I have previously reviewed the Adonit Jot Mini, W.A. Stark’s Touch Stylus and Targus’s “Stylus for iPad” and out of those, the cheap AmazonBasics touch stylus is easily my favorite but at a tie with the Jot Mini.Products under the AmazonBasics brand (and sold by Amazon.com) are just what they sound like. They are very basic-looking, almost generic products but of reliable quality. They are also relatively cheap. The AmazonBasics stylus is no exception.
This stylus looks quite standard. It only comes in black and has nothing except a lanyard at the top and a very good capacitive tip at the bottom (more on this later). The body has a light matte finish, like many other styluses. But the best thing about it is that it comes for only about $9.89 from Amazon.com and that is a really good deal.
The lanyard on the stylus is quite annoying. The way it’s tied may annoy you while using the stylus, but the good thing is that it can be removed easily. However, most people won’t find it very useful and it would have been better for Amazon to just put in a hook for those who need it if at all (like the Targus stylus does).
The tip gives very good performance. It’s not as squishy as the Targus stylus, and it is rather firm. In fact, with its high sensitivity, it’s just right. A more squishy tip blocks your view when writing on a screen. But the AmazonBasics stylus tip doesn’t even bend like those on some cheap styluses do. I can say that the tip will easily last long. It just feels durable when I use it.
However, there was one issue with this stylus: The AmazonBasics branding rubbed right off. It felt like wet ink. I didn’t purposely scratch it, but putting it in a pencil case removed it completely very easily over a span of a few days. Even rubbing it with a finger would have removed it right off. It was weird and I don’t know if it was a problem with my particular unit.
Nevertheless, I contacted Amazon customer service about it and as always, they were gladly ready to refund $4 to me for the problem. I asked them for $4 in Amazon MP3 credit and they happily obliged. Things like this make me stick with Amazon for quite a lot of things.
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| The annoying lanyard caught in other pens' clips as I took out this stylus for photos |
The AmazonBasics stylus is an amazingly good deal, although it ships within the US only. This high quality stylus is perfect for those who want to write notes with it, draw or casually use it with their tablet or phone (who does that?). But for technical drawings and tiny notes/annotations, Adonit styluses remain the best with their plastic see-through disc at the tip.
Use the link alongside to purchase the stylus now and support this website. You don’t pay anything extra to Amazon for purchasing it through this link.
