General Discussion

I’m in the market for a new tablet since my current one is janky as hecc. In case you’re wondering what it is it’s a huion kamvas 13. It can get over heated after a couple hours of use and the port plug will not work if the wire is moved in certain angles like a broken charger. I want to know any better tablets out there and ones from companies not using AI for obvious personal reason.

I fear you will have a lot of trouble finding a fancy/reliable tablet from companies that haven't dappled in AI. Huion has offered AI courses. Wacom uses AI in their promotional materials, and so does XP-Pen. If you've heard of a relatively popular tablet brand before, chances are they've used AI in the past.

If you want to avoid giving your money to these companies, the best thing I can suggest is buying used.

That said. I upgraded from a Huion H610 Pro V2 (no screen display, costs around $50-$60 USD) to an XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro (screen display, cost me around $450 USD on sale) a while back and have been very happy ever since. I like the display quite a bit, the rollers and hotkeys are super helpful, and a pen that doesn't need batteries OR a charging cable? Sign me up!

[quote name="BassetBites" date="2024-07-02 12:05:52" ] I fear you will have a lot of trouble finding a fancy/reliable tablet from companies that haven't dappled in AI. Huion has offered AI courses. Wacom uses AI in their promotional materials, and so does XP-Pen. If you've heard of a relatively popular tablet brand before, chances are they've used AI in the past. If you want to avoid giving your money to these companies, the best thing I can suggest is buying used. That said. I upgraded from a Huion H610 Pro V2 (no screen display, costs around $50-$60 USD) to an XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro (screen display, cost me around $450 USD on sale) a while back and have been very happy ever since. I like the display quite a bit, the rollers and hotkeys are super helpful, and a pen that doesn't need batteries OR a charging cable? Sign me up! [/quote] @BassetBites I’ll look into it, I like the idea not being hooked up to my computer/laptop since I slouch heavily on the couch most of the time when I draw.

Sorry if I'm too late— I use a PicassoTab, which is a freestanding drawing tablet! It works pretty well, it has good ratings and I myself would recommend it.

Not an "art tablet company", exactly, but I've been having a pretty good time using Sketchbook for Android on my phone which came with a built-in stylus. (Moto G Stylus, but an assortment of other Android phones also do) It's not the most precise pen in the world, but you can't beat it for portability, plus, to be honest, an Android phone / tablet with a built in stylus and a free drawing program is probably cheaper than a drawing tablet with a screen.

I'm sure there's a way to mirror your computer screen to an Android device / make it work as a drawing tablet for desktop, too, but I'm not totally sure how. I know I can mirror from my phone to my laptop with scrcpy, so presumably it goes the other way if you find the right utility. I can't help you on single-use drawing tablets -- I got the bottom of the barrel cheapest tier Wacom Intuos refurbished in 2020 and have been using it ever since.

I suspect if you want to avoid contributing money, your best option is to go used or refurbished, but if you're looking for something with a screen, consider just getting an Android tablet / big phone.

Also, if you're having cable issues, you might want to try getting a replacement cable before replacing the entire tablet. It's possible the overheating might be related too, but from what you're describing, it sounds like there are cable connection issues which should be fixed with a new cable. You can probably order one third-party.

I’ve been using a medium Xencelabs tablet for a few years. It works consistently well and I don’t think the performance is degrading (but because planned obsolesce is a thing, I don’t know if I can still say that in a few years).

I haven’t heard of it or its parent company, Ugee, ever promoting AI, but they also have never released any kind of statement on it. Apparently Ugee tablets don’t work well with the AI options in Adobe software so maybe that is a good sign :P

if you have nintendo switch, the nintnedo switch eshop has colors live and you can buy a physical copy that has a pressure sensitive pen (if you buy digital you can buy pen separately or you can use cheap stylus pen that isnt pressure sensitive)(they also sell extra spare nibs for the pen too)(you will need screen protector bc i heard it scratchs the screen)

its hard to upload art outside of the gallery bc of the twitter functionality for switch was ended (so you have to upload to facebook or to your phone or use the microsd card)

you can still access your art in the gallery through a web browser like on your computer or phone but the playbacks dont seem to work very well outside of the colors live application on switch

also you dont need switch online membership to use the colors gallery

my sister uses ipad for drawing i think