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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