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I was very interested in buying this device. It support Linux and comes pre-installed with a desktop-environment of my choice (cinnamon, xfce...). However, I couldn't figure out if it has stylus support or not. According to this youtube video, it does not. According to an answer on quora,

"A capacitive touch stylus [that] will work on any phone or tablet."

Whom can I trust?

Eldinur the Kolibri
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    Any capacitive touch screen can use a cheap and nasty "stylus" that basically mimics a finger but they will have very questionable accuracy. You can basically poke at them like you would your finger and if what you can achieve with your finger is good enough then that's what you'll get. If you are doing writing what you want is a device that claims to have a proper dedicated digitiser and stylus as they are as accurate as a real pen. If the manufacturer doesn't list a pen on their product page then assume you have a glorified finger-as-a-pen interface which may not be good for proper writing. – Mokubai Aug 22 '23 at 11:22
  • @Mokubai Sure, I'm still contemplating if it's a good choice for me (but I didn't find many convincing tablets that have proper linux support). Your comment helps me trying to figure it out. Thanks. :) – Eldinur the Kolibri Aug 22 '23 at 11:29
  • If you truly want a note taking device then personally I'd recommend something like the [Remarkable 2](https://remarkable.com/) or [Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus](https://onyxboox.com/boox_noteair2plus). These are more limited Android based devices, but they do have dedicated pen support and are intended for notetaking. If you must have a PC style device then the Microsoft Surface Pro line also has proper pen support but Linux support is slightly patchy but might work for you: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup – Mokubai Aug 22 '23 at 11:32
  • @Mokubai Thanks for the suggestions. That's not quite what I am looking for. As it seems, the note-taking devices you suggested can't be used as pdf-viewers, which would be vital for anything I'm interested in. Furthermore, I resist buying devices from Microsoft/Apple that have proprietary software all over the place. I'll see what I'm going to do. Thanks anyhow. :) EDIT: The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus does indeed have capabilities that might resemble my needs.. I'll look into it. – Eldinur the Kolibri Aug 22 '23 at 11:37
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    To be honest if PDFs are your main thing then even the Kindle Scribe is a good device. You have to send the PDF through their online service to "enable" writing on it, but after that you can literally write on it as if it were a paper book. I would assume the Remarkable and Boox devices are at least vaguely similar. I get what you're saying about proprietary devices though. – Mokubai Aug 22 '23 at 12:18
  • @Mokubai I'll probably buy a samsung tablet or something similar that runs android. I'm pretty upset that the market for pure linux devices is so sparse. I would have loved to buy the device I linked, but the delivery time is also incredibly long. Could also consider buying a thinkpad tablet. In regards to e-book readers I'm still sceptical. They don't offer capabilities one would need in college (downloading files from the web, doing backups, editing them, navigating in a filesystem). Although they are good devices, they probably don't fit my use-case. – Eldinur the Kolibri Aug 22 '23 at 12:53

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Yes and no, depending on what kind of stylus you mean.

All capacitive touch-screens (the usual kind on phones) will "support" a stylus that emulates the capacitance of a human finger, with no additional components needed. It's not very precise, however – although better than a finger, but I'm not sure if it would be suitable for drawing.

What the video talks about is a different kind of stylus – one that does require a special screen with a digitizer that's just for the stylus (not necessarily a touch screen, although it can be both). For example, many Wacom drawing tablets are not touch-sensitive at all (for that matter, many of them are not even displays) – though, their page says that their newer devices use a kind of capacitive sensing that works with both pens and fingers, but apparently still more advanced than that of regular touchscreens.

u1686_grawity
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  • I'm just interested in note-taking and therefore I'm not looking to draw anything at all (so the pen does not have to meet incredible precision requirements. Would you assume that the quality is worse than on an I-pad for example? Emulating a human-like touch is not the precision I want. Just taking regular notes with an app like xournal++ for example is what I'm really opting for. I wonder if I could get to a level that resembles that of an I-Pad stylus for example. Would you consider it possible? – Eldinur the Kolibri Aug 22 '23 at 11:12
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    Without having any direct experience, I would guess that it is _possible_ if the note-taking app (xournal++) applies a little bit of adjustment to the input. People do the same on their phones, most of which don't have any special stylus support either, but it's accurate enough _and_ the software will apply some smoothing to the handwritten lines anyway (which you wouldn't want for art, but it's fine for handwriting) – in some cases it works well enough to write with an actual finger. So I'd suggest buy a stylus for your smartphone and test the experience first, since it's the same kind. – u1686_grawity Aug 22 '23 at 11:16
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    @EldinurtheKolibri - " I-Pad stylus" are not capacitive . So if your looking for that type of stylus you will be disappointed. – Ramhound Aug 22 '23 at 11:26
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There's essentially 2 kinds of touchscreens - most phones and tablets have capacitive touch screens and essentially, a 'capacitive touch stylus' has a conductive tip that your screen can pick up. Some capacitive screens also support 'active' styluses that do a better job at pressure sensitivity.

The other type is resistive, which will work on any sort of pressure and is generally inferior to capacitive touch screens. No one uses them these days and any pokey thing that won't damage the surface of the screen will work

If you want a stylus for art, the setup your device has probably isn't the best, you want an active stylus. If you want it to tap at things and do things like circle things on an image, its likely good enough.

Journeyman Geek
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    There's a third type in the _other_ direction – not resistive, but electromagnetic or [whatever Wacom uses](https://www.wacom.com/en-us/about-wacom/technologies) (they have probably 3 different technologies by now). Wacom tablets are definitely not resistive touchscreens, but they're not capacitive either. (And not necessarily _touch_ screens... and not necessarily screens.) – u1686_grawity Aug 22 '23 at 10:50
  • Huh, I'd guess these might be used in *addition* to a capacitive screen unless they completely reject touch, which might make sense for an artist's tablet :D – Journeyman Geek Aug 22 '23 at 10:53
  • My main objective was note-taking with xournal++. Do you think that would be working? What kind of stylus would be fitting that I could buy if any? – Eldinur the Kolibri Aug 22 '23 at 10:53
  • THe styluses are generic and fairly cheap so I'd recommend experimenting . I THINK its possible to write with one on a decent enough screen, though generally my touchscreen penmanship, even with a 'good' active stylus is worse than mine with paper – Journeyman Geek Aug 22 '23 at 10:56
  • My main concern was that the starlite tablet in particular does not work so well with styluses. Would you agree or do you think the tablet is probably capable of having fairly accurate precision so taking notes would be no problem? – Eldinur the Kolibri Aug 22 '23 at 11:02
  • @JourneymanGeek: I'm not sure about what technology modern tablets (iPad etc.) use – Wacom's website implies it's capacitive with some extra smarts – but I have an old Windows XP-era convertible laptop (remember XP Tablet Edition?) which also has a Wacom digitizer built into its LCD panel, but is not touch-sensitive (and the stylus it came with does not activate capacitive touch-screens either) _nor_ pressure-based (it even reacts to the pen just hovering). I also had a fairly new USB-connected Wacom Intuos tablet that's not a screen at all (and not touch-sensitive either; it requires a pen). – u1686_grawity Aug 22 '23 at 11:03
  • @EldinurtheKolibri can't really comment on that without having used one – Journeyman Geek Aug 22 '23 at 19:40