Logitech Crayon makes me wish I was back in school

Hands on with the Back-to-School-ready iPad stylus and kid-proof case

One could image Apple Pencil being one of Jony Ive’s favorite creations. Few Apple products do a better job of hiding their true nature. It looks like an inert stylus, a gleaming, white plastic rod. It’s like a wooden pencil’s rich cousin.

But that fidelity to an actual pencil is also what limits the Apple Pencil. There are no tiny lights to indicate its status and no way to know, without the iPad’s help, if it’s fully charged, nearly depleted or dead.

To charge it, you have to slip off and not lose the nub end, revealing a lighting plug. Unlike the iPhone or iPad, the Pencil can’t charge on its own and needs the assistance of a tiny dongle, which you also don’t want to lose. I have, on occasion, plugged the Pencil directly into the iPad’s lighting port for a quick charge or pairing, but it looks ridiculous sticking out of the side of the tablet that way. It’s a shockingly inelegant solution from the House Apple.

In use, though, there are few implements more elegant. The Apple Pencil’s perfectly round, hard-plastic body is comfortable to hold. With its built-in palm-rejection, tilt recognition, and pressure sensitivity, it’s a pleasure to use, until you put it down on…