How important is it to be able to draw anywhere I want? If you want a light tablet that you can take with you anywhere, standalone drawing tablet is perfect for you.
Standalone drawing tablets have greatly improved in recent years. There are all sorts of drawing tablets on the market now.
Normal tablet was barely useful for more than browsing the internet, watching video, reading books, and playing games.
But over the years, some tablet models has evolved. As they now supports input from keyboards and styluses, the range of its applications has increased.
With a keyboard, your tablet imitates a laptop, giving you the freedom to complete a couple of tasks you would do on your PC. And with a stylus, you could take down notes, sign important documents, or draw.
It’s probably no surprise that Apple, with its iPad range, is the market leader. But there are also Windows tablets such as Microsoft’s surface pro, as well as those that use different versions of Android from Samsung, Lenovo and Xiaomi.
A standalone drawing tablet needs to be lightweight, fast, and with a detailed display. It needs good battery life and to be comfortable in the hand, to work well for productivity, like writing, photo editing, sketching, note taking and painting.
If you are someone who is looking for a portable standalone drawing tablet, then this guide is going to help you.
Standalone drawing tablet vs Traditional drawing tablet
Regular traditional Drawing tablets may come with or without display (like wacom intuos and wacom cintiq ). They need to connect with a PC/laptop to function.
Standalone drawing Tablets, on the other hand, are self-sufficient and can function independently without the need of connecting to a PC/Laptop. the device has features of a drawing tablet and a computer combined.
Standalone tablets have everything packed into one – Hardware (Processor, RAM, Storage, Screen, Stylus, etc.) and Software (OS, the apps), making it an independent and portable device.
You don’t have to use your standalone drawingtablet only for drawing. It will come in useful in other life scenarios, such as checking emails, sharing images on social networks, editing videos and lots more! With traditional graphic tablet, you will not be able to use it for anything else.
Traditional drawing tablet is used to mirror the screen of your laptop or PC, so you will essentially be using the desktop version (Windows or Mac OS) of the software such as Illustrator or Photoshop.
Standalone drawing tablet is a mobile device, so you would be able to use various apps which have been specifically adapted to deliver smooth mobile drawing experience. The three main mobile os is Android, iOS and Windows.
12 Best portable standalone drawing tablets
These are my top 12 recommendations for anyone looking to draw digitally when it’s not possible to be tethered to a computer:
- Apple Ipad Pro, 2. Apple iPad Air 5th Gen, 3. Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, 4. Microsoft Surface Pro 9, 5. Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13, 6. Lenovo Tab P12 Pro, 7. Xiaomi Mi Pad 5, 8. Huawei Matepad 11, 9. ipad (10th gen), 10. Microsoft Surface Go 3, 11. Chuwi UBook X, 12. Simbans PicassoTab XL.