As an artist exploring the creative possibilities offered by the Meta Quest line, I recently tried the Logitech MX Inc Mixed-Reality (MR) Stylus with Charging Dock Combo. This stylus aims to enhance accuracy for painting, drawing, and sculpting apps, and while it excels in some areas, it also presents a few significant drawbacks. Comfort and Design One of the first things I noticed was the thickness of the stylus, which makes it incredibly comfortable to hold. Transitioning from the bulkier headset controllers to a stylus that fits comfortably between my fingers was a pleasant surprise. The ergonomic design allows for extended creative sessions without discomfort. Precision and Performance The level of accuracy delivered by the stylus is impressive. The gimbal processor provides a seamless experience that almost tricks your mind into thinking you're using a traditional brush or pen. The strokes feel natural and responsive, closely mimicking the sensation of drawing on paper. This level of precision is particularly beneficial for artists looking to create intricate designs or detailed sculptures in virtual reality. Connectivity Issues However, the stylus does have some flaws. As a third-party device intended for use with the Meta Quest, it requires a separate smartphone app to connect to the headset. This reliance on a third device feels counterintuitive, especially when compared to how easily Xbox controllers can connect to the headset. The need to use a phone to establish this connection can be a hassle, significantly slowing down the user experience. It would be much more efficient if users could switch between the stylus and other input devices seamlessly without having to disconnect and reconnect multiple times. Pros and Cons On the plus side, the stylus offers a very comfortable interface for creative tasks, making it an excellent tool for drawing, painting, and sculpting. However, the inability to quickly switch back to gaming or other applications without going through the cumbersome connection process detracts from the overall enjoyment. I often found myself wanting to hop between creative work and gaming but had to remove the headset and fiddle with my phone to reconnect, which disrupted the flow of my session. Comparative Experience In terms of comparison, the only similar device I can think of is the Apple Pencil for tablets. The MX Inc Stylus provides similar touch sensitivity, allowing for variations in pressure and angle, which is essential for an immersive creative experience. Target Audience This stylus is clearly designed for those who are serious about the creative aspects of virtual reality. I find it less suited for casual users who may not require such specialized input. However, for artists and creatives, this tool shows great potential and could become a regular part of their toolkit in the future. Conclusion In conclusion, I rate the Logitech MX Inc Mixed-Reality Stylus an 8 out of 10. The device itself works beautifully and delivers a fantastic creative experience. However, the cumbersome connectivity process and lack of streamlined functionality hinder its overall appeal. I would recommend this stylus to those who enjoy drawing, painting, and sculpting in VR, as it offers a level of immersion that enhances the creative process. Casual users, however, may find the connectivity issues frustrating and may prefer a more straightforward input method.

If you’re stuck with a Quest headset to do 3D design work, this stylus makes the process much more intuitive. I have been a fan of Logitech’s other MX series products, so I was excited to give this a try. While it doesn’t quite live up to my experience with the other MX products, it’s a precision input device that works well. I have used MX Keys and MX Master for a few years, and I’ve come to really appreciate the precision operation and quality feel of these products. MX Ink is constructed with a type of plastic that feels standard for a disposable pen, so it’s familiar and easy to hold. However, with the MX branding I would have expected it to have a more substantial feel, maybe with rubbery grips to make it easier and more pleasurable to hold. Similarly, for me, MX is synonymous with precision input ability for professionals to be able to control the precise location of objects and to facilitate fluid control with things like pressure sensitivity. While it seems that MX Ink does all this, it is limited by the Quest optics for position information and visual resolution. Quest is definitely not a professional-quality device, so it seems odd to pair a top-of-the-line brand stylus with a VR headset that is essentially a toy. The stylus itself has several buttons to provide various controls, and they are customizable (depending on the app you use) to perform various tasks. Some of the buttons are pressure-sensitive, including a pressure-sensitive tip, which makes artistic input possible. Having a pressure-sensitive tip is essential, but working in 3D it feels a little bit weird because a lot of the time you don’t have a physical surface to press against—so you’ll always need switch to an alternative method of input when you don’t have a physical surface to use. Even when you do, Quest does not seem to always understand when you’re working on a flat surface and that the input should then be limited to that plane. In other words, even when the tip is pressed against a flat surface, Quest still uses its optics to estimate the position of the stylus in 3D—so location information isn’t always exactly on that surface. Finally, the MX Ink comes with a dock they call the MX Inkwell. Cute name, but I’m not sure if it serves a useful purpose. They’ve handily included a USB-C port on the stylus itself for charging, so there’s no need to use the dock to charge (although you can). Granted the dock gives you a handy place to put the stylus, assuming you have room on your desk for it. However, that’s all it does. The kit comes with a couple alternative/replacement tips, but there’s no place to store them when they’re not on the stylus. Why doesn’t the dock have a place to store the extra tips? Overall, this is a good start at a professional-grade input device for 3D creative work. Now we need to wait for a headset that operates at the same level.

I have greatly enjoyed the MX Ink from Logitech. Syncing the stylus with the Quest 3S was super easy. Painting in Vermillion with the MX Ink was super intuitive and the haptic feedback made it really feel like I was painting. This partnership between Meta and Logitech is off to a good start and I hope to see more haptic accessories in the future. Setup: Inside the box you get the stylus, a charging “ink well,” and two replacement stylus tips. Should note there is no USB-C cable, although you will need a USB-C cable to either charge the stylus or to keep plugged into the ink well for charging. You will need to pair the MX Ink from within the META Horizons app on your mobile device. Once connected, you will have some options within the META VR environment to tweak the functionality of the stylus. Experience: The MX Ink is a specialized controller for the Quest. The Quest 3S I assessed the MX Ink on does an excellent job of tracking and mapping the stylus in my virtual space. As mentioned, the MX Ink has a pressure sensitive tip, three buttons towards the front of the stylus and a meta button on the back of the stylus. I evaluated the MX Ink primarily in Gravity Sketch and Vermillion. Gravity Sketch is a virtual sketching studio while Vermillion recreates a painting experience. I enjoyed the painting in Vermillion quite a bit. I am not going to claim to be remotely skilled, but the stylus performed very well in both applications. As is, I am hoping for more applications to take advantage of the pressure sensitive tip on the stylus. Right now, I use that very little. I could draw on the wall or on a pad, but the haptics have been so good that I have not felt the need to do so. It is easier to just sketch and write in the air. But I could see a good argument that sketching on a hard surface with the MX Ink gives you a bit more precision. Battery life has been good. The MX Ink has easily outlasted my headset in terms of battery life. Based on my usage, 7 to 8 hours of battery life seems about right. Conclusion: I hope the MX Ink is the start of even more accessories for the Meta Quest headsets. I have really enjoyed my experience with the stylus. I hope more apps take advantage of the pressure sensitive tips. But as is, this is still a fun tool. Any budding artists looking to create art with their Meta Quest 2, 3S, or 3 headsets should definitely pick one of these up. 4.5/5

The Logitech MX Mixed Reality Stylus is a great addition to the Meta Quest 3 system, offering a much more fluid way of interacting with your virtual environment. When setting it up, it took a moment to get used to the buttons, as they do work differently to the controller. It took me about 3 tries to get it paired to the Meta Quest 3, but when I did so the tracking and motion was very fluid indeed. I did notice that the physical size was replicated in VR as a smaller controller when used in mixed reality, making it look smaller than the actual controller/stylus was, but it does not affect the way that you use it at all. The motion is very accurate and reactive, very fluid and smooth at the same time. Moving menus, interacting with panels and buttons was done very intuitively and very easily as well. When paired with the Meta app you get connectivity notifications and updates etc, so I recommend doing that first. There was an update right out of the box that took about a minute or two to upload. The great thing about this is the accuracy that you get within 3D rendering software over and above the standard Meta Quest controller. That works fine, but when working on tighter detail and intricate elements, this stylus is a game changer. The pressure sensitive buttons make a nice addition to the environment, helping to create those more realistic visuals. Overall, this is more than a gimmick or a toy add on to the Meta Quest 3, it’s a tool, a controller, a stylus - a valid addition to your VR system if you are using it to create 3D objects or environments. There is no lag, it performed flawlessly for me, very happy with it!

The MX Ink is very interesting addition to VR creative workflows. The idea of using a familiar feeling tool in VR is appealing to me. It feels good in my hand, and is nicely designed. However, I think the software that you would want to utilize it in needs some optimization to allow it to work more effectively. In my experience, I think the best implementation I found so far has been Gravity Sketch. And while I was enjoying using it in there, I still had some hurdles I needed to overcome. That being said, overall it worked well, and using a pen in VR felt intuitive. - Setup - Getting the MX Ink set up was not very difficult. You just open the Meta Horizon app on your phone, pair it to the headset you want to use it with, and you're pretty much ready to go. There is a lot of deeper customization you can do as well, like pressure sensitivity. But, getting started was easy. - Hardware - The MX Ink feels very good in my hand. Even during some extended use. The pressure sensitive button is a cool addition to the pen, and the location of them feels good to how I was holding the pen. The top Meta button is useful too, since I'm right-handed, it replaces the right controller and having that Meta button on top is useful for re-centering, or returning to the Meta home. I do wonder how left-handed users may be affected when replacing the left controller. - Software - This, I think, is the hardest part of using the MX Ink so far. It seems the adoption of it into apps is a bit of a mixed experience. Again, my time with it in Gravity Sketch was what I found to be the best. But, even in it, I had some trouble to overcome. As I was trying to sketch, I was unable to sketch sometimes. It took me a minute to realize that the reason I wasn't able to sketch was because my thumb was ever so slightly resting on the middle button. I found rotating the pen to position the buttons to be under my pointer finger to be a bit of a better solution. Other apps didn't seem to have that problem. Painting on a 2d surface is a unique experience too. While I think I may prefer still doing that outside of VR, it was cool to be able to use the pressure sensitive tip on an actual surface and see the results in VR. Pros: nicely designed, feels good in my hand, good batter life Cons: software doesn't seem like it's all quite ready for the pen, a bit pricey