Everyone either has a tablet or wants a tablet. Apple's iPad finally made the technology appealing enough to generate practically universal demand for this genre of product and now practically every consumer electronics company (Tesco's which is basically a British grocery store chain has one called the "hudl", adorable) manufactures and sells a tablet.
One of the appeals the touch screen tablet format has to graphic designers, artists, illustrators, and anyone with a passing interest in being creative, is the ability to naturally draw upon the screen much as one would using a pad and pencil. In the past, this function (of drawing directly on a screen) was restricted to heinously expensive and tethered tablets designed for industrial designers working for large automotive corporations or Powerball Lottery-winning artists. The touchscreen tablet has democratized this technology, aren't we all happy?
Well, not really, actually. The iPad - a technological marvel and a pleasure to use - limits the artist to either finger painting or drawing with a fat-fingered stylus. There have been some attempts to rectify this situation by engineering some creative stylus solutions:
The Nomad Brush stylus is surprisingly fun to use, however, it is not completely
precise. I found that gently shaping the brush tip between two moistened
fingers helps, but it's still kind of serendipitous.
A slightly more accurate stylus is the Adonit Jot Pro, which uses a flat, clear plastic disk attached to a chromed ballpoint tip. Although the surface area being touched is still large, the clever use of the clear plastic allows you to more accurately predict the center point of the stylus. Highly recommended if you already have a tablet that you're happy with:
The slightly more expensive Musemee Notier V2 (good luck remembering that name) brags that it's the most precise of the iPad-compatible styluses.
If you want to splash down a little more (about $100), the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad Air, iPad 3/4 and iPad mini won't improve your accuracy, but it will provide 2,048 levels of pressure-sensitivity and palm-rejecting technology:
For artists and illustrators, the ultimate touchscreen tablet is one that includes a pressure-sensitive pen. The benefits are immeasurable: incomparable accuracy, flexibility, and control over what you're drawing. Of course, these pen-based tablets are not ubiquitous and they come at a cost premium, adding hundreds to the price of the tablet. Apple isn't embracing an artist-centric tool yet, so the current offerings are either Android or Windows-based and are available in sizes from 7" up to 13" or so. The prices deviate from around $399 in the 7" sizes up to over $2,000 in the 13" Windows-based range.
The current crop of (relatively affordable) tablets with pressure-sensitive pens include:
The brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 Edition. The Galaxy Note came to market like in, what, February of 2013? The biggest complaint about the Note was the relatively low-resolution of the screen, which the 2014 edition has addressed by bringing it up to the same spec as the Toshiba Excite Write (2560 x 1600). It's brand new, and worth seriously considering. It also runs an OS based on a slightly newer version of Android, but it's a customized interface that has some detractors. Also, the pen is a little on the scrawny side.
The Toshiba Excite Write (you don't say), see the rest of this blog for additional information on it.
and some of last year's Microsoft Surface Pros:
but good luck finding one, they're pretty much sold out everywhere. My advice is to look for it at Staples or other business-oriented stores, as I've found the consumer electronics stores to have kept the price up on the old inventory. I've seen some Surface Pros with pressure-sensitive styluses for $599 and $649, depending on storage capacity.
Next up on the pecking order are the Surface Pro 2s: they're based on i5 processors and because they run Windows OS, you can install all of your favorite Windows-based apps including Manga Studio, Photoshop, Illustrator, you name it. You can even run some modern video games on the damn things. Moving to this level will cost you, however, as their current prices are double what the Samsung and the Toshiba cost:
Then we reach the penultimates for professionals and those with no budget restrictions:
The Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid 32GB SSD 13.3" Android Multi-touch with 2048 levels of pen pressure:
...and at the top of the Wacom Cintiq tablet ladder, the Wacom Cintiq Companion, a Windows 8-based monster with 512GB of storage and an i7 processor (also at 13.3"):
It's much like the normal Surface Pro, but bigger, and better. One note to make about these Cintiqs: the Android version only goes up to 32Gb (with pricing reflecting that), permits the use of Wacom-specific Android apps that won't work on the lesser Android-based tablets, and has the ability to be plugged into a Mac or PC and act as a pressure sensitive monitor (exactly as the normal Cintiq without an OS does). This is cool because you can then use your Windows or Mac-based apps to work with. The only drawback is that once you unplug it from your PC, you're back to Android-only land. Interestingly, the Windows-based Cintiq Companion does NOT allow you to plug into your PC or Mac to do this same feature. It's almost like they're expecting Mr. Moneybags to buy both.
In summary, the more professional and seriously your take your tablet-based drawing, the more expensive (but dedicated and feature-rich) the options will be. Having said that, any device that allows you to draw directly on the screen with a finger or stylus is a freeing, exciting way to be creative as you have Undo, and your markers won't run out...
NOTE: the following alternative laptops and tablets support Wacom precision styluses, however not all will provide pressure sensitive input.
ASUS Eee Slate B121
ASUS VivoTab™ (excluding ASUS VivoTab™ RT, ASUS VivoTab™ Smart)
Bamboo™ Pad
Dell Latitude™ 10 tablet (excluding Dell Latitude™ 10 essentials)
ErenEben (E人E本) T6
Fujitsu LIFEBOOK® T732
Fujitsu LIFEBOOK® T902
Lenovo® ThinkPad® Tablet 2
Microsoft® Surface™ Pro
Panasonic Toughbook® CF-C2
Panasonic Toughbook® CF-H2 Field
Panasonic Toughpad™ FZ-A1
Samsung ATIV smart PC
Toshiba WT310
Toshiba REGZA Tablet AT703 / Toshiba Excite™ Write AT10PE-A-105
