Welcome to possibly my last review of 2020! Although this year has been rubbish for practically everything and everybody, it's actually been a great one for Graphic Pen Tablets and Displays with some great devices being released in the last 12 months.
Is the new Veikk VK1200 a Christmas cracker or the equivalent of a stale Mince Pie? Read on... 😀
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
The VK1200 pen display is the latest graphics tablet from Veikk, a Chinese based manufacturer who produce a variety of devices like this for (predominantly) designers and illustrators, but of course, anyone can use one!
As far as I know, at 12” (11.6” active area), this is their smallest drawing tablet – about the size of an iPad. This isn’t a standalone device though – it needs to be plugged into a PC/Laptop or Mac and you draw on the screen!
I actually own and use a larger VK1560 tablet for various illustration work, so can vouch for their quality, but wanted something smaller and a bit more portable, for when, hopefully, we can go back to working in an office!
In the box are the tablet, 2 pens (which come in their own felt-type sleeves/protectors), 20 spare nibs, USB cable, HDMI cable, nib remover, drawing glove, driver download instructions, quick start guide and a pen holder in two parts; the bottom half is not only for storing the spare nibs, but can remove the older nib from the pen as it doubles up as a nib extractor tool! Once screwed together with the top half, the combined units become a handy pen holder.
Whilst connecting the tablet to my laptop it was quite fiddly connecting the mini HDMI connector into the tablet. It took a few attempts as I didn’t want to damage anything, but apart from that setting everything up was effortless.
This is a fully laminated HD 1920x1080 screen and out of the box with no settings tinkering, was vibrant and nice and bright. It comes with a pre-fitted Anti-Glare Screen Protector.
The pen(s) is quite light, but feels good in the hand and is a two-button job: top button is ‘Eraser/Pen’ mode whilst the bottom button acts as ‘Right Click’.
I created the illustration accompanying this review in Photoshop. Not only is the pen ‘battery-free’, it also supports 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, which means you can vary the width of the line by pressing down a bit harder basically – perfect for the type of cartoon image presented here. Drawing felt smooth with no noticeable lagging. ‘Tilt’ is also supported which helps with shading.
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
Down the left side of the tablet are 6 shortcuts keys (the middle one bearing the VEIKK logo isn’t actually a button!) which provide easy shortcuts (obviously!) whilst drawing; F5 (Refresh), Zoom In, Zoom Out, Space, Increase Brush size, Decrease Brush size.
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
All these settings (and the for the pen) are configurable in the driver software.
This is a really cool looking, well-built tablet with its nice curved corners and metal backing and it’s only 12mm high! Flip it over and you’re presented with the four rubber feet incorporated into a kind of ‘X’ type design – very industrial looking!
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
Unfortunately, no stand comes with this particular model, so you’ll have to do what I did if you don’t like working ‘flat’ and that’s prop it up with a book… 😊
Here's the goodies you get in the box:
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
It's a fully laminated screen, which means no more little 'gaps' from the pen nib to what you see on screen, as you can see here:
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
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| VEIKK VK1200 Pen Display in the studio © Steve B Graphics 2020 |
This is a great little device and comes recommended whether you’re a
novice or a grizzled professional and would make any creatives face
light up to find this in their stocking this Christmas!
Right, where's the Sherry...? Cheers! 😁
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