Apple's 2019 iPad Air, iPad mini support Logitech's Crayon stylus [u]

2019 iPad Air and mini models do support the Crayon, Logitech's cheaper alternative to the Apple Pencil, according to Apple. [Updated with corrected Crayon features]

A product page for the Crayon lists the stylus as working with the new iPads, as well as 2018's "budget" iPad. It's incompatible with 2018 iPad Pros, however.

The Crayon shares some features of the Pencil, such as automatic connection, palm rejection, and pressure sensitivity. Its main feature though is its price: $69.95, almost $30 less than the first-generation Pencil, and over $59 less than the second-gen model. The latter is intended for iPad Pros only.

Missing from the Crayon are pressure sensitivity and the ability to tap its side for selecting different modes.

The Crayon was originally launched a year ago as an education-only product. It took several months for sales to open up to the public.

The updated Air and mini models are largely performance upgrades, with few feature or cosmetic changes. Enhancements include a larger 10.5-inch display on the Air, A12 processors, True Tone displays, up to 256 gigabytes of storage, and first-generation Apple Pencil support.

9 Comments

anome 1545 comments · 16 Years

About 5 years ago

Kind of obvious, really. The Crayon is based around the old Pencil specs, with a couple of features removed, so if it supports the Pencil 1.0, it should support the Crayon.

What doesn't make sense is that the Pencil 1.0 and 2.0 have no cross-compatibility. Admittedly charging the Pencil 2.0 on older iPads that don't have the magnets in place could be tricky, but the fact the 1.0 doesn't work with the new iPads Pro is annoying.

StrangeDays 12962 comments · 8 Years

anome said:

Kind of obvious, really. The Crayon is based around the old Pencil specs, with a couple of features removed, so if it supports the Pencil 1.0, it should support the Crayon.
What doesn't make sense is that the Pencil 1.0 and 2.0 have no cross-compatibility. Admittedly charging the Pencil 2.0 on older iPads that don't have the magnets in place could be tricky, but the fact the 1.0 doesn't work with the new iPads Pro is annoying.

True it is annoying, but it does make sense — the technologies work differently. The advantages of new pencil is better, but it means breaking compatibility with old pencil. If we know anything about Apple, it’s that they’re not going to let legacy prevent them from improving next-gen. But in the interest of keeping the lower-tier offerings less expensive, it meant going with previous gen rather than next-gen.

Same with Touch ID vs Face ID.

I imagine it will trickle down across the line over time, like all things.

StrangeDays said:

anome said:

Kind of obvious, really. The Crayon is based around the old Pencil specs, with a couple of features removed, so if it supports the Pencil 1.0, it should support the Crayon.
What doesn't make sense is that the Pencil 1.0 and 2.0 have no cross-compatibility. Admittedly charging the Pencil 2.0 on older iPads that don't have the magnets in place could be tricky, but the fact the 1.0 doesn't work with the new iPads Pro is annoying.

True it is annoying, but it does make sense — the technologies work differently. The advantages of new pencil is better, but it means breaking compatibility with old pencil. If we know anything about Apple, it’s that they’re not going to let legacy prevent them from improving next-gen. But in the interest of keeping the lower-tier offerings less expensive, it meant going with previous gen rather than next-gen.

Same with Touch ID vs Face ID.

I imagine it will trickle down across the line over time, like all things.

It's certainly very Apple. I don't use the Pencil myself, but friends of mine who are somewhat more artistic than I am do, and the need to buy a new one to use with a new iPad Pro is an annoyance.
Just that, an annoyance. It's not going to make them rage quit and buy something else. Just gripe about it a bit on social media. Not like the other friend who did rage quit and buy a Samsung Galaxy phone over the camera bump. I hadn't seen anyone so passionate about it in person before, it was quite confronting.

Spamlord 1 comment · 5 Years

Uh... AFAIK, the crayon does NOT have pressure sensitivity, but it CAN detect tilt

k2kw 2079 comments · 11 Years

StrangeDays said:

anome said:

Kind of obvious, really. The Crayon is based around the old Pencil specs, with a couple of features removed, so if it supports the Pencil 1.0, it should support the Crayon.
What doesn't make sense is that the Pencil 1.0 and 2.0 have no cross-compatibility. Admittedly charging the Pencil 2.0 on older iPads that don't have the magnets in place could be tricky, but the fact the 1.0 doesn't work with the new iPads Pro is annoying.

True it is annoying, but it does make sense — the technologies work differently. The advantages of new pencil is better, but it means breaking compatibility with old pencil. If we know anything about Apple, it’s that they’re not going to let legacy prevent them from improving next-gen. But in the interest of keeping the lower-tier offerings less expensive, it meant going with previous gen rather than next-gen.

Same with Touch ID vs Face ID.

I imagine it will trickle down across the line over time, like all things.

iPads are great tools but adding in the cost of a new pencil just causes me to wait on any upgrade. Why can’t the new Pros work with the old pencil. 2 years is hardly legacy.