... I did think that £10 was a bit much, but was feeling flush so I purchased the Belkin 4 in 1 pen. The sleek silver shaft which split in two to refill was nice and shiny. The bottom portion of the pen was of a black plastic nature and the tip once again being silver did add a little style to ... Read review
Advantages: None once the initial gimmick wore off Disadvantages: Fails frequently to select the correct function
...flush so I purchased the Belkin 4 in 1 pen. The sleek silver shaft which split in two to refill was nice and shiny. The bottom portion of the pen was of a black plastic nature and the tip once again being silver did add a little style to the overall look of the pen which to be fair did look quite good.
It seemed pretty much like a normal multi-colour except for one knacky little feature. On the top of the pen on the outside there were ... ...you turn the pen until the option you want is displayed then press the button on the top as normal and the function will be activated. Not doing this will result in a random choice of the 4 functions.
I found that the red and black pen were just as you'd expect red and black. I did find it very awkward to use the mechanical pencil it seemed to have a mind of its own, plus there were only a few leads supplied.
I had already purchased some spare styli for my PDA, whilst in Maplins I noticed a pen for £9.99 which had a red and black biro a mechanical pencil and a stylus all in the one package. I did think that £10 was a bit much, but was feeling flush so I purchased the Belkin 4 in 1 pen. The sleek silver shaft which split in two to refill was nice and shiny. The bottom portion of the pen was of a black plastic nature and the tip once again being silver did add a little style to the overall look of the pen which to be fair did look quite good.
It seemed pretty much like a normal multi-colour except for one knacky little feature. On the top of the pen on the outside there were 4 symbols one for each of the functions. To operate you turn the pen until the option you want is displayed then press the button on the top as normal and the function will be activated. Not doing this will result in a random choice of the 4 functions.
I found that the red and black pen were just as you'd expect red and black. I did find it very awkward to use the mechanical pencil it seemed to have a mind of its own, plus there were only a few leads supplied.
The stylus part which was probably the main reason for the purchase was simply a plastic stick made the same size as the red and black ink refills. It worked pretty well but the fact that there was only a little of it showing whilst in use did not give me to much confidence that it was not actually damaging my screen.
After a while I also got pretty bored and fed up with having to twist and tilt the pen to select the option I wanted. Now faults have appeared with the mechanics of this function and I find it hard if not impossible to change from the current option.
All in all if I had paid £5 for this I would have been most disappointed, having paid twice as much I am well *****ed of. It was a nice idea that was too expensive and didn't really work.......................well for me at least.
In future I'll stick with the 3 pack of plastic styli which are cheaper and far less hassle.
Advantages: Works well and has a normal pen built in as well Disadvantages: A little bit hard when using the stylus
I have yet another new laptop this time a tablet the HP Pavilion tx1030ea, the cool feature of it is that I can write on it like a piece of paper. It does come with a stylus but it didn't feel right using it as it is just made of plastic and didn't have a pen feel so I looked around at buying a better quality stylus.
-----------The Pen Design-----------
The pen is called a Quadra 4in1 and although is branded by HP it is made by Belkin. It is called a 4in1 because it has four functions in it, a ball point pen to write normally, a stylus nib, a LED light and a laser pointer. The pen is marketed as being for the IPAQ series of PDA' but I didn't see why it couldn't be used on my laptop.
The pen has been designed to look like a high quality pen something along the lines of a Parker pen. It is black in colour with silver ...
