Who made me the boss of digital art threads here? I guess I just ganked the job, but nevertheless, this thread might prove helpful for many.
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY UNDER $400
iPad 32GB (2018)
This might be technically a bit over $400 with purchase of Apple Pencil gen 1, but it's close enough in my book since you can still find the 32GB iPad for less than the $330 listed price from Apple on Amazon. The $100 Apple Pencil of course is totally necessary so I don't even consider it an accessory. Yes, you will look goofy as F charging it but when you are done charging that Pencil, you just load up Clip Studio Paint Pro ($5 per month) and you are fucking jamming out sketches and paintings on the go. Don't let them fancy kids with iPad Pros make fun of ya for the unlaminated screen nor the 60Hz refresh of the screen. Threaten to bend their pansy ass tablets and they will scurry off clutching their fragile and expensive gear very very gently.
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $400~$799
Lenovo Yoga 730 13.3"
Yeah, this is also listed over $800 at Lenovo's site but Best Buy constantly seems to sell it under $800 so it wins. No, it doesn't have 90+% Adobe RGB screen, nor super super retina action but it does rock Wacom AES 2.0 digitizer on that 1080p screen which is perfectly fine for the size. For me it's all about the pen action, and the fact that this thing at that price rocks AES 2.0 digitizer and gives you quad for i5, 8GB of RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD makes it a fucking great deal IMO. You do need to purchase that AES 2.0 pen with second coil for tilt separately but Lenovo only charges $60 so buy 2 if you want! But one will be fine though. Don't cheap out and get the older Pen Pro for $33. They work fine but no tilt action...
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $800~$1399
Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 15.6"
I wish Samsung wasn't so fucking Samsung and made this thing less expensive and more upgradable. I wish they weren't so damn cheap and paid Wacom to make the Feel driver available for it. But nevertheless, it is the only Wacom EMR device under $2500 with this size screen. And even without Feel driver, the EMR feel is still great. It would be absolute DREAM with the driver, but again, Samsung will Samsung. But you do get a huge EMR able screen with quad core i7, 16GB of RAM, 256 NVMe SSD and discrete AMD GPU so it not nothing you know? But it could be perfection with that Feel driver...
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $1400~$1999
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Tablet 3rd Gen
This is a Surface Pro clone that is in many ways better than Surface Pro, especially for art, with superior Wacom AES 2.0 digitizer over MPP 1.8 of SP6. You get bigger screen too at 13", but it's 3:2 like Surface Pro (3000x2000 IPS). Unlike Surface Pro, the pen and the detachable KB is in the box. Unfortunately the included pen might be one without the second coil for tilt, but you can buy that one separately for $60. Specced out for around $1800 gets you quad core i7, 16GB of RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD. And unlike the Surface Pro, you can easily get in the back and replace that SSD later! And did I mention them Thunderbolt USB-C ports? Nice...
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $2001~$3000
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme / P1
This is my favorite art thingy of 2018. It's got 15.6" 4K high gamut IPS screen with Wacom AES 2.0, Hexacore i7 (or optional Xeons for P1), 2 SoDIMM slots (64GB max), 2 NVMe slots (!!), GTX 1050Ti with 4GB of DDR5 (or optional Quadros for P1), all for starting price under 2K! Add the AES 2.0 tilt pen for $60 you have the best pen based mobile workstation PERIOD. No, it doesn't yoga, but the screen does lie flat so whatever. You simply can't compete with this thing in pen land, nor even 4lbs or less laptop land. This thing destroys Macbook Pro, even before you bring the pen and the value into the equation. LONG LIVE THE KING! (until next year at least)
X1 Extreme link
Thinkpad P1 link
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY UNDER $400
iPad 32GB (2018)
This might be technically a bit over $400 with purchase of Apple Pencil gen 1, but it's close enough in my book since you can still find the 32GB iPad for less than the $330 listed price from Apple on Amazon. The $100 Apple Pencil of course is totally necessary so I don't even consider it an accessory. Yes, you will look goofy as F charging it but when you are done charging that Pencil, you just load up Clip Studio Paint Pro ($5 per month) and you are fucking jamming out sketches and paintings on the go. Don't let them fancy kids with iPad Pros make fun of ya for the unlaminated screen nor the 60Hz refresh of the screen. Threaten to bend their pansy ass tablets and they will scurry off clutching their fragile and expensive gear very very gently.
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $400~$799
Lenovo Yoga 730 13.3"
Yeah, this is also listed over $800 at Lenovo's site but Best Buy constantly seems to sell it under $800 so it wins. No, it doesn't have 90+% Adobe RGB screen, nor super super retina action but it does rock Wacom AES 2.0 digitizer on that 1080p screen which is perfectly fine for the size. For me it's all about the pen action, and the fact that this thing at that price rocks AES 2.0 digitizer and gives you quad for i5, 8GB of RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD makes it a fucking great deal IMO. You do need to purchase that AES 2.0 pen with second coil for tilt separately but Lenovo only charges $60 so buy 2 if you want! But one will be fine though. Don't cheap out and get the older Pen Pro for $33. They work fine but no tilt action...
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $800~$1399
Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 15.6"
I wish Samsung wasn't so fucking Samsung and made this thing less expensive and more upgradable. I wish they weren't so damn cheap and paid Wacom to make the Feel driver available for it. But nevertheless, it is the only Wacom EMR device under $2500 with this size screen. And even without Feel driver, the EMR feel is still great. It would be absolute DREAM with the driver, but again, Samsung will Samsung. But you do get a huge EMR able screen with quad core i7, 16GB of RAM, 256 NVMe SSD and discrete AMD GPU so it not nothing you know? But it could be perfection with that Feel driver...
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $1400~$1999
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Tablet 3rd Gen
This is a Surface Pro clone that is in many ways better than Surface Pro, especially for art, with superior Wacom AES 2.0 digitizer over MPP 1.8 of SP6. You get bigger screen too at 13", but it's 3:2 like Surface Pro (3000x2000 IPS). Unlike Surface Pro, the pen and the detachable KB is in the box. Unfortunately the included pen might be one without the second coil for tilt, but you can buy that one separately for $60. Specced out for around $1800 gets you quad core i7, 16GB of RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD. And unlike the Surface Pro, you can easily get in the back and replace that SSD later! And did I mention them Thunderbolt USB-C ports? Nice...
BEST ART COMPUTER/TABLET THINGY $2001~$3000
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme / P1
This is my favorite art thingy of 2018. It's got 15.6" 4K high gamut IPS screen with Wacom AES 2.0, Hexacore i7 (or optional Xeons for P1), 2 SoDIMM slots (64GB max), 2 NVMe slots (!!), GTX 1050Ti with 4GB of DDR5 (or optional Quadros for P1), all for starting price under 2K! Add the AES 2.0 tilt pen for $60 you have the best pen based mobile workstation PERIOD. No, it doesn't yoga, but the screen does lie flat so whatever. You simply can't compete with this thing in pen land, nor even 4lbs or less laptop land. This thing destroys Macbook Pro, even before you bring the pen and the value into the equation. LONG LIVE THE KING! (until next year at least)
X1 Extreme link
Thinkpad P1 link
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