Stylus Review - ZSpeed ID766

An Apple Pencil compatible stylus for Hand Righter or other drawing apps - for cheap!

What can we say about the Apple Pencil that we didn’t already say in our Hand Righter post?

We understand that the Apple Pencil is expensive. It is also in our opinion the single best stylus on the market, and the first stylus to allow us as therapists to offer handwriting app solutions to the market. Yes, it’s that good!

It’s a great stylus, and perfect for our handwriting apps. It is however, very expensive, and given our field - handing a £100+ stylus to a child could be a bad move. Whilst most children find our apps fun and relaxing, we could easily see that Apple Pencil take some hard knocks.

Enter the ZSpeed ID766

It looks almost like an Apple Pencil, it behaves almost like an Apple Pencil. It costs (at the time of writing) just £13.56 on Amazon. It’s even the same size, the same shape and has the same flat edge as the Apple Pencil.

How is it different to the Apple Pencil?

There are a few differences.

• A USB-C port on the side of the stylus for charging. The port itself is filled with a rubber plug which we mistakenly thought was the power button until we opened the instructions. We didn’t use this though, as the stylus also charges magnetically through the side of the iPad.

• There is a ring light on the top of the stylus, around the (real) power button. It’s good for telling if the stylus is turned on or off because..

• The stylus falls asleep when not used for few minutes, so you have to make sure there is a light on. It also doesn’t wake when pressed against the screen, so the power button will be in use quite a bit.

• The pencil nib is a harder plastic than the Apple Pencil, so makes a bit more of a tap-tap sound when in use.

• It’s a harder, shinier plastic material. Probably more slippy in sweaty hands although this is just an observation.

• There’s maybe not as much inflection in pen direction when changing direction quickly - but it’s only slight, and you’ll only really notice this in dedicated art apps - usage in Hand Righter is 99% the same as an official Apple Pencil.

What’s in the box?

Very little to be honest, but that’s a good thing!

• The Stylus

• 3 replacement pen tips

• A USB-C charging cable (which we never opened)

• A small multi-language instruction leaflet. (Spolier alert: Turn the pen on, open Bluetooth on the iPad and select the pen)

So is it worth the asking price?

Definitely. We’d happily pay more.

At its current price, you could buy 5 of these styluses and still save a lot of money over a single Apple Pencil. If you are using Hand Righter in a professional capacity and see a lot of children, this allows you to easily carry a backup stylus in case of an accident or possibly a temper tantrum!

You can find the ZSpeed ID766 on Amazon here. Note this is not an affiliate link and we are in no way affiliated with either Amazon or ZSpeed.

Happy drawing!