Pros and Cons of Android Tablets for Drawing

Drawing tablets have been the go-to professional tool for digital artists, painters, and creators for a decade, but Android tablets offer a more affordable and versatile alternative. That’s why you’re here, to learn about the pros and cons of drawing tablets and make an informed decision about the best Android tablet for drawing.

If you’re new to drawing tablets, they’re a popular tool for creating digital artwork that offers several benefits over traditional drawing tools, but there are also some potential downsides to using them.

It’s important to consider each and every advantage and disadvantage before you own an Android graphics tablet. You should consider your needs and preferences before investing in a drawing tablet and be prepared to spend some time getting used to the Android ecosystem.

Pros of Drawing Tablets

Here are the possible benefits of using Android-running drawing tablets:

Best Android Tablets for Drawing

A Digital Display to Canvas Your Art:

It is the basic benefit of both the Android tablets with stylus and traditional graphics tablets, also known as graphics tablets or digitizers, mimicking the experience of using paper by accurately translating the strokes you make using a pen-like stylus onto the screen.

However, both types have differences in hardware that will assist you in creating your next masterpiece in different ways.

Android tablets Work as Standalone Graphics Tablets

Usually, an external drawing pad or digital art board is required to be connected to the computer to render the input and display the results. However, Android drawing tablets are standalone for this purpose, which means they can take input from a stylus, render, and display the output on the same screen simultaneously.

It is important to understand that Android drawing tablets can work without a computer and produce a digital painting or art on their own, as well as visualize, and save, your work on internal and external storage and work as a portable, easy-to-carry drawing tool on the go.

Stylus Sensitivity for Precision and Accuracy for Digital Painting

Creators give very much importance to high-quality standalone drawing tablets for their specialty in precise and accurate strokes, enabling the smooth creation of hand-drawn images, animations, sketching, photo editing, and vector graphics.

The best Android tablets for artists, come with a stylus that can carry a deep level of sensitivity to feel more natural and to carry all the natural sensitivities like a pencil and paper.

Usually, Wacom’s Pro Pen stylus gives you 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, and we find new Android drawing tablets having the same pressure levels with included stylus-pen, which you can learn from our reviews.

Android Drawing Tablets are Multi-Purpose for Artists Job:

Unlike traditional graphics tablets, Android tablets have many perks. They have a versatile operating system that allows artists and painters to do more for their profession.

The ability to run Android OS and modern drawing tablets enables note-taking with multiple third-party apps, scheduling, and playing animations, tutorials, and many other free apps from the Google Play Store.

Additionally, artists can have the ability to listen to music, take photos, and browse the web. These qualities make many beginner artists prefer Android for their careers.

Cons of Drawing Tablets:

Like any other professional tool, drawing tablets can be a great tool for digital artists and designers, but they may not be without a few concerns.

Charging Your Battery-Operated Stylus:

Almost all Android drawing tablets come with Li-ion battery built-in pens, which are unlike battery-free Wacom pens. This is not a major inconvenience, but the Android stylus pens come with a rechargeable battery built-in, which is convenient and eliminates the need to change AAA batteries.

But the inconvenience is there for charging your pen regularly.

Lack of Physical Shortcut Keys:

Android tablets are designed to look sleek, modern, and very thin, so they can’t provide physical buttons for hotkeys, which many professional drawing tablets offer for customizations.

Thus, you are limited to software keys, but it’s not bad once you are used to software touch buttons, you can set up hotkeys in your drawing software to make your workflow more efficient.

Lack of Tactile Feedback:

Even though you can do more with Android drawing tablets, their glossy screens lack tactile feedback. Again, it’s a specialty of drawing pads and graphics tablets that have a specialized surface rather than a capacitive touchscreen IPS or AMOLED, which don’t have that tactile feedback.

However, you can use a drawing glove to work steadily and not lose your grip, though this is an optional accessory that you can purchase in addition to a good Android tablet for drawing.

Aleksha McLoughlin
Meet Aleksha McLoughlin, a Hardware Editor at PCCores with a background at top firms, GamesRadar, and Trusted Reviews. She's an expert in the field and your go-to source for insights and information on the latest handheld gadgets, from smartphones and tablets to wearables. Follow her for buying guides, reviews, and news coverage on components and prebuilt machines, and stay up-to-date on all the must-have tech items she carries in her handbag.