The XP-Pen Star G640 Sketch is XP-Pen’s newest screen-less tablet made to compete directly with Wacom’s low-end Intuos series tablets (aka Intuos Draw/Art/Photo/Comic). It is extremely minimalistic and makes you feel certain that you are not paying for anything aside from the features you asked for.
The XP-Pen G640 caught my eye because it offers basically the exact same capabilities as a Wacom Intuos for only 40 USD. (It’s 30 USD on Amazon.com, but I bought it for 40 USD off the XP-Pen Store.)
What this means is that if it’s as good as its specifications show, it will be the lowest priced tablet with a battery-free pen and an acceptable drawing area size. It will be the perfect “go-to” tablet for any beginner who just wants to give digital art a test run but doesn’t want to pay Wacom’s 80 USD entry price, or even experienced users who want to replace their Wacom Intuos!
I will also be giving a quick overview of the XP-Pen Store and my thoughts on it at the end of the review.
Anyways, onto the review!
Please note!
-I am not a Mac or Linux user!! I only tested this tablet on Windows 8 and Windows 10.
-Prices may have changed since I wrote this review.
-Check when a review was written. Some aspects may improve or change over time, so it is in your best interest to concentrate on reviews which are less than 1 year old.
Table of Contents
- How good is this tablet?
- Important specifications
- What’s in the box?
- Tablet drivers
- The drawing experience!
- Conclusion
- Ordering from the XP-Pen Store
- Places to buy the tablet
How good is this tablet?
Design and build quality: Pretty good.
Tablet drivers: Quite good!
Drawing experience: Quite satisfactory!
Overall: A really good buy for 40 USD!
My verdict:
-If you are considering this as your first tablet, I can certainly recommend it to you over a beginner Wacom Intuos. The XP-Pen G640 is an extremely solid buy which offers a drawing experience almost on par with the Wacom Intuos.
However! If you can spare a bit more money for your first tablet, then I would still recommend going with a tablet that has a larger drawing area. My opinion is that this tablet is best considered when you aren’t sure whether you will continue digital art or not, and you don’t want to make a bigger investment when it may end up going to waste.
-If you are experienced with tablets, you probably only want to buy the XP-Pen G640 if it is the size you are used to.
Important specifications
Price: 29.99 USD (when this review was written) Amazon.com (40 USD on XP-Pen Store)
Active Area: 6 x 4 inches
Pen Type: Battery-free
Pen Buttons: 2 side buttons, no eraser
Pen Pressure: 8192
Pen Tilt Sensitivity: None
Expresskeys: None
Multi-touch: None
What’s in the box?
The box has a picture of the tablet and a nice drawing on it.
The things that come in the box:
- Tablet
- Pen
- Tablet cable (USB type-A to Micro-USB)
- Pen nib replacements x20
- User manual
- “Thank you” card
The tablet is literally just a drawing surface with nothing else to it. The top section of the tablet is thicker than the drawing area, but I assume this is necessary to fit the electronics inside.
The surface of the tablet has a fairly rough texture which grip your pen nib a fair bit. Because it’s very rough, your pen nib can wear quite quickly if you leave the pen pressure at the default setting. If you change the pen pressure settings, then the nib wear will decrease drastically. I will cover that in the Tablet Drivers section.
Although the surface of the tablet is quite rough, it is made of a very tough plastic so it does not scratch easily at all. There are no worn out areas even after spending two whole days drawing on it, and I was even being quite heavy-handed with my pen pressure.
The texture of the surface is quite close to the paper-like feeling of the Wacom Intuos, but it is not quite the same as it has a slightly more plastic-y feel to it. However, it does not feel bad to draw on at all.
The back of the tablet has four rubber feet and the usual information sticker. The rubber feet do a good enough job of holding the tablet in place.
The edges aren’t rounded like other tablets, but the tablet is so flat with its advertised 2mm thickness that you can actually use it comfortably even with your hand half off of the tablet!
The edges don’t look like the cleanest edges you can find, but they don’t affect your drawing experience at all.
When you hear about the 2mm thickness of the tablet, you’ll most likely wonder “won’t it break easily if it’s that thin?”
But not to worry! The tablet is actually extremely sturdy, and when doing a twist test (where you hold both sides and twist), it actually feels even tougher and more solid than the Wacom Intuos Draw, which is quite a big surprise considering how much thicker the Wacom is in comparison.
This tablet is extremely minimalistic and does not have any shortcut buttons. This is a good sign because it means you’re not paying extra for some shortcut buttons you’re most likely not going to use.
The cable port is at the top right of the tablet. There is no special groove around the cable port unlike with the Wacom Intuos, so you can use any Micro-USB cable you have if you lose the included one, but I suggest at least using a good one if you’re going to do that.
One thing I noticed is that the port itself can wiggle a bit. If you treat the tablet badly, it’s quite possible that the port will break before the cable itself.
The pen is called the XP-Pen PN01 and is made of a simple matte plastic with a bulge near the end to catch your fingers. It is a fairly light battery-free pen but it feels quite durable and dependable.
Holding the pen is very comfortable despite the pen being made of all plastic, and it does not feel imbalanced in any way. The buttons protrude from the surface of the pen making it easy to identify and use them without having to glance at your hand.
The top of the pen has nothing.
Many people have this misconception that all of Wacom’s tablets have a high quality pen like the Wacom Intuos Pro or Cintiq, so I would like to point out here that the Wacom Intuos (CTL-490) pen is just a plastic stick, just like the pen that comes with the XP-Pen G640.
I mentioned before that the nib does wear quite a bit, but that shouldn’t be much of a worry at all because this tablet comes with TWENTY replacement nibs. Yes, you heard me right. Twenty.
Tablet drivers
The XP-Pen G640 uses the newest XP-Pen tablet drivers and they are extremely easy to install! You don’t even need to have your tablet plugged in to install them! Just go download the latest version directly from XP-Pen’s site and remove all other tablet drivers you have on your computer before installing it.
Once you’ve installed the driver, it should create a desktop shortcut for you to easily access the tablet settings. When your tablet is plugged in, the XP-Pen icon driver icon should appear in the system tray in the bottom right. You can also access the tablet settings by clicking on that.
Correction: The desktop icon only starts the XP-Pen driver software (if it doesn’t run automatically on startup) and clicking it doesn’t actually open the settings screen. To open the settings screen, you will need to click the XP-Pen icon in the system tray (the bottom right portion of your screen).
If you don’t see the XP-Pen icon in the system tray, it could be automatically hidden by Windows. If so, click on the small white arrow to show all the system tray icons.
If the installer doesn’t prompt you to restart your computer after it finishes, I wholeheartedly suggesting restarting your computer anyways to allow Windows to properly update the files necessary for the driver to run smoothly.
The new XP-Pen driver is a simple one page driver with all the important settings on just the one window. Here you can set the pen buttons and pen pressure, and choose which monitor the tablet maps to.
You may need to check the Windows Ink checkbox at the bottom left for certain programs such as Photoshop, but most programs will work better with Windows Ink turned off. If you are having problems with a program, try toggling the Windows Ink option.
One thing to note is that there is no built-in cursor delay like what you would have with the similar sized Wacom Intuos or Huion H640P. This means that the cursor will move with your pen with no delay. This is a good thing, however, you will need to use the stabilization tools in your art program or third-party stabilizers like Lazy Nezumi if you do not have a steady hand or draw with quicker motions.
Another thing to note is that you can connect multiple XP-Pen tablets to the same computer and they will work! You will notice that at the top of the drivers, it has a drop-down menu that says “Star G640”. If you connect other XP-Pen tablets that use the same drivers, they will all be modifiable and useable through that drop-down menu. I can connect my XP-Pen Star 05 and XP-Pen AC19 Shortcut Remote at the same time as the XP-Pen G640 and they all work and are completely programmable.
Of course, the only catch here is that only the XP-Pen devices which use the new drivers can do this. I believe the current compatible products are the Star 05, Star 06, Star G430, Star G430S, Star G540, Star G640, Deco 01, Artist13.3, Artist15.6, Artist16 Pro, and AC 19 Shortcut Remote.
Starting from the top left, the Barrel Button Settings section controls the functions set to the pen buttons.
You can set basically all keyboard or mouse shortcuts that you can think of using the function key option, but you cannot combine mouse clicks with keyboard keys in the same function.
The Click Sensitivity section controls the pen pressure curve of the pen directly. This is the most important section in the tablet settings as you will need to adjust this to reduce how hard you have to press for higher pen pressures to reduce pen nib wear.
The default setting of the graph is a straight diagonal line, but to get a lighter pen pressure setting which is more common, you should move the top dot to around the middle, and move the middle dot somewhere near the top middle as I show in the above pictures. This will give you the feel closest to what you get from most other tablets, and it will also help to drastically reduce pen nib wear, but you should play around with it yourself to find out what suits you best.
One concern I have regarding the default pen pressure is the fact that beginners will not know to adjust the graph if they haven’t seen or read a review like mine which talks about it. If they could implement the more common “Light to Heavy” control bar alongside the graph, it could be easier on new users who may not understand how to make use of a pen pressure graph.
One cool thing to note is that the only other tablet drivers with this custom pen pressure graph is Wacom’s Intuos Pro and Cintiq drivers. Wacom’s low-end Intuos tablets do not offer you the pen pressure graph, and none of the other Wacom alternatives offer it either!
The Current Screen section controls which monitor your tablet is mapped to, and what area of your tablet is used. For the best results, pick the monitor you are going to draw on using the drop-down menu at the top, then click the Display Ratio button to match the drawing area of your tablet with the aspect ratio of your monitor.
Left-handed people do not need to click the Left Hand Mode option as the XP-Pen G640 is already useable for both left and right-handed people in Right Hand Mode.
If you noticed earlier, there was a function called Switch Monitor among the functions you could assign to your pen buttons. That function cycles through all the available monitors in the drop-down list at the top of the Current Screen section when used.
The drawing experience!
This tablet gave me a really good experience for a 40 USD tablet. The surface of the tablet is fairly rough and you will have to change the pen pressure settings so your pen nib doesn’t wear out too fast, but the pen pressure is really smooth and accurate. I can happily recommend the XP-Pen G640 as a half-price alternative to the Wacom Intuos.
I only truly test my tablets on Clip Studio Paint because that’s all I use. You should contact XP-Pen support directly if you want to know if the tablet is compatible with the drawing program you use, but most major drawing programs should be compatible. Their customer support is also very kind so there’s no need to be afraid of contacting them directly.
At first, I was a bit taken aback by how hard I had to press the pen to get darker lines, but once I adjusted the pen pressure curve, the stroke control felt extremely good. When doing gradual increases and decreases in pressure, the lines come out completely as expected and there are no skips or jumps in the pressure at all.
The slow diagonal lines I did with a ruler have some small blips which I assume happens between the rows of sensors, but they don’t appear at all if you use stabilizers and/or quicker strokes. I never ran into them while I was drawing, but you may be different if you do not use stabilizers and/or quicker strokes to draw.
The roughness of the tablet was worrying at first, but the fact that they give you 20 replacement nibs really puts your mind at ease when drawing.
Like I mentioned before, because the tablet itself is so thin, you can still draw comfortably even if your hand moves off the tablet, so there should be no problem with the size of the tablet even for people with larger hands.
Conclusion
I can really recommend this tablet for any beginners who want to try out digital art with a really low starting price, or just don’t have the budget to afford anything bigger. However, if you can spare more money for your tablet, I would suggest that you try to get something with a bigger 8×5 to 10×6 inch drawing area like the XP-Pen Deco 01 for the slightly more comfortable and controlled experience of a larger tablet.
Personally, I believe that the 6×4 inch drawing area of the XP-Pen G640 is the bare minimum size that anyone should get, so if you can get the bigger size, I would suggest you do so.
Ordering from the XP-Pen Store
The XP-Pen Store is XP-Pen’s official online store. So far, I have ordered two products using it; the XP-Pen AC19 Shortcut Remote and the XP-Pen Star G640.
The good part about the XP-Pen Store is that they have free shipping to basically all regions worldwide, so you won’t have to deal with some ridiculous 20 USD shipping fee on your 40 USD tablet.
However, the bad thing about the XP-Pen Store is that the prices for every product listed on it is higher than what is listed on their Amazon store. They are most likely giving “free” shipping by having you pay extra for the product to cover for the shipping in the first place. So as a result, you’re actually just paying for shipping, you just don’t realize it!
Another bad thing about the XP-Pen Store is that their shipping is slow and unreliable, at least, that’s how it has been for both of my orders.
For my XP-Pen AC19 Shortcut Remote, they shipped it out on December 26, 2017 and it arrived on January 15, 2018. So that took around 20 days.
I could somewhat accept the slow shipping speed because it was around New Years and I was certain that would slow economy shipping. However, I had ordered the Huion H430P from huiontablet.com after New Years and it shipped out on January 4, 2018 using the same China EMS -> Canada Post route as XP-Pen, and guess what? It arrived in just 4 days on January 8, 2018. It arrived a whole week before the XP-Pen AC19 Shortcut Remote which had already been shipped out a week prior!
Of course, I could have said that was just bad luck with shipping, at least, until they shipped my XP-Pen Star G640 on January 19, 2018 and it arrived on February 8, 2018. That’s 20 days again!
So basically, unless you’ve really got no other option, I completely suggest against buying from the XP-Pen Store. Stick to Amazon when you can and you’ll pay less for your tablet and also get your tablet much quicker than if you were to buy it from the XP-Pen Store.
Anyways, that’s all I had to say about the XP-Pen Store.
Places to buy the tablet
XP-Pen Store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | AliExpress
People living in other regions should check their regions Amazon or see if the XP-Pen Store ships to them.
If you have any questions about the tablet, feel free to ask me!
Digital Art Tablet Guides 
Thank you for this review, it was really helpful when choosing my first tablet! I was stuck between the Huion H430 and the XP-Pen G640, and after reading your review I was certain the latter was the best choice for me.
In the words of h3h3productions, “Great moves, keep it up!”
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No problem, thanks for taking the time to read my review. I’m glad it was helpful for you!
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Oh, I forgot to mention – you should probably add XP-Pen’s official store on aliexpress to the “Places to order from” section. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1910017
Based on my experiance and customer reviews, the shipping there is quick and it’s available in more regions than amazon. Plus, it looks quite a lot less shifty than the XP-Pen store.
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Thanks for the idea! I just never put Aliexpress there because I have never ordered from it myself, but I suppose it is considered one of XP-Pen’s “official” sellers so I will include it as you recommended.
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Why does it starts to write on laptop even if the pen is not in contact with tab?
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Hi, your review is very helpful! I would like to ask if this model is compatible with adobe illustrator?
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Hi there, I do not have Adobe Illustrator so I cannot test it for you, but I believe it should be compatible. However, if you are unsure, you should ask XP-Pen directly on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/xppen/) or by email (service@xp-pen.com).
-Nikage
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Hey there,
I have a bit of confusion choosing between HUION INSPIROY H640P and this one. Both of them lie in the same price in my country. I’m new to these tablets and want to try them for digital painting. Which one would you recommend ?? And btw great review m8.
Thank you
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Hi there,
Based on my experience with both of them, I think they are both quite decent for drawing. However, I would personally suggest the XP-Pen G640 because it has a more linear pen pressure curve. The only problem with the XP-Pen G640 is that the pen is just a simple plastic stick, but it shouldn’t have any effect on how it draws.
You may want to look at the newer XP-Pen G640S (https://www.storexppen.com/buy/64.html) if you want a rubber grip pen version of the G640. But if the G640 is higher priced for your region, then the G640S may cost even more.
-Nikage
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The model you mentioned (G640s) is not available in my region. So I guess I will go with G640 then. I wouldnt mind the plastic body as this is my first tablet. Thank you for your guidance. Good Day.
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Hi, thanks for all of your tablet reviews!
Would you mind helping me in deciding a replacement tablet?
My old and my first tablet was XP-Pen XP-8050 Pro that’s too old (with how the pen’s using batteries), and ever since I updated my OS to Windows 10, the driver malfunctioned and didn’t seem to be compatible with Windows 10 that I got frustrated. I only draw as a hobby.
Now I’m looking for a replacement tablet that doesn’t cost a lot but is pretty good and durable on the long go–and most importantly, no more driver issue with Windows 10 and other drawing apps such as SAI :(.
I’m contemplating between this one here (XP Pen Star G640), XP-Pen Star 06C, or Wacom One Small CTL-472. Which one do you think is the best buy? Or do you have any other recommendations than the ones I listed?
Thanks in advance ^^
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No problem, thanks for reading!
With regards to your replacement tablet, the biggest concern I have is the fact that your old XP-Pen XP-8050 Pro is a 8×5 inch tablet, whereas the XP-Pen G640 and Wacom One Small CTL-472 are 6×3.7 inch tablets, and the XP-Pen Star 06C is a 10×6 inch tablet. This means that it will take a bit of time to re-adjust to a new tablet size.
Unfortunately, 8×5 inch tablets are rather uncommon right now (the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Wacom’s medium size tablets, and the XP-Pen Star 05). I think that an 8×5 inch tablet is fairly similar to a 10×6 inch tablet so getting a tablet that’s 10×6 inch shouldn’t be much of a problem to get used to. However, going from an 8×5 inch tablet to a smaller 6×3.7 inch tablet may not be as easy to get used to, so I would not recommend it, so that crosses out the Wacom One Small CTL-472 in my opinion.
So with that in mind, I would suggest these tablets: XP-Pen Star 06C, XP-Pen Deco 01, or Wacom One Medium CTL-672. If we take price into consideration, the XP-Pen Star 06C and Deco 01 cost less than the Wacom One Medium CTL-672 (I live in a region which doesn’t have access to the Star 06C and Wacom One tablets, so I have no idea what their prices are in your region).
The reason I include the Wacom One Medium CTL-672 despite the higher price is because Wacom is known to support their tablets for a fairly long time. Compared to this, no one knows how long XP-Pen will support their tablets with driver updates for new OS versions (like your old XP-Pen XP-8050 Pro which doesn’t have driver support for Windows 10).
Personally, I think they will at least release driver updates for the next 2 major OS updates (so ~6 years), but that’s just my estimate considering their current success with no evidence to back it up. If you pay Wacom’s higher price, you’ll be guaranteed at least 5 years of new drivers (assuming your tablet doesn’t break earlier than that in both Wacom and XP-Pen’s case).
I suggest either the XP-Pen Star 06C or XP-Pen Deco 01 depending on which pen you like more, and then the Wacom One Medium CTL-672 if you want the tablet which will be the most ‘guaranteed’ to have future support for a fair number of years.
(As a side note, I really like the Huion H1060P which has a nice rubber grip pen, so maybe you want to consider that too! It’s kind of on the pricey side though.)
I hope that helps a bit,
Nikage
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Thank you so much for your detailed explanation! I’m glad I asked ^^
I was going to go with the G640 one without considering the varying size… Thought size wouldn’t be a problem X”D
In the end, I decided to grab XP-Pen Deco 01 as I found its price matching my budget in my country’s marketplace 😀
I was contemplating to get the recommended Wacom One Medium but I’m a sucker for higher specification, so yup, XP-Pen Deco 01 is it ^^
(I’ve also read your review on XP-Pen Deco 03 and while the version is different, I guess Deco 01 and 03 are more or less similar?)
Thank you so much for taking your time to create this blog and to answer my question! Can’t wait to try on Deco 01 xD
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I also thought that size wasn’t a problem until my friend who used a Wacom Intuos small for a long time moved to a larger tablet and had problems getting used to it. In the end, they went back to using small size tablets because they couldn’t get used to the bigger size after using the small size for so long.
For me, I’m more used to the 10×6 inch size but I have no problems switching and using smaller or larger tablets, probably because I’ve spent time getting used to all the sizes for my reviews. However, I’m probably the weird case, and I believe most people will find it harder to acclimatize to new sizes (especially if going from bigger to smaller).
With regards to your question, although their features are slightly different (shortcut keys, wireless), I believe the Deco 01 and 03 have identical drawing capabilities despite having different pens (rubber grip vs plastic pen).
No problem, and I hope you have a good time with it once it arrives!
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Hi, thanks for your advice! I just received Deco 01 today and I can say that I’m so satisfied with the product ^^
Your review with Deco 03 helped me to set up the pen pressure curve! If I hadn’t read your review, I wouldn’t have known the best setting of the curve.
Oh, and last: It seems that I’ve gotten used to the new, bigger size of the tablet relatively easy!
Not sure if I should reply my experience here or comment it in your Deco 03 review, but I’d feel bad for making a new comment thread, lol.
Thanks a bunch for your useful information in this blog ❤
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That’s great to hear and I’m glad it’s treating you well so far.
Yes, the default pen pressure curve is a bit strong, so I’m glad my little tidbit in the review helped you with that.
Putting your experience here is completely fine! Hopefully, it’ll keep treating you well for quite a while as well.
Thanks for reading, and I’m glad I could help,
Nikage
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Um, excuse me but does anyone know whether this works with Medibang? Because I want to buy my first tablet and I really dont want to waste my money on something I cant use.
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Hi there,
I went ahead and installed the XP-Pen drivers, plugged in my XP-Pen G640, restarted my computer, and opened Medibang Paint. The tablet pen input and pen pressure works exactly as expected as far as I can see.
One thing to note though is that you need to restart your computer after installing the XP-Pen drivers, otherwise the pen won’t work properly in Medibang Paint, but after the restart, it works perfectly.
Hope that helps,
Nikage
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Thank you very much for replying to my question. I was suppose to buy tomorrow and if nobody replied, I would’ve went with huion while thinking that this might be a better fit. The tablet I’m buying will be my first one so I really want to buy a worthwhile one so thank you again
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With thanks! Valuable information!
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REVIEW: XP-PEN Star G430S (LINUX). G640’s smaller sibling.
I think G430S is the smallest amongst XP-PEN pen tablet family. Active area amounts to 4×3 inches. I will omit all that bullstuff about how beautiful packaging is, what’s inside and in which order is placed within. Who really cares how the box looks like and how much extra rubbish producer fits in there. As for me this very device could come wrapped in a newspaper as long as device itself is secured. I use this tablet under Linux system, Ubuntu 16.04. You need to download the driver from XP-PEN website. Follow instructions and it works. If you’re a new kid on the block, and Linux is your new system just remember:
LINUX DRIVER, HOW IT WORKS
Every time you’re about to start doing what you’re up to for a day, you need to stick to three things as follows. The driver must be running. You need to activate the driver before you start using your tablet unless you keep your computer switched on all the time. So, granting you’ve already installed XP-PEN driver you need to do this – you power on computer but I bet it’s done:
1) Connect XP-PEN via USB port (it must be connected before further steps)
2) Open Linux terminal, you should already have specific command saved in terminal memory. Just use an arrows – PgUp or PgDn – to find one which says
sudo ‘/home/xxx/Linux_Pentablet_V1.2.3/Pentablet_Driver.sh’
Hit Enter, you’ll be asked to write your password, write it, Enter again. After couple of seconds you should see a Driver window. Can see this? Then all is running. Every thing’s well, alive and kicking.
PEN TABLET
Well, it’s small and thin. Build well, not much to complain about. I come across some reviews of this tablet where some young guys are touching this as if they were caressing a pussy cat stating that despite being very thin – I would say around 2.5mm – it’s so sturdy and durable. I bought this to have portable pen tablet which you can take with you everywhere as it takes no space at all. Do not misunderstand me, this tablet is nothing like being fragile and easy to break but if you leave it on your armchair, forget about it and sit on it – depends in what manner you’ll be taking your sit – it may not survive the close encounters of the third kind with your three letters.
AND PEN ITSELF
Pen like a pen. This is just my own subjective impression on that but would prefer a thicker one.
After couple of hours of using I feel fatigue and slight pain in all my fingers. The pen itself features two buttons. I have assigned brush resizing to both of them – bottom one decreasing, upper one increasing. Bottom one works ok I can be doing my stuff pressing this button without any issue, comes automatically and ergonomically is also fine. The big problem is with the upper one. It’s just to high, sometimes I believe I hit the upper one but in fact clicking comes from the bottom one.
It’s a nuisance. As for me there’s no point of having the upper button on this pen if you need to be stopping your work, getting out of the rhythm and flow, fiddling with the pen trying to somehow hit this button for eight times. Sometimes I try to hit upper button with my thumb. It sometimes works but only sometimes. Would prefer this double button to be maybe 10mm long, so there’s very short travel of my finger between down – up switching.
AND WORKFLOW ISSUES
First issue it’s well known issue in any pen tablet. Delay of the line following your pen movement. It tries to keep up with you moves but can do nothing to stop lagging behind. Probably will never do. Second thing relates to a small size of this tablet. It hinders you and stops you from doing any bold movements. If you need a sweeping one you can not make it. If you need any longer clean stroke coming from your arm or the elbow – not from your wrist – just forget about this. Surely, it’s not a technical fault of this tablet, I am just referring to its size. Third issue. Back to the pen buttons. From time to time, especially if you do press it several consecutive times quickly it stalls and hangs up. Sometimes it freeze completely. Takes up to 10 seconds for clearing and making up its mind. Don’t know if this is down to software I use – but there is same flew when used with Krita, MyPaint or GIMP. Do not use this tablet much with Gravit, hence can’t comment on that yet.
ALL IN ALL
Good bang for a bucks. Can’t complain much. Can’t complain at all if a price tag is taken into consideration. 19 GBP. If you need something extremely portable it’s a good choice. Without any doubts this device is way to tiny to be your default pen tablet, but who knows it may be. I have listed three flows of this very pen tablet. Two of them may drive you crazy if you need good flow and automatism when you work. All are related to usage of a stylus pen included. This make G430S not suitable for a pro or heavy duty user.
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Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Thank you so much for making this! I plan on buying my first tablet soon, and I wasn’t sure if I should go with the Wacom One CTL 472, or the XP-pen G640. I think the reason most people choose Wacom is because it has that recognizable name, which serves as an assurance of what you’re getting. The first time I saw the name “XP-Pen” I wasn’t sure how good the quality would be. It could’ve just been a knock off product and my money would go down the drain.
But because of your insightful and detailed review, now I know. I can buy this without any hesitation.
Thank you so much! 😀
This is one of the most detailed blog posts I’ve seen. The effort you put in does not go unnoticed. You’ve made a new fan!
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Hey there,
No problem, I’m glad my review was helpful!
Yes, Wacom is probably the most “trusted” company in the tablet world because they’ve been around for the longest, and they have their undeniable track record of being “the best”. However, now that Wacom’s patent on EMR pen technology has ended, all the other companies have been able to follow in their footsteps and release tablets that perform at a similar level to Wacom.
I certainly recommend at least looking at Wacom’s products in the future if you ever want to upgrade, but when you’re starting out, there’s absolutely no need to spend the excessively high price Wacom charges for their products.
I’m very happy to hear that. I hope my future reviews don’t disappoint either!
-Nikage
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You’re very knowledgable about these topics! You’re doing fantastic work! I simply searched for “XP pen G640 review” and your website came up. The detail you put in is what makes your website stand out from the rest.
BTW, I hate to be redundant, but I trust your opinion and knowledge, and I would feel a lot more comfortable if you could help my with something. This will be my first drawing tablet, and my question is:
‘Between the Wacom One small, and the XP pen G640, considering they’re the same price, which one would you recommend and why?’
My reasoning for the G640 is that it has that 6*4 surface instead of the 6*3.5 the Wacom has, and the extra ton of nibs, and plus your recommendation.
But I have those first purchase jitters so I’m double checking everything >_<
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Hey again,
No problem, don’t worry about asking since every person’s situation is different based on the prices available to them in their regions.
I really need to stress that I have not tried the One by Wacom, so I do not actually know how it performs compared to the XP-Pen G640. Quite frankly, it’s hard to suggest one over the other when I haven’t tried the One by Wacom, especially since they both cost the same for you.
The biggest issue here is that I do not know if the One by Wacom has somewhat disappointing pen pressure performance like the Wacom Intuos 2018 (I talk about that in my Wacom Intuos 2018 review), or the standard good quality pen pressure like everything else from Wacom.
-If it has the “good” pen pressure which is expected from Wacom, then I would say you should pick the One by Wacom over the XP-Pen G640, simply because they are the exact same price. The usual reason why you would pick a “budget” alternative instead of Wacom is because they have much more reasonable prices than Wacom, however, in your case, the XP-Pen G640 is the same price as the One by Wacom so it doesn’t really have its usual advantage over the Wacom.
-On the other hand, if it has “bad” pen pressure like the low-end Wacom Intuos tablets, then I would suggest the XP-Pen G640 simply based on the fact that the XP-Pen G640 pen pressure is more adjustable and allows you to draw extremely thin lines.
Don’t get me wrong, I think both options should be completely usable to create art and that you can’t go wrong with either choice, but depending on the pen performance of the One by Wacom, it changes which one I would personally recommend- Oh wait a second.
I guess you might also want to consider that the One by Wacom could have a rough texture which eats pen nibs just like the Wacom Intuos 2018. If it has a super rough texture, then I really don’t think I can recommend it since Wacom nibs cost a lot and it (probably) only comes with 3 replacement nibs out of the box.
The XP-Pen G640 technically also has a rough texture, but in XP-Pen’s case, you can actually buy 100 pen nibs for 10 USD (https://www.storexppen.com/buy/49.html), so I really don’t consider that a problem in their case. Plus they also include 8 replacement nibs out of the box, so it should last you a fair bit even without buying any replacement nibs.
In this case, I think I would recommend the XP-Pen G640.
I really can’t make a call on whether the One by Wacom is actually good or not, but it feels risky choosing it because it could have the same issues as the Wacom Intuos 2018 (since they’re both technically Wacom’s “low-end” tablets).
I still think you can’t go wrong with either choice (Wacom or XP-Pen) in terms of how they’ll perform for drawing, but the XP-Pen G640 is the only one I know about first-hand. I do think you might want to look around for more information on the One by Wacom since I really don’t know how it actually is.
(As a side note, the 6×4 vs 6×3.5 inches size difference does not matter here because you will scale the active area on both tablets to match your screen ratio, and that will shave off the height and make them both the exact same size. Because of this, the difference in size can be ignored when comparing these two tablets.)
I hope that was at least somewhat helpful,
Nikage
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Hello
Thanks for the detailed reply. I intend to buy my first pen tablet. I will be using it mostly for math tutoring or making educational videos. I have been using the traditional mouse for a long time now and I feel it’s time to change to pen tablet. So I wanted to know whether this tablet is suitable for use in math tutoring and use on online whiteboards.
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Hey there,
Unfortunately, I do not know about whether XP-Pen’s tablets are compatible with online whiteboards. If it is just for writing without pen pressure, then I believe it will probably work (because the pen should just work as a pseudo-mouse). but again, I am not sure since I have not tried it myself.
I suggest contacting XP-Pen support to confirm with them directly what you should expect to work. You can look for their email at https://www.xp-pen.com/page/Contact.html under the “Pre-sales and After-sales Support” section.
One thing I would like to point out though is that you may want to buy the larger XP-Pen Star 03 or Deco 01 instead of the small XP-Pen G640. This is because I have found that it is much more comfortable writing on larger tablets compared to using a smaller tablet like the XP-Pen G640. On a smaller tablet, you often have to zoom in to write small things, whereas on a larger tablet you can stay zoomed out and still write at the same level of detail.
Personally, I would prefer a larger tablet to be able to stay zoomed out while still being able to write small things comfortably. But this is just my opinion without ever having used a tablet to teach classes, so take it with a grain of salt.
-Nikage
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Hello,
Thanks for review. please suggest me which one better amoung XP Pen- G640 or One by Wacom for taking notes in One Note App in my laptop.
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Hey there,
Sorry, but I don’t know which is better for taking notes in One Note App.
I suggest you contact Wacom and XP-Pen support directly to ask if their tablets are compatible with that program.
-Nikage
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Hi
thanks for your review, i want to use this pen just for writing on pdf files or One-note and…
i have a 32 inch 4k monitor, does it work with this monitor? is it the best choice for me?
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Hey there,
Sorry for the late reply.
I do not think it would be comfortable to use the XP-Pen G640 with a 32-inch monitor because the G640 is quite small and so the small motions you do on the G640 will translate to very big motions on your monitor, which will be hard to control.
(If you have ever bought a mouse with customizable DPI, the G640 on a large monitor is like using the mouse at 4000DPI, while a larger tablet on the same monitor would feel more like a mouse at 1600DPI.)
I would suggest a larger tablet for use with your big monitor as it will let you write smaller and more detailed without cramping your hand.
I would suggest the Huion H1060P or XP-Pen Deco Pro S as those are tablets which I have tried and recommend, but you may also want to consider the XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 and Huion H950P if price is an issue.
-Nikage
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Nikage,
I really think between this one and Huion HS64 but I think I found a bug in Huion drivers.
When using Microsoft Whiteboard and mapping Right click to one of the pen buttons context menu is shown in the place when I left mouse cursor. Not in the place I have pen cursor.
Do you have such experience ?
Do you know where I can send bug report ?
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Hi there,
Unfortunately, I have never experienced that issue as I have never used Microsoft Whiteboard, and I have also never seen it happen in any of the art programs which I use.
Please send a bug report to service@huion.com or use the contact methods at the bottom of Huion’s support page here: https://www.huion.com/support.html
-Nikage
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Thanks for answer.
And which of this 2 you will choose ?
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Assuming they are the same price in your region, personally, I would choose the Huion HS64 because I like its pen more. However, if you have problems with the Huion drivers, then the XP-Pen G640 would be worth a try.
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Thanks for the review. I’ve been looking to get this tablet as my first off amazon with a gift card I received to pay for pretty much most of it. However, a friend showed up and said I could have his old, lightly used Wacom CTL-480 for free. I’ve been hard pressed in finding comparisons of the two that don’t involve OSU!, so I was wondering if you’d have any input on that. As far as I’m aware, it’d be between paying a little for newer tech vs getting a used, older one for free.
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Hey there,
The CTL-480 was the best generation of the Intuos series and is good enough to be comparable to basically all the newer tablets out today. If your friend’s Wacom Intuos CTL-480 still works, then it’s a tablet well worth taking off their hands despite being an older model!
-Nikage
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Thank you for an excellent article which persuaded me to go for the G640 over any other options
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Hii Nikas,
thank you for giving us useful information..
can help me out. which should I prefer to buy?
XP pen deco mini 7 or XP Pen star g640
as a beginner
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Hey there,
Unfortunately, I have not tried the XP-Pen Deco Mini 7 myself so I cannot really comment on how it performs compared to the G640.
If you do not need the rubber grip pen or the 8 shortcut keys of the Deco Mini 7, then I believe the G640 would be the better buy from a price-to-performance perspective (assuming the G640 is cheaper then the Deco Mini 7 in your region). If they’re the same price, then I would suggest the Deco Mini 7.
-Nikage
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Nice write up! Congratulations! !
I am looking for a tablet which can also be used for writing purpose. Now I am writing on Gboard on my smartphone using a stylus which gets converted into type automatically. But the screen is so small and the writing progresses slowly. Is there any way Google Gboard to be made accessible through this tablet by connecting to my Samsung Galaxy A22 smartphone?
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