Review: Pendorra Stylus Pen (for all platform)

Recently, a company called Pendorra asked if I wanted to try out their stylus pen. The design looks quite similar to the Apple Pencil so I was intrigued enough to try it.

Since the Pendorra stylus looks so similar to the Apple Pencil, I'll compare the two in this review. In terms of functionality, the Pendorra stylus is similar to the Adonit Dash 2 so I'll compare that too.

Shown above from top to bottom: Adonit Dash 2, Apple Pencil, Pendorra Stylus

Here are some characteristics and features of the Apple Pencil

• It has a slightly smaller diameter
• It supports pressure sensitivity
• It can only be used on iPad Pro
• It requires Bluetooth

Here are the key characteristics and features of Adonit Dash 2

• It has a slightly smaller diameter
• Pressure sensitivity not supported
• It can be use on any tablet
• Bluetooth not required

Here are the key characteristics and features of Pendorra stylus:

• It has a slightly thicker diameter, like those fine-tip Sharpie markers
• Pressure sensitivity not supported
• It can be use on any tablet
• Bluetooth not required

Build quality

Build quality of the Pendorra stylus is good. It feels sturdy. It comes in four colours: rose gold, silver, grey and pink.

It has a nice weight and is well balanced.

The body is metallic and it has a smooth surface finishing unlike the glossy Apple Pencil. The texture is nice to touch. However, since it's metal, it feels colder compared to the plastic body of the Apple Pencil. This is something I noticed only when comparing the two styluses.

The stylus is battery powered and you have to charge it with via USB. At the back of the pen is a male micro-USB port.

Unlike the Adonit Dash 2, the tip on Pendorra does not wobble.

You have to connect it to the USB adapter provided to get the rectangular Type A USB port that you can plug into your computer or charger. When charging, it sticks out of the port horizontally so be careful not to knock it or break anything.

Be careful not to lose the end cap with the power button. If you lose that, there's no way for you to switch on the stylus.

Writing or drawing performance

This is an active stylus with a 2.2mm tip. The tip is small so that it does not block off much of the lines beneath.

The Pendorra stylus is said to support all mobile OS platform, i.e. iOS, Android and Windows.

However, the writing and drawing functionality depends on the app, OS and device that you're using.

I have found out that the orientation of your device plays an important part to whether or not you will get any misalignment to the strokes. Actually, this is not much different compared to using active styluses like the Adonit Dash 2 or Snap.

So here are my findings when it comes to misalignment of strokes

iPad Pro (iOS 10.1.1)
Portrait mode: Works perfectly. Line appears directly beneath the tip
Landscape mode: Misalignment

iPad Mini (iOS 10.1.1)
Portrait mode: Misalignment
Landscape mode: Works perfectly
Slow diagonal lines have more jitter compared to iPad Pro

Android 6 phone
Portrait mode: Misalignment
Landscape mode: Works perfectly

Android 7 phone
Portrait mode: Misalignment
Landscape mode: Misalignment

Below are screenshots of the iPad Pro in different orientation and hand positions

iPad in portrait mode with horizontal stylus position

iPad in portrait mode with vertical stylus position

iPad in landscape mode with horizontal stylus position

iPad in landscape mode with vertical stylus position

The Pendorra stylus works perfectly, at normal handwriting position, when used with the iPad in portrait mode. This is the mode more suitable for taking notes. There is no misalignment. The lines appear directly beneath the tip. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the stylus works so well.

However, when I turned the iPad to the landscape mode, the misalignment problem appeared. Lines now appear around 2mm away from the tip. The strange thing is, when I tried it with my Android phones, I observed different results. With one Android phone, there was misalignment in portrait mode, and with the other phone there is misalignment regardless of how the phone was oriented. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the Android OS version or with my phone.

This stylus does not use Bluetooth to pair with your device. You can press the power button on the back and it turns on instantly. There is no support pressure sensitivity or palm rejection. So to prevent stray strokes from appearing, you have to lift your palm from the writing/drawing surface.

When I was using the stylus, there was generally minimal lag, or there's no lag that I would consider a deal breaker when it comes to writing or drawing. Also, whether there is lag or not really depends on the app you're using.

In the above picture, P are lines from Pendorra and A are lines from Adonit Dash 2. Drawing diagonal lines slowly does produce some jitter. The amount of jitter will depend on which app you use. For example, Medibang Paint will have more wavy diagonal lines compared to Wacom Bamboo Paper (shown above).

Conclusion

The stylus performs slightly different on different iPads, more specifically iPad Pro vs iPad non-Pro. There is more jitter when it comes to drawing diagonal lines on the iPad non-Pro.

In short, if you want a stylus for taking notes with the iPad Pro, the Pendorra stylus works well when the tablet is in portrait mode.

If you're using it on Android, it could be a hit or miss. I've put the Adonit styluses through the same tests and the results are the same. Stylus performance on the Android can be slightly more unpredictable.

As for the pricing, it's quite competitive with Adonit Dash 2. So it really comes down to which body design or battery charging system you prefer.

Availability

You can find this stylus at Pendorra.com and Amazon USA