Wacom enters the iPad stylus market (again) with the Bamboo Sketch

Don't have an iPad Pro? Wacom is trying to make yet another stylus for you.

Wacom has been making styluses for digital drawing since what sometimes feels like the dawn of time (the 1980s); the company is widely considered one of the leaders in graphics tablets and styluses, though Apple's iPad Pro and Microsoft's Surface Pro have put recent pressure on the industry giant.

But what if you don't have need for an iPad Pro or one of Wacom's high-end Mac and PC drawing tablets? Well, the company suspects it can win you over with a different sort of drawing experience: A third-party stylus for your iPhone or iPad.

This isn't Wacom's first entry into the iOS market — not by a long shot — but the Bamboo Sketch is arguably the culmination of seven years of experimentation.

The pen is a Bluetooth-connected, 1.9mm nib stylus (in the vein of the Bamboo Fineline) that requires the iPhone 6 or later to function, but it offers the nicer build quality of the Intuos Creative Stylus 2 — along with its pressure sensitivity, carrying case, and a built-in function button. Wacom also provides two different styles of nib, "soft" and "firm," so that you can slightly alter your drawing experience.

Like most of Wacom's creative stylus options, the Sketch is limited to apps that have incorporated the company's SDK, including Adobe's suite of apps, Astropad, and Sketch Club; the company also offers full support for its own Bamboo Paper application, including Wacom's Inkspace, a Google Drive-style repository for storing drawings and notes.

I'll try and get my hands on a Wacom Sketch soon to do some proper testing, but I have to admit that I'm skeptical about this newest offering: Having used all of Wacom's Bluetooth and fineline options, the company has frequently run into problems with line accuracy, especially at small sizes. We'll just have to wait and see.

What about you, iMore? Would you buy a non-Apple Bluetooth-connected stylus, or are you content to draw with your finger or a cheap rubber-nib stylus on an iPhone?

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