XP-PenDeco 02 Graphics Drawing Tablet With Hexagonal Design Stylus & 6 Shortcut Keys 8192 Levels Pressure

I'd never heard of XP-Pen before buying this product. I've used a lot of tablets from different brands before picking this one up and honestly a lot of the design elements appear, at face value, bizarre. So much so that I had to try it.I'm genuinely very impressed with the result. I can't speak for the lifespan of this tablet but so far I'm incredibly happy with it.The packaging is sleek and quirky, which you want in a product over $100, and a lot of the features seem stylish in person. It has nice little quality touches - such as a nice opening lid and the fact that the cables are reusable velcro (not wire and plastic) ties, that make it feel like a quality product. The only fault I could find with the packaging is that they don't give you the direct download link to the correct driver but instead a link to their general downloads web page. You need the most recent Deco driver and it isn't hard to find or install, just a little confusing if you've never had to do it before. Aside from that I really love it!The tablet itself is very light in weight for the size and, even though it's a little smaller than my current tablet, I haven't felt too bereft of workable area when using it. If a large drawing area is important to you that is something to consider. As for the buttons on the tablet - they work fine but are pretty standard if a little noisier than I expected.It's the metal roller wheel (the hole in the tablet) that steals the show. This can be used to scroll web pages, change volume and zoom in and out of drawing software very intuitively. It feels responsive and satisfying and I can see myself using it a lot, which is surprising because when I ordered it I couldn’t really imagine what it would be useful for. They do have these in more expensive brand tablets that I've used in the past so I was surprised to see it in a tablet going for half the price. Because it physically spins this one is really satisfying to work with, plus it looks cool. Definitely the selling point of this tablet.The pen itself is also really great. Lots of other tablets come with either a strap to hold your pen or an ink well. The Deco 02 comes with a full pen tube, I think for travel purposes? To stop you from losing it? I thought the pen container was going to be the most intriguing part, but actually I'm really impressed with the pen itself. Xp-pen advertise that their pen is hexagonal and feels like a real pencil - which is true. This tablet pen is the size of and feels like holding a normal pencil. It's tiny. I genuinely don't know how they did it. Additionally, it has an eraser on the end so while drawing you just flip it and erase, another feature I've seen in pricier tablets. The pen pressure is an upgrade for me and I haven’t noticed any lagging or glitching at the edges of the tablet when drawing.One thing to note is that, because it's literally the size of a pencil, the right-click button on the side of the pen is built into it, rather than being a raised button. If you're new to using it (or have really large fingers) this means it might be hard to find and click. But I really like it, it’s the coolest pen I've ever used in a tablet.Another thing to note is that when plugging the cable in you have to push it in until it clicks. I spent 20 minutes thinking I had a connectivity error when really I just hadn’t plugged the cable in correctly. It feels a little terrifying to shove cables into your nice brand new tablet but that's how it works.Overall, I'm really impressed with this tablet. I had genuinely no idea what to expect and I'm pleasantly surprised. I was lucky enough to get money off on this tablet as it was on sale, and if you’ve never used a graphics tablet before it's full price it can seem a little steep. But if you want a tablet with these kind of features, like the roller wheel and pen, I know I could be paying twice the price for them.This does come at the cost of workable space, especially if you like a large canvas to draw on. But for me personally, who doesn't have a fixed desk and moves around a lot, this tablet is a good middle ground. Lightweight and small enough to have on my lap if needed, but not cramped for my hand.Very happy!

I currently use a Wacom Bamboo Touch, but was looking for something just a little bit bigger, and a bit more modern looking. I went with the XP-PEN Deco 02 as I liked the idea of the wheel, and the price was good.I'm a long time Linux user, so I wasn't sure if the Deco 02 would work with Linux, but it MOSTLY does. OK, the wheel doesn't work (currently) in Linux, but the professional look of the tablet, and the design of the pen, more than makes up for it. Let's face it, you buy a graphics tablet for the pressure sensitivity. As long as that works I'm good. I always use the keyboard for shortcuts anyway.The tablet is nice and thin with the wheel middle left which has three shortcut buttons above it, and three below it. Supplied is a lime green rubber 'plug' which fits into the hole in the wheel giving you a knob to turn for whatever you assign to the wheel.The pen is shaped more like a traditional hexagonal pencil (which I REALLY like), battery-free and made of a nice firm rubber with plenty of grip to it. It has a nib already fitted, an eraser on the other end, and a customisable button in the middle of the pen. It comes in a nice hard storage tube which feels like it's made of metal. One end unscrews to take the pen in/out of the storage tube, and the other end of the tube unscrews to give you access to the eight spare nibs. If you use a tablet as much as I do then you always need spare nibs.A nice touch is that the tablet comes with a drawing glove. It's essentially a glove that covers the last two fingers of your hand to stop your hand smearing the tablet (or screen as you'd see in some devices).Pressure sensitivity (in Linux anyway) can be adjusted in your chosen software. I mostly use MyPaint and it has a line graph in settings to adjust pressure sensitivity.This tablet is definitely worth the money. Even with the wheel not working in Linux it still elbows out my (now old) Wacom Bamboo Touch. It can take a while to adjust your drawing to the many levels of pressure sensitivity this tablet has, but once you have the right settings in your software it's a joy to use.NOTE: I've asked XP-PEN and they're currently working on a Linux driver (currently in beta and downloadable from their site) which we can but hope will make the wheel work in Linux. If, for whatever reason, your distro doesn't detect the Deco 02, you can try installing the DIGImend drivers to see if that helps.