Just Mobile AluPen Digital Review

The Just Mobile AluPen Digital ($49.95) doesn't really compete with more expensive, smarter, Bluetooth-connected styli, such as Adonit's Jot Touch. But it's still a step up from inexpensive, rubber-tipped styli that have no powered features at all, thanks to its charge-amplifying circuitry. The AluPen Digital sends a minute electrical signal through the stylus's tip to your tablet's screen, which most capacitive displays recognize as a touch input. But the only improvement that brings to the table is slightly better accuracy—and you still need to hover your palm above your tablet's screen, as there's no palm rejection. As such, we think $49.95 is a little much to ask for such a minor upgrade over unpowered styli, especially when the excellent FiftyThree's Pencil offers palm rejection for just $10 more.

Design and Features
The Just Mobile AluPen Digital is an unassuming digital stylus that works on pretty much any device with a capacitive touch screen. This is because it doesn't connect to your tablet via Bluetooth. This extensive compatibility is indeed a pro that most Bluetooth-connected styli can't boast, since most of them are OS-specific. But, it brings about a much bigger con: It can't activate the palm rejection feature Bluetooth-connected styli are good for. Without palm rejection, you need to keep your palms off the screen. That can be a pain, and it forces you to adjust how you write or draw to an uncomfortable position, especially during longer writing or drawing sessions.

The AluPen Digital is powered by one AAA battery, which is included. It's turned on by twisting the aluminum-colored bottom half, which also brings the nib out from its hiding place within the body. Twisting it back to the position where the nib is hidden again will turn the AluPen Digital off.

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At 5.51 inches in height, and 0.49 inch in width, its aluminum-clad tubular body is much wider than most styli we've tested, like Adonit's Jot Touch ($189.89 at Amazon) . I would say that the AluPen Digital is still comfortable to use, despite its width, but the AAA battery that powers its circuitry is housed in the top half of the body, which makes it top-heavy and somewhat unbalanced.

There are no buttons to accidentally press, like you find on almost all smart styli. But the negative side of that is the resulting lack of shortcut features, such as a quick eraser, quick undo, or customizable shortcut menus that Adobe's Ink and Slide's ($24.99 at Amazon)  can bring up with their shortcut buttons.

Performance
The problem with unpowered, thick rubber-tipped styli is that you can't see exactly where your input is being registered, as the tip usually expands and covers a relatively wide, quarter-inch area as it smushes against your tablet's screen. The AluPen Digital's thin, 1.8mm plastic nib doesn't smush at all, and helps you see where your input is registered.

The AluPen Digital isn't that much more accurate than an unpowered stylus, but it does allow you to write or draw in finer detail. However, it still requires you to hover your palm above your tablet's screen, which itself affects accuracy, and makes for the uncomfortable writing or drawing experiences that I mentioned above. And the lack of palm rejection results in errant markings where your palm is resting.

Conclusion
Unless you think holding your palm above your tablet won't be a problem, you should probably consider the Bluetooth-connected variety of styli. Just Mobile's AluPen Digital is, unfortunately, too inaccurate and featureless to recommend when there are more versatile styli that cost just a little bit more.

If you're looking for a good, relatively inexpensive Bluetooth-connected stylus that will let you rest your palm on your tablet's screen, Wacom's Bamboo Stylus Fineline ($35.99 at Amazon)  is an excellent choice, but is geared more towards note-writing. For mainly artistic purposes, FiftyThree's Pencil  is an excellent and also relatively inexpensive styli, but it's not suited for note-taking due to its wide, rubber tip. Adonit's Jot Touch offers a good balance between artistic and writing needs, but at $119.99, it's also much more expensive. If you're not looking to spend more than $50, you could get an unpowered stylus like the ones found at convenience store checkout counters, or save yourself $10 with the Lynktec TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen ($29.99 at Amazon) , a luxurious unpowered stylus that doubles as a ball-point pen.