Monday
Oct012012
Stylus or not?
Monday, October 1, 2012 at 3:00AM Today's question once again comes from Jah. Stylus or not? I have been told by women with longer nails that they life devices like the Note I because it has a stylus. What are your views on the benefits / dis-benefits of using a stylus with a Smartphone.
Reader Comments (16)
Just pretend we're using PDAs again. After all a smartphone is really just a connected PDA. :-) Seriously, though, the stylus on the Note and Note II are essential to what makes the device what it is. I see grand potential for note taking with the stylus, especially if the handwriting to text engine is good.
Why go backwards? Maybe for fine art adjustments of photos. But not writing.
I use one for taking notes, but that's it.
I'm using the note 10.1 as a replacement for my paper notebook or make short notes while on the phone. I also use it to select frames in documents or on webpages to send to my evernote account.The pen is a very nice feature which i don't see as "going backwards". It's an extra input option which you can use if you like.
a clear no from me. I have been around to witness the whole touchscreen revolution and there is no way in hell I would go back to a toothpick to tap a screen. Yes, there are definitely applications for a stylus and I am already happy with the capacitative styli around.
Styli will remain in the domain of niche uses, except for tablets and computers in certain situations.
HTC introduced the first hardware supported stylus solution in the Flyer (which I have). I also have the Note I, which has got better with each software upgrade and the stylus support has improved as well. I am not sure what motivated HTC and Samsung to introduce relatively expensive additional hardware at the expense of not being able to compete on price. One would think that a stylus would be more useful in a smaller screen device as opposed to a large screen device like the Note. I actually think HTC and Samsung need to be careful otherwise they could make their devices too complex to use by trying to support multiple input methods (on-screen keyboard, voice, hand writing recognition, etc). SE made the same mistake with their Smartphones in the early 2000s. I personally want a fully integrated digital platform for typed and hand written notes. But there is no standard yet, Anoto tried but was not very successful.
Agree with Jah. Great as selling point to differentiate but not much else.
The Stylus rules!
The finger is good until you want to do some detailed work. I have a capacitive stylus for my tablet and phone, but it is a poor substitute for the stylus I used on my PDA.
I use a stylus for taking notes on my iPad in meetings. The finger just doesn't work for me for writing. All those years aren't going to be undone. But I wonder about young kids. If they learn to write with their finger, maybe the stylus will disappear for most.
Gavin why is it going backwards? It's not intended as a replacement for touch; it's an additional input method for when fingers aren't accurate enough.
I think the addition of a proper stylus opens the devices up to new applications, and the hover functionality also has a lot of potential for making a better UI.
I'd like to see them become far more common, which is good because on Windows 8 tablet devices I think they'll be pretty standard.
The obvious danger is that app developers could optimise for stylus input when really they ought to optimise for fingers, but I don't see that happening too much.
Bob it won't be long before kids learn to write by hand just enough to get past an exam and then forget the skill. It's like long division; in real life you'd use a calculator.
@bug Blatter the use of a stylus does provide an extra input method but seriously it's slower than a decent android keyboard like swiftkey. The stylus does allow some quirky uses like those shown on the Note 2. But actually, you can do the same on the S3 using a finger. Hence my comment.
Personally I wouldn't use a stylus for text entry for exactly the reason you mentioned. However there are other uses, which might be a little quirky right now but it opens smartphones and tablets to uses they're currently not suited to.
I also find that if I use my finger much on a phone then it soon becomes very dififcult to move my finger across the screen. That's with or without a screen protector. To be fair a capacitive stylus avoids that, it doesn't require a more expensive solution, but it's still a stylus.
I'm sure a stylus will come in the future. It's just a matter of waiting for a Apple product to be released with a ... say ... iPen ;-)
"The finger is good until you want to do some detailed work." - correct.
In fact in the Clié days one could have much more information on a screen because there was no need to have "fat" icons to tap. I've used a Note and it's superb! The iPad stylus are to no use. You use them for what... write? It takes too much time to lift, move and tap. But the stylus, if done properly, can do a lot of stuff that the fingers can't - I mean by this when using a stylus like the Note, not those "fat-rubber" ones.
I'm all favour in getting a stylus back.
Only point I could see for a stylus is artwork/fine drawing that sort of thing when a finger doesn't have enough finesse.
Saying that wouldn't one included - they tend to get broken or lost. Would rather buy one if I needed it and have it as an added extra that doesn't slot into the tablet.
"Only point I could see for a stylus is artwork/fine drawing" - Jaam, have you watched the video concerning the Note II? As I see it there's an enormous world to be explored by a stylus which is impossible to achieve with the finger. I personally find the finger tapping very limited. It's very "handy" :-) but there's not that much to do when finger tapping. I used to enter much more info on my Clié than I do now on my Android and because we had a stylus, the screen could hold much more info because icons to tap didn't need to be big.
Actually, when watching this video I said to myself: finally! it took 5 years to someone come up with what is the best organizer to date again (the Clié Organizer) and take it to a next level.
Styluses are pointless aren't they? I see lots of professional graphics artists use their big pudgy fingers daubing paint with vague precision. Oh wait, they don't.
Yes, styluses aren't a necessity for the majority of users of handheld devices, since mostly they consume media and can use finger optimised user interfaces. You don't need a stylus to tweet, or browse the web, or choose a photo to upload to facebook.
However, if you want to make a sketch with near per-pixel precision, or have a *pressure* sensitive pen, or use it when wearing gloves, then perhaps a Note is the right choice.