Okay Geek Farm
LunaTik Touch Pen Polymer and Touch Pen Alloy stylus review
Jason Tsay
With the ever growing popularity of drawing on the iPad, styli are in high demand. One way companies add functionality to a stylus is integrating it into a pen. The issue is, in order to make a pen-stylus combo, the pen has to be at one end and the stylus tip at the other. Neither side ends up being very good through this design so the folks at LunaTik came up with a design that would orient both tips on the same side. Does it work?
Features
- Both a stylus for touch screens, and regular pen for paper
- Made from high quality materials
- Rollerball pen is refillable
Our Impressions
The LunaTik Touch Pen and Touch Pen Alloy come in different, but similar packaging. The Touch Pen comes in a flat blister pack while the Alloy is packed in a larger, half box.
Design and Build Quality
The standard Touch Pen feels a bit cheaper with it’s glossy plastic (reinforced polycarbonate) barrel and clip but comes in many more colors (black, cyan, magenta, arctic white, yellow) than its metal brother.
The Touch Pen Alloy is much heftier and the smooth “machined aircraft grade” aluminum finish feels much better. You get 3 color options - silver, black, and red. Both styli have the same grip/conductive tip and the black ink cartridge inside.
We actually didn’t like the clicking feel of the pens. It simply doesn’t feel tight to the point where we thought the spring mechanism might be broken. If you need to replace the stylus tip of the ink cartridge, the rubber portion can easily be unscrewed.
Stylus
The Touch Pen can operate on any capacitive screen with ease, even with a screen protector installed. We’d say it’s pretty sensitive and does not require a ton of pressure to function. The smooth tip glides on the surface of a tablet with minimal resistance. Structural integrity of the stylus tip isn’t completely sacrificed in order to conceal a pen tip inside; you don’t lose any precision either. If you’re worried that pressing too hard will cause the pen tip to scratch your tablet’s screen, fear not. The pen cartridge is recessed far enough into the barrel such that it will not touch the surface even if you press the stylus all the way.
Pen
The main selling feature of the Touch Pen is that a standard pen cartridge is embedded in the stylus tip of the pen. Traditionally, pen/stylus combos have the pen on one end and the stylus top on the other. Lunatik’s design is in fact better because the user is no longer required to flip the pen around to access the stylus. With both tips on the same side, ergonomics are improved and the design is much sleeker. In addition performance is improved by the pointier tip. The pen aspect of the Touch Pen is actually rather enjoyable to use. The cartridges are all black and the pen writes pretty smoothly.
Overall
LunaTik has done it again with a fresh but refined idea that no one has succeeded in. And we think that the $309,183 pledged (of the $75,000 goal) to this Kickstarter project is telling about demand for such a product. Without a doubt, the innovative design of the Touch Pen will be useful to countless iPad doodlers. We prefer the Touch Pen Alloy for better construction and weighted feeling while sketching on the iPad but at half the price of its metal brother, the Touch Pen Polymer is a pretty sweet buy as well.
Pro’s
- great form factor
- sensitive stylus tip
- parts easily replaced
Con’s
- feels cheap (Polymer model)
- clicking mechanism feels broken
Where to buy
LunaTik (Touch Pen Polymer) — MSRP: $19.95
LunaTik (Touch Pen Alloy) — MSRP: $39.95
