Should I buy a Apple Pencil?

I am going to throw my opinions of the Apple Pencil into the ring here.

I DO own the 1st gen 12.9 inch screen iPad Pro.

I am in the minority about Apple Pencil.

I am NOT a fan of the Apple Pencil.

I, personally, do not like the whole Gestalt/industrial design/ergonomics of the Apple Pencil.

Hate the smooth, slippery and cheaply feeling plastic material of the Apple Pencil.

Do not like the Barrel diameter ( I am used to wider diameter barrels on other third party stylii as I still draw with larger diameter barrel marker pens).

Don't like that the Apple Pencil doesn't have the true hexagonal, anti-roll shape of a "real" pencil or mechanical pencil.

Don't really like its unnecessary length.

Do not like the really bad and kludgey way the Pencil charges.

Not even a built in pencil clip (where the silver band is on the Apple Pencil would have made an ideal place for a built in pencil clip.

Has a Lightning connector protective cap, that, ultimately, you are going to lose and have to replace at some near future point in time!

The Apple Pencil’s battery is so small and because of its "always on and active” nature, you must constantly and consistently ALWAYS keep the battery in the Apple Pencil charged up! Even when not using it!!!

If you let the Apple Pencil battery run down to zero and leave it that way for only a few days, the Apple Pencil's battery will die and you will have to shellout another $100 for a new one! Ridiculous!

Something that Apple fails to tell Apple Pencil potential buyers about the battery!

The Apple Pencil along with the smart keyboard all feel rushed and like an afterthought, NOT forethought ideas, in their overall designs and functionalities of these accessories.

I use an Adonit Pixel/Pixel Pro stylus on my iPad Pro for the last two years or so.

http://www.adonit.net/pixel-pro/

This stylus has worked wonderfully for me for all of this time.

The Adonit Pixel Pro is, exclusively, to use with iPad Pro models.

Has shortcut buttons.

Has a nice fine, textured pen tip AND a nice rubber grip.

Magnetically charges, has an auto 15 minute shutdown feature, charges in a hour.

Has a standby time of 30 days meaning you just need to keep it charged up once a month or so.

I find it only lasts for 16-20 hours, but Adonit claims up to 24 hours of continuous use on a charge cycle.

Made of very high quality aluminum materials.

Works with about a dozen of the major/popular drawing/sketching/painting apps (the Pixel/Pixel Pro works with, but currently not “officially” supported with Procreate, but it still works and works pretty well in Procreate ), and about a half dozen of the popular note taking apps, a half dozen writing apps and about a half dozen PDF style/compatible apps.

You need to take some time to properly set up third party smart Bluetooth stylii in all compatible apps, though.

But once you get the setup correct in each app, the apps remember these settings and the Adonit Pixel/Pixel Pro will work just fine and dandy with minimal issues.

Here’s my (incomplete) list of Adonit Pixel/Pixel Pro compatible apps for the iPad Pro.

Amaziograph

Animation Desk

AutoDesk SketchBook

ArtRage

Astropad (Standard edition)

Colored Pencils

Concepts

Interactive SketchBook

Inkist

Medibang Paint

ProCreate (currently "unofficially", but the stylus works fine once it is setup in the app)

Pixelmator (used to support Adonit, I have an older version that did, not sure about their latest version)

Tayasui Sketches/Sketches Pro

ZenBrush 2

GoodNotes

Notability

NoteLedge

Notes Shelf

Notes Plus

Notes Writer

QuickNotes X Pro

Zoom Notes

PDF Expert

Foxit PDF

If interested, to make sure you get the latest installed firmware, order one of these directly from the Adonit website.

Good Luck to You!

Apple has sold quite a few Apple Pencils. So quite a few people have been convinced to purchase one (or more).

However, not all iPad Pro owners have Apple Pencils.

So the decision is purely yours, and depends on your particular situation.

Think about how you would use it, how well you can afford it, etc.

It depends on what you want. The iPad is fully functional without the Apple Pencil. If you like to draw or prefer to take handwritten notes, then this may be a good purchase for you. It’s also very convenient. When you want to charge it, all you have to do is take off the pencil’s cap, and plug the pencil directly into your iPad!

Let me know if this helped. Good luck!

I’m a non-artist and I use the Apple Penci. My primary use is to mark up presentations and PDFs as I review them. I occasionally use it to take notes with but I’m better with a keyboard. I’ve not noticed the battery problem mentioned above, although it does run down quickly, I’ve not had a problem with it charging back up. My only complaint is lack of a holder, which can be reasonably solved by serveral accessories on Amazon.

It depends on how you use your iPad. Lots of iPad Pro owners don’t use any stylus at all. Especially I see people with the 12.9” and keyboard who are not using, and don’t own, a stylus at all. Their work style or preference is better suited to keyboard input.

If you like writing notes instead of typing, it can be a great accessory. Is use mine mainly with Notes Plus (does an excellent job of hand writing to text), and GoodNotes for PDF markup.

I’ve had my Apple Pencil for about a year and a half now and since I use it regularly have no issues at all with the battery. If you’re going to only use it infrequently then you may have problems with a ruined battery if it just sits unused for many days or weeks.

Having tried a couple of friends and co-workers iPad pros with several third party stylus‘ I would say the Apple Pencil offers the best response, precision and smoothest writing of any. I use mine every weekday for one thing or another.

But the first question you need to answer is why do you want a stylus at all - what would you use it for?