I was recently looking into buying a display graphic tablet for more precise texture/2d work. I have experience with tablets like the wacom intuos, but I really want to step up and buy a tablet with display. I’d use it for blender, substance painter and paint tool sai.
I don’t have a big budget right now so I was thinking a 200-300€ would be ideal. I’ve looked at some tablets by huion and xp-pen and they all seem to be what I’m looking for (wacom is way out of budget for now)… The only problem is that they all seem to have some kind of technical problems.
Mostly from what I’ve seen there seem to be a lot of reported issues with cable/driver/power settings, tablets or pens stopping to work after some months of use, also the new windows 10 update seems to mess with the xp-pen driver (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuKi8VdAnio).
My question is simply if it’s worth it? If so which one should I go for?
Huion user here. I have been using a Kamvas 22 plus for seven or eight months, and I haven’t experienced any of those problems. I remember having these drivers issues with another Huion tablet (no display) but that was five or six years ago and in the meantime I had a couple Huion tablets, so at least for me the problem seems to be solved. This doesn’t mean that these issues are gone, so maybe you want to be sure to have easy access to spare parts.
For me using the tablet was a big boost in precision and speed, and I needed a second display anyways, so I’m happy with it. But ergonomically is awful, and I had to change my desk to make space for it. These are factors you should consider before buying.
Also, with your budget, you are probably looking at the 13" models and for Painter and SAI that size should be enough. But I’m not completely sure about using blender in such small screens as the UI could get a bit cluttered. A collegue have a Kamvas 13" and she is using it with blender but as a dettached second viewport, having the interface in her main monitor. If you are used to use Blender in a notebook screen maybe you won’t notice any difference, but if you don’t it could be annoying.
Just bought the Xp Pen 13 Pro. It is quite good and has a great red dial that can be used for any keystroke assignment. Did not notice any driver issue.
thanks for the replies, these two options really do suit me so I’ll probably go with either the huion kamvas 13 or the xp-pen artist 13 pro (just need to read the full manuals before I can decide), I guess I was just a bit paranoid
Did you consider to try a used one. In my experience there are a very high number of user who buyed a new one, tried it for some hours anf gave up. You have to practice some time because your pen isn’t in your view, you are looking elsewhere. Some people expect too much from it und resell them cheap.
I did and I guess if I found one that would be great but I have a bit of an geographical problem… there aren’t many used tablets that I could find right now. I looked at some other countries like Germany, the UK and USA (the shipping fees are way too expensive for USA) and couldn’t find any used display tablets that are in my budget. I checked amazon only though so if you have any suggestions where else to look I’d be happy to check. I need to add that I’m from Slovenia and for some reason a lot of stuff just doesn’t get shipped here
Just look at this crazy shipping fee for a kamvas pro 13:
Uhhh yes, this seems to be a problem and i’m sorry: I just read tablet and you want a display tablet, then off course my advice is a bit of nonsense . You want a working one and warranty, then the recommendations of the others are more fitting. Have a nice day.
also a huion 22 plus user here … im very happy with it , though blender and krita sometimes lost the pen pressure after pc sleep(i never turn off programs or pc , i just put it to sleep ) with the v14 driver. with the v15 driver everything is perfect.
a much smaller tablet probably wont work for blender.
and for digital painting the size is awesome too. would be hard to go back to a smaller one now
. You want a working one and warranty, then the recommendations of the others are more fitting. Have a nice day.