Wednesday 13 November 2019

Veikk A15 Graphics Tablet Review

Having took the plunge and purchased a Veikk VK1560 graphics display tablet last year after reading favourable reviews in the online design community, as they were a brand I hadn't heard of up until that point (you can read the review here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R1WWUZK2VUB3V1/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07DK7CQSP) I wanted to purchase a smaller, more traditional graphics tablet, so once again thought I'd try Veikk, having been quite impressed with the VK1560.

I went for the fairly recently released Veikk A15, which is a 10x6 inch tablet that comes in 4 'colours' - I went with the red version, but other than that, they are all exactly the same :)

Starting with the outer packaging, the design of the box looks very professional being a trendy black colour with a nice shot of the graphics tablet taking centre stage. Inside, the items are packed away nice and tidily and well protected, with the tablet in a protective bag/envelope and the cable and pen in 'slots' within the cardboard tray - once again, there is no driver CD, but a round CD-like card with the URL to download the latest sofware from their website (which is par for the course these days). A glove is also provided with the usual USB cable. There is no 'pen holder' as such, but it does come in it's own stiff protective case or pocket I guess you'd call it - see the photo for more details!

Theres also a User Guide, 20 replacment pen nibs and a tool for swopping them out/over.

The tablet is quite light and is thin (9mm), but sturdy. The build quality seems good. On the left is 12 shortcut keys which you can customise if you so wish - I always seem to leave them to the default settings. The tablet was bigger than I expected as its the work area that is 10x6, but fits on my desk perfectly - it uses a USB-C lead from the tablet which is 'right angled'.

The red wheel 'thing' doesnt do anything - its purely for decoration, but looks nice, with the Veikk logo sitting inside. Below that on the left are the shortcut keys, but the tablet can actually be reversed i.e. flipped round and used by any left handed designers/users out there.

Like its big brother with the VK1560 tablet, the pen is battery free and uses 'magic' to work! It too feels light and isn't too 'fat' to hold - I found it quite easy to draw with in Photoshop and has two buttons - one acting as a 'right click' for contextual menus and the other for alternating between 'pen and 'rubber' function - very useful!

I was able to use the tablet with no issues in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign on Windows 10 - I have yet to use it on a Mac as currently I've got the aforementioned VK1560 tablet plugged into that, but I understand the drivers you download will work with all Veikk tablets i.e. I can unplug the VK1560 and swop straight over to the A15 and it will work straight away.

Make sure you tick the 'Windows Ink' function in the software to get variant width lines when you draw (the pen has 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity).

Other than Wacom, Veikk are the only other tablet/brand I've used. So far I've been very pleased with both the price and quality of the two tablets I now use/own. The market has seen quite a few (cheaper) alternatives now to Wacom i.e. Huion, XP-Pen etc but although I can't comment on them, I think for the forseeable future I'll stick with Veikk - it will be interesting to see what else they can produce in the future.














Tuesday 12 November 2019

Monday 11 November 2019

Veikk VK1560 Display Tablet Review

Here's my review of the Veikk VK1560 graphics tablet...


Having been a digital designer for many years now, I’ve always been interested in getting my hands on the latest bit of kit to play with. Back when the first graphic tablets became available (and affordable!), it changed the way I worked and drew – it just made more sense to use one, rather than using a mouse to draw and navigate the OS and all the applications I use on a daily basis.

Fast forward to now and I’ve been looking to invest in an ‘updated’ version of the graphics tablet – the graphics display tablet…

Now these things can cost an almighty amount of money – several thousand for the top end, depending on screen size, accessories etc – so that leaves the less well known, cheaper brands to choose from.

I didn’t realise there were so many…

Now Veikk isn’t a company I’d heard of before, but they appear to be a new company competing for the same market like XP-PEN, Huion and the like and were more in my price range!

After a few Amazon searches and a bit of research, I thought I’d give them a go – in particular the VK1560, a 15.6”, 1920x1080 HD display tablet as I wanted something not too large I couldn’t stick in a bag and work at a client’s premises, my (cluttered!) studio desk or even the front room connected to a laptop…

The plain packaging box I guess helps keep the cost down (which is great!) so I have no problem with that – it’s what’s inside that counts and I have to say so far I’m impressed!

It comes with all the usual leads i.e. power, USB, HDMI etc including a Mac Mini Display port to HDMI adaptor which is a nice touch, instruction manual, pen case with nibs, cleaning cloth and a glove – there is no driver CD though, you have to go to the website and download from there.
Once the drivers were installed and the protective screen was peeled off it was time to give it a go…

On the left are 7 shortcut/express keys (customisable) and a dial for scrolling/zooming, which, when drawing, is very handy – you can scroll through various brush sizes and at a click of the central button within the dial you can increase/decrease the size (zoom) size of the canvas (this worked fine in both Illustrator and Photoshop on my iMac).

On the right is a recessed panel for storing your pen which I haven’t seen before on other models! (Some other brands supply two pens – here you only get one, so don’t lose it!) The pen also doesn’t require charging and feels very light and comfortable to use. (You also get 10 spare nibs, both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ and a handy little device for removing them from the pen.) The pen supports 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Lines are drawn nice and smoothly with no lag in either Photoshop or Illustrator and not having used one of these before, I can’t really comment on ‘parallax’ (which is the gap between the cursor and pen tip) as I have no frame of reference – but I’m sure using this on a regular basis, you’d simply get used to it if in fact this display suffers from it – I have to say I’ve had no issues at all…

The stand is almost vertical when positioned upright, to almost flat (the way I like to work!) and everything in-between which is handy. The cables are conveniently situated on the left side at the back (obviously!) whilst the on the right are small buttons for power, contrast, brightness, sharpness etc – I used mine with the default settings and the colours seemed nice and vibrant.

For cartoon and illustration work this is perfect. Although I never had any problems working with a ‘traditional’ graphics tablet, it’s great to actually ‘draw on screen’.

I’m really happy so far using this and can definitely recommend it, especially at this price. I’ve seen other displays at this size at almost double what this goes for, but I’m happy with my purchase. I’m looking forward to using this in my day to day workflow.












 See the review over at Amazon

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