Bamboo Ink Vs Bamboo Ink Plus

I need help choosing between these 3 Styluses with different virtues and faults.

Discussion in 'Accessories' started by 7030, Apr 19, 2020.

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7030 Pen Pal - Newbie

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Hi everybody, I've been comparing these 3 pens for a few days and I'm very confused:
HP Active Pen G3
Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus
Lenovo Pen Pro
My quest was about a rechargeable Wacom AES pen, that's why I ignored the Dell and the Lenovo Active Pen 2.

Now, here the pro and cons:
HP:
+ 2 sets of tips with different softness
+ In my case I can get it half price
+ decently low jitter
- the softer tip is not really soft and doesn't give me enough control when I draw and makes more noise when I take notes.
- it is very sensitive and it's therefore more difficult to draw a fine line, and has got slower decay (that's how I like to call the time it needs to recognise that I'm making less pressure and to draw again a fine line)

Lenovo:
+ It's very fast at recognising the different pressures back and forth
+ decently low jitter
+ Somehow more expressive. Not sure if because of point 1, but I like what I draw with it more than with the HP at least
- only one kind of tip, softer than HP's soft tip
- sometimes it stops drawing, I don't know why

Bamboo:
+ 4 different tips on a nice box, and the softest is softer than the Lenovo.
+ Triangular shape and clip
+ Quite fast at recognising different pressures (maybe slightly less fast than the Lenovo)
- ridiculously unacceptable jitter
- only one tip per kind
- buttons are a bit too flat, I prefer protruding ones so I feel them better

I'm stuck.
I like the Lenovo but I like the softer tip on the Bamboo but the jitter there is horrible.

Opinions?
ATIVQ V⅁O⅄ Senior Member

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What pen/device combination are you using that you're getting jitter? I have never seen an AES pen with jitter.
If you never intend on using AES 1.0 or MPP, get the HP at half price. If you think you'll ever use AES 1.0 or MPP, get the Bamboo Ink Plus.
7030 Pen Pal - Newbie

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Hi, thanks!
I'm using a Yoga, like you.
C940, 14", UHD.

All three pens give some jitter in diagonal lines unless I draw the line very very quick.
Also the little integrated pen which comes with the Lenovo does jitter.
If you say this is not normal, maybe the digitizer on the C940 is low quality. That would have to be blamed on Wacom I guess.

I tried the FHD before, but didn't have any other pen at that time besides the little included one, so I can't say if the FHD would be better, but theoretically an UHD should have less jitter because the pixels are smaller and I understood that, normally, the grid of the digitiser is as big as the pixels.

Anyway.
I've ordered a second Ink Plus to be sure it wasn't a defect unit.
It wasn't.
It's the most ridiculous jitter I've ever seen in my life.
It's a real shame, and I don't know if it's only Wacom to be blamed, or Lenovo too.
But I tend to believe it must be Wacom, because the other pens do not even remotely reach this level of disgrace.
What a ridiculous destiny, Wacom Pen being the worst on Wacom AES digitizer.
I send you an image of lines made with the 4 pens.

From the left: integrated little pen of the C940, Ink Plus, Hp, Lenovo.

I have made in each direction one very slow and one decently fast line. For the HP I have repeated the slow diagonal line because the first one showed much more jitter than ever before.

I used a ruler.

Btw I've read many comments about this same problem with the Bamboo Ink Plus on other forums.

I wonder if it's the pen itself or the combination of pen and notebook.

But considering that the comments were either in Surface Forums or in Lenovo forums, I guess it's the pen.

A guy comments this is not interference jitter but sinusoidal bla bla.

I don't care how it is called. The other pens don't have it. So, I'm not gonna keep the Ink.

I had pretty much decided for Lenovo because despite having only one kind of tip I like its softness. It gives me a good control without being too soft, and it makes less noise.
But the most important thing was as said that it was faster in recognizing when I am decreasing the pressure (in other words, in doing fine lines after thick lines).
But today I tested again and it wasn't as good as before, so I might need to keep testing.

Do you know of any good free (eventually at least trial, for these tests) program where I can test the pen, the precision, the pressure sensitivity, Tilt etc?
I used Whiteboard in Windows but I am not sure it is reliable.
Paint 3D doesn't support pressure sensitivity.
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ATIVQ V⅁O⅄ Senior Member

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Leftmost and rightmost are good, but WHAT IS UP with the Bamboo Ink Plus? I thought it's only that bad on MPP panels!
7030 Pen Pal - Newbie

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Well, the go HP (second last on the right, or third from the left) is normally as good as the others, I've no idea what happened yesterday.
What I do notice with HP is that from time to time it makes a straight line in a random direction. That happens generally while I put the pen closer to the display.
By that I mean, imagine a circle, like the sun. Now imagine a solar flare, an explosion, a line which goes out of the circle.
That happens with the HP, but rarely enough not to bother me.
Which free (or eventually trial) drawing software can you suggest for Windows, so that I can test better than on Windows whiteboard?
I need something which recognise the pressure sensitive...
ATIVQ V⅁O⅄ Senior Member

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Yesterday I bought a Wacom Bamboo Ink Pro, charged it for three hours, put in the blue-marked nib, and tried it on the Yoga 720 15. Severe wobble on slow diagonal lines and even on fast diagonal lines. Other than that one line that was magically straight, everything was terrible.

Compare to Wacom Bamboo Ink (non-plus)
ATIVQ V⅁O⅄ Senior Member

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Good news and bad news. Good news, the Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus sometimes switches to non-wobbly mode when using the blue-marked nib. Bad news, the nib is not as nice as the soft nib and you have to plug it and unplug it if it doesn't switch to non-wobbly mode.

And it's still not as good as the Bamboo Ink non-plus.
7030 Pen Pal - Newbie

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You're a curious person I see, wanted to test by yourself.
Well done.
Another confirmation after all other reports online.
Why don't people talk about this more?
Anyway.
I have only one day to decide which pen to keep.
The Ink is over, not interested in the hard blue nib.
But I'm still needing to do some tests for the other two.
Would you mind suggesting a program?
I've downloaded Krita. It doesn't work UHD.
Most of the programs I've tried don't work on uhd, they draw the line 10 cm away from the open, it's crazy.
Leonardo is ok but doesn't seem much better than whiteboard.
I need something reliable so I know it's the pen to blame, not the software.
ATIVQ V⅁O⅄ Senior Member

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Small update: the wobble is the least severe when using the blue nib and holding the pen orthogonal to the display. Not as good as the Ink-non-plus, but definitely a workaround for people who don't use the pen for art and only occasionally need to make a diagram or a graph. I'd say if you only use the pen for note-taking and the occasional diagram, the Ink Plus is worth it over the Ink-non-plus. Otherwise, stick to the replaceable-battery Ink-non-plus.