Lightweight and simple to use, this is a great little basic sketching stylus for anyone who can live without more professional features.
For
Comfortable and light
Precise
Good battery life
Against
Lacks pressure sensitivity and palm rejection
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A click is all it takes for you to begin using the universally compatible stylus
A stylus is an essential piece of kit for the designer on-the-move, for use with your favourite drawing apps for iPad and trying out new Photoshop brushes. So we were excited to see what the latest Adonit Jot stylus could do to impress us.
We've seen lots of Jots from Adonit, but the Dash has to be the thinnest electronic stylus from the company yet. The tip is just 1.9mm, while the clip-and-carry body has an 8mm diameter. Compare that to the 12mm of LynkTec's Rechargeable Apex stylus. The result is a balanced, pen-like feel that's comfortable, light and extremely precise to use.
How is this achieved? Bluetooth is nice if the apps you use support it, but the fact is that many writing and sketching apps don't. Adonit has therefore dropped the Bluetooth technology found in its earlier styluses, in favour of a more simplified feature set that works with any app or device you care to throw at it.
By dropping Bluetooth, Adonit has crafted a light and refined note-taking and sketching tool
The drawback is that there's no palm rejection or pressure sensitivity, and no extra button support. But if you're just using the Dash to sketch a quick scene or mock up a storyboard, its lack of Bluetooth is no big loss. It even works as a navigational tool for swiping through screens to find your preferred sketching app.
A quick click on the top of the Dash turns it on, generating an electric field that simulates the conductivity of a human finger. It's powered by a rechargeable battery and Adonit quotes 14 hours' charging time – the power LED stayed lit throughout a week of evenings testing the device with the Evernote, Paper and Notability apps. Mounting the pen in the neat little magnetic USB charging dock brought the pen back to full charge in under half an hour.
The Jot Dash is available in black and silver
If you're looking for a simple, convenient, long-lasting stylus that you can pick up and start writing and sketching with just like a traditional pen straight away, then the Dash is ideal. But painting folks seeking different strokes should look at Bluetooth alternatives, such as the Jot Touch.
Adonit Jot Dash
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Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
