What's the best tablet/tablet brand? (For art tablets)

[YunnaZee]

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Hi everyone, recently my Wacom manga tablet (like the cheapest they offer) decided to begin its downward fall from grace after about 6 or so years.
I'm in the market for a new tablet on a budget that is way to cheap for most Wacom products, and am looking for some advice on tablet brands, which are the best and which are the worst so I know what to avoid.

On a Side Note

While my tablet is still working I'm offering discounted commissions on single manga pages, chibis, character artwork and more to help raise money for the new one when it's decided on. If you are interested please feel free to message me.

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[VibrantFox]

ive been using the old wacom intuos small for the past 5+ years, im not sure if they're still available through wacom's shop i know that they're at least pricing below 100(usd)

the only other brand i've used is vistab which was an off brand but still worked okay. it doesn't have the fancy wide range sensitivity that wacom offers but does get the job done. the one i had is kaput now but i think it ran for about 60(usd) back when my mom got it for me

hope you can find something that works

[BobbyjoeX]

i hear Huion is a decent brand

[Rhonder]

So far I've had 2 tablets: a Wacom bamboo from ~2012 and just recently I upgraded into a Huion kamvas gt-191.

I can vouch for even wacom's cheaper models being pretty good! That bamboo still works, and really the only reasons I upgraded was for a screen display and more sensitivity range.

I've only had the Huion one a few months, so I can't speak to its longevity yet, but drawing with it is awesome @u@ the screen makes a huge difference in accuracy with like inking and stuff, and it has like 8x the pressure sensitivity of my bamboo too, which is also a huge difference.

[Baguette]

To build on @VibrantFox, I also use a wacom intuos. I have a medium and I bought it used but as a "certified refurbished" product on amazon (they cleaned up and tested the product to make sure it's properly operational, and i think this also includes a warranty) for only $70. I got it summer of 2017 and it still works perfectly now, the only big issue having been that I lost the pen at one point and had to order a replacement for $30. I do occasionally have to restart the laptop to get the tablet driver to cooperate but that's a problem with a lot of tablets, so it's not really notable. Overall I would definitely recommend it- decent size, standard pressure sensitivity, and not very pricey.

[kip]

I’ve only ever used wacom (bamboo for ~4 ish years and then a cintiq for about the same, the change done not because the tablet was unusable so much as I needed something with higher sensibility & wanted a screentablet)
For cheap alternatives I’ve heard Huion does a good-ish job, @LortiaMJB has one iirc, otherwise I’m not too sure.
When it comes to graphic tablets I wouldn’t dip below $100, they’re going to serve you daily for years and years, you’d want at least a semi-good quality right?

I do occasionally have to restart the laptop to get the tablet driver to cooperate but that's a problem with a lot of tablets, so it's not really notable.

As a sidenote, you can go into Services and restart wacom from there, it takes a lot less time & effort than restarting the computer and 99% of the tim does the trick !

[LortiaMJB]

Huion and XP-pen are currently leading the quality to price market. Recently I got an XP-pen for only $50 on Amazon that is the same size and has the same specs as an Wacom Intuos Pro does!

Of course it was on discount, but the thing was still only $90 originally. I can definitely recommend looking into those. I'm using a Huion GT-190S myself, which is around $500 but is a pen display rather than just a tablet.

[punkarsenic]

ive been using the huion h610 pro for a few years now - bought for £50 - and its a good reliable tablet that rivals or surpasses similar series wacoms.

[craftymarten]

I love my Huion. I have the Kamvas GT 191 too.
I went through 2 intuos tablets and 3 pens before I gave up, there's issues with the charging port that wacom hasn't fixed in years and I kept having to take the battery out of my last one and charge it manually.
You can get the Huion H610 for less than the wacom pen which is another thing that kept breaking so I went with that one first, the driver was slightly bugged with some things (drawing straight lines in particular) but most of the wacom drivers bugged on some things too.
I've had no problems at all with the kamvas driver except that sometimes if I put my computer on sleep mode instead of shutting it down it acts a bit funny.

Edit- I should also say that I've had issues with wacom customer service so this review is 100% biased

[faeriesandents]

I know the feeling when it comes to wacom, had an Intuos Pro M for half a year and then it just died because of the power cord connector... So sad and honestly a waste of money.

My Huion has been working for 2 years now without a hitch, so yeah, slightly biased too

[akiocha]

I would say that if you want longevity, invest and buy a wacom.

if you want something cheaper/try out a type of tablet but won't last as long get a huion.

My bamboo and intuos wacom lasted me 5 and 10+ years without a hitch respectively and only broke because the cable unraveled. i probably could have just replaced the cable. wacom is really expensive though, so it's like, once you buy it, that's your baby for the next 5-10 years haha.

I tested out a huion 11q to see if the hype was really real, and whether it was any good. I can say that it draws just as well if not better than a wacom but it isn't high quality and you can tell. i started getting glitches as early as 6 months in and i'm currently at the 1 1/2 year mark and i'm starting to itch at getting a new tablet. not because it doesn't work, but because it does weird things with my mac. glitches. sometimes won't work and i'll have to restart the program and it'll work. all in all, it feels great, but the glitches do add up and sometimes i just wished it ran smoother.

So conclusion: if you're serious about it and want a solid long term tablet, get wacom. if you just want something for the next 2 years get huion. i'd still suggest it cause its just so much cheaper.

[Draconic]

I'm using a Cintiq Pro 13 right now.
Is Wacom expensive? Yes. - Is it worth it? also Yes.
Is Wacom overpriced? Yes and No. The quality justify the higher price than it should be.

If you're working on to become a professional artist, don't cheap out with your tools.
Only cheaping out when you're having a financial problem.

I started my artistic hobby with a cheap Bamboo tablet btw.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I'll be brief because I understand OP is not looking for a pen display (although if money comes available I think going from tablet to pen display may an excellent decision. Tablets almost managed to put me off digital painting forever but that's another topic).

I have the Huion Kamvas GT-156HD and it went through 14 plane flights (including some rough handling at security), only protected in a shoe bag, without any damage. I bought the smallish one to be able to travel with it and I'm really super happy about how strong it is physically; although I don't have it long enough to know how durable it is in term of electronics.

[lil-sea-salt]

get a used intuos medium tablet.

[HGohwell]

I've got a Huion GT220 so display rather than tablet tablet, which I brought after a lot of research and it came in at half the price of even bottom level Wacom displays. Huion is definitely the way to go for price vs quality balance. As for longevity, I've had it several years now (3 or 4 I can't quite remember) and not had a single problem with it.

[Daknight]

Been using the HUION H610PRO for a year plus now and loving it. The only thing I don't like is the cable connecting toward the computer, is on position where you might be touching it (near the quick buttons). But as for his durability and work is really great!