OK ... What tech do I buy?
- Thread starter Nix
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The problem with the cheaper models is that they have poor driver support, poor 'up to date OS' support, and usually have all sorts of promises, but aren't actually realistically usable and kind of gimmicky. It's a waste of money.
Instead, since a lot of creative people start with a low budget, and as they get better they upgrade to better and more expensive stuff, a lot of quality wacom and ipad pro with pen, etc.. are available secondhand for almost the same price as a new-crappy cheap one.
The surface size of the wacom tablet isn't always what's important. If you know what you need: it is important. She's new to it, and you can as always just pick up the pen and place it down etc to cover a distance. A bigger surface to draw on is just adding more convenience. I've had a a5 one that worked great 10 years ago for the graphic stuff that i was working with. It was very precise on the selection in photoshop and what not. Something I couldn't achieve with just a mouse.
I understand the ipad pro 9" with pen is out of budget, who knows how the prices drop for refurbished on september the 12th if they introduce new ipads and iphones (if that's the case). or even secondhand.
Get something that IS compatible with macOS High Sierra - otherwise it will just be a pain. And of course, make sure it's compatible with Affinity Photo / Designer, and/or Adobe Photoshop / Illustrator.
https://www.wacom.com/en/discover/design/graphic-design
Compare the features, compare the price, and what's left over, compare what matches what she wants. And then see if there's a refurbished or 2ndHand model perhaps?
The prices here are 500+ for professional long-term solutions for those who know this is what they want to do (like an 18 year old who wants to take their skill further) and the 500- are for every day use for those who begin to be creative and want to do more than what regular interfaces and software offers them. Serious about drawing, but also teens who get into it and "claim" they can't do it with the mouse.
To be honest, the "finger" interface on a regular iPad Air 2 (you can get those for around 300 euro) and some free or $5 to $19 apps give amazing drawing interfaces and a great way to find out how "really" creative you are. So it's not like "mom, I *know* i want to play guitar forever..." - three months later.. And with ipad you can use all your iphone apps you already bought, have access to the web, watch netflix, etc. You get way more out of it, while the wacom is just that: a sorta touch interface to make freehand drawing a little more fun and convenient.
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If I could afford the iPad Pro with a Pen, I would go that route. But if the focus is 100% being creative designer etc.. then I would probably save money and go with Wacom. It just depends on how serious she actually is about doing this.
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I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab E, 10 inch display, you can use the fingers or a touchscreen pen (cheap) to draw. I downloaded "Art Flow" app to draw... It's very cool. It's very cheap, the tablet is WiFi only (no cellphone chip), and there is the Google Play apps, any to download. So, if she really likes drawing, she can use it for a long time until she decides to go for a more pro approach. I myself bought mine to draw, play MCPE (which has horrible playability because of the big screen) and watch Netflix in bed. But now I only play MC Java with you guys, draw once in a while and watch youtube MC tutorials.
