Why should you buy a drawing tablet? If you’re a digital artist, you’re likely familiar with the various tools of the trade. You might have a basic graphics tablet kicking around. However, this might not be the choice for your work or your comfort. The answer could very well lie in a drawing tablet.
What Is a Drawing Tablet?
A drawing tablet is a device that takes your pen inputs and translates them to digital output. You’ll typically find these catering to digital artists, which makes sense given the name. These are similar in concept to a graphics tablet, but they might have more artist-specific functionality.
You can expect to find things like palm rejection, pressure sensitivity, and tilt sensitivity when looking at one. These help to better translate the skills and techniques of physical art to the digital domain. A drawing tablet might not be as immediate as a pen, paint, or pencil, but it is a lot more portable as a whole.
Reasons to Buy a Drawing Tablet
Are you wondering why you need a drawing tablet? Check out our reasons to buy a drawing tablet and read about some of our favorites.
The Durability
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A drawing tablet is built to take a beating. If you’re using a fragile device to create your digital art, it can be nerve-wracking when applying pressure to simulate harder strokes from a pen or brush. Instead, with a drawing tablet this is barely a consideration. These are devices that are tailor-made for pressure, with durable screens and casings.
If you drop one, it might cause some damage, but there are carrying cases as you can imagine. As a whole one of the strongest reasons to buy a drawing tablet comes down to its overall construction. This is more of a universal thought, as an iPad Pro might prove to be less durable than a Cintiq if it slides off your desk.
Larger Screen Sizes
Creating digital art can be a limitless and mess-free experience. However, you want to have ample room for creating your digital art. This means you’ve got to have a screen size that accommodates the work itself as well as your hands. One of the best reasons to buy a drawing tablet comes down to the overall size of the screen.
You’ll want a screen size of eight inches or larger, which thankfully fits the bill for most drawing tablets. That gives you ample room to see what you’re working on while making room for your hands and the stylus itself. You could certainly save a bundle and go for a smaller tablet, but that might prove to be an uncomfortable and cumbersome experience as a whole.
They Can Be Budget Friendly
The prices for these devices can range all over the place. However, you can find a drawing tablet for all budgets. As such, this can be one of the strongest reasons you’ll find to buy a drawing tablet. Sure, not everyone is going to splash out for the latest and greatest iPad Pro, but you have options depending on the price point.
You aren’t stuck with just a massive expenditure. This makes drawing tablets a great fit for digital artists of all economic means, as you could readily purchase one depending on your budget and needs. This is a far cry from just a few short years ago when these devices were very much just luxury items.
Stylus Quality
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The aforementioned reasons are all well and good, but that means nothing if the tablets aren’t pleasant to use. Thankfully, most drawing tablets have superb stylus options. Consider the second-generation Apple Pencil, which is one of the most accurate stylus choices you can make. You also get the benefit of using it as a method of navigating the device with overall more precision than your finger.
The stylus quality for even budget drawing tablets is going to be leaps and bounds over drawing with your mouse or input devices. As such, this should be one of your top reasons to aim for a drawing tablet. You’re simply getting a better overall art-creating experience when choosing one with a good quality stylus.
Superb Battery Life
The final of the strongest reasons to buy a drawing tablet comes down to battery life. Having a portable device means you’ll be dependent upon how long the battery can run. Thankfully, most battery-operated drawing tablets come with a fair amount of power to keep those marathon sessions going as long as possible.
If you’re choosing a dedicated tablet like an iPad, you’ve got a minimum of hours, with four hours being the norm under intensive use. You could very well expect that number to shoot up to ten hours, depending on your usage, the display settings, and a few other factors.
The Best Drawing Tablets to Buy
Here are four of our favorite drawing tablets.
Xencelabs Tablet
- The active area of 10.33 x 5.8 inches has a 16:9 aspect ratio
- Battery-free digital pens come with 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
- Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux
- Wireless or USB
- Approximately 16 hours of continuous use per full charge
The Xencelabs Tablet doesn’t come with a dedicated display. However, given the price point, you can forgive it. This is one serious drawing tablet that packs a ton of value into its $279.99 asking price. You’ve got up to 8192 levels of pressure, tilt support, and support for all major computer operating systems.
Battery life is great on the Xencelabs Tablet at 16 hours of continuous use on a full charge. Another strong selling point of this device is the stylus, which doesn’t use batteries so you can use it for hours on end with zero issues. If you’re looking for a great mid-range option, the Xencelabs is the one to pick.
iPad Pro
- 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion, True Tone, and P3 wide color
- M2 chip with 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU
- 12MP Wide camera, 10MP Ultra Wide back camera, and LiDAR Scanner for immersive AR
- Wi-Fi 6E connectivity
- 256 GB memory storage capacity
The latest iPad Pro is the Rolls Royce of drawing tablets. You’re going to be spending a bundle to get this device, but you’re getting a ton of functionality. Unfortunately, the second-generation Apple Pencil is an additional purchase, but it is absolutely worth it.
What makes the iPad Air one of the most compelling drawing tablets to get is the Apple ecosystem. You have a plethora of art apps like Procreate, Affinity, Photoshop, ArtRage, and so many others to choose from. In most cases, you can also use the iPad Pro to export your work to your desktop or laptop for fine-tuning and color grading work.
Wacom Cintiq 22
- Full HD 21.5-inch display
- 8192 pressure-sensitive Pro Pen 2
- Compatible with Mac OS Windows
- HDMI and USB connectivity
- Additional stand included
If you’re after a premium experience that you can readily use on your Mac or PC, the Cintiq 22 is worth a look. You’ve got a massive 22-inch drawing surface, that is also an external display. Given that this screen dwarfs the likes of most laptop displays, you’ve got plenty of room to work here.
The price is overall higher than some options you’ll find. However, when it gets down to it, this is a flexible and reliable option. Wacom has been in the market for drawing tablets for literal decades at this point. Simply put, if you’re a professional artist, this is a must-have for your toolkit.
iPad Air
- 10.9-inch screen (2360 x 1640 pixels)
- 64GB memory storage capacity
- Apple M1 8-core CPU chip with 8-core GPU and Neural Engine
- Compatible with Smart Keyboard Folio and Magic Keyboard
- Supports Apple Pencil 2nd-gen
If the iPad Pro is a little too much for your needs, the latest iPad Air can handle the same workloads. It features the same Apple Silicon processor found in modern MacBooks but with a little less RAM. You’ve still got access to the same great art apps and the Apple Pencil.
The iPad Air is a fantastic choice, but you’ll have to contend with a lower refresh rate when creating digital art. It has a native screen refresh rate of 60Hz, compared to the far more responsive iPad Pro. However, you’re paying roughly half the price to get 90% of the functionality of an 11-inch iPad Pro, so that can be forgiven.
Closing Thoughts
So, should you get a drawing tablet? If you take digital art seriously, they are worth considering. You’ll find digital art creation is far more affordable than it used to be. While it used to be the realm of serious professionals, it now allows people from all walks of life to actively participate in the medium. With a drawing tablet, it just makes things easier and more fun as a whole.
| Reasons to Buy a Drawing Tablet Summary |
|---|
| 1. Drawing tablets can be more durable than graphics tablets as a whole. |
| 2. The larger screen size aids in creating digital art. |
| 3. Some budget choices can be quite affordable. |
| 4. The quality of the stylus can be superb compared to third-party solutions. |
| 5. Drawing tablets can have fantastic battery life. |
- $279.99Buy Now
- The active area of 10.33 x 5.8 inches has a 16:9 aspect ratio
- Battery-free digital pens come with 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
- Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux
- Wireless or USB
- Approximately 16 hours of continuous use per full charge
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
11/29/2023 11:53 pm GMT - $1,181.95Buy Now on Amazon
- 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion, True Tone, and P3 wide color
- M2 chip with 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU
- 12MP Wide camera, 10MP Ultra Wide back camera, and LiDAR Scanner for immersive AR
- Wi-Fi 6E connectivity
- 256 GB memory storage capacity
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
11/29/2023 11:53 pm GMT - $1,249.95Buy Now
- Full HD 21.5-inch display
- 8192 pressure-sensitive Pro Pen 2
- Compatible with Mac OS Windows
- HDMI and USB connectivity
- Additional stand included
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
11/30/2023 12:03 am GMT - $559.00Buy Now on Amazon
- 10.9-inch screen (2360 x 1640 pixels)
- 64GB memory storage capacity
- Apple M1 8-core CPU chip with 8-core GPU and Neural Engine
- Compatible with Smart Keyboard Folio and Magic Keyboard
- Supports Apple Pencil 2nd-gen
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
11/30/2023 12:08 am GMT
The image featured at the top of this post is ©REDPIXEL.PL/Shutterstock.com.
