Best tablet pc at the moment for artists?

**sneak3** · October 28th, 2012, 09:42 PM

Hello!

I'm looking for an alternative to the cintiq 12x, as I really need the portability factor of the tablet.

So, right now, which tablet pc would you guys recommend for drawing, painting, illustrating, etc directly on the screen, with Photoshop?

Course, keeping the price range close to the cintiq, which is within ~$1100.

**Lemon1986** · October 28th, 2012, 11:01 PM

Best one would be the microsoft surface pro! Unfortunately, it was delayed by microsoft! Hopefully not for long!

**sneak3** · October 29th, 2012, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by Lemon1986

Best one would be the microsoft surface pro! Unfortunately, it was delayed by microsoft! Hopefully not for long!

Oh I know about this one, no idea it would be good for art too!

Why is it going to be the best one?

And which do you think are the current alternatives to it?

**Griffonnage** · October 29th, 2012, 08:19 AM

If you want to draw on it, you should go for wacom penabled tablet. Not all the device have it. Some have the N-trig system, that allow you to draw too, but it have less pressure sensitivity.

There are some android tablet and windows tablet pc, we can include transformer too.

Android tablet are cheaper but often don't offer a keyboard with the screen. There are some good soft on them for sketch. But you can't work a final big image on them. They have the greater autonomy battery life. There size are 10-11".

Tablet pc are good, you can find some refound items for a good price. A lot of brand created a tablet pc, so you have a big choice. They have less autonomy but you can use all your normal software on them, they are more powerfull too. You can find some at 11" to 12", maybe more I don't know all of them.

Every of them are easy to travel with, I can try to give you a (long) list but honestly it would help if you explain a little what will be the purpose of the device

It is for drawing from life outside ? Inking ? Sketching ? Painting ? Multi-use ? Do you want a keyboard to work as a latop or is a tablet enough ?

**sneak3** · October 29th, 2012, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by Griffonnage

If you want to draw on it, you should go for wacom penabled tablet. Not all the device have it. Some have the N-trig system, that allow you to draw too, but it have less pressure sensitivity.

There are some android tablet and windows tablet pc, we can include transformer too.

Android tablet are cheaper but often don't offer a keyboard with the screen. There are some good soft on them for sketch. But you can't work a final big image on them. They have the greater autonomy battery life. There size are 10-11".

Tablet pc are good, you can find some refound items for a good price. A lot of brand created a tablet pc, so you have a big choice. They have less autonomy but you can use all your normal software on them, they are more powerfull too. You can find some at 11" to 12", maybe more I don't know all of them.

Every of them are easy to travel with, I can try to give you a (long) list but honestly it would help if you explain a little what will be the purpose of the device

It is for drawing from life outside ? Inking ? Sketching ? Painting ? Multi-use ? Do you want a keyboard to work as a latop or is a tablet enough ?

Well thank you a lot for the nice insight!

I'll try to do my best explaining my situation then:

Actually I have an ipad but it's a fail for me. Nice for sketching, of course, but I need something more than that. I actually need some precision to draw sweet lines and pressure sensitive for painting. So these 2 things are my top concerns.

It's not 100% sure but I'd probably use it for outside life. I can't imagine get one right now with a screen incapable of handling sunlight.

The keyboard is not a MUST, but certainly a good addition. If it's easy to carry and doesn't spoils the tablet's primary use, sure, would be great! Maybe a keyboard like the one from asus ep121, that you can bring whenever you want and still have the tablet clean for portability.

Finally, good battery life is always good!

Hope that helps, and please, if I missed something, just name it!

**Griffonnage** · October 29th, 2012, 10:10 AM

Well that's help

.

First, if your ipad is not 1rst generation, you may be interested by a proper pen with it ? It's quite expensive for a pen ($99.99) but it add pressure sensitivity and it's more accurate than usual pen for ipad. Here is a link for jaja stylus : http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...nsitive-Stylus and jot stylus with some video comparison between different pen : http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...ty-coming-soon

Now if you want to change your device, looking at your need, I would avoid transformers. Recent tablet and tablet pc are quite fine with sunlight, I think it will be ok with a lot of them.
Without keyboard, you have the tablet samsung galaxy note 10.1, android, 10" ($499 16Gb, $549 32Gb) very good accurarcy and good pressure sensitivity : http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...laxy-Note-10-1 I think you can find additionnal keyboard for it like the one you mentionned but it's sold without at first.
There is the new lenovo thinkpad 2, but I don't have a lot of information about it...

You mentionned the asus ep121, it's a good device too but some problems with photoshop were pointed. If you looks for an "old" generation tablet pc, go for samsung serie 7 slate, it's the samsung twin of the asus ep121.
They have less battery life (3hours full used) and the old wacom digitizer so it's "just" 256 level pression. But a lot of people used it and were totally happy with : http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...amsung-Slate-7 Now you can find some on ebay for $600.

Be aware that the new generation from asus and samsung just get released and come with a wacom digitizer, so you have now : Asus vivo tab ($599, windows 8, dockable keyboard with battery, 11.6" screen, good life autonomy (supposed 7hrs)), samsung ativ smart pc ($749,99, quite the same thing than the asus, but without battery into keyboard so no expended life by docking the tablet :/), samsung smart pc pro ($1,199.99, 11.6", more powerfull (i5 core, 4Gb RAM...), dockable keyboard, supposed 5hrs autonomy but need to be tested...)
edit : as they are just released, I would wait some review, but I think they all will be nice

In older device, there is this one too, but I don't know if it's bright enough for sunlight and it's heavier than previous tablet : Motion Computing LE1700 http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...now-with-video! Could be found on ebay for really cheap price.

I know HP will release new tablet too, but here I don't have a lot of information either.

That's all I know in your range of price, but I'm sure I already forgot some

Do not hesitate to take a look here and there in this forum, you will find a lot of informations !

**sneak3** · October 30th, 2012, 06:50 AM

Wow, lots of info here!

I'm gonna take a good look into those pressure sensitive pens for the ipad, though I think they are pretty recent, lacking precision and having some weird bugs. Maybe that could be a solution when more models pop out.

And yes, you convinced me to wait then. There seems to be excellent tablets to come and to be reviewed. I'll keep my eyes open!

Just a question, you have any info about that microsoft surface Lemon talked about? Don't you think it's good compared to those you mentioned?

**Griffonnage** · October 30th, 2012, 07:14 AM

Well, the Surface tablet will probably be another good tablet, but I have no information about a wacom digitizer on it :/ That's the main problem, they announced a pen but nothing very precise about what type of pen. We will have to wait a review to get an answer about it

**alitunc** · December 5th, 2012, 03:15 AM

Hi guys, Does anyone experienced with Asus vivo tab and wacom digitizer with photoshop cs5 or cs6 ?

It looks nice on adverts, and features are nice. Look here http://www.asus.com/vivo/en/vivoTab.htm but lack of data for artists

It's important for us the precision (pen follow speed) and presure sensitivity. Please write about your opinions.

**Kangum** · December 5th, 2012, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by alitunc

Hi guys, Does anyone experienced with Asus vivo tab and wacom digitizer with photoshop cs5 or cs6 ?

It looks nice on adverts, and features are nice. Look here http://www.asus.com/vivo/en/vivoTab.htm but lack of data for artists

It's important for us the precision (pen follow speed) and presure sensitivity. Please write about your opinions.

The vivoTab that runs regular windows 8 and not the rt version is 800 us dollars at amazon. thats alot of beans for a atom processor. there are much better tablets on the market for that kind of money. Its nice to see more wacom enabled machines entering the market. however there is absolutely no way i would spend 800 dollars on a atom processor.

**Griffonnage** · December 6th, 2012, 10:40 AM

I think you can look at youtube "shogmaster" channel for some review. He takes a look at samsung 500T and 700T (= atom processor and i5 processor) but as the asus vivo tab is quite close to the samsung 500T in spec (if I didn't misanderstood), you would have a nice preview of what it give with photoshop

.
Also, I wonder how many improvement all these tablet pc will have with new drivers for windows 8 and adjusment coming from microsoft. Currently, I saw people complaining about lag and pressure problem after upgrading their "old" ep121 and S7S from win 7 to win8... Hope everything will get better with time !

Hope this help !