This is my first time reviewing a GAOMON product, so let’s
dive straight in with a review of the M10K (2018) Graphic Tablet…
The tablet comes in a minimalistically designed white box,
with only the GAOMON logo and the product type and/or model number present in a
nice gold-leaf print which lends a nice, professional feel to the packaging.
Inside the box are the usual suspects: the tablet (yes,
really!), pen, spare nibs (both housed in a GAOMON branded felt pouch), (right-angled)
USB-C cable, artist glove, Driver download instructions and User Manual. An
unexpected bonus that I haven’t seen with other tablets is a draw-string bag
with you can use to place your tablet into e.g. for transportation etc, keeping it safe and scratch
free – a nice addition!
After uninstalling my previous tablet drivers, I plugged in
the tablet, went to the GAOMON website and downloaded/installed the latest M10K
(Windows 10) drivers – a (very!) small green light next to the scroll wheel lights
up and you’re good to go…
It’s a great looking tablet, with both the top and the
bottom ‘sides’ having a nice curved edge to them – you wont get this tablet
digging into your wrist or arm, no matter how you use it (which can be used by
left and right handed users). It’s quite a large tablet and as you’ll see from
the photo, I had to shove a few things around on my desk to accommodate it –
its 14” x 9.5” (35cm x 24cm) in total, with a ‘work area’ of 10”
x 6.25” (25cm x 15cm) – its also quite thin at only 10.5mm high – it really
does look quite sleek!
The left side of tablet houses 10 programmable express keys
and a central scroll wheel – each button press within this wheel cycles through
its 3 functions – increase/decrease brush size, zoom in/out and scroll – a
handy onscreen menu appears to help when making your choice. This worked
effortlessly in Adobe Photoshop when creating the artwork accompanying this
review – it’s a great time saver! The keys themselves can be assigned to open
your program(s)[ of choice, or for your favourite keyboard shortcuts. On the right-hand
side is a handy little (non-removable!) pen holder – make sure you use this as
you only get the one pen included. The pen is (very) light – I’ve never used a
pen this light before, so I always slide into the aforementioned holder after
use to stop it floating away… 😊
It’s a battery free pen that uses magic ‘electromagnetic
resonance’ (according to the box!), but feels comfortable in the hand whilst
drawing. It’s a 2-button pen that can also be customised – I left it at the
default of the top being ‘Right Mouse Click’ and the bottom being the ‘Eraser’
tool.
The driver software is easy to navigate and make your
changes i.e. pen pressure, assigning keys and mapping the work area.
When drawing/editing, the pen needs only to be 10mm away
from the tablet surface to register – the ‘power light’ by the scroll wheel
increases in brightness as a visual guide also. (A second green light also
illuminates when the scroll wheel is active). It has 8192 levels of pressure
sensitivity, which is standard now for most tablets – I was able to get some
nice strokes in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator with this tablet.
Overall, I really like this using this tablet. It’s a nice
size for working in illustration (or any kind of graphics work or app) and it
looks a lot more expensive that it actually is – for (at the time of writing)
only £50, it is great value. Everything from the box to the tablet itself has a
‘premium’ look and feel about it.
The artwork published here alongside this review was created
in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator using this M10K (2018) tablet and is © Steve B Graphics 2020.
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