I have been trying electronic pencils for years and years: different 3rd party iPad styli (is that the correct plural?), the previous Apple pencil itself and previous solutions by Wacom. None of these worked good enough for me to get rid of my note book.
I think has changed with the latest Apple pencil that works on a 2018 iPad Pro. The updated pencil solved a few annoyances when compared to the previous one:
- It snaps to your device (but still falls of in your bag)
- When snapped, it charges, no more need to stick it in the iPad connected
- It no longer rolls
- It has a matt finish and feels nicer to work with
The biggest issue though used to be work flow, with 2 poor options:
- Log into your sleeping iPad all the time when you want to jot something though in a meeting
- Keep your notes app running all the time and thereby letting the graphics intensive app drain your iPad battery.
That has been solved by a feature buried in the settings of the Apple Notes app: a simple double tap of the pencil on the screen wakes up the Notes app. The iPad is still locked as a security precaution, you can set the time it takes for the iPad to open a new note instead of displaying the last note you were writing to anyone who taps the screen.