My weakness for pens turned into a weakness for styluses way back in the Palm Pilot days. In a drawer somewhere, I still have a Ziploc bag full of old styluses that I’ll probably never use again, but can’t bring myself to throw away. That’s why I have been happy to see that the stylus has had a resurgence in popularity in the past several years. I’m always happy to find one that tries to stand out in a sea of sameness. Today I want to show you the Nomad Brush Mini 2 stylus which offers a normal rubber style tip and a paintbrush style tip in one handy package.
Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.
At 5 inches long, the Mini 2 is compact but has a nice heft to it due to the metal shaft. The shape of the stylus looks a little goofy and reminds me of a bowling pen. That said, it feels comfortable and balanced in my hand.
One end of the stylus has an exposed rubber tip that can be easily unscrewed and replaced if needed.
The rubber tip is not as wide as some styluses we’ve featured here on The Gadgeteer. In the image above you can see the Nomad Brush Mini 2 next to an inexpensive Targus stylus.
Flip the Mini 2 around to the other end and you might think it hides a ballpoint pen.
But a simple twist of the barrel will extend a capacitive paintbrush tip. This is a nifty design that keeps the brush tip protected when it’s not being used.
Here we see the Nomad Brush Mini 2 along with a Nomad Brush FLeX and a Sensu Artist Brush stylus. You can see from this image that the Mini 2’s brush tip is more narrow than the others. I like narrow stylus tips because it makes it a lot easier to see what you’re drawing, writing, painting if the tip is smaller.
I tested the Nomad Brush Mini 2 with an iPad mini (1st gen) and a Nexus 7 (2013) tablet and several drawing applications like Sketchbook Pro on both devices. Both tips of the Mini 2 stylus worked fine on both the iPad mini and the Nexus 7. I would prefer a stiffer paintbrush tip like the one on the Sensu Artist Brush, but the brush tip on the Mini 2 works well enough. The best feature of the Mini 2 is the retractable paintbrush tip and the fact that it offers both tips in one stylus. If you like to draw and paint on your tablet and want to minimize the items you carry from 2 styluses down to 1, the Nomad Brush Mini 2 will do that for you quite nicely.
Product Information
| Price: | $35.00 |
| Manufacturer: | Nomad Brush |
| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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What applications can i use this pen.
@Gloria This stylus works with any application. It is not a pressure sensitive stylus that requires pairing to the tablet.
Do you know where I can get a supply of the screw-in rubber tips? You say they that they are replaceable, so does the manufacturer’s product description. Nowhere can I find a supplier prepared to sell me some. E–mails to the manufacturer go unanswered, and requests to Amazon got the reply ”Your question on Amazon.com did not reiceive any answers”. It looks suspiciously like violation of the principle of ‘Truth in Advertising’. I bought the product on the solemn assurance of the retailer that I could replace the rubber tip. To this I now say “What with?”.
@Timothy I’ll email them right now and see if they’ll respond to me.
Any response from Nomad Brush about spare rubber tips for my Nomad Mini 2?
If they don’t respond, they are ignoring the claims in their own advertisements. “Truth in advertising” my foot!
Regards Timothy Line
@Timothy they have not responded back to my email. Disappointing…