XP-PEN Deco01 V2 Graphics Drawing Tablet

This is a great drawing tablet for beginners because it's cheap and also sensitive enough that whatever you gesture with the pen is almost always what will appear in your art software. There is a slight learning curve with how to hold the pen and how much pressure to use, but once you've done a bit of drawing it should become second nature.If you've never used one of these basic drawing tablets before then I can tell you straight away that tablets with built in screens are superior for most things, but entry level drawing tablets like this one are the best way to figure out whether you actually want to use a tablet at all. Why do I say this? For some reason, some people are just better with mouse and keyboard. You really need to know how a tablet feels before you can say it's for you. You might end up feeling like the tablet provides no benefit to you over mouse and keyboard, and if that's the case then you won't have spent a lot of money figuring that out when you buy a basic drawing tablet like this one.If you buy this tablet and enjoy using it but later feel like you're missing something then you can upgrade to a tablet with a screen and draw your art directly, rather than feeling a bit disconnected looking at a screen that's not in the same place as where your hand is gesturing. It's a difficult thing to get used to if you're already confident with pen and paper, which is why a lot of people do prefer the screen tablets, but obviously they're much more expensive. If you don't draw with pen and paper and are starting out digitally then this might not be a problem for you at all.If you buy this tablet and feel like it's doing the job then there's no reason to upgrade to a screen tablet, as long as you feel like your art is being produced as fast as possible and without any resistance. I bought this tablet and produced some art which was very rewarding to me but I also found it difficult and time consuming because as I said before, there's a disconnect between what's on screen and what's in your mind and about to be drawn with your hand which is not in view of the screen. I eventually bought a screen tablet as well, which felt easier to use but took some time to set up because it's actually a monitor and requires cloning the main computer screen whereas a basic drawing tablet is just an input device to replace your mouse. Each device has its own quirks, I suppose.After using both types of tablet, I tend to prefer line work on a screen tablet, but have no problem switching back to this basic tablet for shading. This basic drawing tablet weighs less and is quick to set up, so despite having a screen tablet, I would not want to get rid of this basic drawing tablet because it's still useful to me.I know this review hasn't really told you much about the quality of the product because I feel like the product is not what most people are really curious about at this price range, they just want to know a bit more about how things work because in most cases they're a first time user. I can say though, that this product is punching above it's weight and the box contains everything you need to get started, all constructed out of decent materials. I find it hard to believe anyone would be disappointed with this drawing tablet, based on the quality and value.

Received this product today, so will write a more comprehensive review in about one month's time so will give a general star rating for now until I have an idea of how well it works compared to my other tablet.Delivery: Was able to track package very accurately with frequent updates up to the time of delivery.Packaging: Came in original box with plastic over box where stickers were applied for address etc..Contents: Tablet, glove, pen, pen holder and 8 nibs, tablet screen protector, user manual, guide for android & IOS devices, guide for android & IOS computers, cable, micro USB adaptor and a thank you card from XP pen to customer.General: No issues downloading drivers, or adjusting settings.Usability: This drawing tablet is on par with and works as well as the Wacom tablet that we had before. It is much less plug and play than Wacom. The programmable hot keys are nice but not entirely necessarily as if you are not learning your workflow, you won't find yourself using it over the keyboard. Still the option is nice to have. Except for the buttons on the pen that are squishy and not immediately responsive and sometimes don't work as well as they should. Apart from that, the pen works fine. All in all just as good as the Wacom Bamboo series. Exceptionally good product for the price.

I've used graphics tablets for everything -- complete mouse replacement, generally -- for many years.The brand you already heard about -- remain the best and most expensive.Most of the alternatives, in the past few years, have been okay but the stylus has required power -- usually a AAA battery and occasionally something rechargeable -- which is fine but adds weight.XP-Pen now make tablets that come with a passive stylus. Which is the thing that the Big Brand have had forever and was one of the main benefits. So this had to be worth a try, particularly since my previous tablet was getting a bit unreliable.So the good stuff: the tablet comes with a protective, translucent sheet (also handy for tracing) and the whole thing is responsive, easy to install, configure and use (once you've switched off its default setting of using Windows Ink, anyway) and has a nicely professional look.The bad stuff: if you're anything like me, you're going to need to configure two of the customisable buttons on the side of the tablet to replace the buttons on the stylus.I can't easily pin down exactly why the stylus doesn't quite work for me. It might be something as simple as the positioning of the buttons; they might be slightly too hard to press, there might be something not quite right about the driver. Whatever the cause is, if you use a button on the stylus, it causes the pointer to move slightly before the action you intended happens -- which can mean you right-click (if that's the action you have mapped to the button) somewhere slightly different than you intended.I'm used to mapping middle-click to a tablet button. But I've never had problems with my preferred button mappings before (the front button is double-click, the back is right-click) in any tablet I've ever had, from any manufacturer apart from XP-Pen.The tablet's good enough that I've decided to live with it, in the hope that it proves to be a driver issue and they notice and fix it. But it's the only thing that prevents me from giving it a whole-hearted recommendation, sadly.