some *new* current iPads only compatible with the Pencil 1, while higher-end iPads are compatible with the Pencil 2. I have an iPad Mini 5, which is still just Pencil 1-compatible, so I have to use this and maybe you do too. It's an artificial limitation Apple has put on these iPads so that people have another reason to spend more on an upgrade. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as an "iPad Mini Pro" and I can't use a larger iPad in the cockpit, so I'm stuck with the Pencil 1. It would honestly be a good reason to upgrade if there was a smaller iPad I could use a Pencil 2 with. (Side note: Apple *should* know how popular the iPad Mini is in aviation, so why they either decided to only support the Pencil 1 with it, *or* why there is no iPad Mini Pro as an upgrade with Pencil 2 support, is beyond me.) If you do think you're going to want to use a stylus with your iPad and there's no reason for you to need a Mini, then I'd honestly make sure to get an iPad model that supports the Pencil 2. But if you do have a Mini 5 or some other iPad that only supports the Pencil 1, this is still a better option than any other stylus.