Artist Review: Adonit Snap Stylus for iOS and Android

Adonit Snap is a stylus that's designed to go with phones rather tablets because of its small size.

The stylus that I have is a review unit sent to me by Adonit. I've used many Adonit styluses in the past, some are bought, some are given. In this review, I'll compare it with a few others that I've own.

Build quality

Design of this stylus is unlike any other Adonit styluses before. It's designed like a carpenter pencil in shape. It's a flat stylus that measures only 4mm thick. It's also quite short at 12.2cm. It weighs 9.3g.

Because the stylus is so thin, I can put the phone and stylus in my pocket and not feel that I've carried anything extra. It's very portable.

The 1.9mm tip is small so it does not block lines as your write. Unlike other styluses that feature the 1.9mm tip, this one does not wobble.

With the stylus in hand, it feels like holding a piece of flat unwrapped chewing gum. I thought I could bend it so easily because it's so thin. Looks can be deceiving because it's incredibly strong. You're not going to bend the metallic body unless you're using an unnatural amount of force.

The smooth matte surface is available in black, white and rose gold.

Overall, it looks quite stylish.

Battery
Battery life is rated at 7 hours of continuous use. It needs 1 hr to be fully charged. I don't draw for 7 hours straight so battery life is not a problem to me.

The stylus uses micro-USB charging. I like this method of charging better than the USB thumb drive of other Adonit styluses because I don't have to bring a USB thumb drive around. I have micro-USB cables at home, in the office and at my friend's house. The micro-USB port is so much more convenient. And I don't have to worry about losing the USB thumb drive which I have lost one before and had to buy one to replace it, only to discover it was in my bag all along because it was so small that I could not see or feel it.

In short, good move on using the micro-USB port for charging. Do it for the other styluses, Adonit.

Features
Adonit Snap does not require Bluetooth to work.

However, if you want the extra functionality of being able to take photos with the side button, then you can pair it your iOS or Android device. I can't get it to work on my Android phone but it works fine with iOS. It's a shutter remote that's quite helpful because it makes taking photos with the phone easier. People usually take photos with phones using one hand holding and the thumb for the shutter. With the remote, you don't have to use your thumb to reach for the shutter on the screen anymore so there's going to be less hand shake as you can now hold your phone firmly.

The other feature is the stylus' body has magnets. In the packaging box, it comes with a small piece of metal with adhesive that you can paste onto your phone. This allows the stylus to snap to that metal plate. The magnet is strong so no amount of normal shaking is going to dislodge the stylus. The thing is, some mobile phones or covers already have magnets and you can actually just just those without the need to paste that metal plate. And if your phone cover does not have magnets, you still don't have to stick the adhesive because you can just put that metal place between the phone and cover, with the unpeeled paper adhesive towards the phone so it does not scratch.

Shown above is that small metal plate. I've not taken off the paper protecting the adhesive on the back.

If you're sticking the adhesive to your bare body phone, it would be difficult to remove the sticky stuff in the future.

Performance
To use it, you just have to push the button on the side and a green light comes on momentarily. It powers on instantly and since it does not require Bluetooth pairing to use the stylus for drawing or writing, you can use it instantly.

When using this stylus, I test for accuracy and responsiveness. There's no pressure sensitivity and no palm rejection.

On the iPad I've tested with the following drawing and note taking apps:

• Sketches Pro
• Procreate
• Adobe Draw
• Adobe Sketch
• Medibang Paint Pro
• Bamboo Paper
• FiftyThree Paper
• Penulimate
• Notability
• GoodNotes
• Notes Plus

They all work quite well generally speaking.

Whether there is lag really depends on the the app and I'm glad to say that most are quite responsive. FiftyThree Paper is a bit slow but it's not a big issue. By slow, I mean the lines trail behind the tip. With other apps, the lines almost come out instantly.

Accuracy depends on how you hold the stylus. I find that if I hold the stylus where the flat side is towards the screen, there will be some misalignment where the line appears 2-3mm away. If I hold it flat side away from the screen, there's almost no misalignment. Generally speaking when I'm using it, there's no misalignment and that's great!

Holding it this way is more accurate.

Holding it this way can cause misalignment.

There's still some slight jitter when drawing slow diagonal lines. However, it seems to have minimized but it's still there. For taking notes it's not going to be a problem because no one writes that slow. However for drawing, if you do draw diagonal lines that slow, it may be a problem. When I'm drawing at normal speed, I don't really experience the slow diagonal line jitter.

This was drawn on Wacom Bamboo Paper app. I've drawn the diagonal lines very slowly.

Handwriting apps
Unfortunately, not a lot of handwriting apps work well.

The apps with best performance on the iPad are Wacom Bamboo Paper and Penultimate. My handwriting was captured quite accurately without distortions.

GoodNotes 4 did not work with the stylus. I could write with my finger, but I could not with the stylus. Notes Plus and Notability had distortions and stray strokes when I'm writing.

Notes Plus sample

Notability sample

Penultimate sample

Wacom Bamboo Paper sample

On the Android, I only tried the note taking app Inkredible and Wacom Bamboo Paper and both work well.

Last thing is about line skipping. There's rarely any line skipping when I'm using this stylus. I'm quite surprised because with other digital styluses, I do experience line skipping sometimes but with the Adonit Snap, it's rare. Currently I'm also testing the Adonit Dash 2 and that stylus has line skips once in a while.

Conclusion
I'm pleasantly surprised by the Adonit Snap. It looks good and the performance is satisfactory. It does what it says it does so I've no complaints. Initially, I was rather skeptical because of my experience with other Adonit styluses, or more specifically I did not like the slow-diagonal-jitter-line issue. With the Adonit Snap, they have minimized the jitter.

I've checked out some Amazon reviews and people are having problems with alignment, magnets interfering with the signals and lines skipping. Now that's interesting because I did not have any of those issues.

With drawing apps, the stylus works quite well. However with note taking or handwriting apps, it's a hit and miss. Penultimate (iOS), Wacom Bamboo Paper (iOS and Android) are the ones that work well for me.

Overall, I've a positive experience using this stylus.

I hope this review is helpful to you.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Small, light and portable
+ Micro-USB charging
+ Works well with most apps
+ Does not require Bluetooth for writing/drawing
+ When pair with Bluetooth, you can use it as a remote camera shutter
- Bluetooth remote camera shutter does not work on Android
- If you stick the adhesive to your phone body, it may be difficult to remove

Availability

You can find the Adonit Snap on Amazon through the links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp