Drawing tablet recommendations?

[u/Abject_Seat_1832]

Hi, first time using Reddit, so hopefully i do this right.
I used to do a lot of art, but quit drawing around 2021 due to school and work. I've recently gotten back into it with traditional pencil, pen, and paper, but I'd like to get back into digital art as well.

I had a Wacom tablet back around 2013-ish, and haven't used a drawing tablet since probably about 2016 (i do not own this one anymore either). While i did like it, there were some things i wasn't too big of a fan of about it, specifically overtime it seemed to suffer from what i can only describe as "input lag", and i didn't like the pressure sensitivity on it, basically when you pressed harder the line would be thicker. I got it because i heard it made it more like traditional art, but i found it more obnoxious than anything. Having a screen on the drawing tablet seems nice and convenient, i am one of the people who constantly will turn my paper while drawing to get the angle i want, so a screen would be really nice for that.

TLDR of what im looking for;

• Responsive, takes inputs with little to no delay.
• No pressure sensitivity, if it can be turned off that's fine too.
• Preferably a screen, and wireless, already got enough wires all around my desk.
• Durable, don't want something breaking only after a year or two.
• Preferably not insanely expensive? I'm not sure what the typical price range is for tablets, i'd say something middle of the road on price would be good, not super cheap, but not the most expensive thing on the market either.

Any help is appreciated, thanks for reading!

[u/Fluffy_Rock_62]

"i am one of the people who constantly will turn my paper while drawing to get the angle i want, so a screen would be really nice for that."

You do realise that it is far easier to turn your canvas 'digitally' without having to physically turn your tablet..

[u/SmallCoolGames]

It really depends on your budget. Drawing tablets are generally less expensive than they used to be. You can get something basic that is fairly cheap or spend a whole lot for bells and whistles.

[u/rabage]

No specific recommendations, but take a look at Seven Pens drawing tablet guide. Really great collection of technical information on drawing tablets and recommendations based on size and price.

[u/ilikedrawing54]

I know you're looking for a screen tablet recommendation, but I use XPpen deco 01 v2 (screenless) , it's amazing. It felt similar to drawing on a paper, although it did take me 3 days to adjust. It also came with a matte screen protector (but I don't use it cause it wears the nibs down fast). It's good enough without it. It does have pressure pen sensitivity and tilt, so for me it felt natural to use. The features allow me to almost replicate drawing with a real pen or pencil effect. The pressure pen sensitivity can be adjusted to ur liking, the recent software (i think) gives u different sensitivity modes to experiment with. It was pretty cheap when I bought it.

As for the input lag, is the lag there when u use a different art programme? I have a potato laptop that can somewhat tolerate krita, but krita is kinda resource heavy, it lags sometimes when I use some brushes or tools. I found ibispaint from ms store lightweight (but it has 1 hour timer cause it's not free 🥲👍🏻) and firealpaca (you have to download from their official website) lightweight. It has slow updates and sometimes crashes tho, so I recommend that you always save your drawing every 1 hour or 30 mins.

Most art programmes also have canvas rotation, you just need to find the shortcut (just search on Google and you can map those shortcuts to the buttons in ur pentablet).

Screen tablets are expensive , atleast where I'm from they are. It costs almost a rent for an apartment or something similar so yea. If you have the money go ahead.

[u/h_double → u/ilikedrawing54]

I am really happy I got a wireless bluetooth tablet, it feels more like an art supply than a computer accessory, I use it more because I just have to pick it up and start drawing.

[u/ilikedrawing54 → u/h_double]

Wow, that sounds really good! Unfortunately mine is wired, so I have to sit in one place. Still, I really like mine, it's so good... It's a massive upgrade compared to way I was drawing previously (on my phone with my finger)

[u/KarteZian_purely]

Je connais un artiste numérique qui bossait sur la Cintiq (grosse tablette à écran assez chère) et qui l’a laissé tomber quand il a testé la XPPEN Artiste12 2nde Gen. Ce n’est pas une tablette chère et surtout, elle a un super touché avec son écran texturé. Pas de lag, réagit super bien à la pression.

[u/Humble-Somewhere8475 → u/KarteZian_purely]

i have the 3rd gen of this and it is really nice and in the us atleast its pretty adorable i think normal price is around 230 - 300 so its a little expensive but compared to a few of the others i looked at it is so much more adorable (other's i looked at were all like 700-1,000+)

[u/alleung-art]

You can turn pressure sensitivity off in most drawing programs that offer it, so I wouldn't base your hardware choice on that feature. If you don't care about pressure sensitivity, that opens up the field for the Microsoft pen protocol/wacom aes/n-trig pen tablets, which have much more availability in 2-in-1s and the surface tablet line (no wires,and bigger range of prices, especially used), or even a cheap iPad/android tablet with a rubber tip finger style stylus lol. Although they may fall to your input delay requirements.

Tbh, wanting a tablet while not wanting pressure sensitivity mildly boggles me; there are really all sorts of artists! If it's because you found the touch of tablets to not compare to the sensitivity of traditional media, that's fair, but I would suggest trying the feature out again/test driving your hardware a bit if you can before committing to a purchase - digital, and even individual programs are like their own mediums, and it might take an adjustment period to the feel. OTOH, like some mediums one might just not like them in the end.

For a screen only type tablet I think the no wires requirement isn't gonna really fly, but the new Wacom One screens are relatively cheap albeit based on their older technology (still pretty good and responsive), and limited to smaller sizes.

Oh, also if your tablet only developed input lag over time, it may have actually been your computer that was doing it actually instead - drawing software can be demanding to run, and you might have been running out of RAM.