If you’re looking for a low-cost yet high-quality digital stylus I strongly recommend that you get the Pencil by 53. The Pencil by 53 was designed by the company called “Fifty Three” and is based on a clean and simplistic design and is a very powerful tablet accessory. The fact that there are no buttons on the Pencil and there is no need to install drivers or any other software for that matter make this a versatile little stylus indeed. These features, in my opinion, is what makes it stand out from the competition.
To the naked eye it looks like a standard pencil with “53” company logo on the top side adjacent to a rubber tip eraser located on the top of a Pencil. It pretty much looks like a regular pencil to be honest.
The Pencil by 53 is recommended for people who need a digital drawing instrument that will enable them to be creative on their tablet. This is great for artists, students, engineers, architects and pretty much anyone who needs to have a creative environment within which they can let their creative juices flow as they sketch that design or build that marvelous work of art.
I am a businessman and I love using this pen when compared to other pens that I have tested just because of the mere fact that it requires no setup and is very simple and intuitive to use.
So let’s delve into some of the key features of this pen.
The first is the surface pressure detection capability. The pencil has a unique tip which is shaped like a mini rubber triangle. You can use the tip of the pen to draw thin lines and then you can use the sides of the tip if you want to create broader strokes when writing or sketching, which I find is pretty cool.
Next is the rubber eraser which is built into the pencil. There are sensors built into the Pencil that can detect when you invert it to use the eraser on the iPad’s screen. There is no need to switch applications or press any buttons when you need to erase anything from the screen. All you have to do is turn the pencil on its backside and use the eraser and it works automatically.
Now I know that you artists will love this next feature and it’s called the blend function. Did you know that you can actually use your finger to smooth out edges that are rough and if you have multiple colors on your tablet you can blend those colors together with your finger on the tablet surface? This capability comes in very handy when you are sketching visuals with shadows.
The Pencil by 53 also comes with Palm Rejection Technology which pretty much knows whether your hand or the pencil is touching the screen surface. Therefore you can easily rest your hand on the screen from any angle and write seamlessly as if you were writing on a real piece of paper with a pencil.
To be honest I think that the main differentiator for this pencil is the fact that it really does mimic the real world writing experience of pencil on paper. When you hold one of these digital styluses in your hand it has about the same weight as a typical writing instrument in addition to looking like one. Does a real pencil have buttons on it? No, and neither does the Pencil by Fifty Three. Can you simply erase things on paper with the rubber tip of a pencil? Yes, and you can as well with the Pencil by Fifty Three – I rest my case.
So to summarize the specifications:
• First off we have eraser which is pretty much a special sensor that lets you put the pencil on its backside when you need to rub things out – it will automatically erase whatever is on the screen without having to press a button. By the way, this review was done using the Paper application for the Apple iPad by the company called Fifty Three.
• The pen also comes with smart Bluetooth technology which uses the built in rechargeable battery very efficiently and it also provides a very stable connection when writing.
• The body of the Pencil is constructed from a single solid piece of material. It comes in various colors such as graphite brushed aluminum, walnut and gold.
• The built-in USB battery can provide up to 90 minutes of writing time on a single charge. What I love about this battery it’s that it is neatly tucked away inside the pencil itself and can be easily removed via the front of the pencil by pulling on the tip. The battery can be recharged from any available USB port on a computer.
• The sensors in both the tip of the Pencil as well as the eraser are made of real gold. In fact the sensors use 14 karat gold to provide an excellent conductor to provide that fast and accurate reaction to your hand motion when writing and erasing.
The Pencil by 53 was originally built for the Paper application by FiftyThree but thanks to their SDK (Software Developer Kit) a number of other applications are now compatible with the Pencil such as:
• One Note
• The Adobe Illustrator Draw
• The Adobe Photoshop Sketch
• The Astro Pad Graphics Tablet
• Concepts
• pics art for a tow studio
• Good Notes
• diastole sketches
• Procreate
• Note Shelf
• Sketchbook
• Mobile Mouse
• PDF and Inkredible
• Flow Paper
• Zoom Zoom Notes.
Pros and Cons
Pros
• Aesthetically pleasing to look at.
• A smart eraser
• A smart tip that can create various sized lines depending on the writing angle of the tip.
• A compact rechargeable battery which is nicely tucked away inside the Pencil body.
• Replaceable tips and eraser heads.
• An SDK from Fifty Three making the Pencil compatible with a number of different applications.
Cons
• Not enough Pencil color options
• The shape of the Pencil – some may prefer a smaller grip
• It is not a cheap stylus when compared to the various other options that are available on the market for half the price. The Pencil by 53 costs about $50 MSRP. You can checkout the YouTube video review below. Thanks.