Tablet Pen / Stylus

A tablet pen, as the name suggests, is a pen that you use for tablets and laptops with touchscreen. One one hand, the input is given with a lot of precision, as the touching point with the screen is only the thin tip of the pen. On the other hand, you can prevent polluting the screens with fingerprints.

For the basic understanding of how a tablet pen actually works, let's first look at the two basic functional principles of a touchscreen. On one side, there's the resistive one, on the other side there's the capacitive one. The resistive touchscreen plays an important role in the industry as it responds to pressure and can be operated with gloves without any problems. On the flipside, the capacitive touchscreen has to be touched with a conductive object, i.e. with a finger or a conductive input pen. Most importantly, the capacitive technologie dominates the smartphone and tablet market.

The silver design of this Pen impresses with its simple elegance. At 16 grams, it is even lighter than a ballpoint pen in the hand. Like many other models, the Asus Stylus Pen 90XB063N-MTO020 has two heads with; erase and click function. The fine tip is perfectly suited for particularly precise strokes and lines. Two AAAA batteries are included in the delivery. Compatible devices for this Active Pen are the following notebook models: UX461, UX562, TP401, UX581.

The Stylus Pen 4X80H34887 from Lenovo with ergonomic design in the color black has two customizable keys with erase function. With a weight of 18 grams, the pen delivers a pleasant writing experience and is in no way inferior to a conventional ballpoint pen. The clip holder allows the pen to be attached to virtually any folder. In addition, a AAAA battery is included in the delivery. The pen is suitable for the models IdeaPad C340, IdeaPad Miix 720-12IKB, ThinkPad P52 and Yoga 730-15IKB.

The original Lenovo Stylus is the lightweight among the Active Pens. You can hardly feel this black digitizer from Lenovo with its 11 grams in your hand when writing. It has a clip holder, as well as two function keys for clicking and erasing. In addition, a replacement tip is included and the matching pull tool. Compatible devices are the Yoga 720-13IKB, Yoga 520-14IKB and ThinkPad Yoga 260 models.

The black Stylus Pen EYV-00002 from Microsoft delivers a writing feeling like with a real pen. This is achieved by the integrated pressure sensor. It also has two function keys on the side with the usual erase and right-click functions. The pen's weight of 20 grams is slightly higher than the other models, but that doesn't hinder handling. On the contrary - some owners take the slightly higher weight as a positive and more noble feature. One AAAA battery is included. The pen is suitable for Microsoft's Surface 3, Surface Book, Surface Pro, Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 4 models.

This HP Stylus Pen convinces with its noble aluminum design and is pleasantly light in the hand with a weight of only 16 grams. There are two integrated buttons for erasing and clicking/highlighting. A long battery life is guaranteed. Charging the pen is possible via USB-C cable. The scope of delivery includes 7x replacement tips (4 POM and 3 elastomer tips), a manual, a USB-C cable and a pull tool.

Das zeitlose schwarze Design, sowie die angenehme Handhabung machen diesen Lenovo Stylus Pen so besonders. Mit einem Gewicht von 5 Gramm ist er leichter als ein herkömmlicher Kugelschreiber. Kompatibel ist der Pen mit der Yoga Book-Serie von Lenovo. Zusammen mit dem Stift wird eine Anleitung geliefert.

No, because every manufacturer uses different input technoligies. 
You can use any capacitive touchscreen with a simple pen with conductive rubber tip. Basically, this just is a digital finger which is more comfortable and doesn't leave dirty fingerprints. Since the technologie behind this is very simplistic, such pens are relatively inexpensive.

In contrast, the so-called active input pen or active stylus must be compatible with the respective tablet. This is because maufacturers are applying highly complex technologies that enable the user to write or draw on his device like on paper. Additionally, this kind of tablet pen can modified with buttons and switches and thus can act as a substitude for the mouse. This provides functions such as erase and undo. Especially in the industry of modern graphic design, such high-precision pens with special drawing tablets are an enormous relief. 

An example of compatibility of active stylus and tablet is the VivoTab Note 8 tablet from ASUS. Due to the special EMR (Electro Magnetic Resonance) technology, there is exactly one suitable pen that can be used for this tablet. However, it is also possible that different manufacturers use the same electronics for their pens, which are only slightly different in appearance. Furthermore, this makes these stylus pens compatible with each other despite originating from various producers. One example of this would be Asus, HP and Dell, all offering the same stylus pen, with different model designations.