Wacom - Intuos Creative Stylus 2 for Apple® iPad® 3rd Generation, iPad with Retina, iPad Air and iPad mini - Black/Silver

I've always been a fan Wacom products and was do for a new stylist, and as always they did not disappoint. This device gives me most of the same capabilities as my high-end Wacom products. Overall it was a Best Buy ;)

Here's a story of my exploring other (more convenient) digital art mediums. Early 2014 I purchased a Intuos Creative Stylus (1) and loved it. It's compatible with iOS only, but so is ProCreate (app) and not only is that app worth the money, but it's my favorite digital painting/drawing app on the market for tablets. My only complaint was that the stylus had a thick and awkward tip (nib) and when it came to sketching, I didn't feel like I had real precision. I also have always hated the AAAA batteries it requires... who uses these?! Best Buy used to carry them, but I spent the last few weeks going to every Best Buy in my area and finally gave up and upgraded. All because I didn't want to wait on the shipping. The Intuos Creative Stylus 2 answered both of my prayers: they got rid of the battery, and they gave me a thin tip (nib) I can now sketch with. It's not compatible with ProCreate (app) though!!! I mean, it works, but it feels as if it needed to be calibrated or aligned. My lines are not where I'm drawing. It's just off enough to where I decided to run back out and continue my hunt for AAAA batteries (Pharmacies have them, by the way). The new "nib" is also hanging in there much better than the first generation's nibs. I've yet to replace it and it works fine. The rechargeable battery hangs strong as well. There's a new problem though, because the first gen stylus has the squishy nib, pressure sensitivity feels almost natural. With this hard nib, it's awkward to press down for a thicker line. It just doesn't feel natural. My last complaint is more of a warning I hadn't thought about before: If you're like me, and you're looking to sketch more than paint, it won't feel too good. I mean this is a hard tip, gliding over a glass screen. It doesn't have that texture I keep hoping to feel. The first gen stylus doesn't feel like a pencil on paper either, but at least the rubber on glass does have some kind of a feeling other than "slippery" or "slick". My recommendation is actually to stick to the first generation stylus, because I feel like digital painting is the funnest thing to do with these things (Tablets, apps, and a stylus) and the rubber nip almost feels like it could be a brush. If you DO go with the Stylus 2, use Sketch Book Pro (app), it works great there, although the app is so much more limited in nearly every way. Good luck!

The Wacom - Intuos Creative Stylus 2 is one of a few stylus to choose from. I have not had the chance to use others so comparing them is not possible for me as I have no data. However the stylus is easy to handle and pretty much plug and play. One of the draw backs is that you must use it straight up to connect to where you left off on a particular line/drawing. The other draw back is that it does not have the capability to ignore a resting hand. I use it mostly with SketchBook but it works on several apps that I have on my iPad. It easily uses the tools on SketchBook. The price is a bit much but then I'm usually broke soooooooo.... Would I recommend this stylus? Yes and no. Yes because it's good. No because I don't recommend anything to friends because I like others to make their own decisions and there's no blow back sent my way when they don't like a recommendation.

Taking this out of the case I was immediately impressed by the quality construction, it is a solid stylus almost bordering on heavy.. but in a good way. Interestingly I didn't sync it first with the iPad but did it directly in-app. I am using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and it recognized the stylus immediately. I was sucked into exploring the various brushes responses to the pressure input, which was lots of fun. Two small issues, you will want to tweak the pressure settings as heavy pressure is only reached when you are pushing hard enough on the screen the see the screen itself flex slightly. And while the point is relatively small I found that for detail work I would have brushes wander slightly off the point of the pen. In my mind this is an excellent mobile tool but will probably you to your wacom tablet connected to your computer to finish the project, which is fine with Sketchbook since you can cloud share documents. My only real issue with the pen is that while it has 26 hours of life on a charge I find the standby time to be relatively short. I charged the pen, used it for an hour or so and then put it back in the case in my backpack for a couple of days. When I went to use it again the battery lasted minutes. There doesn't seem to be a way to check battery life when charging via the usb port on my computer (and I have Wacom's apps and preference panels installed for my Intuos Pro so it would be nice to see the company's devices recognized within it) or on my iPad when I pair it. Maybe a stand alone preference panel would solve this but it doesn't seem that Wacom has one available. All in all its the best stylus I have tried, far and away better than Paper's Pencil which was a huge disappointment. So I would recommend it but caution that you will have to be prepared to keep it charged as it might be dead when you have a moment of inspiration.

I was really looking forward to this stylus for my new iPad air 2. It works great with Wacom's Bamboo app. I do Graphic Design & illustration and was hoping for a portable Cintiq like experience and find it lacking. I have equal success with a free stylus pen I got from my dentist! Granted this stylus does have better pressure sensitivity, which is awesome, but the lack of apps that currently support it is the biggest drawback. Promises are made that support for more apps is coming, but I'm not that patient when there is a deadline. That said, the stylus works fine on other apps as a simple stylus. It feels good in the hand, nice weight and size. Much like Wacom's other stylus's rocker buttons, they can be programmed per apps. The cost makes me baby the thing too much or worry about theft. There is a noticeable clicking noise when tapping the stylus to the screen. I don't mind it but it is noisy when in quiet places like church or in mtgs. Overall, the stylus is great but the cost, lack of art apps, and noisy tip leave me wanting more. I'm not returning it but I'm not excited about it either. If you NEED pressure sensitivity for artistic stuff, it's a good stylus with potential, if Wacom gets the promised apps to sync as promised. If you just want to jot notes, I'd recommend trying other less expensive options.