Recommended Pen Tablet Display (that ISN'T built by WACOM) for professional use?

[Protoman200X]

I work in the animation industry as a designer and storyboard artist, & I'll be starting a new contract in the upcoming months.

Unfortunately, my old WACOM tablet from 2011 has gone kaput (which was unreliable to begin with one technical mishap after an other), and I'm looking for more reliable alternative that 1) Doesn't break the bank & 2) The driver software is fully compatible with Windows 10 and won't be a butt if I put my computer on sleep mode or open another program. Oh, and the company that manufactures said product has solid customer support and doesn't treat you like a peasant (such as the case with WACOM failing to repair my display and their drivers not being 100% compatible with Windows 10).

I've been eyeing on the Artisul D22S & Huion GT-191, but I would like an honest opinion on what would be a solid replacement for my crappy pen display, as I would like to continue having the option to work at home if I can't go to the studio for the daily 9-5 grind. (I'm not interested with the 2018 iPad Pro and accompanying pencil, as I love my work space to be abundant and NOT develop hand cramps on working on a tiny display.)

Any suggestions?

 

[Ghos]

good place to start

Digital Art Hardware/Software ERA [OT]

Hello Era, I'm continuing the Art Tablet hardware deal thread from the old place into a pan digital art hardware and software discussion OT. Here are some helpful info and glossary of terms for us to get started: POPULAR TYPES OF PEN TABLET DIGITIZERS: EMR - Electro Magnetic Resonance is...

www.resetera.com

 

[Epcott]

I was nearly going to say iPad Pro 10.5 or 11 inch with Apple Pencil and a textured screen protector like Paperlike would do the trick... coming from Cintiq, it was liberating. But it's iOS so that won't solve your problem and it's small.

For a Windows compatible tablet, a Surface Pro 3 (around $800) or 4 ($1200) could work. I would suggest using a tactile screen protector for those as well. But again, that's small. Too bad Surface Studio costs an arm and a leg.

Good thing about a tablet is that you're not tethered to your PC, but yeah... suppose the size is not ideal.

 

[SquirrelSaysNuts]

Ask in the tablet thread before buying.

 

[EVIL]

I personally went back to a non pro intuos large. Non screen tablets are better built and have less technical issues and the improvements a screen makes to my drawing abilities are nil, plus it has more than enough pressure points and sensitivity (I actually find that anything beyond those specs are overkill and wont make a dent in translating lines from hand to screen). Aside from those points, they are also light, don't get hot and I can put them everywhere. The only plus about the intuos pro's are the pens. they are a bit bigger and have a more comfortable rubber for the fingers, which the non pro doesn't.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I personally went back to a non pro intuos large. Non screen tablets are better built and have less technical issues and the improvements a screen makes to my drawing abilities are nil, plus it has more than enough pressure points and sensitivity (I actually find that anything beyond those specs are overkill and wont make a dent in translating lines from hand to screen). Aside from those points, they are also light, don't get hot and I can put them everywhere. The only plus about the intuos pro's are the pens. they are a bit bigger and have a more comfortable rubber for the fingers, which the non pro doesn't.

Click to shrink...

Great advice! I sold my Cintiq and picked up an Intuos pro. They intuos are built like tanks and will last years. I was using an Intuos 3 from a decade a ago not too long ago.

That being said I actually picked up an xp-pen 15.6 pro for when I need to work on something more line focused vs painting.

I must say for 300 bucks, it's pretty nice. The screen is laminated, I love the little dial that you can use to zoom in and out, and the thing even came with gloves. My only issue is the initial activation force is little higher than a cintiq, but other than it's a great little tablet.

Good luck!

 

[Deleted member 1478]

I mostly use an iPad Pro now but before that I was using the XP-Pen series of drawing tablets and was impressed with them.