Month: August 2019

My Top Picks – Graphic Tablets (August 2019)

Back when I only had my tablet masterlists on this site, I had the mindset of “I’ll show you all the options I’ve found, so go research them yourself.”, so I never tried to create any sort of list of which tablets I thought were “the best”.
Quite frankly, I’m glad I didn’t because I most certainly didn’t have enough experience with tablets to even make such a list back then.

However, now that I’ve reviewed a decent number of tablets, I feel that I would like to give my recommendations for which tablets that I personally feel are “the best” out of what I’ve tried.
Hopefully, this list will be helpful to those who are looking for a new tablet.

This post is specifically about screen-less tablets, the tablets without screens on them (ex. Wacom Intuos).
I am not sure if I will ever do one for drawing monitors (ex. Wacom Cintiq) as I do not have nearly enough experience with those to judge what might be “the best”. For now, my drawing monitor recommendations will be on hold.

In this post, I will have 3 categories: Best Budget, Best Performance and Value, and Untested Recommendations.
-The Best Budget category will be my 2 top picks from the tablets I have tested for those with very limited budgets. Basically, what I think is the best you can get for the lowest price.
-The Best Performance and Value category will be my 2 top picks of “the best” tablets I have tested with lots of emphasis put on value.
-The Untested Recommendations category will be a bunch of tablets which I have not personally tested, but still think are worth pointing out.

Anyways, let’s get on with the recommendations!

Please note!
-This information is written with digital drawers and painters as the focus. It may not apply to other forms of digital art such as photo retouching.
-I am not a Mac or Linux user!! I mainly test my tablets on Windows 10 version 1803. I also ignore Android compatibility as I do not have a proper device to test it.
-Prices may have changed since I wrote this post.
-It is good practice to check multiple reviews to cross reference their information before you make a conclusion about a tablet.

Table of Contents

Best Budget

These are my top picks of the tablets you can get for the lowest price possible.

This section is mainly aimed towards people who want to try out digital art, but don’t want to spend very much on their first tablet which they may or may not keep using.

1. XP-Pen Star G640

XP-Pen Star G640

Price: 29.99 USD
(My review: XP-Pen Star G640 Review)

Specifications at a glance
Active Area: 6 x 4 inches
Pen Type: Battery-free
Pen Buttons: 2 side buttons, no eraser
Pen Pressure: 8192
Pen Tilt Sensitivity: None
Shortcut Keys: None
Multi-touch: None

The XP-Pen Star G640 is the lowest priced tablet which has great drawing capabilities due to using the exact same drivers as XP-Pen’s higher tier models.

Although the XP-Pen Star G640 is technically only a small size tablet with its 6×4 inch drawing area, it provides an extraordinarily low entry price into digital art with its 30 USD price tag.
(The 6×4 inch “small” size is the minimum size I recommend for art. There are cheaper tablets such as the XP-Pen G430 and Huion H420, but those are even smaller at 4×3 inches, making them too small to draw on comfortably.)

There are certainly some compromises to build quality and aesthetics because of the low price, but the tablet itself has a surprisingly tough build despite being so thin, and the simple plastic design of the pen is really bare bones, but it isn’t uncomfortable to use either.
Also, if you download one of the great free art programs available nowadays like Medibang or Krita to use with it, you will have everything you need to start drawing digitally for only 30 USD!

In comparison, the most commonly recommended beginner tablet, the Wacom Intuos, is a whopping 80 USD for the exact same 6×4 inch size, despite having no significant advantage over the XP-Pen Star G640.

It may look simple and unimpressive, but the XP-Pen Star G640 is the absolute go-to if you’re looking for the cheapest option for starting digital art.

2. Huion H640P

Price: 49.99 USD
(My review: Huion H640P ReReview 2019)

Specifications at a glance
Active Area: 6.3 x 3.9 inches
Pen Type: Battery-free
Pen Buttons: 2 side buttons, no eraser
Pen Pressure: 8192
Pen Tilt Sensitivity: None
Expresskeys: 6 Buttons
Multi-touch: No

The Huion H640P is one of the lowest priced premium feeling tablets currently available, with drawing performance which has matured over time thanks to driver and firmware updates.

Like the XP-Pen G640, the Huion H640P is also only a small size tablet at 6×4 inches, but it makes up for its somewhat high price with a solid tablet body, and a comfortable and premium feeling Huion PW100 battery-free pen.
It is certainly not as cheap as the XP-Pen Star G640, but its more premium feeling build quality and high level of drawing performance justifies its higher price for the most part.

If you are not looking for the absolute cheapest tablet you can find, then this could be your go-to as a relatively cheap but premium feeling tablet.

Writer’s note: There is actually a new 6×4 inch tablet called the Huion HS64 for only 40 USD, which is cheaper than the Huion H640P’s 50 USD.
Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to test it myself, but you may wish to check it out if the Huion H640P interests you. Please keep in mind though that I cannot guarantee that it works as well as the Huion H640P.

Best Performance and Value

This section has my top picks which are chosen based on drawing performance, and then further judged by the price.
If a tablet is so good that it has no competition, then price will not matter as it has no competition. However, if there are comparable tablets with cheaper prices, then those will be considered better value.

This section is my top tablet picks for all artists, beginner and experienced.
Unless you have so much money that you literally don’t care about price, these are the tablets I recommend you get for the best “bang for your buck”.

“Why is the Wacom Intuos Pro M not on here?”
Like I said, there needs to be at least some semblance of “value” to be recommended here. The Wacom Intuos Pro M does not have magical drawing capabilities that can justify it’s ridiculous 350 USD price tag. The Huion H1060P for 100 USD draws very well and is easily comparable to the Wacom Intuos Pro M in drawing performance.

Certainly, Wacom has extra features which other companies do not have, but that’s all they are. Extra.
However, if you know that you specifically as an individual want those extra features, then perhaps you can justify the high price as necessary for your art. Or perhaps you just have so much money you don’t mind paying the higher price for the brand name.
You make that decision for yourself, but I believe the majority of people prefer value over those “extra” features.

1. Huion H1060P

Huion Inspiroy H1060P

Price: 99.99 USD
(My review: Huion Inspiroy H1060P Review)

Specifications at a glance
Active Area: 10 x 6.25 inches
Pen Type: Battery-free
Pen Buttons: 2 side buttons, no eraser
Pen Pressure: 8192
Pen Tilt Sensitivity: Yes, +-60 levels
Expresskeys: 12 buttons, 16 soft keys
Multi-touch: No

The Huion H1060P is a very well built tablet with one of the best drawing performances I have seen in a screen-less tablet yet, and it comes at a surprisingly cheap 100 USD price tag at that.

The Huion H1060P is a medium/large size tablet with a spacious 10×6.25 inch drawing area. The tablet itself is made solely of plastic, but it is built very solidly due to it using a thicker tablet design than most other offerings in the current era of “thinness is everything”.
Some people may not like how the surface texture is rather smooth compared to other tablets, but once you become used to drawing on it, it brings the advantage of a texture which never wears out, and it also never wears down your pen nibs.

For the pen, it uses the comfortable and premium feeling Huion PW100 battery-free pen, and it is capable of pen tilt/direction functionality.
It also comes with 12 shortcut keys which should be enough buttons for anyone looking to draw by solely using the shortcut keys.

Whereas many other tablets have some sort of issue in how the pen performs such as uneven tapering or non-linear pen pressure curves, the Huion H1060P has absolutely no problems which I can notice.
This tablet at 100 USD even rivals the drawing performance of the supposed “professional standard” tablet, the Wacom Intuos Pro M (350 USD), while only lacking some of the extra features that the Wacom offers such as: The pen eraser, Bluetooth wireless, felt nibs, and pen rotation functionality (only available with the purchase of a separate 100 USD pen).

It should also be noted that the replacement pen for this tablet only costs 23 USD, and you can even replace the texture sheet with a brand new one for ~30 USD (6 USD + shipping on huiontablet.com).
This means that you won’t have to buy a whole new tablet even if there are some accidents which damage your pen or scratch your drawing surface.
As long as you take care not to break the micro-USB port, I believe this tablet should last you a very long time.

If you are looking for the tablet with the best drawing performance while still having a reasonable price, this is my recommendation.

Writer’s note: I have heard that upgrading to Huion’s newer firmware versions for this tablet is not a good idea, because pen pressure feels worse and initial activation force is higher (worse).
-If you get an H1060P with my firmware version, I suggest that you do NOT risk updating the firmware to anything newer.
-If you get an H1060P with a newer firmware version and are noticing bad pen pressure or higher initial activation force, contact Huion to get a firmware updater for the version I am on so you can roll it back to a good version.

To check your firmware version, open the Huion driver and go to the About page, then press the keys Ctrl+V+E+R all at once. Your firmware version should show up.
My firmware version is HUION_T167_180808. 

Basically, if it’s working properly, don’t update it.

2. XP-Pen Deco Pro Small/Medium

Price: 89.99 USD (Small)/119.99 USD (Medium)
(My review: XP-Pen Deco Pro Small Review)

Specifications at a glance
Active Area: 9 x 5 inches (Small)
11 x 6 inches (Medium)
Pen Type: Battery-free
Pen Buttons: 2 side buttons, no eraser
Pen Pressure: 8192
Pen Tilt Sensitivity: Yes, levels unspecified
Shortcut Keys: 8 buttons, 1 physical wheel, 1 touch wheel
Multi-touch: None

The XP-Pen Deco Pro is a tablet built with a premium aluminum alloy back case and a unique silver accent design, and it features a never-before-seen double wheel shortcut key which combines a physical and virtual wheel into one, and even supports pen tilt functionality.

Thanks to the aluminum alloy back case, the tablet itself feels quite robust and durable, and the new XP-Pen PA1 battery-free pen provides a very comfortable pen experience on the rough paper-like texture. XP-Pen has also used a new and improved texture on this tablet which doesn’t wear off easily, unlike a few of their previous textures which started showing wearing the moment you started drawing on it.
The tablet is also easy to use in left-handed mode thanks to using a symmetrical USB type-C port on the tablet.

Despite the premium build quality on this tablet which can be said to rival even the Wacom Intuos Pro, this tablet only costs 90 USD for the small, and 120 USD for the medium.
It should be noted that the XP-Pen Deco Pro is available in two sizes of small or medium, but you shouldn’t be misled by the naming.
Unlike the Wacom small and medium sizes, the “small” for the XP-Pen Deco Pro is a spacious 9×5 inches (which is actually the Wacom medium size), and the “medium” is an even more spacious 11×6 inches.

The most unique part of the XP-Pen Deco Pro is the double wheel, which has a physical wheel on the outside, and a touch wheel on the inside. Unlike all other wheel designs which only allow you to use one function at a time which often make them an inconvenient waste of space, the double wheel allows you to use two wheel functions seamlessly without the extra step of using a function switch key between each use.
Of course, this only matters if you use shortcut keys, but this is the first tablet where I felt that the wheel wasn’t just a waste of space compared to having 4 more shortcut keys in its place.

It should also be noted that a replacement pen for this tablet only costs 18 USD, and that you can buy 100 pen nibs for 10 USD only.
The biggest problem with rough textures on Wacom tablets is that they burn through pen nibs and Wacom pen nibs cost 1 USD per nib. In contrast, nib wear isn’t a problem with the XP-Pen Deco Pro because pen nibs literally only cost 10 cents per nib!

The only issue with this tablet which makes it “worse” than the Huion H1060P is the small pen tapering issues which affect some quick strokes from 100% to 0% pen pressure (refer to review for more detail).
It is not a massive issue which completely ruins your drawings since everything else about the pen pressure is fantastic, but it is an issue nonetheless.
If XP-Pen can fix that issue, this tablet will be well on par with the Huion H1060P as my top pick.

Untested Recommendations

This section has a few tablets which I believe are worth mentioning, however, I only mention them in passing because I have not tested them myself.

Since I have not tested them myself, I cannot guarantee their actual quality and performance which is why they are not one of my top picks, despite some of these tablets sounding better than the tablets I have recommended above.

-Huion HS64
Price: 39.99 USD

The Huion HS64 is a relatively new Huion tablet which seems to have basically everything Huion H640P does, except for cheaper.

For some reason, I have my doubts about it having pen pressure as good as the Huion H640P (because the Huion HS610 had worse pen pressure than the Huion H1060P), but I really have no idea without trying it myself.
Maybe I’ll consider buying it eventually to review it.

-Huion H610Pro V2
Price: 79.99 USD

The Huion H610Pro V2 is the tablet most people look to when looking for a large tablet with a battery-free pen from Huion because it’s cheaper than the Huion H1060P which I recommend.

I’ve always had my doubts about the build quality of the current and previous H610Pro tablets because I’ve seen a lot of complaints about broken H610Pro’s when I used to prowl Reddit, but I can’t really make any guesses about it without trying it myself.

-XP-Pen G640S
Price: 39.99 USD

The XP-Pen G640S is a small 6×4 inch tablet like the XP-Pen G640 which I recommended as the best budget tablet, but it’s slightly pricier at 40 USD because it comes with the more comfortable P05 battery-free pen instead of the budget P01 pen which the G640 uses.

I used to think of it as a good recommendation for people who wanted something similar to the Huion H640P but cheaper, but now there’s the option of the Huion HS64 for 40 USD as well.
I think I would have to try both the XP-Pen G640S and Huion HS64 to judge which would be the better choice because they both sound like very good deals.

-XP-Pen Deco 01 V2
Price: 59.99 USD

The XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 which was announced a few days ago is the Deco 01 V1 except with a nicer P05 battery-free pen, and it is also advertised to have pen tilt functionality which the V1 didn’t.

My biggest complaint about the V1 was the pen design which was slick and cheap-feeling, so this upgrade is a very welcome change, especially because the XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 will have the exact same low 60 USD price as the V1.

Of course, I haven’t tried it out myself so who knows if the actual pen performance is good or not. I think it’s well worth a look at its low price though.

-GAOMON M10K (2018)
Price 75.99 USD

The GAOMON M10K (2018) is a tablet which has had a relatively low amount of attention since its silent release.
I reviewed its previous version and it was quite a disastrous product back then due to fairly shoddy drivers, however, I have seen that the new version uses GAOMON’s Huion based drivers which basically guarantees that it won’t have the same problems as before (because their tablets which use the Huion based drivers are very stable).

I’m actually quite interested in this tablet because it could be a cheaper alternative to my favourite Huion H1060P due to its similar build design and numerous shortcut keys, but of course, that’s only if the pen pressure works as well as expected.
I think it’s worth a look, but it doesn’t have very many reviews for anyone to go off of.

Conclusion

I recommend the XP-Pen Star G640 if you’re on a budget or just looking for the cheapest option for getting into digital art.
The Huion H640P is also a good choice if you want a budget tablet which feels at least a little bit “premium”.

For the best value overall, I recommend the Huion H1060P. It’s the tablet with the best performance out of all the screen-less tablets I’ve tested so far. I feel that it draws just as well as the Wacom Intuos Pro M, so it completely knocks the Wacom Intuos Pro M out of the value section with its low price.
I also recommend the XP-Pen Deco Pro since it’s almost as good as the Huion H1060P. The only con with it is the small pen tapering issue, but if that one issue were fixed, it would completely rival the Huion H1060P and Wacom Intuos Pro M as a top performing tablet.

To make it completely clear, this top picks list is based on the tablets which I have actually tested and reviewed myself.
There may be some tablets which you believe should be on this list, but are not on here simply because I have not had the chance to try them.

Links to my reviews of my top picks:

Anyways, I hope you found this post useful.
If you believe I have overlooked a tablet which you think I really need to check out, please recommend it to me in the comments below!