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Backstory
I've been looking for an inexpensive on-the-go sketchbook solution for awhile. I find paper too limiting for when a good idea needs to grow, and I think it's weird having stacks of furry art lying around. I've never quite warmed to Wacom's drawing tablets (I like to spin things) , and a $3,000.00 Modbook was always out of the question.
A few years ago I waxed poetic about the potential of the original iPad as a portable drawing tablet. I went out and bought one to try and eat my own words, especially seeing the badass drawing apps for the iPhone (Brushes, etc).
Unfortunately it never really met my expectations. TL;DR, it was too big to bring as an afterthought, it lacked the flexibility to do serious content creation (for example, back in the days prior to iCloud and DropBox integration, moving documents to/from it was a joke). It also crashed. Lots of crashes. Within a month or two it mostly sat in the desk drawer and served as a testing mule until recently.
Over the years I've tried out different portable digital sketchbook solutions. There are now some really good ones- but none are entirely perfect. Here's a brutally honest take on them.
Left-to-right
1st Gen iPad + Adonit Jot Pro with Bamboo Paper / ProCreate ( Capacitive Stylus )
Since my initial disappointment, 3rd parties really stepped up to the plate over the past 3 years. On the iPad, theres now a drawing app for every level of proficiency. Some are pathetic (e.g. 53's "Paper" ) , others are brilliant. My favorite for quick sketching is Wacom's "Bamboo Paper" , which is simple but attractive for sketching concepts. For finishing, Procreate is heads-and-shoulders the best tablet painting app I've used. On newer iPads, pressure sensitivity and high-resolution (4K!) export is supported.
For input, I got my paws on an Adonit Jot Pro (the Jot Touch, a pressure-sensitive version, isn't fully compatible with my ancient iPad, however if you have a newer one I'd strongly recommend spending the extra dough as it works very well). The stylus feels like a million bucks, and once you get used to it it's quite capable- it's every bit as nice as the Pogo, Bamboo, and Dagi styli aren't. It isn't as precise as a Wacom digitizer, but depending on how you draw, you may find it just as pleasant to use. If you're comfortable with a looser/painterly style, I'd say this is the combination to go with, especially with the Retina iPads.
One caveat I have is that ProCreate is a bit of a roach motel in terms of formats. Ideally, you'd be able to export to a PSD and finish the job on your computer for proofing. Hopefully they add in such a feature soon.
Example Pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11708367/
HTC Flyer + HTC Scribe / Autodesk Sketchbook Pro ( NTrig Digitizer )
This poor little tablet had a hard life. Released right before tablet-Android became legitimate and for an eye-popping $600.00 price tag, this tablet eventually became a fire sale item. I picked one up right before it was discontinued for a cool $150.00. It barely survived the Honeycomb upgrade cycle, and through most of its usable life it was excluded from a lot of great Android tablet apps.
HTC sold an optional "Scribe" pen (powered by an NTrig digitizer) supporting some rudimentary level of pressure sensitivity (whatever the official numbers were, it felt more like "Light" and "Hard.") Despite its flaws, this thing became my sidekick over the course of a year. The build quality was top-notch, and, when it worked, the pen made drawing super fun- its size meant I could carry it with me everywhere, and it was comfortable to sit in bed and sketch. Despite the fact most things on the tablet were sluggish, Sketchbook Pro was super responsive.
NTrig pens feel a lot different than Wacom pens- they're heavier (this one was powered by a AAAA battery- that's not a typo) and feel much higher quality. They're also much more expensive (MSRP was $80.00), and extremely unreliable. Sometimes you won't get any pressure sensitivity, or sometimes you just won't get any input at all. As time went on, I'd often spend 5-10 minutes bending the contacts in the pen to make it work properly again. Eventually, I had to get a new one.
The HTC tablet software suffered from a host of problems as time went on. Each software update broke more things than it fixed. Despite a couple clean installs, boot time is - I kid you not - 25 minutes. More involved drawings lead to crashes and lost work. I haven't found any custom ROM builds that don't break functionality, so I haven't gone the rooting route, but I will likely give it a try before I sell it.
Sketchbook Pro:
Example Pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9783314/
Example Pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8508000/ (prior to high-res canvases)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 + Wacom Bamboo Feel / Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and Sketchbook Ink ( Wacom Digitizer )
When I first picked up the Galaxy Note 8, I came really close to returning it. Despite the superior Wacom digitizer, I found the included S-Pen to be terrible (it is.) I tried a couple other Wacom-compatible pens, such as the Surface Pro, and there seemed to be some serious accuracy issues. On a whim, I picked up a Wacom Bamboo Feel, and almost instantly this became the ideal mobile sketching companion. It's super-fast, super-lightweight, and very no drama.
The Bamboo Feel (not to be confused with the capacitive Bamboo stylus for iPad) feels about as nice as any Wacom stylus I've used. It's light but comfortable, and the tip has just the right amount of resistance so to avoid the unpleasant plastic-on-glass feeling the Adonit Jot and HTC Scribe suffer from. Combined with the super-fast performance (this has a quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM- large Sketchbook Pro canvases don't really burden it) , you can sketch all day on this and be happy.
So what's not to like? Well, despite getting the hard stuff right, they totally blew it on the easy stuff. The screen is actually a bit worse than the HTC and original iPad(!). The user interface is offensively bad (hope you like GIANT ugly 2006-era icons all mashed together.) Battery life? I've managed to kill it in 2.4 hours from a full charge in power saving mode (this only happened twice, but it still happened.) The Galaxy Note 8 MSRP's for $400.00, which is more than an iPad Mini, and it feels like a happy meal toy by comparison.
Additionally, even though the ecosystem has evolved tremendously, Android apps just aren't as good as iPad apps. Sketchbook Pro / Sketchbook Ink get the 'sketch' part right, but the Android painting apps (LayerPaint, Infinite Painter) are unpleasant to use and/or laggy. I'm under the firm belief that if you're drawing on a tablet, chances are you don't want to spend 30 minutes fiddling with brush presets just to keep them from looking terrible.
Still, if on-the-go pencil sketching is your thing and you've got the feel of a Wacom digitizer hard-wired to your brain, its size and superb stylus integration make it the only game in town.
Sketchbook Ink: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10740234/
Sketchbook Pro: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11597099
I've been looking for an inexpensive on-the-go sketchbook solution for awhile. I find paper too limiting for when a good idea needs to grow, and I think it's weird having stacks of furry art lying around. I've never quite warmed to Wacom's drawing tablets (I like to spin things) , and a $3,000.00 Modbook was always out of the question.
A few years ago I waxed poetic about the potential of the original iPad as a portable drawing tablet. I went out and bought one to try and eat my own words, especially seeing the badass drawing apps for the iPhone (Brushes, etc).
Unfortunately it never really met my expectations. TL;DR, it was too big to bring as an afterthought, it lacked the flexibility to do serious content creation (for example, back in the days prior to iCloud and DropBox integration, moving documents to/from it was a joke). It also crashed. Lots of crashes. Within a month or two it mostly sat in the desk drawer and served as a testing mule until recently.
Over the years I've tried out different portable digital sketchbook solutions. There are now some really good ones- but none are entirely perfect. Here's a brutally honest take on them.
Left-to-right
1st Gen iPad + Adonit Jot Pro with Bamboo Paper / ProCreate ( Capacitive Stylus )
Since my initial disappointment, 3rd parties really stepped up to the plate over the past 3 years. On the iPad, theres now a drawing app for every level of proficiency. Some are pathetic (e.g. 53's "Paper" ) , others are brilliant. My favorite for quick sketching is Wacom's "Bamboo Paper" , which is simple but attractive for sketching concepts. For finishing, Procreate is heads-and-shoulders the best tablet painting app I've used. On newer iPads, pressure sensitivity and high-resolution (4K!) export is supported.
For input, I got my paws on an Adonit Jot Pro (the Jot Touch, a pressure-sensitive version, isn't fully compatible with my ancient iPad, however if you have a newer one I'd strongly recommend spending the extra dough as it works very well). The stylus feels like a million bucks, and once you get used to it it's quite capable- it's every bit as nice as the Pogo, Bamboo, and Dagi styli aren't. It isn't as precise as a Wacom digitizer, but depending on how you draw, you may find it just as pleasant to use. If you're comfortable with a looser/painterly style, I'd say this is the combination to go with, especially with the Retina iPads.
One caveat I have is that ProCreate is a bit of a roach motel in terms of formats. Ideally, you'd be able to export to a PSD and finish the job on your computer for proofing. Hopefully they add in such a feature soon.
Example Pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11708367/
HTC Flyer + HTC Scribe / Autodesk Sketchbook Pro ( NTrig Digitizer )
This poor little tablet had a hard life. Released right before tablet-Android became legitimate and for an eye-popping $600.00 price tag, this tablet eventually became a fire sale item. I picked one up right before it was discontinued for a cool $150.00. It barely survived the Honeycomb upgrade cycle, and through most of its usable life it was excluded from a lot of great Android tablet apps.
HTC sold an optional "Scribe" pen (powered by an NTrig digitizer) supporting some rudimentary level of pressure sensitivity (whatever the official numbers were, it felt more like "Light" and "Hard.") Despite its flaws, this thing became my sidekick over the course of a year. The build quality was top-notch, and, when it worked, the pen made drawing super fun- its size meant I could carry it with me everywhere, and it was comfortable to sit in bed and sketch. Despite the fact most things on the tablet were sluggish, Sketchbook Pro was super responsive.
NTrig pens feel a lot different than Wacom pens- they're heavier (this one was powered by a AAAA battery- that's not a typo) and feel much higher quality. They're also much more expensive (MSRP was $80.00), and extremely unreliable. Sometimes you won't get any pressure sensitivity, or sometimes you just won't get any input at all. As time went on, I'd often spend 5-10 minutes bending the contacts in the pen to make it work properly again. Eventually, I had to get a new one.
The HTC tablet software suffered from a host of problems as time went on. Each software update broke more things than it fixed. Despite a couple clean installs, boot time is - I kid you not - 25 minutes. More involved drawings lead to crashes and lost work. I haven't found any custom ROM builds that don't break functionality, so I haven't gone the rooting route, but I will likely give it a try before I sell it.
Sketchbook Pro:
Example Pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9783314/
Example Pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8508000/ (prior to high-res canvases)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 + Wacom Bamboo Feel / Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and Sketchbook Ink ( Wacom Digitizer )
When I first picked up the Galaxy Note 8, I came really close to returning it. Despite the superior Wacom digitizer, I found the included S-Pen to be terrible (it is.) I tried a couple other Wacom-compatible pens, such as the Surface Pro, and there seemed to be some serious accuracy issues. On a whim, I picked up a Wacom Bamboo Feel, and almost instantly this became the ideal mobile sketching companion. It's super-fast, super-lightweight, and very no drama.
The Bamboo Feel (not to be confused with the capacitive Bamboo stylus for iPad) feels about as nice as any Wacom stylus I've used. It's light but comfortable, and the tip has just the right amount of resistance so to avoid the unpleasant plastic-on-glass feeling the Adonit Jot and HTC Scribe suffer from. Combined with the super-fast performance (this has a quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM- large Sketchbook Pro canvases don't really burden it) , you can sketch all day on this and be happy.
So what's not to like? Well, despite getting the hard stuff right, they totally blew it on the easy stuff. The screen is actually a bit worse than the HTC and original iPad(!). The user interface is offensively bad (hope you like GIANT ugly 2006-era icons all mashed together.) Battery life? I've managed to kill it in 2.4 hours from a full charge in power saving mode (this only happened twice, but it still happened.) The Galaxy Note 8 MSRP's for $400.00, which is more than an iPad Mini, and it feels like a happy meal toy by comparison.
Additionally, even though the ecosystem has evolved tremendously, Android apps just aren't as good as iPad apps. Sketchbook Pro / Sketchbook Ink get the 'sketch' part right, but the Android painting apps (LayerPaint, Infinite Painter) are unpleasant to use and/or laggy. I'm under the firm belief that if you're drawing on a tablet, chances are you don't want to spend 30 minutes fiddling with brush presets just to keep them from looking terrible.
Still, if on-the-go pencil sketching is your thing and you've got the feel of a Wacom digitizer hard-wired to your brain, its size and superb stylus integration make it the only game in town.
Sketchbook Ink: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10740234/
Sketchbook Pro: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11597099
Category Other / General Furry Art
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1000 x 645px
File Size 104 kB
Because of my new job and the long hours I've been considering a new tablet to take with me for art and media, thank you for the review of the three! Makes me miss my iPad a tad.
I've been asking around, and although it's quite pricey, people have been suggesting the Surface Pro 2 when it comes out. I was put off(Metrolol) but I hear the pro line can use regular programs like a desktop/laptop. Have you tried the Surface Pro line any?
I've been asking around, and although it's quite pricey, people have been suggesting the Surface Pro 2 when it comes out. I was put off(Metrolol) but I hear the pro line can use regular programs like a desktop/laptop. Have you tried the Surface Pro line any?
I have a Surface Pro (OG). The background for "4" was actually done in Sketchbook Pro on it. The pen that comes with it (compatible with the Wacom Bamboo Feel!) is actually pretty decent. The screen is gorgeous, too. Hardware wise, you'd think this thing would be a knockout punch.
The basic problem is that there's been absolutely zero embracing of the Metro UI for any pro-grade productivity apps. Some have cheap 'lite' or 'express' versions, but they're well behind their iPad/Android equivalents. Windows developers just don't seem to give a shit about updating their software. I guess the ones who did moved over to Apple / OSX.
Metro is very very VERY half-baked. For example, the control panel is split between the new Metro UI and classic UI, with little rhyme or reason as to what's where. Some of the UI conventions look attractive, but are a functional nightmare (e.g. Photo gallery.) Microsoft mixed up 'making things easier' with 'removing helpful features'.
Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, etc. 'technically' work, the experience is miserable because you can't pinch-to-zoom or pan with your finger, and rely on the stylus for teeny tiny menu items.
I can't emphasize this enough- Windows 8 is a total and complete disaster. The Surface is lovely hardware, though.
The basic problem is that there's been absolutely zero embracing of the Metro UI for any pro-grade productivity apps. Some have cheap 'lite' or 'express' versions, but they're well behind their iPad/Android equivalents. Windows developers just don't seem to give a shit about updating their software. I guess the ones who did moved over to Apple / OSX.
Metro is very very VERY half-baked. For example, the control panel is split between the new Metro UI and classic UI, with little rhyme or reason as to what's where. Some of the UI conventions look attractive, but are a functional nightmare (e.g. Photo gallery.) Microsoft mixed up 'making things easier' with 'removing helpful features'.
Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, etc. 'technically' work, the experience is miserable because you can't pinch-to-zoom or pan with your finger, and rely on the stylus for teeny tiny menu items.
I can't emphasize this enough- Windows 8 is a total and complete disaster. The Surface is lovely hardware, though.
Its still funny to me that they cost as much as they do too
As nice as the surface pro 2 looks, the "windows 8 specific" ecosystem needs a lot of work and likely several years of iteration before it really starts to shine. I don't hate metro at all, and I actually prefer the metro-style in a phone format (I really love WP8's user experience), but its so... odd.. how they basically have Windows 8 RT as a completely worthless and separate ecosystem and Windows 8 "for real" as this odd split between a classic desktop and windows RT, and as well as only available in a very high price point.
One of the things that is helping keep WP8 even a thing is the fact that the OS runs on even the dirt-cheapest of hardware. A $100 android phone is literally in "you might as well not try" territory but the $100 lumia 520 has pretty much the exact same smooth and functional UX as a flagship WP8 phone, and WP8's sales have shown - a large amount of market gain is from these entry-level smartphones alone. They just blow android equivalents in that low end price bracket out of the water.
But for the Surface, its almost sad how WP8 has WAY more developer support, and WP8 isn't really known to have nearly the app ecosystem that iOS/Android has due to its newness.
They need to straight up figure out a way to make it so W8 simply works on low end and entry level tablets, they need to make it so windows 8 RT is just gone entirely, need to make it so WP8 and W8 (tablet) are cross compatible and unified instead of being completely separate ecosystems, and ideally they need to make it so W8 (for tablets) doesn't even have the desktop functionality and instead is on a revised metro design (like RT) but with the capability of running x86 programs. I mean, just imagine that - it would be a significant draw to using Surface over other platforms if they did that right there. A cohesive design across the entire interface that actually shows confidence in their design (which may need revisions), but yet the ability to (somehow) run native x86 programs directly on the tablet, and have it work good with a tablet even if it has to "emulate" programs not designed with metro UX in mind. Eventually after a while support for metro would be big enough that its just second nature to make a metro UI as well as a desktop UI when creating programs for windows.
As nice as the surface pro 2 looks, the "windows 8 specific" ecosystem needs a lot of work and likely several years of iteration before it really starts to shine. I don't hate metro at all, and I actually prefer the metro-style in a phone format (I really love WP8's user experience), but its so... odd.. how they basically have Windows 8 RT as a completely worthless and separate ecosystem and Windows 8 "for real" as this odd split between a classic desktop and windows RT, and as well as only available in a very high price point.
One of the things that is helping keep WP8 even a thing is the fact that the OS runs on even the dirt-cheapest of hardware. A $100 android phone is literally in "you might as well not try" territory but the $100 lumia 520 has pretty much the exact same smooth and functional UX as a flagship WP8 phone, and WP8's sales have shown - a large amount of market gain is from these entry-level smartphones alone. They just blow android equivalents in that low end price bracket out of the water.
But for the Surface, its almost sad how WP8 has WAY more developer support, and WP8 isn't really known to have nearly the app ecosystem that iOS/Android has due to its newness.
They need to straight up figure out a way to make it so W8 simply works on low end and entry level tablets, they need to make it so windows 8 RT is just gone entirely, need to make it so WP8 and W8 (tablet) are cross compatible and unified instead of being completely separate ecosystems, and ideally they need to make it so W8 (for tablets) doesn't even have the desktop functionality and instead is on a revised metro design (like RT) but with the capability of running x86 programs. I mean, just imagine that - it would be a significant draw to using Surface over other platforms if they did that right there. A cohesive design across the entire interface that actually shows confidence in their design (which may need revisions), but yet the ability to (somehow) run native x86 programs directly on the tablet, and have it work good with a tablet even if it has to "emulate" programs not designed with metro UX in mind. Eventually after a while support for metro would be big enough that its just second nature to make a metro UI as well as a desktop UI when creating programs for windows.
I actually think the Surface Pro is a steal. A proper Wacom digitizer, beautiful hardware, and a pretty damn powerful processor. The problem is Windows 8 is a hot mess if I ever saw one. You're caught between two incongruous environments- one that is useless in a tablet setting, and another that is horribly incomplete.
From an app standpoint- the problem is that no developer seems to really care about Windows (desktop) anymore. I don't think low-end tablets would make much of a difference- it'd sell more devices, but I don't think it'd lead to a new class of applications because although user base is important, the figure that rules at the end of the day is profitability. Whereas the iPad (and even Android, WebOS, and Window Phone) popped up a small cottage industry of talented indie developers who could earn a living writing some really clever apps, the Windows 8 app store only seems to attract sleazy/lazy efforts (see the 8 million crappy 'paint' apps that somehow got approved.)
From an app standpoint- the problem is that no developer seems to really care about Windows (desktop) anymore. I don't think low-end tablets would make much of a difference- it'd sell more devices, but I don't think it'd lead to a new class of applications because although user base is important, the figure that rules at the end of the day is profitability. Whereas the iPad (and even Android, WebOS, and Window Phone) popped up a small cottage industry of talented indie developers who could earn a living writing some really clever apps, the Windows 8 app store only seems to attract sleazy/lazy efforts (see the 8 million crappy 'paint' apps that somehow got approved.)
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