Today, Logitech officially announced its MX Ink stylus, the company’s first mixed reality accessory for the Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets. The MX Ink will provide artists with a more natural alternative to the Quest’s controllers for content creation that feels like using a pencil or a paintbrush.
The tracking accuracy and low-latency performance of the Meta Quest’s native controllers have helped position the headset as more than just a gaming or media consumption device, but the controllers, which can feel like holding and working with a can of spray paint, don’t always offer the best interface for content creation. For many artists, a stylus is a preferable tool over a mouse or peripherals primarily designed for gaming, which is why companies like Wacom have thrived for decades and why Logitech is bringing the stylus into the third dimension.
Looking quite a bit thicker than the styluses Logitech sells for tablet devices (it weighs in at 29 grams, compared to 20.7 grams for the second-gen Apple Pencil), the MX Ink can be used like a traditional stylus for 2D content creation in a mixed reality environment with features that include swappable pressure-sensitive tips and multiple buttons that can be reprogrammed in the Quest’s native settings app. Confirming leaks over the weekend, the stylus also features 6DoF tracking in 3D space, similar to the Quest’s native controllers, haptic feedback, and a pressure-sensitive main button allowing artists to naturally sketch or manipulate models or objects in 3D space.
Logitech promises up to seven hours of battery life, and the MX Ink can be charged using either a built-in USB-C port or the more convenient MX Inkwell Charging Dock, which allows the stylus to simply be dropped in for charging to start. However, the dock will be an optional accessory, with pricing not revealed yet.
Five years ago, Magic Leap announced a partnership with Wacom to co-develop tools, allowing the latter company’s stylus technology to be used with the mixed reality headset in hopes of justifying the expensive Magic Leap One as a must-have content creation tool.
Unfortunately, that collaboration required artists to awkwardly hold a physical drawing tablet in one hand and a stylus in the other while also wearing the Magic Leap One and wrangling that headset’s awkward cable tethers.
The completely wireless MX Ink stylus appears to offer far more freedom of movement and convenience for artists, and Logitech has already announced compatibility with many Meta Quest apps, including Adobe Substance 3D Modeler, Open Brush, Gravity Sketch, and Realize Medical.
However, according to RoadtoVR, Logitech has confirmed that its new MX Ink stylus won’t support the more powerful Meta Quest Pro, which is also not listed as being compatible on the MX Ink product page.
Although Logitech hasn’t provided an exact release date for when the $129.99 MX Ink will be available, it’s promising a “later this year” release when it will be sold through Logitech, Meta, and Amazon.
