Review: Staedtler Noris Digital Jumbo stylus

The Staedtler Noris Digital stylus is a variation of the original Noris Digital released several years ago.

This is an active stylus with Wacom EMR technology. So it has palm rejection, tilt and pressure sensitivity. This stylus is compatible with tablets that support Wacom EMR, and that includes Samsung tablets and phones that already support the Samsung S Pen.

The price on Amazon at the time of this review is USD 57. Price will vary depending on where and who you buy this from.

The original Noris Digital has a thin body just like a wooden pencil and is 17.5cm long. The Jumbo is thicker with a triangular body and is 14cm long.

The thicker triangular body with rounded off edges is more comfortable to hold.

At the back there's an eraser button.

There's no side button on the Noris Digital Jumbo and I like that. I would click on the S Pen side button accidentally too often while drawing and writing. Not having a side button is a huge plus.

The pen tip has this rubberised material which provides slightly more friction on the glass. This softer tip also dampens the tapping sound.

5 replacement nibs and a nib remover are included. I highly recommend getting the original Staedtler replacement nibs since these come with the rubberised tips. If you buy from third party sellers, there's a good chance the whole nib is just plastic, including the hard plastic tip.

The Noris Digital Jumbo has good pen performance. It's able to capture my handwriting quite well. There's minimal to no visible jitter or wobble when drawing slow diagonal lines. It's a rather accurate and sensitive pen.

Here's the line quality test for Noris Digital Jumbo, Noris Digital original, Samsung S Pen from tablet and S Pen from phone. Click the image for a larger view.

The best performance goes to the Noris Digital original and the S Pen that came with the phone. These two have minimal initial activation force. It's easy to draw thin lines and have good thin-thick variation with the two pens.

In second place is the Noris Digital Jumbo which has slightly higher initial activation force. You can draw lines as thin as the Noris Digital original, but you have to make a more conscious effort to draw with less pressure.

Interestingly, the Samsung S Pen has the highest initial activation force. The lines are noticeably thicker than the other three pens. And this is the S Pen that came with the Samsung Tab S7+ that I tested these pens on. I don't have other S Pens to test so I can't say for sure if there's a problem with this specific pen that I have.

How well tilt sensitivity works will depend on the apps you use. Shown above is the Sketchbook app where I was able to get smooth thin-thick transition as I tilt the pen. With the Concepts app, the thin-thick transition is abrupt with no smooth transition.

How the eraser performs will also depend on the app you use. Shown above is the Concepts app where the back eraser will erase thick (above). When you erase with the pen nib using the software eraser, the width is determined by the software eraser.

In short, the width of the back eraser may not match the software eraser. You need to test the back eraser with different apps to see how it will behave.

The default palm rejection provided by the pen is good. Apps with option to choose only pen input will have perfect palm rejection.

The Staedtler Noris Digital Jumbo may not be as sensitive compared to the original but it's sensitive enough. You can get fantastic handwriting and drawing performance, pressure and tilt sensitivity and palm rejection.

The body is also comfortable to hold and there's no side button for me to click accidentally.

This is a good stylus that's easily worth the money. And it's a great S Pen alternative. Highly recommended.

Availability

You can find the Staedtler Noris Digital Jumbo stylus on Amazon. Affiliate links below:
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