While I'm largely looking forward - for reasons beyond this topic - to replace my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with a Cosmo (provided the camera isn't terrible), I'm not looking forward to loosing my S-pen. For plain text, the Cosmo keyboard will be better than any pen, but for manually solving simple equations, doing basic sketches or as a rudimentary mouse, the S-pen is great. For those unfamiliar, it's an active inductive (thus requiring the phone to have some extra hardware) pen with about the resolution of a ballpoint pen, miles ahead of fingers or a "rubber crayon" type stylus. I used to say that using a smartphone without such a pen is like being forced to use a very small typewriter, which will probably be very true for my Cosmo, keyboard and all.
For some time, I've been using an Adonit Dash 3 with my Gemini. It's an active capacitive pen made from brushed (probably anodized) aluminum, using battery power to cause stronger interaction with a regular capacitive touch screen, thus allowing a substantially finer tip than would be possible for a passive stylus. Below is a picture comparing some different tips:
As can be seen, the Dash (middle left) has a tip about as fine as a fairly blunt pencil (top left). On the top right is a fine ballpoint, below which is my Note 8 S-pen. I no longer own a "rubber crayon", but the finest such tip I got working reliably was about the size of that round blue-green eraser on the bottom right. It did help me type a bit better on a small on-screen smartphone keyboard than when using a finger (bottom left), but that was it. While the S-pen gets its power inductively from the Note, a "generic" active capacitive pen needs a battery, so it can't be as small. Here's the Adonit Dash 3 compared to my Gemini, a pencil and a small Bluetooth mouse I used to carry around:
So, how is the Dash to use? Well, it's a lot worse than an S-pen, that's for sure, which shouldn't come as a surprise. For one, the Gemini doesn't appear to sample its touch screen as often as the S-pen digitizer does, so unless I'm slow enough, fine details gets lost. Strictly technically, the Dash probably doesn't offer much more accuracy than a finger BUT it lets you see what you're doing. Here's a simple problem I solved with the Dash. I mostly had to zoom to 200% and pan around:
As you can see, it makes my handwriting look I'm five years old again. This is partly because a pen of this type can't support palm rejection, so I can't rest my hand on the glass while writing. Thus, the experience becomes a bit like when trying to write small text on a whiteboard. Here's the same problem, using just a finger, at the same zoom level (except for the title, I think I used 500% there):
At first blush, it's not a huge difference, but, honestly, while I, in the first case, actually SOLVED the problem, latter, my main struggle was to COPY the already known solution in a somewhat readable manner. I'm not sure if solving it using just a finger would have been viable. For reference, here's the same problem from my Note 8, using the S-pen:
I can't show how the Dash 3 works as a mouse. Obviously, it can't have buttons, so unless the OS you run can take a tap as a click, a long-press as a right click and a press-and-drag as a click and drag, a pen like this can't do all that much, but in Android, it's effectively a noticeably sharper finger, which has allowed me to leave my small mouse at home.
One thing I don't like, is how easy the Dash 3 is to turn on by mistake. Much like a ballpoint pen, it has a button at the top. Press once and a little green LED sequence shows that it turned on, press again and a red LED sequence shows that it's turning off. Simple as that. If the Dash hasn't been used for fifteen minutes, it's supposed to turn off, but just keeping it clipped to my shirts chest pocket apparently turned it on by mistake often enough for fourteen supposed hours of battery life to be all gone in two days. When the battery is low, by the way, it uses the red LED for the turn-on sequence. While your mileage may vary, I chose to sacrifice a suitable pen cap I happened to have, to make a sleeve:
The button is now a bit recessed, which solved the issue for me. That was a few weeks ago, and I haven't had to charge it since (though I haven't been using it heavily either). The Dash 3 is charged from any powered USB type A port in about 45 minutes, using this little included dongle:
[ Invalid Attachment ]
It has a magnet strong enough to hold the pen in any orientation (the picture shows the closest they would be and still stay apart). As the dongle is mostly plastic, one may need to be a bit careful with it. I don't carry mine around, but keep it stuck to a metal part of my desk at home. Should I bring it, I'd put in inside something, not just shove it into a pocket.
In the end, for me, this was $50 well spent. It solves a real problem sufficiently well. While I can't say for sure until I've actually used a Cosmo as my daily driver for a while, I think this pen will allow me to not also carry my Note 8 around just-in-case, and it has already allowed me to leave that Bluetooth mouse at home when I bring my Gemini (which I currently mostly use for e-mail on the go).
Show Posts
