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Do Wacom tablets have any relevant competition? I have one that I use for hobbyist purposes and when it comes time to upgrade I'd be interested in not buying a

by na85 5y ago

Do Wacom tablets have any relevant competition? I have one that I use for hobbyist purposes and when it comes time to upgrade I'd be interested in not buying another Wacom.

bogwog 5y ago
Huions are pretty great. Very affordable and very high quality. I'm guessing the premium you pay for Wacom has more to do with the brand name than the actual product. I'm not a professional artist though, so maybe Huions are bad for pro work. Idk, but I'm happy with my Huion.
- thejohnconway 5y ago
  I guess the question is, what data does Huion’s software send back?
- woolion 5y ago
  I spent a few years with a Huion screen tablet (GT-19 series), but pressure sensitivity response was really bad compared to a Cintiq. However we are comparing a 400€ product to one that is about 3K€; second-hand it can trade for under 1K, and then it is a reasonable alternative. With a Huion 1060+ the pressure response felt amazing; however that was on Windows, I never got it to work under Linux. For a hobbyist it is a really much better choice than the cheap Wacom (e.g. Bamboo line), because it is important to have a big drawing area, so that you can draw from your elbow and not from your wrist.
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    AFAIK Wacom drivers on Linux are good & upstream. The various Chinese tablets are much more involved to get running on Linux, if possible at all. Also, being fully open source I don't think the Linux Wacom drivers do any of the shady stuff the Windows ones apparently do.
    - woolion 5y ago
      I only use Linux and indeed, drivers work OOtB and don't require you to sign any privacy policy. Although you don't have the fancy GUI that they have on Windows. The Huion GT works OOtB with the Wacom drivers. For the 1060+, I tried all the out-of-tree drivers without any luck, but that was about 3 years ago. https://digimend.github.io/drivers/digimend/tablets/ https://digimend.github.io/drivers/digimend/tablets/ (support was added in 2018, so now it probably works after minimal work)
- na85 5y ago
  Given that Huion is headquartered in Shenzhen, I'm skeptical that the privacy aspect will be much better.
  - userbinator 5y ago
    It's much better when the company focuses on the hardware and doesn't have the aspirations to turn into a spyware-driven "cloud-first" megacorp.
josephg 5y ago
> Do Wacom tablets have any relevant competition? I’m not sure if this counts as relevant competition but I’m migrating away from my Wacom tablet to an iPad + Apple Pencil. As well as procreate, an iPad can act as an external display for a Mac - and when connected, the Apple Pencil works as a stylus in macos applications. It’s way more expensive though - especially with the Apple Pencil. And macos only.

by na85 5y ago

Do Wacom tablets have any relevant competition? I have one that I use for hobbyist purposes and when it comes time to upgrade I'd be interested in not buying another Wacom.

bogwog 5y ago

Huions are pretty great. Very affordable and very high quality. I'm guessing the premium you pay for Wacom has more to do with the brand name than the actual product. I'm not a professional artist though, so maybe Huions are bad for pro work. Idk, but I'm happy with my Huion.

thejohnconway 5y ago
I guess the question is, what data does Huion’s software send back?
woolion 5y ago
I spent a few years with a Huion screen tablet (GT-19 series), but pressure sensitivity response was really bad compared to a Cintiq. However we are comparing a 400€ product to one that is about 3K€; second-hand it can trade for under 1K, and then it is a reasonable alternative. With a Huion 1060+ the pressure response felt amazing; however that was on Windows, I never got it to work under Linux. For a hobbyist it is a really much better choice than the cheap Wacom (e.g. Bamboo line), because it is important to have a big drawing area, so that you can draw from your elbow and not from your wrist.
- m4rtink 5y ago
  AFAIK Wacom drivers on Linux are good & upstream. The various Chinese tablets are much more involved to get running on Linux, if possible at all. Also, being fully open source I don't think the Linux Wacom drivers do any of the shady stuff the Windows ones apparently do.
  - woolion 5y ago
    I only use Linux and indeed, drivers work OOtB and don't require you to sign any privacy policy. Although you don't have the fancy GUI that they have on Windows. The Huion GT works OOtB with the Wacom drivers. For the 1060+, I tried all the out-of-tree drivers without any luck, but that was about 3 years ago. https://digimend.github.io/drivers/digimend/tablets/ https://digimend.github.io/drivers/digimend/tablets/ (support was added in 2018, so now it probably works after minimal work)
na85 5y ago
Given that Huion is headquartered in Shenzhen, I'm skeptical that the privacy aspect will be much better.
- userbinator 5y ago
  It's much better when the company focuses on the hardware and doesn't have the aspirations to turn into a spyware-driven "cloud-first" megacorp.

josephg 5y ago

> Do Wacom tablets have any relevant competition? I’m not sure if this counts as relevant competition but I’m migrating away from my Wacom tablet to an iPad + Apple Pencil. As well as procreate, an iPad can act as an external display for a Mac - and when connected, the Apple Pencil works as a stylus in macos applications. It’s way more expensive though - especially with the Apple Pencil. And macos only.