When I travelled to Chicago with Apple earlier in the year the talk was all about kids, education, iPads. The new 9.7 inch “entry level” iPad now had Apple Pencil compatibility – but that pencil is easy to lose and costs $150!
Enter Logitech – who at that same event showcased a little product called the Crayon. It’s got many of the Apple Pencil features, but in a slightly thicker more robust design.
The Logitech Crayon goes is on sale now in Australia for $109.95 – now, that’s a hell of a lot of money for a stylus, and many people will opt for the old rubber tipped pen trick. But if your kids are into drawing, and other creative arts which can be exploited using an iPad, this could be a great investment.
Schools will likely add them to their iPad collections too.
Logitech announced this as being “for the new 9.7 inch iPad” but I feel like that’s just a left over from the US announcement earlier this year – this “Crayon” will work with the 2018 9.7 inch iPad. Unforuntately it’s not compatible with other Pencil compatible Pro iPads.
“First introduced to students as a versatile tool for learning, we are thrilled to make Logitech Crayon, our first digital pencil, more widely available so even more creators, dreamers, and learners can express themselves and communicate new ideas using the new 9.7-inch iPad,” said Michele Hermann, vice president of mobility at Logitech.
“Logitech Crayon works seamlessly with iPad and the most popular creativity and productivity apps from the App Store so whether you are learning to write a new language, jotting down notes, marking up a screenshot or PDF, or visualising an idea, Crayon is the perfect tool for the task.”
The missing feature of crayon that Apple Pencil has is pressure sensitivity, so for the most part it’s all you need – but that pressure feature really is what makes Pencil so amazing.
However, Crayon does have the smart tip so a simple tilt will adjust the line weight when drawing.
It can withstand drops of 1.2 meters, and the rubber end cap is tethered to the crayon so it won’t be lost. Battery life should be 7 hours of non stop writing/drawing.
The Logitech Crayon is available from Logitech.com, Apple.com, Apple retail stores, and selected major retailers.