Recently, i was looking for some kind of iPad stylus with 2 requirements in mind:
- less expensive than the insane €150 price tag of the official Pencil 2, and hopefully even the €90 or whatever the USB-C Pencil costs
- can be actually turned off and won't just die if i keep it detached from the iPad for a prolonged period of time
and so, i ended up buying the very oddly named and advertised (more on that later) Hama Scribble Stylus - which turns out to be a pretty good Pencil alternative.
Starting with the cost - i paid €35 for this thing, which doesn't make it the cheapest available option, but it's certainly on the lower end of things.
The stylus itself has an aluminium body (i think? it definitely doesn't feel like plastic), with a touch-sensitive power button on top. It's a bit lighter than the Pencil (which i'd consider a positive) - i don't have scales precise enough to confirm, but it feels like it weighs about the same as a Wacom pen.
It can magnetically attach to the iPad same as the Pencil 2, but it doesn't charge wirelessly.
The tip it comes with is very mediocre, plasticky and kinda rough. It's gotten slightly better with use, but not really that much. Thankfully it uses the exact same tip design as the Pencil, so it can be replaced with a better one (and i'd recommend doing so for any kind of more intense usage)
Somehow, it automagically works with the iPad without connecting it in any way - this has its drawbacks, as it does not display the battery status in the OS, but i suppose Apple uses some sort of proprietary protocol for that so i'm not too surprised.
Also, here's where a slight annoyance reveals itself - the power button, due to the touch-sensitivity, is a bit too easy to press on accident. I've mostly gotten used to it now and it's not a big deal, but it's worth pointing out regardless.
The tracking/sensitivity appears to be exactly the same as the Apple Pencil (at least on the iPad Mini. i think some of the iPads Pro offer higher precision for the Pencil somehow? not sure if that's even true, and/or applicable to the Hama stylus.)
Tilt detection is supported, but pressure sensitivity is not. I'm not an artist, i got it for notes and quick technical diagrams/sketches so i don't really need it, but i suspect it may be a dealbreaker for some.
--okay, so i have to talk about the product description of this thing, because it genuinely confuses me. Apparently, the main advertised feature is... handwriting recognition? This makes no sense, it's not even a feature of this product specifically - it's a feature of the iPad, the namesake Scribble - yet they talk about it as if it is product-specific.
The other two main features of the Hama stylus, according to the description, are: PDF markup, which is also an iOS feature, and (drumroll please) not smudging up the display with your fingers.
I have no idea why they decided to write the worst product description ever. My uneducated guess is that they're selling these to a government organization of some kind, and these were the requirements they had to fulfill, so that's what they put in there? But honestly even that doesn't make much sense, so idk.
Anyway, the conclusion: it's a perfectly usable stylus. A decent budget alternative to the Pencil, as long as you don't care about pressure sensitivity (and actually a really good one to the USB-C Pencil, which doesn't have pressure sensitivity in the first place, yet costs nearly 3 times as much.)
If you're looking for a stylus based on a similar set of requirements as mine, i'd recommend it - if you can get one, that is, as it only seems to be available in the EU.
. . .
That's it - thanks for reading! I've never really written a product review before, so hopefully this is at least kind of useful to someone.