Sketch and go: Wacom unveils new Bamboo Stylus Mini

The Bamboo Stylus Mini is the latest in a growing line of products from Wacom designed to help users get more creative with their touchscreen devices.

Wacom-Bamboo-Stylus-Mini-Photo-AFP

The Bamboo Stylus Mini is the latest in a growing line of products from Wacom designed to help users get more creative with their touchscreen devices.

Smartphones and tablets offer users a new level of creativity as well as connectivity, but for those who want to turn their devices into sketchpads or vast painting canvases, the finger is still no match for a stylus. However, on the whole, styluses are cheap, easy to break and equally easy to lose and tend to offer a user experience akin to fishing an olive out of a bowl with a cocktail stick.

What makes the Wacom Bamboo Stylus Mini different is that it is built to last, to feel pen-like in the hand and to work specifically with capacitive touchscreens. It comes with two types of interchangeable and replaceable rubber nibs for soft or firm lines and has an ingenious way of attaching to a device -- it plugs into the headphone jack. It measures 4.7cm in length and is available in a range of colors.

Pre-2010, when the word 'tablet' was used in conjunction with computers and creativity, it referred to only one thing -- a graphics tablet that allowed users to sketch and draw on their PCs via a stylus -- and Wacom was the industry's world leader. Fast forward three years and while there is still a market within the creative industries for the original device, tablets in the form of the iPad and a host of competitors now offer many of the same features thanks to their capacitive touchscreens.

However, when pushing Photoshop to its limits, cleaning up images one pixel at a time or trying to create detailed sketches, a finger is still no match for a stylus.

Wacom was the first company to realize this and developed its Bamboo Stylus range, as well as a host of free apps, specifically for this purpose.

The original Bamboo Stylus has already been embraced by creative professionals and hobbyists alike, and the new Mini range should prove a hit with anyone who wants to highlight a PDF, absent-mindedly doodle or simply correct the red-eye in a photo. Available direct from Wacom, the Bamboo Stylus Mini launches in Europe this week, priced at €14.90.