The Steve B Graphics Studio Ltd. Blog: June 2021

The small but perfectly formed S630 Graphics Tablet is a newly released device from GAOMON and today at Steve B Graphics Studios I’ve been putting it to the test…

GAOMON S630 Graphics Tablet in the Studio © Steve B Graphics 2021

Although this tablet can be used in a ‘professional’ capacity, it’s clearly designed for the more ‘younger’ and maybe less ‘experienced’ designer and illustrator – but don’t let that put you off – if you’re on a tight budget (or have limited deck space!), this might be what you’re after…

In a nutshell, the S630 Graphic Tablet is a small device for plugging into your PC/Mac (or compatible Android device!) and you ‘draw’ on the tablets surface and the image ‘magically’ appears on your screen… or something like that anyway…

Inside the brown box (presumably made from recyclable material?) adorned with ‘cute’ looking aliens and monster creatures, sits the tablet, battery-free pen, Micro USB cable, replacement nibs, pen nib clip, Quick Start Guide and Warranty Info etc. Also included is a nice branded GAOMON bookmark! 😊

GAOMON S630 Graphics Tablet Accessories in the Studio © Steve B Graphics 2021

The tablet itself is quite small at 190.8mm wide and 177mm high with a work area of 5.08” X 3.18”. It’s made of black plastic and the ‘space alien/monster motif’ is repeated here on the surface of the tablet. Along the top of the tablet are the four express or shortcut keys, although at first glance you may miss them! They are the same grey colour as the tablets surrounding edge and they almost get lost amongst the icons! Once you’ve used the tablet for a little while, using the keys becomes second nature. You can re-program and/or customise the keys functionality should you so wish in the driver software, but I found the default ‘Zoom In/Out’ and ‘Increase/Decrease Brush Size’ worked for me. The bottom of the tablet has a small ‘wrist area’ to rest your (you guessed it!) wrist on whilst drawing…

GAOMON S630 Graphics Tablet in the Studio © Steve B Graphics 2021

The pen is very, very light – it almost felt ‘hollow’ in the hand, but it does the job it was designed for. It’s a 2-button pen that supports 8192 levels of ‘pressure sensitivity’. The buttons, like the tablets’ express keys, can be customised in the driver software. It supports 60° of ‘Tilt’ and has a ‘Resolution Ratio’ of 5080LPI and is battery-free.

GAOMON S630 Graphics Tablet Pen in the Studio © Steve B Graphics 2021

The driver software is simple enough to navigate with a fairly simple UI and I had no problems adjusting the pen pressure. There is a ‘pressure test’ area below the ‘pressure sensitivity adjustment’ box whereby you can test the pressure of the pen once you have made amendments with the graph. (Well, that sentence made sense in my head when I wrote it 😊). But it worked fine. (By default, the top button acts as a ‘Mouse Right Click’ and the bottom button the ‘Eraser’).

GAOMON S630 Graphics Tablet Driver Software in the Studio © Steve B Graphics 2021

Before using these tablets, you need to uninstall any other tablet drivers you may have installed, head over to the respective company’s website and download the latest software to avoid any conflicts and incompatibility issues that may arise.

Once I’d connected the tablet to my laptop via the Micro-USB lead, a small orange coloured LED lit up below the GAOMON logo and I was good to go…

Generally, when I test these devices, I tend to start some simple scribbles like quick, short sharp lines, some cross-hatching and circular lines to test the pen pressure and as you’ll see from the accompanying images, I was happy with the results. Increasing (and decreasing!) the brush size while working with the shortcut keys was effortless and worked without any problems at all. I wouldn’t go too heavy handed on the buttons as they are a bit ‘plasticky’ (don’t forget this is a kinda ‘cheap/budget’ tablet!) and I’m not sure how they will stand up to a constant bashing etc, but for now they worked great. I’m not sure I’d like to work on a tablet much smaller than this one, but for the sake of this review I had no issues. Working in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator on a Windows 10 PC produced great results.

According to the ’blurb’, the ‘imitation paper tablet cover with cartoon patterns can also bring you a design atmosphere, and the cover has the effect of a pencil rubbing on paper…’ Whilst I didn’t feel any ‘rubbing’ 😊, the pen slid over the tablet surface and felt nice to draw on regardless.

Another feature of this tablet is that it can work with compatible Android 6.0+ devices. Using a USB adaptor, you can plug the tablet into a tablet or phone and draw on the go. The work area of the tablet is vastly reduced this way (to 80.8mmX45.4mm), with only roughly the left third of the tablet representing the Android devices screen orientation. My go-to App for this type of use is Adobe Illustrator Draw and once again the device worked and functioned exactly as you’d expect. There was an ever-so-slight small lag on my Android tablet, but to be honest I’ve always experienced that no matter what brand of graphics tablet I have plugged in, so I’m guessing it’s the same for everyone and just the way the technology works… it’s hardly worth mentioning really, but it is noticeable compared to working on a laptop and/or PC/Mac. Note: My box did not actually contain the USB adaptor required for this, so I had to use one I had lying around. I’ve seen different adverts for this tablet with one saying it is supplied and another stating you have to purchase it separately, so I can’t actually guarantee you’ll get one as I cannot confirm if it should be included!

At the time of writing with Christmas just round the corner at 6 months away *coughs* 😊, this would make a perfect gift for the young aspiring designer/illustrator. The funky looking creatures on the tablet make it stand out from the normal type of tablet and would look good on anyone’s digital set-up.

The GAOMON S630 Graphics Tablet is compatible with most, if not all professional creative software like the Adobe CC Apps, Corel, Clip Studio Paint, Krita, GIMP etc

I enjoyed using the tablet and can actually recommend it to anyone, regardless of their age and experience!