Not a lot of people seem to be interested in
prospective Apple Pencil support for future iPhone generations, but when it
comes to the Cupertino company’s tablets, the stylus is often considered a
major selling point, encouraging the user’s creativity while improving an
iPad’s versatility and productivity.
Of course, if you’re on a tight budget, you were
probably ecstatic to hear the affordable 6th generation iPad, unveiled last
spring, can be used in combination with the Apple Pencil. But the latter’s US$ 99
price point is not easy to swallow when the refreshed 9.7-inch slate only
fetches US$ 329 and up.
Fortunately, a lower-cost alternative for the
Apple-made iPad stylus is about to hit US stores following a limited March
debut as an education-focused accessory. The Logitech Crayon is up for
pre-order right now through its manufacturer’s official website, spreading to
Apple.com and Apple retail stores later this month, with “everywhere”
availability “beginning October.”
At US$ 69.99, the Crayon is naturally less impressive
than the Pencil, lacking pressure sensitivity and downgrading the latter’s
advertised 12 hours of battery life to “up to 7 hours of writing time on a
single charge.”
Snazzier and more colorful than Apple’s understated
stylus, Logitech’s option is just as easy to set up and use, as well as
“pixel-precise”, not to mention extremely lightweight, at 20 grams, and tough
enough to survive drops from up to four feet high.
The Crayon is “built using Apple Pencil technology”,
which is simply a fancy way of saying it supports all the same apps as its
costlier “rival”, but perhaps its biggest flaw is that it doesn’t work with any
of Cupertino’s iPad Pros. Still, if you’re a “creator, artist, dreamer, or
learner” looking for a relatively affordable 9.7-inch iPad companion, this bad
boy definitely fits the bill.
