Second-Generation Apple Pencil Rumored for March of 2017

[DaniJoy]

ill welcome some improvements:
no battery drain, seriously its always dead.
better screen feel (slick glass is not good for art)
working palm rejection (seriously it sucks on gen 1 pencil)

the magnaetic thing sound ok but i just got a nice pencil carry case. i like it.

if they fix all this it will be almost as good as wacom for much cheaper!

 

[MacBergin]

Don't bother if you aren't releasing the iPad until the fall.

 

[Sam_S]

Let me guess... thinner, shorter battery life, price bump, now available in jet black.

And you will now need an adapter to charge it!

 

[mixel]

When working on a canvas that takes up the full screen, without button or menu overlays, it would be much easier to flip the pencil over to do some quick erasing. Having to exit full screen mode, switch to the eraser tool, then switch back to a brush tool, then enter full screen mode again gets annoying. It may not sound like a big deal, but it disrupts the workflow.

Ah, that makes sense in that situation. I never draw in full screen mode in Procreate, its' UI barely uses up any space when it's there, and i tend to be zoomed in working on detail work. I'd still take a side button over a tip eraser though, that you could assign to be eraser, or whatever else.

Astropad studio has a great solution for this.. If I put one finger on canvas while drawing the pencil erases... 2 is colour picker, 3+ swipe is brush size/opacity (in photoshop) - you can set them to anything, but this most fully replicates my Wacom side-buttons.

 

[QquegChristian]

I agree that there are aspects of both that could combine to make one standout device. Not sure what changed from the surface 3 to 4 pen, but I used a surface 3 pen for a while. It was fine, but I ultimately like the feel of the pencil better (though maybe a little too slippery), along with better sensitivity, tilt, etc.

With the surface 4, have they fixed the jittery line issue when drawing slowly?

I believe the jitter is smoothed on a program by program basis now, with some better than others. I use the pen for notes in OneNote and touching up photos in a Photoshop, so I never noticed it. If I remember, the Apple Pencil also has smoothing like that, it's just at the OS level.

Newer Pen on SP4 is much better than the SP3. It's on par with Apple Pencil, except for tilt... which is obviously a BIG except for artists. I use a Wacom tablet with my desktop for photo touchup. whether it's Surface Pen or Apple Pencil, writing on the screen really makes up for any shortcomings compared to (non-Cintiq) Wacom.

Again, not talking about artists, as I think neither Microsoft or Apple are fully able to replace a desktop with Cintiq for actual artists. One is missing tilt and the other is missing desktop software.

 

[springsup]

wacom tablets (and other digitizers) have been around forever without seeing what you're writing on directly beneath the pen. I take it you've never used one. It's surprisingly easy for your brain to make the connection between what your hand is doing with the pen and what you're seeing on the monitor.

Yeah, I'm not a professional artist. I'm a programmer, and I sometimes like to do rough sketches outlining a concept. It's kind-of possible to do that without seeing what you draw, but it's hard to go back to a specific point. I could use a kind of rigid click-and-drag graphics application, but it doesn't flow as well and sometimes it's too limiting.

I believe Wacom tablets have a kind of hover-mode for the cursor to try and overcome the sight limitation. That may be fine for artists, but it becomes tiring for your average joe sketching a little doodle.

 

[handsome pete]

Newer Pen on SP4 is much better than the SP3. It's on par with Apple Pencil, except for tilt... which is obviously a BIG except for artists. I use a Wacom tablet with my desktop for photo touchup. whether it's Surface Pen or Apple Pencil, writing on the screen really makes up for any shortcomings compared to (non-Cintiq) Wacom.

Again, not talking about artists, as I think neither Microsoft or Apple are fully able to replace a desktop with Cintiq for actual artists. One is missing tilt and the other is missing desktop software.

Nice to hear the pen got better with the SP4. I liked the SP3 a lot, but in the end it just didn't work out for me. For now I'm happy with a more casual device, at least until the desktop software really fine tunes their touch workflows.

I believe Wacom tablets have a kind of hover-mode for the cursor to try and overcome the sight limitation. That may be fine for artists, but it becomes tiring for your average joe sketching a little doodle.

Yeah, that's pretty much how it works. I'm not sure why that would be any less effective for the average joe vs. artists.

 

[topdrawer]

how about make the weight more balance?

the top of the current pencil is kinda heavy and i'm always fighting against it, specially when drawing while laying down. i don't like it at all. much rather use my wacom tablet.

plus the tap tap tap on the glass. ugh. and the software isn't great.

 

[dwaltwhit]

Curious to see if this is a quiet upgrade. I can't see it getting its own event.

 

[tttbagh]

ahhhhh! I just can't wait for this pencil and the Ipad Pro 2 to be release!!!

...I'm still using my ipad 2, I still haven't seen a need to upgrade until now.

...who knows! maybe this one finally convince me!