By Jason Snell
March 22, 2019 3:09 PM PT
Yes, Logitech’s Crayon works with iPad Pro
Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
Over at 9to5 Mac, Zac Hall noticed that a few of us—at least myself and Nilay Patel from the Verge, and possibly others—have been passing along an interesting new iPad tidbit after meeting with Apple about the new iPad models this week. I realize that people may have missed the brief parenthetical in my Macworld story this week, so it’s worth restating here…
Logitech’s $70 Crayon, an interesting stylus that originally was available for education only and worked only with the sixth-generation iPad, will now be supported by all of Apple’s current iPad models. So not only do the new iPad Air and iPad mini work with the Crayon, but so does my 2018 12.9-inch iPad Pro running a beta version of iOS 12.2, which should be released next week.
(Update: I tested the Crayon with an earlier iPad Pro model, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro that was just discontinued to make way for the iPad Air, and it doesn’t work—even when running the 12.2 beta. So Crayon support seems to be limited to the currently shipping set of iPads.)
The Crayon charges via Lightning, but it’s got a female Lightning port so you can plug it in to pretty much any cord you use to charge an iPhone. It’s got an on/off switch and has a wider side and a narrower side, in the style of a carpenter pencil (so it doesn’t roll). It’s shorter than the Apple Pencil, made of anodized aluminum, and of course, is cheaper than either Apple Pencil model. It’s also versatile: if you bought one Crayon you could use it on both an iPad mini and an iPad Pro—when you’d need two different versions of Apple Pencil otherwise. And unlike Apple Pencil, Crayon works via proximity and not Bluetooth pairing, so if you are frequently in a multiple-iPad environment where styluses are shared, the Crayon will simply work on whatever device it’s touching—no pairing required.
The Crayon’s also much more limited than the Apple Pencil in that it doesn’t support pressure sensitivity. If you only use a stylus for notetaking or driving an app interface, that might be good enough. If you like to draw, it probably isn’t. (It also doesn’t support double-tapping to switch tools, a very nice feature of the second-generation Apple Pencil.)
If you appreciate articles like this one, support us by becoming a Six Colors subscriber. Subscribers get access to an exclusive podcast, members-only stories, and a special community.