There has never been a better time to get into digital art. Whether you’re coming from a background in traditional physical media or you’re looking to learn as a beginner, there’s no shortage of digital drawing tablets to choose from.
There are so many options, especially in the budget segment, that you probably have no idea which ones are good. To get you working on your next masterpiece as quickly as possible, we’ve found some of the best affordable tablets for drawing that you can buy today.
Two Types of Drawing Tablet
There are broadly two types of drawing tablets. Standalone drawing tablets don’t have to be connected to another device, like a Mac or PC, to work. This category includes mainstream tablet computers that support a stylus, although many don’t have an integrated pen holder.
The other drawing tablet has to be connected using a cable or wireless connection to another device.
These drawing tablets may or may not have a screen of their own. The ones that don’t have their screens are a little trickier to use and more popular for photo editing, but many digital artists also use them. It doesn’t take long to adjust to looking at a screen while drawing on a tablet.
We’ve covered all types of drawing tablets here to help you choose the right one for your needs. Especially if you need to remove it on the go, a standalone option is your best choice.
Important Features for a Drawing Tablet
There are quite a few things to consider when evaluating a drawing tablet. This is even more important when we’re talking about budget products. High-end drawing tablets offer you the best of everything, but you may not have a budget of thousands of dollars.
The most important considerations are: * Tablet size and working area: The tablet has to be big enough to accommodate the style of drawing you need or to cut down on pinch-and-zoom operations as you move around the virtual canvas.
- Type of drawing surface: Some tablets have a matte finish, others have a smooth finish, or tablets with screens might have an anti-glare coating. Combined with the nib material of the stylus pen, this is a major part of the drawing experience.
- Stylus pen pressure sensitivity: With more pressure sensitivity the stylus has, the more subtle the detail you can put into your artwork.
- Tilt functionality: Tilt sensitivity and having a tilt function may also be important to you. For example, you may do lots of shading, and having that function coupled to simply tilting your pen is a major convenience.
You should also triple-check that a given drawing tablet is compatible with the operating system and apps you want to use. There’s no guarantee of universal compatibility!
1. Best Cheap Drawing Tablet: Wacom Intuos Graphics Drawing Tablet
Highlights:
- Compatible with Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, Android, Chromebooks, but not iOS.
- Perfect for beginners.
The Intuos Graphics Tablet is about as basic as it gets. Still, it’s also quite good, and its limitations aren’t as crucial to beginners for many types of graphic design.
The build quality is excellent for such an affordable tablet, but that’s to be expected from Wacom. After all, they’ve been making drawing tablets for decades.
The Intuos has 4096 pressure levels, which isn’t great for professional artists, but beginners or those with more basic drawing needs should be perfectly happy. You also get four “ExpressKeys” shortcut keys which can be programmed to perform everyday actions such as Undo, Copy, or Paste.
Apart from its sensitivity levels, the other area where the budget nature of the tablet shows is in its size. The active drawing area only measures 6 x 3.7 inches, so be aware of that before you make your purchase. Other than that, this is the best genuinely cheap drawing tablet on the market. Anything with a lower price tag is likely to be complete junk.
2. Best Standalone Drawing Tablet: iPad 8th Generation With Apple Pencil 1st Generation
Highlights
- The Apple Pencil is a class-leading stylus.
- Some of the best drawing apps on any platform.
The basic iPad was designed for the education market, but it’s a tremendous general-purpose tablet and supports the excellent 1st Generation Apple Pencil. Taken together, they cost about as much as a mid-range drawing tablet that still needs to be connected to a computer.
The A12 Bionic CPU and GPU system-on-a-chip has more than enough power to put most laptops to shame, and this is a Retina Display tablet to boot. So you get incredible high-quality images and detail.
The main drawback is that this iPad model doesn’t have a laminated screen. This means there’s an air gap between the screen and touch screen glass. For most people, this isn’t a problem, but some artists feel it can cause a slight drop in accuracy from pen to pixel.
3. Best Affordable Tethered Drawing Tablet: 2020 HUION Kamvas 13
Highlights
- 60-degrees of tilt.
- 120% of sRGB supported.
Huion has made a real name for itself as a drawing tablet maker, and the Kamvas 13 might be their best bang for buck product so far.
This is a tablet with a built-in touchscreen which you have to connect to another device such as a laptop or Android phone that has a desktop mode, such as Samsung Dex.
The stylus pen is also noteworthy. It uses Huion Pen Tech3.0 to offer a battery-free pen. The pen gets its power from a weak electromagnetic field from the tablet itself, so there’s no Bluetooth and no charging involved.
The Kamvas 13 lets you hook it up using various connection methods. You can use the included 3-in-1 USB cable, where one cable connects to a wall adapter, and the other two connect to HDMI and USB on your computer. Alternatively, you can use a single USB-C cable that carries power, data, and display signals.
4. Best Portable Tethered Drawing Tablet: GAOMON PD1320 13.3 Inches
Highlights
- Can be powered solely from USB.
- Great integrated stand.
Despite sounding a little like the latest Pokemon addition, Gaomon is another budget drawing table maker worth keeping an eye on. The PD3120 offers a similar set of features to the Kamvas 13 at almost the same price.
This tablet can be attached to your computer or Android device using a single USB-C cable to carry all necessary power and data. You can also use the two-in-one cable that’s included.
The Gaomon has a battery-free stylus with +- 60 degrees of tilt sensitivity and 8192 pressure levels. The Full HD screen is laminated, too, so no worries about precise accuracy.
One difference between the Gaomon and Kamva 13 is the stand mechanism. The Kamvas has an integrated tilt mechanism to angle the tablet for drawing. The Gaomon is designed to be portable, so it has a foldable cover that doubles as a stand. If you don’t care about portability and need angle adjustments, the Kamvas 13 is a better choice.