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Looking for a good starter tablet

NibbleNibble Registered User regular
edited March 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
My girlfriend's sister is very creative, and she seems to excel at any kind of visual art; however, she's never done anything digital. She recently expressed interest in getting a Wacom tablet or similar, but they all vastly exceed her budget as a first-year undergrad ($0). Her birthday is coming around the corner, though, so we thought we might split the cost and get a tablet that would be good enough to satisfy her curiosity without breaking the bank.

Unfortunately, there are simply too many brands and models with such a vast price range that I have no idea what would be suitable. Does anyone have a suggestion for a decent model that would be under $300 after tax? Alternatively, what are the features that I should be looking for in a tablet?

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  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    I can't praise Wacom highly enough.

    I think that a good model for her would be that Bamboo. It's Wacom's entry level tablet that can run from $80 - $200, depending on the model. All of the Bamboo line performs the same, what varies is the software that it brings. So, if she already has a copy of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Gimp or any thing similar, I'd suggest to get the cheapest tablet as there is no performance difference between the $70 and $200 model.

    The size of the tablet is another feature that you should keep in mind while shopping. I would chose it according to the space of her work area.

    Bamboo is fantastic, and the term Entry level is somewhat misleading as I used a Bamboo for 5 years every day at work as professional artist. I haven't done anything on my Intuos that I couldn't do on my old Bamboo or even older Graphire.

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