Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ever since I got my iPad and began to purchase painting and drawing apps, I have searched for a stylus that would do justice to the truly realistic apps like ArtRage. I have purchased styluses from just about every maker in the world, some, like the Bamboo stylus (I own 2) were well worth the price and excellent products. Others, like the Ten One design's Pogo Sketch Pro (2) were the objects of my finest hopes and gave me my deepest disappointments. Finally, the Griffins and the Boxwaves and the elagos (and the truly bizarre elago ball) were just functional, barely and, though some, like the elago ball, seemed designed to address the shortcomings apparent in the the other styluses (styli?), but always fell short of the mark. My most bitter disappointment was the PenGo BrushPen. When I heard rumors of its development I was excited by the idea: there was no law that said that a capacitive stylus had to be a little rubber nub. And the PenGo brush seemed to have all that was needed to replicate the action of a brush on canvas. The reality was that the bristles on the brush in the PenGo didn't feel like a brush so much as a mushy rubber nib and the bristles continually separated from the rest of the brush because the were pushed back by the action of putting the cap on the pen. And so it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I plunked my forty bucks down for the Princeton Art & Brush Sensu Capacitive Artist Brush. From the look of it there was great promise. The brush is in two parts. One an empty metal cover that hides e brush tip and serves as the body of the traditional nib ended metal tube that makes up most of the styli in the world. The beauty of the pen comes when this metal shell is removed, turned and placed over the metal nib, elongating a 4 inch stylus to one of about 7 inches. At the end of this reconfigured tool is the Holy Grail, the end of my quest, the culmination of my years long search: a capacitive brush that delivers a real life paint brush feel. The Sensu brush stylus is the best, bar none, the best artistic stylus I have ever had in my hands. The brush looks like any normal tapered end paint brush and feels much the same as well, but it is firmer and holds together in a way that a brush never would. Using it is a dream come true. ArtRage is an app that gives an incredible degree of control over the action of the tools and the Sensu brush takes advantage of the all of them, providing a rich and tactilely gratifying experience and an unprecedented degree of artistic control. Clearly lots of great digital art has been created using the traditional nib stylus. Indeed, the smooth, graceful feel of the Bamboo stylus the best there is (or was - see below) for creating art on a capacitive screen. But the Sensu stylus is a game changer. By my lights, for it provides the best of both worlds a nib with the smooth hitch free flow of the Bamboo stylus and the addition of this brush doubles the potential of the tool. Of course there are things to be wished for. This is supposed to be a mobile tool and the lack of a cover for the nib makes me worry about it becoming fowled with dust and grit is a pocket or bag, plus the sleek design of the tool makes it a good candidate for slipping out of a pocket or bag, so a clip of some sort and a cover for the nib, though they would gum up the sex appeal of the tool, are high on the wish list in updates. Also,neither the nib or the brush give the impression of being replaceable and, 40 bucks a pop, the prospect of simply discarding the used tools may make me less likely to use the tool as much as I would like, so, again, on the update I would like to seem replacement parts a way to use them. Of course I do not know how long the brush will last. I have already purchased a second one. I will post an update if there is news there. But at the end of the day, if you, like me, have yearned for a more authentic experience in sophisticated paint and draw apps this is your tool