I tested 5 cheap Apple Pencil alternatives for my iPad Pro – and I'll never buy a ‘proper’ one again

You don't need to spend big money on an iPad stylus

Features By Tom Bedford published 26 October 2024

Following a year and a half of use, my Apple Pencil had to be retired – the tip cracked off while the stylus was snug in my backpack during a flight. Thank you, #thoughtsandprayers, but life goes on.

I had been using my Apple Pencil constantly with my iPad Pro for annotating PDFs, drawing plans, scribbling notes, and doodling pictures; so there was no question over the fact that I needed a replacement… until I remembered its eye-watering price. The Apple Pencil I had was the 2nd-gen model , which retails for $129 / £129 / AU$219 – and in all honesty, the thought of spending six weeks’ grocery budget on a slab of plastic wasn’t all that appealing.

So I needed to find an alternative that wouldn't need the same outlay. Increasingly, I’m reluctant to buy bargain-bin products on Amazon – of those who I've encountered, not many have positive stories about the products they've picked up. Even I have bought cheap headphones, fitness trackers, clothing and much more from the site, and not much of it remains today.

Nevertheless, believing that there must be one or two worthy Apple Pencil replacements online, I did some research – only to find hundreds of options on Amazon but very little trustworthy literature on which were worth buying.

In lieu of coverage, then, I decided to create my own – I bought five different models of low-cost Apple Pencil alternatives off Amazon, to test them and see if any were worthy of keeping. The options I chose were the first five listed, with many on Prime Day special offer. I made sure a few of them were available internationally, too.

As you can imagine having read about my previous experience with Amazon bargains, expectations were low. What actually happened, though, surprised me. Read on to discover how I got on with each option.

Yunju Stylus Pen 10-pack

I’m going to start with the Yunju Stylus Pen, the joint-cheapest Apple Pencil alternative in this company. These pens are different from most of the others in offering a pared back feature set – there's no Bluetooth, no buttons nor charging ports or LEDs.

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