Widevantage is not a stylus company that I’ve heard of before and upon further digging, it’s a new Korean company creating accessories for the touch screen devices. This capacitive stylus has some interesting things about it which we will soon find out.
The one that is in for review is the MotionPen stylus which is compatible only for the iOS devices namely iPhone 5 and above as well as the iPad. The MotionPen is actually a passive capacitive stylus but has functionalities of an active stylus. The stylus does not require any batteries and doesn’t even need to pair with the iPad/iPhone via Bluetooth. However the drawback is that in order for the extra functionalities to work, you need to download their MotionPen app.
When you first use the stylus, you will see the good construction quality of the body but at the price of weight. The stylus does feel a bit heavy and I was told by Widevantage that it is also water resistant. At both ends of the stylus are rubber nibs which can be used on any capacitive screen but when used with the MotionPen app one of the rubber nibs act as an eraser when you flip it over. And that’s it for the stylus which does not have anything extra to configure.
Now moving on to the app, just follow the instructions to input a Motion ID which comes together with the stylus. Perhaps it’s to connect the app with the stylus or maybe just to register the product. You’ll also need to turn off multitasking gestures and iPad cover lock/unlock from the settings if you’re using it on the iPad.
The free app is pretty nifty and you can use it to create notes, annotate photos, diagrams or drawings which you can also share via email, Facebook or Dropbox. The pen mode lets you change the thickness/color/opacity. It also supports palm resting pretty well and there’s no extra unwanted smudges. In order for the extra features of the stylus to be used, you need to activate the button at the bottom right. After activated, you can automatically change to eraser mode by just flipping the stylus.
Now the coolest feature that I’ve never seen for a stylus is the Zoom In feature which allows the stylus to actually have a square magnifying glass hovering on the app and follows the stylus as you move it. The zoom feature is using their very own technology by Widevantage called AirLens, where your screen can measure the distance between the pen and the screen. When you move the stylus nearer to the screen, it will zoom in to that area and you can make more detailed changes to your sketches.
However I notice that the magnifier is not centered correctly to the stylus and is slightly off and it does not always seem to work. If that happens, you will need to disconnect and reconnect the stylus which will reset the parameters of the pen. Hopefully the developers will iron out the issues in future releases. Apart from that, you can import photos in to annotate and then share, save it to your photo gallery or mail it out.
I applaud the company for coming out with something unique in an already saturated stylus market. I’m looking forward to seeing new products from them. For now the stylus only works with the MotionPen app but they are looking to make it compatible with other popular note taking apps. The Widevantage MotionPen retails for $19.95 and you can find out more from their website.
