If you use your smartphone for business and you’re looking to upgrade, then you should take some time to consider your options so that you can ensure you get the most productivity and power out of your new device. With that in mind you might be looking at things like screen size, RAM, processing power and more in order to ascertain which gadget will give you the most bang for your buck.
But there are other factors to consider here too – such as the various different features that specific devices offer as differentiators over their competition. Take the Note series of phones and tablets for instance and their styluses – are these a useful accessory or are they just a gimmick?

The Different Types of Stylus

First of all, it’s important to understand the difference between the stylus on the Note 4 and a capacitive stylus. A capacitive stylus is basically a piece of foam that can mimic the effect of a finger, thus allowing you to interact with your phone as you would with your hand, but using an item shaped like a pen. Unfortunately though, it is no more accurate than using a finger and has no other features.
With the Note 4 however, you get a digitizer pen. This means that the screen has a thin mesh underneath it that allows you to use the Note 4 pen in a far more accurate and varied way. For instance with the Note 4 you write precisely and it will look like your handwriting and you can also benefit from other features – such as the ability to use a hover pointer (useful for dropdown menus) and to select text from websites more easily.

The Benefits of a Digitizer

So is it worth getting such a stylus for your smartphone if you intend to use it for business purposes? Well, if you’re interested in writing on the screen and taking hand written notes, then the answer is definitely yes as they likely won’t be highly legible with a capacitive stylus. Other than that, they may be useful for artists – but the features like being able to select text are only a nice bonus and not worth a large extra expense.

Ultimately then you need to ask yourself:

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• do you use Evernote or other note taking software often?
• Will it be helpful to take down notes and draw diagrams with the pen?
• If so, you should consider a Note 4 or another device with a real stylus.