Some
people want it all. They want to be able to have a better stylus
than the stock stylus that comes with the Handspring
Visor, fit in the Visor silo, and be a pen as well. For those
of you who want it all, the patent-pending Handspring
Visor Pen Stylus could be the stylus for you.
The Pen stylus looks very similar
to the Visor
Stylus 5-pack. They are roughly the same size and weight, with
the Pen stylus being slightly longer. The major difference, of course,
is that the tip of the Pen stylus detaches to reveal a black ink pen.
The tip can be placed on the top of the stylus to prevent losing it, and
the top of the stylus unscrews to reveal a reset pin. If you
look closely enough, you will see three pictures of a stick man doing a
handspring engraved into the top of the stylus 
The Pen stylus fits perfectly in the Visor and won’t roll off a table if
you set it down.
Usability
The
Pen stylus is very nice to use. Writing with the Pen stylus is easier
to do than with the stock stylus, making handwriting recognition improve
slightly. I like the fact that the tip goes on top to keep it out
of the way when you use the pen. The tip does not have the smoothness
change like the Visor
Stylus 5-pack does, and is a couple millimeters longer. Of the
two, I personally prefer the Pen stylus because of its tip and the ability
to write in ink. I’m still torn as to whether I like the Pen stylus
or the PDA
Panache custom stylus more -- they are both great styli.
The Pen stylus uses a standard ball-point
ink pen that is about average in quality. I won’t be writing my memoirs
with this pen, but I will use it for jotting down a quick note. It
does not look like the ink can be replaced though, which could be a problem
for people that frequently use the pen.
The one caveat is that the Pen stylus
is a little light. The Pen stylus weighs 0.3 oz, while the stock
stylus weighs only 0.1 oz. The light weight could be a problem for
users that do a great deal of writing on the Visor or use the pen extensively.
If you are going to need to write in ink and use a stylus for extended
periods of time, the Pentopia
2+1 stylus may be better for you.
Conclusion >>
