Like Ken, I also opened up the Trio-1 stylus. Wasn't too hard though. After all, the two parts of the stylus body was very loosely screwed together. Believe it or not, normal use of the pen is more than enough to loosen both parts and cause them to rattle. Perhaps my Trio-1 stylus is the exception. Even then, it speaks rather badly of quality control.

Anyway, I tried screwing both parts together really tightly. It worked... only for a while. Eventually, both parts started coming loose again. Sigh... :(  

Now, let's get on with the evaluation of the three tips. Here's a picture of the Trio-1's innards :-

Incidentally, I also noticed that even with the stylus body tightly screwed together, the stylus still rattles as if there's something loose inside the body. Sure enough, when I shook the stylus with the cover off, I could see the three tips with their barrels rattling about in the stylus body and making an awful noise. Here's a piece of advice for PDA Panache - put some rubber dampers inside the stylus and tighten up the grip on the barrels of the tips!  

Now, let's pull out each tip one by one...

The Stylus Tip

Pulling out the stylus tip revealed that it's nothing more than a copper cylinder with an orange-coloured plastic tip at the end. If you are expecting some more, I'm sorry but that's it. :)

BTW, PDA Panache guarantees the performance of the plastic stylus tip with a lifetime warranty. So, if the stylus tip ever splits or breaks off, just send the stylus to PDA Panache for a free tip replacement!

However, before you start oohing and ahhing over that lifetime guarantee, note that :-

1. The lifetime guarantee is only for the stylus tip. The other tips don't count.
2. Replacing the stylus tip won't bankrupt PDA Panache. They can probably replace your stylus tip a hundred times and that wouldn't even affect their profit margin. :)
3. You will have to pay for postage and packaging which could be prohibitive, especially if you live overseas.

Therefore, IMHO, this guarantee is just another marketing gimmick. If PDA Panache really wants to show how confident they are of the quality of their product, their lifetime guarantee should cover all three tips. In addition, there should be at least some form of limited warranty for the rest of the stylus (more on this later...).

The Ballpoint Tip

Now for the ballpoint tip. It lies at the end of a hollow stainless steel tube which holds the ink. As you can see, the tube is shorter and narrower than other types of ink reservoirs at slightly less than 6 cm. This means the ink reservoir of the ballpoint tip is a lot smaller than those of other pens. Therefore, you shouldn't expect a long writing time with the ballpoint tip.

In addition, the design of the tip and its reservoir is unlike anything I have seen before. So, I doubt you will find a replacement anywhere else except from PDA Panache. If you are living overseas, that's going to be a problem as it will cost you quite a bit to buy the replacement tips and have them sent to you.

Even if you live in the US or Canada, I'm sure you won't appreciate the absolute lack of choice. The only alternative is to bring another ballpoint pen along once the ink runs out.

The Mechanical Pencil Tip

Remember my criticism about the lack of instructions on the use of the stylus? Well, I'm going to repeat it. PDA Panache definitely needs to include an instruction sheet with the Trio-1! Here's why...

Ken wrote in the previous page that the only way he could reload the mechanical pencil tip was to hold the tip open and insert a lead into it. Well, that's what I did as well... until I actually pulled out the mechanical pencil tip. Here's what I saw :-

As you can see, there's a pencil lead sticking out of the mechanical pencil tip with two more in the hollow tube in the stylus body. This is how the mechanical pencil is actually loaded. You need to remove the pencil tip because the pencil lead is supposed to be placed inside the hollow tube that is revealed once the pencil tip is removed.

See why an instruction sheet would be useful?

Now, let's go back to the rest of Ken's review!