Review: Adonit Snap 2 (tested on iOS and Android)

Two years ago, Adonit released a stylus called Adonit Snap that's almost as thing as stick of chewing gum. The second generation Adonit Snap is now out and available for sale.

I was sent a review unit to check out recently and here are my thoughts.

The updated Snap still retains the same design and form factor as the original. It really lightweight at just 9.5g. It may be thin but the build quality is solid.

The length is just 120mm, about the height or even less than that of some smartphones. This stylus is designed for use with the iPhone but you can use it with other iOS. You can also use it with Android devices but you won't be able to access all the features (more on that later).

The stylus is available in three colours: Parakeet Blue, Peach Pink and Space Grey.

The 1.9mm tip has a matte textured surface that provides extra friction and hence it gives you better control when writing or drawing with it.

The stylus is powered by a built-in battery that's said to support up to 12 hours of battery life, an increased from the 7 hours with the previous model.

Adonit Snap is a Bluetooth stylus that provides other features. You can use the side button to take a photo or a burst of three photos with the iOS camera app. It works as advertised. Sometimes when taking selfies, it can be challenging to press the shutter button and hold the camera still. That's the the remote photo-taking feature really helps. You can hold the camera with an outstretched arm and press the shutter button on the stylus.

To get the remote button working, you have to pair the stylus via Bluetooth with your iOS device. If you just want to use the stylus for writing, no Bluetooth pairing is required, although you do have to turn on the power for the stylus to work.

Writing performance

Note that Adonit Snap does not support pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. Not having palm rejection is not that big an issue if you're writing on the phone since there's no much space to rest your palm anyway. When used with a tablet, you have to make a conscious effort to lift palm to prevent stray strokes.

iPhone Xr
I did not have an iPhone to test the stylus properly so I went down to the local Apple Store to test out the stylus.

As the iPhones are from the Apple Store, I was only able to test the handwriting capability with the default Notes app. Unfortunately, Adonit Snap 2 did not perform well on the iPhone Xr and Xs that I tried.

The accuracy is a bit loose and my handwriting wasn't captured accurately. The bigger problem is, when the tip is close but not touching the screen, the stylus can write too. The stylus can write in close proximity without the tip touching the screen. It's awkward to write like this because you have to lift the stylus higher than usual before you start the next stroke.

Even with the iPhone Xs that I tried, performance was not good. Even at moderate speed, diagonal lines were wavy and my handwriting still wasn't captured accurately.

There wasn't any iPhone 8, 7 or 6 at the Apple Store for me to test.

This is handwriting on the iPad. It's able to capture my handwriting quite well.

Depending on the device you're using, there may be misalignment issues with the stylus. Shown above is the misalignment that happens on the iPad (2018). The misalignment depends on the orientation of the iPad and the angle of the stylus. For some reason, I don't see misalignment issues with my Android phone.

On the iPad Pro, misalignment issues is less obvious.

The other problem I faced is sometimes I get broken lines when writing or drawing. This happens more often when Bluetooth is on. When I turned off Bluetooth, it still happens, but less often. When it happens, it's incredibly frustrating. I don't have this problem with the original Adonit Snap though.

This was written on my Android phone with the Wacom Bamboo Paper app. Handwriting and note taking performance is quite decent.

Conclusion

For some strange reason, Adonit Snap 2 was designed for iOS but it doesn't work as well on iOS compared to Android phones.

The app that you use matters a lot. The default Notes app in iOS, both on iPhone and iPad, is just not suitable for use with Adonit Snap 2. And the performance of Adonit Snap 2 is much better with iPads than on the iPhone.

If you do want to buy, I suggest you check out more reviews on Amazon, or search online for actual writing samples with the app you want to use.

Availability

Adonit Snap 2 is currently priced around USD $30 and you can find it on Amazon.

Direct product links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp