I keep a box with around 20 iPad styluses next to my desk, so every time a new stylus arrives, I can easily compare it against its predecessors and rivals. There hasn’t been much functional innovation in the category for a couple of years, but stylus form factors, batteries, and buttons have changed, generally getting simpler and smaller after each generation. Even so, Adonit’s new Jot Dash ($50) surprised me. It comes less than 6 months after the release of Jot Script 2 (reviewed here), but looks and feels a lot different from its predecessor. Jot Script 2 costs $25 more, feels fairly thick, and uses Bluetooth 4 for (somewhat iffy) palm rejection. Jot Dash cuts both its price and size by dropping the Bluetooth hardware, while keeping the 1.9mm fine writing tip that made Script special.
Why would Adonit simplify its prior electronic styluses by removing Bluetooth? Perhaps because relatively few developers have been willing to add Bluetooth stylus support to their apps. Today, a stylus would be considered to have “good” software support if 30 of the 1.5 million iOS apps included hooks for its special features; Jot Script 2 lists just under 20 fully supported apps. So, like the $60 Lynktec Rechargeable Apex I recently reviewed, Jot Dash doesn’t require special software support — it has a simpler feature set that works with all apps and all iPads, including the iPad Air 2. It similarly includes a rechargeable battery, which gets topped off with any available USB port. The differences are the $10 lower price, and the fact that it feels a lot more like a standard-sized pen…
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I’ve lost count of how many Jot styluses there have been before Jot Dash, but it suffices to say that Adonit has released many Jots before now — I’d guess Dash was the 10th-generation Jot or thereabouts. But it’s the first electronic Jot that’s as thin as a non-electronic Jot, with a roughly 8mm diameter versus the 10mm Jot Script 2 and 12mm Rechargeable Apex. Those numbers don’t reflect just how different the styluses look and feel, but the images below show how much thicker the Script 2 is than Dash; Rechargeable Apex is even chunkier. Adonit has even slimmed down Dash’s included recharging dock to the point where the all-plastic frame slides into your computer’s USB port, flaring out at the bottom to support the magnetic charging circle — the only metal part left on the design. There are also two color options: the version of Jot Dash I reviewed was jet black, and there’s also a silver version, both with the same black dock.
Using Jot Dash is simple. Press the black bottom, like the base of a retractable ballpoint pen, and you’ll trigger a tiny green power light that’s hidden right above the silver shirt clip on the black aluminum tube. This activates the up-to-14-hour rechargeable battery, with the brief green dot signaling that the extremely thin 1.9mm plastic tip is conducting the mild electric charge necessary to interact with your iPhone’s or iPad’s screen just like your finger; if the power’s off, the tip won’t interact with your device at all. If you press the button again, the light will quickly flash red to signal that the power’s off. Jot Dash will also turn itself off after a brief period of inactivity.
Writing with Jot Dash is exactly like using other electronic but non-Bluetooth styluses I’ve tested, except for Dash’s unusually thin and light body. At 5.7″ long, it’s not the longest stylus out there, but the same as Jot Script 2 without the added thickness. Whereas Jot Script 2 was like holding a fountain pen or thick ballpoint pen, Jot Dash feels like a refined traditional ballpoint. The tip moves just a little relative to its conical metal frame, letting you hear a little click when it’s pressed against the iPad’s or iPhone’s glass. It still doesn’t feel quite like writing with a regular pen on paper, but comes closer than Rechargeable Apex, which barely flexes as its larger tip moves against a flat surface.
When used with an iPad, Jot Dash didn’t dramatically change the way I write. Adonit and others have used Bluetooth (with varying degrees of success) to enable stylus features such as pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, and erase/switch brush/undo buttons. These features have required app-specific software support but yielded unique results in supported apps. Jot Dash tosses these sorts of features in the name of universal app compatibility, and gives users the ability to write with a finer tip than their fingers, which allows for smaller, tighter lettering and more precise sketching, so long as you’re not resting your hand against the screen.
Jot Dash also feels comfortable enough to use as a writing instrument on Apple’s Magic Trackpad, which can be used for creating signatures within OS X’s Preview app, for instance; the same feature also works for signatures and notes on iPhones and iPod touches. It remains to be seen what will happen with styluses when Apple adds pressure sensitivity to iPhone and iPad screens, but assuming it doesn’t otherwise break styluses like Jot Dash, a pressure-sensitive surface could be a major boon to styluses without pressure-sensing tips, saving power while enabling the same functionality.
Jot Dash’s biggest selling points are its $50 price tag and slender profile, both of which make it a highly attractive alternative to earlier non-Bluetooth styluses I’ve tested. Despite shrinking Jot Dash in diameter, Adonit has found ways to preserve the key features expected of an electronic stylus — enhanced writing accuracy and a no-fuss battery solution — while adding a shirt clip, and including a convenient recharging dock that rivals omit. I really liked being able to use Jot Dash for several days worth of typical writing on a single charge, then recharging in under one hour with the dock rather than a USB cable. Based solely on its low price, this would be a winner of a stylus, but when its slimmer body and conveniences are taken into account, Jot Dash will be a hard stylus to beat without radically updating its features.
| Manufacturer: Adonit |
Price: $50 |
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch |
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I don’t like to think about how many styli I’ve purchased. None of them work well.
The main problem is that until Apple builds in proper stylus support (iPad Pro?), they ALL feel like a kludge. Palm rejection almost never works, point accuracy is generally lacking, and unless you write slowly, the refresh rate on the iPad digitizer can’t keep up.
Is this one as good as the samsung stylus ?
These work around will never beat a dedicated, active digitizer, like Samsung’s Wacom, S Pen or Surface Pro 3 nTrig pens.
Nowhere near. The Note stylus can do palm rejection and is very accurate and has very little lag. This thing has like 0.8 second lag, that’s a nightmare.
No, Samsung’s Note series is way more accurate with almost no lag at all. That’s because, as mentioned here, it has an active digitizer in the display and uses Wacom’s software and stylus. Apple has no actually stylus support in iOS. All these styluses, fat or narrow tip, are basically still tricking your iPad into thinking it’s your finger tip.
I really find the ipad useful in my daily life, but as long as Apple doesnt change the ipad with the same technology Samsung uses in its note series, they will never be a match as far as note taking with hand.. Current ipad’s arent meant to be written on with a stylus. period.
Yeah, I bought an iPad while in grad school to use as a note taking device. It was horrible, and doesn’t seem any better now. I bought a Surface Pro 3, and it’s phenomenal for note taking.
Even with ipad pro, Apple would still be lacking in term of software.
Microsoft OneNote is unbeatable with its cross platform syncing and features. I don’t think an ipad pro with note taking app would be as great as the surface. I am more eager to see what the surface pro 4 will offer compared to the 3 than the ipad pro.
I tried the Surface Pro 3, and I was not impressed. It seemed worse than my 7-year old ThinkPad tablet. The glass and stylus are so slick that you do not get any tactile feedback on your writing. We’ll see if Apple can improve, because using a stylus on the iPad has been miserable so far. In the meantime, I ordered a Jot Dash from Amazon to test it out. I don’t have high hopes, but at least Amazon has a good return policy.
@Ali Hamodi: “Even with ipad pro, Apple would still be lacking in term of software.”
Apple wouldn’t release a stylus without adding all the necessary support in the OS and hardware. Pressure sensitivity has already been added via “Force Touch”. The next step is developing either a stylus that can properly interact with capacitive touch displays or develop additional sensors in the display that can track non-finger touches. (Apple has many patents relating to both styli and displays.)
I’m quite curious to see how this stacks up to the Jot Pro. I’ve been using the Jot Pro for about three years, and have had little problem, however some of them (I’ve had five, due to losing or theft) have had rather skippy writing. Most have been flawless. People complain about palm canceling, and using Notability for all of my note taking, I have NEVER had a problem. I might have issues with that particular app, but never with the Adonit styli.
A little bit of conductive grease between the tip and the disk stops the skips.
May I know what is conductive grease? Will cooking oil do the trick? Because I bought the Jot Pro too (for use on both Apple and Android) but the skips can be unbearable at times. By the way, speaking of Android, are Android tablets deficient in note taking compared to Apple devices, since most of the Adonit styli supports only Apple?
I use an iPad for writing notes in the classroom. I use the Note Taker HD app, and a simple Targus stylus (works better than the many other ones I tried). That setup works quite well for me. Not as fast as pen and paper, but it’s pretty comfortable for me to use. Various other apps I tried have too much lag, and other styluses needed me to press too hard to get them to work well. I haven’t tried any electronic styluses yet though.
What do you do for palm rejection? I’m left handed and not having good palm rejection is a nightmare for me. That’s why I need something that is native like the Surface Pro 3
I’ve just gotten good at writing without laying my palm on the screen. Probably not the answer you wanted to hear. I’m the teacher, not a student, so I am standing up when I’m writing, with the iPad on a table. I suppose that makes it slightly easier. But it did take me quite a while to get used to it. I should also say, when I’m writing, I’m always writing in the zoomed-in box at the bottom of the screen (that’s an absolute requirement for any note-taking app I use), rather than writing all over the entire surface of the iPad. I like to write big in the zoomed box, so my writing is legible at a decent size in the notes. Some apps (such as Notes Plus, I think) offer a fair amount of flexibility in the vertical spacing of the palm-rejection area; that was the runner-up app I considered using.
This is the one and only area where I’ll go to bat for Samsung. Their stylus, which uses Wacom’s technology, is by far the best. It’s accurate, pressure sensitive and downright fun to use. Until Apple actually builds iOS with stylus support, with something similar to Wacom, no stylus, which tries to emulate a finger tip, is going to be as good.
It’s about time Apple just ponies up and buys Wacom. Google has come in and purchased Sparrow, which was the best iPhone email app. Microsoft bought Accompli, other companies come in and buy companies that for a while, where Apple or iOS only to bolster their products. I think a big F-U to Samsung, would be to purchase the remaining part of Wacom, as I believe Samsung owns like 5% or something. If Apple came in and purchased the company outright, oh man, that would be sweet.
Will this work with a trackpad?
Logic says yes – knowledge of apple says no.
Do you mind testing it?
It does, unlike the Apple Pencil.