Why not add my voice? This isn’t an in-depth review by any means — if you’re looking for that, I recommend this review of the 12×9 tablet by deviantART user draw2much, one among many I read before purchasing this tablet. It includes pictures!
I bought a Monoprice.com graphics tablet in about 2012. I purchased the 10×6.25in tablet and it was around $50 for my tablet. I have the original pen, not the fancier one.
I’ve used it for sketching, inking, and coloring digital artwork since buying it. It gives me really sharp and neat lines, though I’m not sure how much of that is the tablet. I haven’t had to change the battery or the pen tip as of this writing, either. It doesn’t chew through either of these things, though it does go through longer periods of inactivity.
I’m not a professional; my experience prior to this was an Aiptek tablet and a brand I’m not sure about now (I actually got it for free from an amazing lady in Maine named Anna — eternally grateful! ♥). That said, this is definitely the best of the cheap tablets I’ve used so far. (; Better yet, the smaller versions are even cheaper. If they’re of the same quality and standard as this one, they’re very, very affordable.
If you can’t afford to drop a lot of money on a tablet or if you want to find out if you even like drawing on a tablet, it’s a pretty good option!
Problems
There is one major downside to this tablet: it can be very painful to install. People have experienced a ton of problems with it on both Windows 7 and 8, unfortunately. It is possible to get it to work… but it can take a little bit of fighting. I had a lot of trouble on Windows Vista, but I also didn’t know to follow all of the advice about installing, and plugged it in immediately. It took about two hours of fighting after that to get it to work right! Later, though, I installed it on Windows 7 with minimal problems: I only had to turn off a service (sorry, I don’t remember which!). It was about fifteen minutes of work.
I also often lose pen pressure — but all I have to do to fix that is close down Photoshop and reopen it. No biggie for me! There are other fixes that may help if you continue to have problems with pen pressure.
Places to Go for Help
- draw2much’s FAQ (comprehensive, check it out!): As it states here, install the drivers first. Don’t plug in your tablet immediately; Windows will install its own drivers. This works pretty well for most devices — Windows is pretty good at figuring out what you need. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work so well for the Monoprice graphics tablet in particular.
- monopricemessiah.tumblr can also help you out if you have problems, too!