I have used a variety of styli and found that the Stylus Plus best suits me. Prior to using the Stylus Plus, I used a Cross Metropolis with the stylus refill and the Pilot Pentopia T2300. While both of these products are perfectly fine, for my own personal comfort and ease of use I can't find anything that suits me better than the Stylus Plus. In Figure B, you can see how it comfortably fits in the hand.

FIGURE B


The Stylus Plus can be held in both casual and death grips. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Four-in-one fun
I find a multi-purpose stylus useful for a number of reasons. For one, I record every financial transaction in my Palm organizer, and I find the best time to do that is at the moment the transaction occurs. I record the transaction in MoneyManager, and if there is a charge receipt to sign, I then rotate the stylus and switch to the ballpoint pen function. If I'm writing a note to someone and I want to make a reminder for myself in my Palm unit, a quick turn and click takes me from pen to stylus. When I'm reading, I often have my Palm device at hand to jot down a quick note or an interesting URL. With the Stylus Plus, I can use the stylus point to make notes, or if I want to continue reading, I can use the highlighter to underline passages I want to return to later.

Don't just take my word for it
I had two other Palm device users try the Stylus Plus for a few days each. Mind you, I was not a happy camper, having to rely on my backup stylus, and no, it was not "the twig". I do have standards.

One of the testers, however, does still use the basic "twig" stylus; the other tester is a Pentopia T2300 user. Overall, they gave the Stylus Plus a favorable review. By compiling our opinions, I came up with a breakdown of pros and cons. Interestingly enough, size shows up on both lists.

Pros
Here's what we liked about the Stylus Plus:

• Price: at $19.99, we felt it was reasonably affordable;

• Size: the Stylus Plus is the same size as a regular pen, measuring five and a half inches in length with an approximate quarter inch diameter. It weighs in at about 1.2 ounces;

• Convenience: having all four options in one pen is really handy.

• Cool factor: It really makes you feel "pulled-together" to be stylin' with a quality stylus.

Cons
Here's what we didn't like about the Stylus Plus:

• Noises: we noticed some rattling and clicking noises in pen. Maybe this is because the cap is removable for access to the eraser. If so, this won't be a problem in the newer version, which doesn't include the pencil option;

• Soft lead: the pencil lead should be a bit harder to prevent breakage;

• Pencil confusion: it's not intuitive how to make the lead move out of the pen;

• Size: if the stylus were a little smaller it would be better for storage reasons. Plus, the eraser/cap causes you to expend additional effort (i.e., you must re-adjust your hand position) in order to reach the end of the cap. One of my testers-who happens to be 6' 4"-complained about the width, saying it was too narrow.