PC Weenies Mailbag: On Tablets and Stylii

Time for another PC Weenies Mailbag. This note comes from Susana Ferreira, who writes:

I’ve tablet pen problem, you see, I love creating comics, sketches or even animating. What I’ve now is Wacom Intuos3 A4 Tablet Pen, and I’m wondering which the newer ones are good and worth the price or lower, if it’s possible. Because I’ve seen small ones to carry and ones they’ll be like your computer screen. But out of curiosity I wanna know in your point of view, of which ones are best tablets so far.

Great question, Susana. There are a three factors you have to consider when scouting out a digital drawing device. They are, in no particular order: size, budget, and reliability.

I have used every Intuos tablet from the Intuos2 to the Intuos5. They are solid, reliable devices. The Intuos3, which you have, is a solid drawing device. The question I will pose is this: What limitations do you currently feel you have with your current tablet?

The Intuos4 and Intuos5 models offer better pressure sensitivity and touch screen input options. For me, the touch screen input wasn’t so much of a big deal. But the increased pressure sensitivity was a good enough reason for me to upgrade. An alternative to Wacom comes in the form of Monoprice tablets, which my friend Ray Frenden has thoroughly reviewed.

As a tablet user for many, many years, I made the switch away from Wacom drawing devices this year in favor of the Yiynova Tablet Monitor MSP19U.

You can read my first impressions and some follow-up thoughts after using the device for a three months. In summary, I love being able to draw directly on the screen. I work much faster this way, and it would be stepping down a few notches to go back to using a stand-alone “screen less” tablet. The Yiynova MSP19U is about $600 and is substantially cheaper in cost than a comparable Wacom branded Cintiq. It’s a great digital drawing device, with a few limitations (viewing angle is my foremost gripe with the MSP19U, but it’s not a deal-breaker).

Word on the digital grapevine is that in a few months, Yiynova will launch a 22″ model – so my advice would be to wait and see what comes out before committing to the MSP19U.

-Krishna

Krishna July 6, 2013 digital drawing tools, stylus, tablet, Wacom