Monoprice tablets

Toshido

Been looking into tablets recently since I want to get into Photoshop a lot more. Started by looking to find a way to use my wacom penabled laptop as a tablet for my desktop, essentially gving me a 12" cintiq tablet, but no luck.

So looking more and I really want a large tablet but the proces of Wacom tablets is a serious roadblock for me. The only local alternative seems to be a Genius tablet. From reviews I have been reading about the Genius tablet they seem to be middle of the road with a reasonably even number of good and bad reviews. Most troubling is that most of the good reviews include words to the effect of "at this price".

Finally read a review comparing different tablets and that lead me to Monoprice. A company I had not heard of before this.

So looking at the tablets there and the reviews are great, size great and price unbelievable.


So my question is does anyone have any experience with one of these?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10841

I was specifically looking at the 10x6.25 without hotkeys along the side.

Art Scott

have you thought about a wireless PEN Mouse??? Might be an option for you.

No I have never heard of MonoPrice until now..........gonna check them out as I am in need of a
larger tablet (my current 4x6 wacom is a tad small, for my liking...it works fine......I just like larger
toys you might say.


Edit: took a look at the MP website linked above and prices are really inexpensive, my only
nit is the sizing.......the only one I would even consider is the 12x9.....8x5 and 10x6,25 just
seem odd sizes....well so does 12x9 but as I said I like larger toys.....

Toshido

I never really thought about the sizes that much. I would also do the 12x9 if I had the space as it is the 10x6.25 is likely too big for my space.

So looking at aspect ratios.

Monitors:

1920x1080 = 1.777
1680x1050 = 1.6

Tablet aspect ratios:

10x6.26 = 1.6
12x9 = 1.3
8x5 = 1.6


So those sizes actually make huge sense when looking at my older 1680x1050 monitor. Still pretty close to the new 1920 x 1080 HD monitor.

Toshido

I pen looks like interesting toy but one of the things I really want is the pressure sensitivity.

jziegler

I don't know anything about their tablets, but Monoprice is a great place to go for cables, networking gear, and things like that. Great prices, decent service, reasonably fast shipping. I've placed a few orders, and am planning more. Of course, what they sell is mostly right off the boat from China, so who knows how good the tablets will be. Of course, with those prices....

Toshido

I will be finding out about there tablets very soon.

I bought one and it was delivered to a friend just across the american border today. So today so tomorrow I will be picking it up from my friends and trying it out soon.

colourbox

Toshido wrote: »

So looking more and I really want a large tablet but the proces of Wacom tablets is a serious roadblock for me.

That shouldn't be the case. The Bamboo tablets have enough sensitivity to be usable. The Bamboo Pen is $58 at Amazon.

Art Scott wrote: »

No I have never heard of MonoPrice until now

It is renowned as the best place to get decent cheap cables. There are sites like Blue Jeans Cable that sell somewhat better-built cables, but Monoprice is legendary for a wide range of good cables and adapters that seriously undercut most of the other stores and cost practically nothing compared to buying a cable at a brick-and-mortar store. All my USB, Ethernet, Firewire, video, audio cables come from there because they are so affordable. Their digital over-the-air HDTV antennas also perform very well.

Art Scott wrote: »

.......the only one I would even consider is the 12x9.....8x5 and 10x6,25 just
seem odd sizes....well so does 12x9 but as I said I like larger toys.....

12x9 takes up a huge amount of desk space, remember that (good) tablets are very high resolution and proportional so you can drive a very large monitor with a small tablet. With a large tablet, you do not move your hand, you move your whole arm. This is natural if you are using a tablet to draw or paint and prefer to do so with large sweeping arm gestures, but for more detailed work of photo editing these large tablets are often space overkill. The medium size tablets are usually preferred by photo people.

Toshido

colourbox wrote: »

That shouldn't be the case. The Bamboo tablets have enough sensitivity to be usable. The Bamboo Pen is $58 at Amazon.

I tried a small bamboo tablet at one time and I could not get over the difference in size between monitor and tablet. it was too unnatural for me.
Maybe given more time I would have gotten used to it but I returned the tablet and picked up a convertible laptop with a wacom pen enabled screen.
Would still be using that for primary photo work but the screen is awful for colours and performance using it as a primary computer wit a secondary mirrored monitor was lackluster. otherwise it would have performed beautifully was a Wacom Cintiq like device.

Art Scott

colourbox wrote: »

It is renowned as the best place to get decent cheap cables. There are sites like Blue Jeans Cable that sell somewhat better-built cables, but Monoprice is legendary for a wide range of good cables and adapters that seriously undercut most of the other stores and cost practically nothing compared to buying a cable at a brick-and-mortar store. All my USB, Ethernet, Firewire, video, audio cables come from there because they are so affordable. Their digital over-the-air HDTV antennas also perform very well.

all the privately owned stores and reapir shops here purchase thru cables to go or outlet pc......even when I was building my last computer and was searching for place to purchase from they never came up on the radar, no matter the search engine I was using......guess they were just a well kept secrete:D:D:D
but hey are now in my saved searches for computer parts..............

Toshido

Got the tablet today. I bought the 10x6.25 inch tablet. So far i am very happy with it. it is not perfect though.

The pen is a little finicky, I find I need to wiggle the two barrel sections to get it to see the battery. Once set though it has been fine for me. So far have been messing with it for close to an hour and no issues with the battery being disconnected from use.

The resolution seems good to me. I know it is rated for 4000 lines per inch. There is virtually no lag for me in photoshop either.

The active area is actually a little larger then the 6.25", but most of the excess is used by the hotkeys. So basically the 6.25 active area does not include the hotkeys.

Pen is comfortable. Nice thicknes and weight. Rubberized area near the pen tip. Button is not too hard to avoid pressing by accident.
I was a little worried about a pen with battery in it because only pen I had used before this was the wacom pen on my convertible laptop.

Hotkeys are easy to customize. The labels on the tablet itself are not customizable but I think a strip of tape above the hotkeys and label that would fix that up easily.

When in the desktop the tablet covers both of my monitors, but in Photoshop the tablet only works on the active photoshop window where the image.

Dual monitor support in lightroom leaves much to be desired. I think it will still be useful for local area adjustments, primarily eyes or teeth but pretty limited in lightroom beyond that.

Overall first impressions are very good with the tablet.