All PDA users have one thing in common. What is that you ask? Well, the answer is the need for a stylus. And if you're going to carry around a stylus why not carry around one that you can use for something other than simply writing in your PDA.

What is it?

For this review I've chosen the Yafa Quadro Pen. This great looking stylus features a ball point pen, a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil, and a neon highlighter in addition to the stylus for your PDA.

The Yafa Quadro Pen is one of the best pen/stylus that I've worked with. I especially like the way it feels in my hand. The barrel is thick enough to be comortable, but it is not so thick that it becomes difficult to hold. Due to the coating that introduced the color it also has a "rubberized texture." I was worried that the color/texture might get scratched or start to come off with use, but I have yet to see even a hint of scratching.

When I first got the Quadro Pen I wondered how reliable it would be. I expected to get the stylus tip when I wanted the highlighter, the pencil when I wanted the pen, etc. To my delight operation of the Yafa was very reliable, and easy. Each of the four tips is clearly marked at the top of the pen. To use a certain tip you simply turn the pen until the name of tip that you want is facing you and click. To retract a tip you press the button in the clip. I have gotten the correct tip just about every time. It is important that you keep the pen vertical. Tilting it to the left or right may cause you to get an undesired tip.

Now let's take a look at each of the four tips. The reason that you're going to be purchasing the Quadro Pen is for the stylus so I'll cover that first. The stylus tip is a faded yellow color. That contrasts well with the stainless look of the other tips preventing me from writing on my screen with the pencil or one of the pens. One of the first things that I noticed about the stylus tip is that it seems very sharp. I'm concerned that it will scratch my screen. It hasn't caused any scratches yet, but I still have a fear that one day I'll be in a rush and I'll push down a little to hard and my precious screen will be ruined. Having said that, I must note that I've been using this stylus for about a month, and all my PDA screens are still perfect.

Moving on to the mechanical pencil. I've never been a big fan of the mechanical pencils in multi-pens. They are just too big a hassle to deal with. The pencil in the Yafa Quadro Pen is no exception. In order to refill the lead you must unscrew the barrel, pull off the mechanical pencil tip, and then put the lead refills into the little cartridge. Keep in mind that you still need to do the first three steps in reverse before being finished. I personally only use the pencil in emergencies, and there hase been at least a few times that I was glad that the pencil was included.

Next we will discuss the highlighter. Realize that this is not your typical felt-tipped highlighter. The highlighter tip that comes with the Yafa Quadro is more like a bright neon orange, ball point pen. I really like this tip a lot and have found it to be very useful when jotting down notes. I can easily circle or put a star by the important information, and my eyes are quickly drawn to the imformation when I need to go back over the material.

Lastly is the ball point pen. This is a standard medium black ball point pen tip. You get what they promise here. I've actually started using this as my everyday pen. I do wish though that the pen came with a fine tip, but the medium works equally well and I guess there will be an equal number of you wishing for a medium tip if it came with a fine one instead.

The Last Word

As I said earlier I really like this stylus a lot. It has allowed me to carry one pen instead of three (I still carry a standard mechanical pencil), and it works remarkably well for a multi-pen. The yafa Quadro retails for $29.95 at StylusCentral.com.

At A Glance
Summary:	A 4-in-1 pen/pencil/highlighter/stylus
Pros:	Durable, and confortable to use
Cons:	Stylus tip too pointed.

Thanks to StylusCentral.com for providing the stylus used in this review.