A drawing tablet is a great tool for digital artists, graphic designers, and content creators but you might have always seen it being used with desktop monitors. However, many people prefer buying a laptop over a desktop as a portable option. If you are one of those people you might have wondered if a drawing tablet can be used with a laptop if you don’t have a PC.
It is possible to use a drawing tablet with a laptop as all you have to do is connect it to your laptop via Bluetooth or a USB cable and install the dedicated drivers for it to be recognized by your system. Even though all drawing tablets can be used with a laptop, that doesn’t mean you should just plug any tablet into your laptop and expect it to work error-free.
There are some tablets that work better with a laptop and some that don’t need a computer at all. It all comes down to your budget and the portability of the tablet. In this article, I’ll discuss some drawing tablets you can use with your laptop and whether or not it would be a good investment.
What Drawing Tablets Can Be Used With a Laptop?
Every drawing tablet you can get your hands on can be used with a laptop because drawing tablets only require a system and proper software to work with and don’t discriminate between a laptop or PC. However, since people consider a laptop for its portability you need to choose a drawing tablet that goes with it.
Any drawing tablet that is too large or difficult to carry around is a no go. Some of the best tablets you can check out are:
- Wacom Intuos
- H610 Pro V2
- Wacom One
Some of the above options are graphics tablet without a screen whereas the Wacom One is a display drawing tablet which can give you a more natural pencil-on-paper feel.
Wacom Intuos
The Wacom Intuos is a great versatile drawing tablet which meets the needs of most consumers. This is a great budget tablet for beginners to use and also comes with Bluetooth which adds to the portability as you don’t have to carry a USB cable with you.
The Intuos comes in two sizes, small and medium and most laptops would be suited for the small size while also providing you a comfortable drawing surface.
You can buy the Wacom Intuos from Amazon for a pretty cheap price.
H610 Pro V2
Huion is known for making great budget drawing tablets with advanced functionality and gives some competition to Wacom. The H610 Pro V2 has 8 express keys which can improve your workflow and has tilt functionality with 8192 pressure levels. These are great features for a tab costing around $50.
The H610 Pro has a 10 x 6.25 inch drawing surface which is an appropriate size to place in front of your laptop. Also, since I know most people on a budget would be using a chromebook both the Huion and Wacom tablets work on Chrome OS as well.
Check out the Huion H610 Pro V2 from Amazon.
Wacom One
Both the tablets I have discussed till now are graphics tablet, meaning they don’t have a screen and require good hand-eye coordination to work with. However, if you have a bigger budget I would recommend buying the Wacom One display drawing tablet.
It has a 13.3 inch screen with a 14 inch overall tablet size. Since most laptops come in a standard size of 15.6 inches this is an ideal size to look for in a drawing tablet. If you have a smaller laptop around 14 – 13 inches I would stick to the Intuos or H610 Pro V2.
Check out the Wacom One on Amazon.
Should You Get a Drawing Tablet for Your Laptop?
Now that you have a good idea of what drawing tablets work well with a laptop it’s time to ask the final question, should you get one for your laptop? Sure, they are great and have immense capabilities and beat drawing by hand or mouse but do they work as well as they do on a PC?
My answer to that is yes, it’s definitely worth it to buy a drawing tablet for your laptop as it would have the same functionality as you would with an iMac or desktop computer. Having a drawing tablet can greatly enhance your workflow and not considering one could be a missed opportunity.
Do I Need a Laptop to Use a Drawing Tablet?
You do need some kind of system to connect your drawing tablet to. Most professionals use a desktop computer because of its powerful performance, a laptop is second to that and very rarely I have seen people connect their drawing tablet to a smartphone as well.
There are some drawing tablets that don’t require any kind of computer to work known as standalone tablets. These have their own storage and are a separate device – the most popular standalone tablet is the iPad Pro.
Conclusion
Drawing tablets are a great tool to increase your workflow by opening up a new range of possibilities. However, we usually see drawing tablets used with desktop computers. Since most people possess a laptop for their work it makes us wonder whether or not they can be used with a laptop as well.
Drawing tablets can be used with laptops and can be a worthwhile investment to look into when considering one for your career or school projects. There are some tablets that work better with a laptop than others but the main idea is the same. All you have to do is plug them into your laptop, install the necessary drivers and you can start using it.
