Over the past few years, we have seen a huge increase in the number of drawing tablets with screens available in the market.
New brands are popping up left and right with their shiny new tablets – fully loaded with features.
This fierce competition has not only brought down the prices of drawing tablets – but has forced even established brands to improve and come up with more competitive drawing devices.
Being digital artists ourselves, we’ve followed the industry closely and reviewed a number of drawing tablets in the past.
To help you find the best drawing device we spent some time shortlisting, comparing and filtering out the most deserving candidates to be the best drawing tablet with screen for beginners.
Our list ranges from entry-level devices to top-end professional display tablets and everything in between.
So it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, hobbyist, professional or someone who just wants to upgrade their drawing setup – this article will definitely help you find the best display tablet.
1. Xp Pen Artist 22 (2nd gen.) – The best drawing tablet with screen
A large majority of drawing tablets on the market are designed for either beginners or professionals.
What if you’re an intermediate-level artist or just a hobbyist, who doesn’t want to be limited by the limited features offered by an entry-level tablet? At the same time, you cannot justify spending thousands of rupees on a so-called pro-grade drawing tablet.
The Xp Pen Artist 22 is one of those rare drawing tablets that can be universally recommended to any artist regardless of their skill level.
It is fully loaded with features and comes with a large 22-inch screen while still maintaining a reasonable price and high build quality. All these features make Xp Pen Artist 22 the best drawing tablet with screen.
2. Apple iPad Pro – Powerful and popular with amazing drawing capabilities
Apple iPads are becoming increasingly popular in the artist community. Over the past few years, we’ve seen many artists use it as their main drawing device.
So what makes the Apple iPad Pro such a great option for artists looking for a display tablet?
One of the main reasons artists love the iPad Pro so much is the Apple Pencil.
Previously, Wacom’s Pro Pen 2 was considered the holy grail of styluses. But that changed with the arrival of the Apple Pencil.
Apple Pencil is the most powerful, reliable and accurate stylus on the market right now.
It has great pen tracking, balanced pressure sensitivity as well as one of the best implementations of tilt detection.
More important than the features is the overall feel of drawing with the stylus.
With a stylus you want the drawing experience to be as natural as drawing with a real pencil. The Apple Pencil provides this.
Thanks to the promotion technology (120 Hz screen refresh rate) on the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil can achieve a response rate of 9ms.
This results in buttery smooth performance. Drawing strokes from the Apple Pencil are literally coming out of the tip.
It might seem like a small thing, but it definitely has a big impact on the overall feel of drawing on the Apple Pencil.
3. Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 – Most advanced display tablet for professionals
If you’re a veteran or hang out in art communities, you probably know the name “Wacom.”
Wacom may not be as popular with giants like Apple and Microsoft, but when it comes to digital art devices, it absolutely dominates the market.
This is one of those devices that you will find in the offices of professionals and Vfx and movie studios.
The Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 is for those looking for a top-of-the-line, dedicated drawing tablet designed specifically for artists.
It has a whole set of drawing features that are very thoughtfully designed to make the drawing experience as immersive and easy as possible.
Display – Size and Resolution
Starting with its large 24-inch 4K resolution and 99% Adobe RGB color accuracy.
The feeling you get from drawing on that big screen – you can’t get that with an iPad or any smaller device.
You get a larger area to move your hands around, plus you can see your entire artwork and work without zooming in.
4. Xp Pen Innovator 16 – Value for money no compromise drawing tablet with screen
It is often said, “quality comes at a price”. Well, the Xp Pen seems to disagree.
They have managed to come up with a drawing tablet that stands tall by all standards while still coming at a much higher price than what is available in the market in this segment.
As the name suggests, the Xp Pen Innovator 16 is a 16-inch display tablet that comes with the best display in the segment.
The 16-inch tablet has FullHD resolution which is good enough for a 16-inch device. Where it really shines is its color accuracy.
Its screen has a color coverage of 125% sRGB which produces very accurate colors.
Perhaps the best thing about this drawing device is its shortcut options.
The Innovator 16 comes with a total of 8 programmable buttons located on the left side of the tablet.
Along with the buttons, you get a rotary and a digital dial that helps you change the size of the brush and eraser as well as pan, zoom, and rotate the artboard.
There are buttons and dials that come in handy when drawing, especially dials that make the whole drawing experience fun and enjoyable.
5. Gaomon PD 1161 – Drawing tablet with screen for beginners
Often when we talk about drawing tablets with screens, we mostly focus on big-budget tablets. We often forget how far entry-level tablets have come compared to the tablets available just a few years ago.
Beginner tablets may not have the fancy stuff but they come with all the essential features an artist would want in a drawing tablet.
The Gaomon PD 1161 is one of the best examples of a tablet purpose-built for new artists looking to invest in a display tablet.
Contrary to what most people think, the screen is not the most important component of a drawing tablet with a screen.
A stylus is more important and has a huge impact on the overall drawing experience of a tablet.
To keep the price down, the Gaomon PD 1161 chooses to go with a smaller 12-inch screen. But other than that, it has all the features you’d normally find in larger drawing tablets.
Its stylus is one of the highlights of this tablet. It is so good that you won’t believe that it comes that is so a cheap drawing tablet with screen.
The stylus is battery-free and comes with 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and support for tilt sensitivity.
In real-life use, lines drawn by the stylus are smooth and consistent with no linear jitter or inconsistent pressure response issues, which is great.
On the left side of the tablet, you’ll see eight programmable shortcut buttons. These can be very useful and help you quickly switch between brush cleaners, redo, add a new layer, pick a color from the canvas, etc.
Overall, if you’re on a tight budget but still want a very capable drawing tablet with a screen that will help you get started with digital art, the Gaomon PD 1161 is a great choice.
