Opinions on Drawing Tablets?

KaitouX · April 17, 2021

I'm trying to decide between getting a cheap pen tablet with a decent size or a cheap display tablet, the options at the moment would be the following:

Pen tablet:

XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 - € 60

Huion HS610 - € 60

Display tablet:

Huion Kamvas 12 / 13 - € 230 / 260

XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro / 13.3 - € 210 / 250(on sale currently)

For me the biggest advantage of the ones with display would be the possibility of using them as portable monitors, as I don't draw that often and having the tablet just sitting there might not be the best option, but at that type of extra cost it's kinda hard to be that sure if that's worth it. Does anyone have any opinions on the tablets listed or the pen tablets vs display tablets in general? And how would I go regarding extensions for the cables, any good Type-C cable extension works?

The Kamvas 12 is a new model but the Artist 12 Pro was released almost 2 years ago at this point, is there any information if XP-Pen will be releasing new models? Are new models(also for pen tablets) worth waiting for or the differences would be pretty small?

From looking around the internet XP-Pen seems to have a better overall opinions, with apparently better QC and support than Huion, but the hardware itself seems like Huion might be better, any experiences on this?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any replies in advance.

minibois · April 19, 2021

On 4/18/2021 at 12:34 AM, KaitouX said:

Does anyone have any opinions on the tablets listed or the pen tablets vs display tablets in general?

While I don't have experience with these specific devices, nor those brands in particular, I do have experience with Wacom's tablet and display devices.

I've been working with a pen tablet for years now and it has worked well for me, but it does take some getting used to. If you're using to drawing/writing with pen on paper, this pen tablet now forces you to draw on your desk, but look at your monitor.

Again, I personally got used to that after a month or two, but I have spoken with other who did adapt at all.

I only have experience with Wacom though and not the alternative brands, like Huion, XP-Pen, Artisul, etc.

In the past, there have been some controversies with these brands pressuring reviewers into making reviews more positive than they were originally, so be mindful with the reviews your read.

My go to with reviews, is Brad Colbrow.

Tablets: https://www.brad.site/reviews/pen-tablets.html

Pen Displays: https://www.brad.site/reviews/wacom-cintiq-alternatives.html

He seems to review this devices from a honest standpoint. I have not watched his reviews in a bit, but as far as I remember, he often goes out of his way to say he did not receive a product from the manufacturer, to ensure the audience knows he's talking from an objective point of view.

KaitouX · April 19, 2021

27 minutes ago, minibois said:

While I don't have experience with these specific devices, nor those brands in particular, I do have experience with Wacom's tablet and display devices.

I've been working with a pen tablet for years now and it has worked well for me, but it does take some getting used to. If you're using to drawing/writing with pen on paper, this pen tablet now forces you to draw on your desk, but look at your monitor.

Again, I personally got used to that after a month or two, but I have spoken with other who did adapt at all.

I only have experience with Wacom though and not the alternative brands, like Huion, XP-Pen, Artisul, etc.

In the past, there have been some controversies with these brands pressuring reviewers into making reviews more positive than they were originally, so be mindful with the reviews your read.

My go to with reviews, is Brad Colbrow.

Tablets: https://www.brad.site/reviews/pen-tablets.html

Pen Displays: https://www.brad.site/reviews/wacom-cintiq-alternatives.html

He seems to review this devices from a honest standpoint. I have not watched his reviews in a bit, but as far as I remember, he often goes out of his way to say he did not receive a product from the manufacturer, to ensure the audience knows he's talking from an objective point of view.

I don't think I would have that many issues with pen tablets, as I did use one for some time in the past, a Aiptek 14000u that I got for cheap almost 10 years ago, I did make lots mistakes due to the "disconnection" between the movement and drawing when using it, but that might be mitigated a bit by lower latency and better tracking.

The reviews issue is pretty much all over the tech industry, so I'm kinda used to it, I usually check reviews and keep the negative points of each to consider chronic/common issues, like for example in this case: Driver issues, QC issues, pen nibs not working properly/damaging the protector, slightly worse tracking than Wacom ones, less sensible pressure, worse tilt and other smaller issues. As long it works well for the most part, I'm willing to workaround smaller issues.

I saw someone recommending to check Twitch to find people using the tablets I'm looking at and asking if they have/had issues with them, which I might do later, as it would be helpful to get input from people that use it often.

Will check that, thanks for the links and your input.