– Introduction –
With every Nintendo DS shipped out, inside the box are also 2 simple plastic styluses. Although these styluses are fairly well made, there are dozens of third party styluses in the market, from metal ones with a heavier feel to it or plastic ones with a novelty toy stuck on the top.
Looks similar to the original stylus, but completely redesigned.
The Dragon Retractable Touch Pen is one of these styluses, it features a metal shaft and a way to extend the stylus by about 2 centimeters. The Dragon Retractable Touch Pen comes in a 4 pack for about $5, with 1 stylus of each color; white, pink, light blue and black. And it is one of the most popular styluses around.
Why can’t they come in a four pack of the same color. When am I ever going to use the pink one?
– Build Quality –
Probably the single most important feature of a stylus is the build quality. At the price of 4 for $5, I did not expect much quality, seeing as how competitors are easily able to double this price with half the number of styluses. I opened the pack of styluses, completely surprised at the level of quality these styluses are displaying.
This stylus has a colored tip and end that matches your DS Lite’s color as well as a metal shaft. When inserted into the DS Lite, only the colored tip shows, however the notches on the stylus makes it clear to people that this is a third party stylus. The notches make it quite easy for you fingers to grip onto the touch pen and remove it from the slot. The colored tip is quite sturdy and slides easily on the touch screen. Out of the 4 I have tried, I have not had a single one with a jagged tip like other styluses.
They are of amazing build quality!
The metal shaft of this stylus is quite sturdy and makes the stylus a little heavier than the retail one, but barely noticeable. 5.5cm from the tip, there is a line. The stylus extends when you pull both sides. This extends the stylus from about 8.5cm to 10.5cm. Although 2cm doesn’t sound like much, it is quite nice to have. Although some extendable styluses have weak joints that break over time, or can easily pop out, but the Dragon Retractable Touch Pen is very solid and does not feel like it will ever break.
It gets about 2cm longer than the original stylus.
– Usefulness –
The Dragon Retractable Touch Pen has a metal shaft that adds weight to the stylus. Barely noticeable, but I have noticed that when playing games with the normal stylus, sometimes you have to press harder, with some slight weight it is easier.
Probably the more important part of this stylus is the extendable portion, adding a whole 2cm to the stylus. It isn’t much but it makes a huge difference. Adding this length allows for a lot more comfort, and for some, some more accuracy in using the touch screen. I thoroughly enjoyed using these styluses, and every time I would extend the stylus. I can’t imagine losing those 2cm.
These styluses are amazing! Well worth the $5.
– Ease of Use –
There isn’t much to say for this section, the stylus is a stick that you poke your touch screen with. You can extend it by pulling both sides of the stylus. It is as easy as it gets, and if you can’t figure out how this works, then you probably don’t want to buy this, or anything.
– Functionality –
The Dragon Retractable Touch Pen is a great stylus, once again this section doesn’t have too much to talk about. It functions like a regular Nintendo Stylus. It fits in the DS Lite slot, it is colored exactly the same way as the regular Nintendo Styluses. It has a metallic form in the center, which extends. The functions of this are to use the touch screen without using your fingers.
The stylus fits flush inside the Nintendo DS Lite.
– Conclusion –
The Dragon Retractable Touch Pen is a very popular stylus and for a good reason. It is cheap and does what it is supposed to do. The stylus feels solid, and it works just perfectly.
I’d highly recommend this to anyone. At first it may not seem like much of a change, but after using it for a few days, you will never go back to the original stylus that was issued with your Nintendo DS Lite.
This will be the only stylus going into my DS Lite for a while.
– Score –
Build Quality – 5/5
Usefulness – 3.5/5
Ease of Use – 5/5
Functionality – 5/5
Tilt – 4.5/5
Overall – 23/25