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iPad Pro vs Surface Pro
The iPad runs iPad OS, has optional apple pencil and keyboard cover and has a large bump on his head, not from a fight but because his dad thought it would be cool to put a camera there. If you want to do a deep dive into the how and why check out my review of the X, but for now what you need to know is that only some apps run on the X but they all work on the Surface Pro 7.
Clip Studio, Sketchable, Paint TOOL SAI, Leonardo, Autodesk Sketchbook, Corel Draw and Painter… I think you get the idea.
The interface has a traditional desktop feel on Windows but the interface is a lot more touch friendly but I feel that it has more of a learning curve on the iPad, it might be because I learned on desktop software and that’s what I’m used to.
Clip Studio on the iPad is a straight up port of the desktop version. Because of that it’s pretty cool, but I think the interface is kinda small and hard to navigate on the ipad compared to mouse on the desktop.
The new iPad Photoshop and Fresco show a lot of promise but are still incomplete and need more work before they become reliable tools ready for every day use. You might be thinking, “geez that’s a lot of money for a stylus” but this is one area you don’t want to cheap out.
You can usually find the official Surface Pen for far less than the listed price on Amazon.
The Apple pencil on the other hand is the only good stylus available for the iPad Pro. If you are using it as an input device or for handwriting this sort of thing doesn’t matter, if like me you are trying to draw clean ink lines like me, it’s a big big deal and that’s why for me the Apple pencil is the clear winner. For drawing on a traditional computer ram can be really important, I advise people working on Windows to go for at least 8gb.
But paper specs don’t tell the whole story, not even close because the iPad doesn’t work like a traditional computer. The iPad OS takes a lot more resources away from background processes to focus on your active app so if you’re drawing in something like Procreate most of your processing power and ram are focused on making that app run as well as possible.
Also many of those apps are streamlined specifically for the iPad and arn’t as robust as their desktop counterparts. Those are still very capable machines and you can save yourself a good chunk of change settling for one of those, especially if you want to go up to a better processor with more ram you can save yourself a ton and see a big performance bump over the entry level Surface Pro 7.
As much as I liked last year’s cute little Surface GO, it’s not spec ready to be your go to drawing too at its lowest configuration. One thing is clear is that the gap between what I need to do and what the ipad can do has closed considerable over the last 4 years.
The best iPad for drawing in November 2023
And with older models still delivering on performance, drawing on an iPad Pro needn’t too expensive. More and more artists are opting for Apple products when it comes to digital art as the iPad is slim and portable, offering a fantastic professional alternative or compliment to the best drawing tablets. Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Its compatibility with the Apple Pencil 2 means you get one of the best styluses available right now, while the display’s refresh rate of 120Hz ensures excellent responsiveness.
One small thing to consider is the size – the 12.9-inch offering is the largest in the iPad range and can feel pretty bulky if you’re not used to it. Unless you’re going to be doing a lot of professional drawing work, it is probably more computing and display power than you need, and in that case, a cheaper tablet on this list will likely prove to be the better choice. While the Pro models still reign supreme in terms of performance and display quality, the iPad Air has closed the gap by incorporating the same M1 chip found in the Pros, making it a powerful and more affordable option for digital artists. He noted that the screen resolution is comparable to the Pro models, and the backlighting is even and colour-accurate, making it a great choice for visual creative work, including drawing. And some artists swear by a completely different drawing experience away from the bigger (and more expensive) iPad Pros. This model boasts a small but perfectly formed 8.3-inch Liquid Retina screen, which offers an impressive resolution of 1488 x 2266 pixels. In short, if you’re looking for a good-quality compact tablet for digital drawing, you won’t find a better option. Matthew also reviewed this one, writing: “It’s powerful enough to handle pretty advanced creative work, yet fits in a coat pocket,” which is just what some on-the-go artists need.
Apple gave the basic iPad a refresh in 2022, upgrading the chipset for better hardware for better performance and adding an improved rear camera. Much like the more expensive iPad models, this tablet includes True Tone support, which is Apple’s technology that adjusts colour balance depending on the quality of light in the room. Battery life is generally pretty good, and the new A14 chip provides a small but noticeable speed boost in operation. Whilst this slightly older model doesn’t sport the shiny new M2 chip, the M1 still packs a punch and can easily handle intense creative programmes. In our iPad Pro 12.9-inch (M1, 2021) review our writer goes into more detail, and summerises by explaining how this tablet, “offers one of the best screens ever made, and as much power as a desktop PC. In personally prefer the larger screen for artwork, but accessories like the Astropad Slate can be used to expand the drawing area.
Our expert review: Average Amazon review: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Specifications Stylus support: Apple Pencil 2 / Apple Pencil Screen size: 12.9-inch Resolution: 2732×2048 pixels Weight: 641 g Dimensions: 280.6 x 214.9 mm OS: up to iPadOS 17 CPU: A12Z Bionic chip Storage: 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB Rear cameras: 12MP, 10MP, TOF 3D LiDAR Front camera: 7MP, 1080p video Today’s Best Deals View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Still powerful and fast for most art apps + Can use Apple Pencil 2 + Display remains excellent Reasons to avoid – You may need to buy refurbished – Cameras feel dated At the time it felt a little underwhelming but in hindsight it’s a solid release that remains a powerful and fast tablet.
It’s lack of ambition on release actually ensures its a competent device in 2023 because Apple needed to get as much out of its A12Z Bionic chip as possible.
The only thing to be careful of is the price, don’t pay over the odds, which means you may need to buy refurbished, is so, I’d recommend buying from Apple directly as they offer the same one-year warranty as a brand-new iPads, a new battery and outer shell and all the manuals.
Ultimately, the best iPad for drawing is going to depend on the individual needs of the artist, and there’s no objectively right or wrong answer. As a rule, I either find the 11 or 12.9-inch displays ideal, so if you’re going to get a basic iPad the 10.9-inch model is preferred to the 10.2-inch, which is just a little small.
Processing power: Newer (and more expensive) iPads have faster processors, and are capable of handling more complex tasks without stutter or slowdown. Drawing is not the most intensive task that an iPad can perform, so this may well not be a factor – however, if you are working with super-high resolution files, then it’s going to be very important that your tablet can load and display them correctly. If price is an issue, I’d recommend the older iPad Pro 12.9 inch (2020), which lacks the new M-chips but regardless is a solid tablet with a large display, runs the new iPadOS and supports Apple Pencil 2. My personal favourites are the Astropad Slate, a large drawing stand that the iPad sits into to give it a larger work area, and secondly is Rock, Paper, Pencil (also from Astropad), this textured display cover offers a paper-like feel, protects your iPad screen and comes with hard-wearing Apple Pencil 2 nibs.
I’d suggest at least 128GB of storage, which means you can create large high-res files and ensures all apps can be used, from Procreate to Illustrator and ArtRage. The best pen displays, like the Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13, are close to iPad in that they can run software natively.
Dive into anything
I am not a professional artist, but i do dream of selling art someday once i get confident enough. Ive never had an Apple product so Im not sure if going all out for an Ipad Pro is the best decision.
Which iPad Is Best for Drawing and Digital Art? (Beginner to Pro)
The reason for this is that we are used to controlling the thickness and darkness of the lines by adjusting the pressure of the pencil. Even if you use a stylus, its rubber tip only replaces the finger, without providing any information about pressure. The line drawn with a pen is not only less wobbly (a good stylus will help you with this kind of control), but it also has a variable thickness.
The term “graphics tablet” usually refers to a special pad or a screen that you connect to a computer.
This is XP-PEN Artist Pro 16TP, an example of a screen graphics tablet that you connect to a computer. But can an iPad, which is a general-purpose tablet, be as good for drawing as the devices designed specifically for art? The surface of a graphics tablet is designed to recognize the signals from the pen and learn how strongly you press it. That’s why you can’t just take a pen from a graphics tablet and start using it on any touch-screen device—these two have to work in tandem.
It’s a special stylus, designed to look and feel like a real pencil, that only works with iPads released since 2015. The Apple Pencil also offers tilt sensitivity—which means that you can draw “with the side of the nib” to produce wider strokes (depending on the settings of the brush). In the past, tablet pens were often heavy and unwieldy because they had a cell battery inside. Today, most of them are battery-free, which means they don’t even need to be charged—they get their power from the contact with the surface of the tablet.
The 2nd generation Apple Pencil also offers one extra feature: it has an invisible button that you can double tap to quickly switch between the current tool and an eraser, switch between the current tool and the last used one, or show the color palette (as long as the app supports it). That’s why iPads have a functionality called palm rejection, which turns off the touch detection when you use the Pencil.
This functionality is offered in all iPads supporting the Apple Pencil, but it may work more or less successfully depending on the app. To ensure any accidental strokes never happen, you can do two things: turn off touch detection in the app, or use a two-fingered drawing glove.
When you hover your pen over the surface of a graphics tablet, you can see the outline of the brush, so you can adjust its size before touching the screen. Many users don’t consider it a deal breaker, but it’s worth knowing that this extra artist-oriented feature is available in some models.
In the world of traditional graphics tablets, you can choose from many sizes: from a modest 13″ to something as huge as 32″. That being said, you can be pretty happy with something as small as an iPad Mini, if your drawing process is based mostly on sketching.
When it comes to digital art creation, the quality of the display is probably just as important as pressure sensitivity.
What matters is the relationship between the resolution and the size of the screen—1920 x 1080 looks crisp on a mobile phone screen, but not so much on a 50″ TV.
Tech companies usually try to outdo their previous models when introducing a new product, increasing the resolution more and more. They decided that the human eye loses the capability to recognize the individual pixels (at a normal viewing distance) at a certain PPI.
In any case, the iPad Mini is the only model where you can expect a slightly sharper image quality. Most internet media is standardized for it, so if you use sRGB when creating your artwork, you can be fairly sure that others will see similar colors on their screens. Here’s the kicker: while the P3 screen may look better to you, your image is likely to be converted to sRGB when you share it online—so even people using the same iPad as you may not see what you saw during creation. The extra colors may make the iPad display look better during general activities, but it’s not as important for creating art as it might seem Depending on the screen technology used, the black may be darker or less dark, and the white brighter or less bright. On newer models, you’ll find it called Liquid Retina, which refers to the rounded corners of the screen, but that doesn’t change much in terms of image quality. The highest models, such as the iPad Pro 12.9 5th-6th generation, bring quite a big improvement—they sport a Liquid Retina XDR display with a superb level of contrast (1,000,000:1, which is supposed to make it look close to an OLED display). This can make the image look amazing, but you still need to keep in mind that after sharing your work online, most people will not see it the same way you did.
It refers to the adaptive refresh rate, and while it may make everything look smoother, it doesn’t affect the image quality or the objective speed of your work. It will make the nib wear out faster and will introduce a bit of noise into the image quality—but it can be an acceptable trade-off if your precision benefits from that.
Reducing the glare of the screen can also count as a beneficial side effect of a matte protector. While they don’t affect the image quality, they make the iPad look worn-out when the screen is off
Luckily, none of the iPads have a problem with this—the parallax is not noticeable at all, so you’re going to feel as if you’re drawing directly on the screen! Generally speaking, the more powerful the iPad, the smoother and more pleasant the drawing experience.
RAM, roughly speaking, defines how much information the iPad can work with at one moment.
That’s why apps like Procreate set a hard lock on the number of layers you can have in your file, depending on its resolution. The faster and more powerful the CPU, the quicker and smoother the iPad is at executing tasks. There’s also the graphics processing unit (GPU), which takes care of the visual side of the tasks.
If you don’t want to experience lags and instability, choose an iPad with a more powerful chip. Disk storage is another thing that could be upgraded according to your needs if you used a traditional graphics tablet connected to a computer.
Smaller storage won’t affect your workflow, as long as you remember to manage the older files regularly.
High-resolution, multi-layered files can be pretty big, so make sure you have a place to store them—either on the iPad or somewhere else. And using drawing apps is certainly a pretty demanding task for the hardware, so you can expect it to drain the battery very fast (especially since 100% brightness is often necessary to see the colors correctly). Generally, Apple aims for ten hours of web browsing/video playback on each of the iPads, and the battery quality is simply adjusted to reach that goal.
Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular digital art programs, but it’s only accessible to you in its full power on desktop. But this isn’t really a problem because the iPad has its own apps, designed to work best within the limitations of its hardware. You can also find a growing number of brushes available online that have been created for Procreate and its specific capabilities.
You can use them to create art in a minimalist style or to introduce more texture to your detailed artwork.
Digital painting can be overwhelming at times, but nobody said that you can’t use your iPad to create… pencil drawings! This set will help you produce beautiful sketches, whether for standalone artworks or as a base for a future painting.
There’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to things like this—all drawing apps offer similar functions, but they all have their own unique approach. It has a more accessible interface (all the important tools stay on the screen at all times, without covering too much space).
If you want extra features (like clipping masks or a handy photo reference window), you can get them as a one-time payment (currently about $2).
It welcomes you with a short tutorial to give you a quick overview of the features, and then you can just start drawing! The app is free, but there’s an ad displayed on top, which takes up a bit of space and can be distracting. You can remove the ads with a one-time payment of about $10, and a subscription of $2.99/month gives you a few extra features (like new filters, materials, and cloud access).
The tools are labeled, which makes the interface of ibisPaint X look less minimalist, but it can be very helpful for beginners. It allows you to use poseable 3D models for reference, and there are lots of assets (brushes, materials, patterns, and swatches) that you can get directly from a dedicated store. If you’re used to the versatility of Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint will give you the experience you’re more familiar with.
You can also customize the interface—for example, make the layers panel stay on top, in any area of the screen you need! To test the app, you can download it and use it for free—but just like with CSP, you won’t be able to save your file. Its watercolor brushes, for example, create splashes of colors that keep flowing and bleeding into each other, even after you pick up the pen.
The colors mix naturally, like real pigments, so if you’re used to working with traditional media, this app may be more convenient for you than the others. If you have a Creative Cloud subscription, it’s likely that Fresco is already part of it—you just need to log in with your Adobe ID credentials. Infinite Painter can be downloaded and used for free, but most of its tools (other than the most basic ones) are then locked behind the paywall.
All the iPads supporting the Apple Pencil are good for drawing, so as a beginner, you can choose any model from our list.
As with any shortcut, it doesn’t capture the whole picture, so you should still compare the other specifications to see if the chosen model is a good fit for you. If you’re looking for a cheap iPad for Procreate, just find the cheapest used/refurbished model from this list, and you’ll be fine!
If you’re more interested in efficiency, check out the answer to the question “What is the best iPad for digital art?” As mentioned before, RAM directly correlates to the number of layers accessible in Procreate, so this (along with the chipset) should be the most important metric for you. You’re going to improve faster by buying an older iPad and starting to draw right away than by waiting until you can afford one of the high-end models.
All Apple products are good at what they’re designed for—just because new models keep appearing on the horizon, it doesn’t mean the older ones suddenly lose their capabilities. As an owner of a 27″ Wacom Cintiq, I find my iPad just as capable when it comes to digital art, and I think that says a lot. One extra fun fact: it was created in Sketchbook, not Procreate—just to fight the popular assumption that you need Procreate to produce good digital art! I know that when it comes to buying a new device, especially one as expensive as an Apple product, making the choice can be very stressful.
iPad Pro 11 vs 12.9 for drawing: Portability vs Usability
So I just came back from South Korea from teaching at the GyeongJu Sketch Festa 2023. In this article I will share with you the usability experience of iPad Pro 11 vs 12.9 from the perspective of an artist, graphic designer and urban sketcher who enjoys sketching outdoors on location. By the way, if you have intention to buy the iPad Pro, consider using the Amazon affiliate link for your purchase to support my blog. It’s not very possible to hold the iPad Pro 12.9 by the bezel while drawing without setting that tablet down on a surface.
The takeaway point is this, the iPad Pro 12.9 is a table-top tablet and is best used on a surface for most comfort. If your workflow involves using your tablet on a table at home, office, school or cafe, on the pull-out tray of the train or plane, or on your lap, you should have no issue with the iPad Pro 12.9 since you have a surface to work on.
A few minutes after I started sketching in the market, I removed the tablet case on my iPad Pro 11. Even if I could sit and sketch, I may also remove the case so that I can bring the tablet higher to chest level for a more comfortable drawing position.
This is the type of usability issue you probably won’t think or experience while testing the tablets at the Apple Store. There was not a single occasion where I wished the display was larger while I’m using the iPad Pro 11 outdoors. You can use the money saved to increase storage capacity and get an Apple Pencil. And if you don’t mind getting refurbished units direct from Apple, you can get even more savings (10 – 15% off retail prices).
If your workflow requires you to hold the tablet in hand without support, get the iPad Pro 11. But as mentioned earlier if you need to hold the tablet in hand without support, get the iPad Pro 11.
I personally do not recommend the iPad Mini because the UI scaling makes the fonts and buttons look smaller.
Artist’s Review of the iPad Pro
The iPad Pro is light and portable, but can be a fully capable artist’s workstation – perfect for international travel. The app selection is broad, and you can still access Windows on it by remotely connecting to a cloud instance. The journey toward a highly portable, powerful and flexible digital artists workstation has taken quite a few years, but I think we’re finally there with the iPad Pro. The good news is the iPad Pro handles painting really well, and hasn’t negatively impacted my ability to create art professionally. I don’t think the pressure levels of the Apple Pencil are public knowledge, but from my experience they are indistinguishable from the 4000 or 8000 on a Wacom or Huion stylus. I don’t think I’ve once run out of battery with my Pencil – I just clip it to the iPad overnight and whenever I take a break, and that’s enough to keep it topped up just fine.
Apple have somehow managed to remove the need for cursor calibration, and there isn’t any noticeable parallax either, so the Pencil is technically very accurate – however, there is no cursor when drawing and the Pencil’s nib is fatter than a Wacom or Huion stylus’, so it’s hard to say which is more accurate. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, despite the iPad being super portable the screen doesn’t do that well in direct sunlight and other bright environments, so you can’t really use it outside. I painted using a Windows PC with Photoshop for over a decade, so the idea of finally having to switch to a different art software was really unappealing and I wasn’t looking forward to it, but for the most part it’s been easy!
I haven’t used Procreate that much yet due to lack of travel, but in the future this might get more use out of me – it’s certainly very popular software and the poster-child of iPad painting apps.
The iPad’s software was my primary concern before I bought it – I wasn’t sure iPadOS would be able to replace all the different things I did on a Windows device, a lot of it necessary for work. Obviously, you can’t use the same programs on an iPad as you would on Windows, but I’ve found app versions or alternatives of most of the tools I used on my PC.
The whole iPadOS operating system has a spattering of small annoyances, and it takes a while to figure out the nuances. It takes a while to get used to the differences, like the unique way it ‘sticks’ on buttons, but it means that you can now actually use the iPad for basic mouse-and-keyboard tasks like word processing. The main downside to IPadOS is that it’s a really strict operating system – you can’t access all the settings you might want to if you are used to Windows PC. Being able to easy rotate the iPad between landscape and portrait can sometimes help, but generally you’ll find you only have space to work in 1 app at a time.
In addition, you can play online videos in picture-in-picture mode, which creates another smaller overlay that you can position around the screen, or swipe to be off-screen as well. Google Docs as the left window, Clip Studio Paint as the right, Vizref as a third swipe-in overlay window I’ve placed on the right hand side, and a picture-in-picture video I’ve placed on the bottom left.
Effectively, with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected, it feels as if your iPad is suddenly a Windows PC, with a small amount of lag. You can customize the hardware specifications as you like – pick your amount of RAM, graphics card etc – install whatever programs you want, and boot up and shut down the instance as you please.
As long as you don’t need a really powerful PC it’s pretty inexpensive – for an instance with basic specs you’ll only pay around $0.07 for every hour of use.
I only need to use Windows for the occasional thing, mostly when I’m working on this website as some of the tools aren’t available on iPad, and only spend a few hours using it most weeks – it only costs me $5-10 per month, but without a cloud instance like this I wouldn’t be able to be iPad-only. There’s slight lag, and you need a reasonably stable internet connection for it, but it’s an absolute bargain that can transform the iPad Pro into a really versatile machine. I know this isn’t really anything to do with art, but since this is a full iPad review and a lot of artists play games, I figure I might as well cover it quickly.
Similar to Amazon Workspace, these lets you log in to your Xbox, Steam or Stadia account and play many of your games via the cloud, amazingly with almost 0 lag; I don’t know how they’ve done it, but I’ve tested on GeForce NOW with Subnautica, Valheim and Warframe and all run super smoothly. Mouse input unfortunately doesn’t work properly, so you need a Bluetooth controller like a ps4 or Xbox pad, and not every game is available. This obviously depends massively on which iPad you buy, but generally speaking mine runs very smoothly whatever I throw at it. Even though the iPad specs are generally lower than my previous Windows computers, all of the iPadOS apps are so well optimized that I have rarely experienced any slowdown or lagging. ICloud integrates with the iPadOS files browser really well, has the best user experience on iPad out of all of the major cloud storage providers that I tried, and it is also the cheapest. The main downside is that the iCloud user experience is terrible on other devices, like on an android phone or Windows PC. I don’t even need access to a plug socket to work for a few hours, unlike with a screen tablet. Folding magnetic covers do provide a bit of protection when you’re carrying your iPad around, mostly in stopping the screen from getting scratched when it’s in a bag.
The iPad Pro isn’t the most expensive digital art solution I’ve ever had – that would be the original Wacom Cintiq Companion that I paid something like $3000 for in 2013 – but compared to a desktop PC and simple tablet, it is much more of a costly workstation. I did my best to limit my purchases and only buy decent third party accessories instead of Apple’s overpriced ones, but because this is my only work device I’ve bought some things that most people wouldn’t need: All of my other accessories – 13” laptop bag, magnetic cover, 2 stands, mouse, keyboard, headphones, battery pack, spare Pencil nibs and a longer charging cable – some of which I had to buy because I needed bluetooth peripherals for the iPad, cost around $250 in total. I believe Care+ can be paid for up to 2 years – I’m not entirely sure if you can continue beyond that, as there’s mixed information about it online – but if you plan on travelling with your iPad and thus increasing the risk of it breaking, Care+ is probably worth the price.
In total, my personal iPad Pro workstation cost an upfront investment of around $2000, and roughly $30 a month on ongoing subscriptions. In contrast, a capable painting setup of a simple Windows desktop PC with a budget Huion graphics tablet, mouse, keyboard, headphones and Krita could probably be put together for a total of $600 today. For me, for portability the price is worth it, as the money I’ll save by being able to work as I travel in cheaper countries will more than cover it.
I have fairly unique circumstances, as some sort of travelling artist-blogger, so the iPad Pro has been the right move for me personally – though it’s not been without its compromises and work-arounds.
In a laptop bag with all its accessories, it’s still compact enough to class as a free personal item on most airlines, which makes it perfect for international travel.
Should you get an iPad or a drawing tablet?
Well, obviously iPads are general-use tablets that tie into the Apple ecosystem, allowing you to check emails, do online shopping, access apps, and much more. The compact size and mobility of the iPad allows users to work on projects wherever they are instead of requiring them to sit at a computer.
As you’d expect, the finer details of how many options you’ll have and what brushes you can use are determined by the app you’re using.
Who should buy this: Anyone who wants user-friendly-yet powerful drawing software that they can take with them wherever they go. Graphics tablets come with a stylus or pen with removable tips and have far more pressure sensitivity levels than iPads, allowing artists to have more brush stroke variation as determined by how hard they push the pen to the screen. – Simple drawing pads that connect to a computer and are typically less expensive than other options. Pen displays – Feature a screen that you draw on but must be connected to a computer to supplement the necessary amount of power. They cost a bit more, but being able to draw directly on your art instead of staring at a computer monitor with your hand on a separate pen pad is really convenient.
– Feature a screen that you draw on but must be connected to a computer to supplement the necessary amount of power. They cost a bit more, but being able to draw directly on your art instead of staring at a computer monitor with your hand on a separate pen pad is really convenient. Pen computers – Standalone machines that feature HD displays and don’t need to be connected to other devices to function. However, the trade-off here is that drawing tablets aren’t nearly as portable since they either need to be connected to a computer or can be too bulky for easy mobile use.
Wacom is the big name in the drawing tablet world and as such, products by this company tend to be the very best you can buy, but also the most expensive. That being said, there are plenty of other brands that don’t cost as much while still offering powerful features and conveniences.
Since these devices connect to computers, they are compatible with far more programs since you’re not at the mercy of a simplified drawing app. Many graphics tablets also have customizable shortcut keys near the drawing area that you can program your most accessed commands to for easy use. Who should buy this: People who need access to more intensive programs to make more controlled projects. I recommend going for the newer Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) because it’s just so much more convenient to use and I personally think it feels better in my hands. Our team of Apple experts have years of experience testing all kinds of tech and gadgets, so you can be sure our recommendations and criticisms are accurate and helpful. For one thing, it has a flat side making it easier to grasp in your hand, which gives you more minute control over your strokes.
In addition to working better, it has a magnetic side that sticks to the iPad and can even wirelessly charge up that way. This version features a removable cap at the bottom that protects a lightning dongle.
To charge it, you’ll either need to purchase a separate pen charger or stick it into your iPad’s lightning port. Apple Pencil (1st Gen) View at Amazon View at Target The Apple Pencil has a rechargeable internal battery and can be juiced back up by plugging the lighting dongle into a lightning port.
Xp Pen Artist 22 Gen 2 Review Gengar (Image credit: Jez Corden / iMore) There are 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, customizable shortcut keys, and it’s wireless. Plus it has 8192 pressure sensitivity levels, comes with an adjustable kickstand, and comes with a Wacom Pro Pen 2.
Now that you’ve determined to either go with an iPad, a graphics tablet, or both, you’re ready to start making some awesome art.
Both the iPad and graphics tablets have their pros and cons, it’s just a matter of determining what your own preferences are.
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