Hands-On With The Slippery-Tipped TruGlide Stylus [Review]

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The usual suspects: The TruGlides alongside the AluPens and the Wacom Bamboo

There is one huge problem with iPad styluses: the rubber tips tend to drag or even stick on the screen, especially when the screen gets greasy (which is always). Some styluses are better than others: The Wacom Bamboo manages to glide right up until Peak Filth, and the latest Alupen Pro comes with instructions to never touch the tip with your fingers (as you’d expect, I touched it immediately and often after reading that).

But the TruGlide Stylus takes a different take altogether: it ditches the rubber and replaces it with something that looks like a tiny metal scouring pad. Only it doesn’t scour — it glides.

The styluses come in a range of colors (The Lady is particularly drawn* by the black and gold one), and in two sizes: regular (like a short ball pen) and teeny, with a little plastic plug on an attached cord so you can dangle from a headphone socket. To my eyes, they’re pretty ugly, but that’s just, like, my opinion, man.

The Good

The first time you use the TruGlide you will think that you’re scratching up the iPad’s screen. Don’t panic! The scratchy sound you hear appears only to be caused by the movement of the meshy filaments over each other, not by filament/glass contact. Keep going and you’ll enjoy a free-sliding stylus experience.

The tip of the TruGlide is also thinner than many, and although the product page claims that it makes the stylus more accurate, it doesn’t really. Psychologically, though, the different is huge, and it feels a lot more precise, mostly because you can actually see where the stylus is hitting the screen.

The Bad

The tips are great, although they do bulge out like muffin tops ready to burst. But the lightweight hollow tubes that make the bodies of the styluses just feel cheap. That said, they’re also pretty tough. I tried to bend one with my manly blogger’s hands, toughened up by years of keyboarding and touch-screen swiping, and it wouldn’t budge. In fact, I now have my knuckles on ice to avoid the inevitable welts and blisters.

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The tip, shot with iPad and macro lens

The Verdict

The TruGlide styluses are great. They don’t have the heft or build quality of some more expensive rivals, but those more expensive rivals are more expensive, while the TruGlides can be had for just $16 (one tiny version is just $10).

It probably won’t be long before styluses start appearing as novelty gifts in Christmas Crackers, but until then, you could do a lot worse than the TruGlide.

[xrr rating=70%]

Source: Lynktec
Video: YouTube
Thanks: Mandy!

*sorry

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