Our favorite iPad stylus is the simplest we tested. The Pogo Sketch Pro ($24.95), the highest-end model in Ten One Design's Pogo stylus series, is a serious, well-balanced stylus for creating artwork on your iPad (and maybe your Android tablet as well.)

Why use a stylus on your iPad? It gives you more precision when you're drawing or making handwritten notes, and it gets your finger out of the way. A stylus turns your tablet into a true sketchbook or notepad.

The Sketch Pro is a tapered aluminum stylus with a comfortable, slightly bulging rubber grip. It comes with two screw-on tips: one is squishy, the other firmer with a rough texture. The stylus also comes with a little travel bag.

Compared to last year's Editors' Choice, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus ($29.99, 4 stars), the Sketch Pro is longer at 5.5 inches, and its tapered body speaks more of drawing and painting than the more pen-like Bamboo. I liked the additional length, which gave the stylus excellent balance.

I had professional artist (and my wife) Leontine Greenberg test the Pogo Sketch Pro and she pronounced it "boring, but in the end my pick… most like a regular thing you would draw with in real life." The tip's friction made it easier to control than the Nomad Compose ($39, 3.5 stars) and oStylus ($37.50, 3 stars), and the stylus had better balance and was easier to maneuver than the Cosmonaut ($25, 3 stars).

I agree: for note-taking as well as drawing, the Pogo Sketch Pro is the best stylus we tested. There's nothing we'd improve about this. It's our Editors' Choice.

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