Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as children's toys, but they were occasionally used by professional musicians such as John Lennon,[2] Kraftwerk and David Bowie.

The Stylophone consists of a metal keyboard made of printed circuit board and is played by touching it with a stylus.

There was also a larger version called the 350S with more notes on the keyboard, various voices, a wah-wah effect that was controlled by moving the hand over a photosensor and two styluses.

Entertainer Rolf Harris served for several years as the Stylophone's advertising spokesman in the United Kingdom and appeared on many "play-along" records sold by the manufacturer.

The 2007 revival model, manufactured in China and was officially called the S1, is a digital copy that closely resembles the 1960s original but features a volume control, audio throughput and two new sounds.

It also includes sub-octave switches, and an input so it can be used as an effects unit[8] In 2019, Dubreq announced the Gen R-8, a limited edition, full-analogue, metal-cased Stylophone.

Internally, the digital sampled sounds have been replaced by an analogue oscillator based on a 555 timer IC, and the tone selector offers three octave ranges.