Tablets for drawing/graphic work

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm looking at getting my first tablet and I'd like to get a good one, or at least the best I can, for $200 or less. I could possibly go to $250.

Wacom seems to be The Brand for tablets, but there are some really really inexpensive ones out there in other brands. Anyone have any suggestions? Please? :)

[Locksmith]

Well, a lot of the other tablets are actually all made by the same company, but re-branded.

Aiptek, Hanspree, Vistablet, etc... are all the same thing, and my Aiptek held up really well for a long time, but I finally needed the more advanced features of a Wacom.

Now, you can actually get a Wacom for a decent price in their Bamboo series, but the pressure sensitivity is lower (512 levels instead of 1024) but most people can't tell the difference. I am now using a Wacom Intuos3 9 x 12 pad that I jsut got, and I love it, but if you can handle a smaller size, you can get a much better price.

Also take into account if you are using a standard aspect monitor, or a widescreen, and get a tablet that is the same respective aspect. (Though you don't have to. I'm using a widescreen monitor and a standard tablet and it works fine, but some people are pickier than I am.)

[Khendon Sevon]

I have a small Graphire2 and a huge Ituos3.

The Intuos3 trumps the Graphire2 in every way, shape, and form.

I probably got mine for ~$400 a whole slew of years ago and it's still running strong, strong, strong.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I am looking at the Bamboo one - the medium looks to be about 200, though I may be able to get it cheaper on eBay. But which color!? ;)

The Intuos3 is out of my price range, unfortunately.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have a little Wacom that I got a couple of years ago, looks to be the same sort of price-range as the Bamboo... but I still can't get used to using it :(