This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge - can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?
First up in the 1 Pound Challenge is the iTech Stylus Pen, available at Pound World.
This is a 4 inch metal pen designed for use on capacitive touch-screens. Such pens can be bought for quite a lot, so to see one for one pound is a potentially amazing bargain.
When I say it’s metal, it looks and feels it. It could be plastic of course. However, it is hollow and at one end is a plastic clip and at the other is a rubbery bulbous tip.
Trying it on my Galaxy S2 it actually works quite well. You have to put quite a bit of pressure on it, however, to get the touch sensitive keys at the bottom to work. But otherwise, not bad. Because it has a fat rubber nib it’s not very accurate – other such (and more expensive) pens have finer tips.
Unfortunately, trying this on an iPad and an HTC Desire it didn’t work as well, requiring quite a lot more pressure to get a response.
And that’s a shame, because up until that point I was excited by it. If it didn’t have a dodgy response on some screens then this would have been an excellent product. However, for a pound it’s one of those things you can buy just to try it out – if it doesn’t work, it’s no big deal.
It claims to reduce fingerprints which is true. However, it also boasts a “smooth glide action” which is not so true.
The product is made by PMS International.
Update: The same product is available from other retailers under different names. However, it is now being packaged with an additional, smaller stylus that you can secure to your smartphone via a rubber “stopper” that plugs into the headphone socket. This has a more wedge shaped “nib”, however this is no better in use than the bigger rounder nibbed version. I found the “Signalex iPhone & iPad Styluses” at Poundland. You can read another review of this product here.
Summary
Inconsistent results but when it does work it’s a bargain.
iTech Stylus Pen reviewed by David Artiss on 13th October 2011.
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