Best drawing tablets with a screen: find the right device for you

In recent years the best drawing tablets with a screen have slowly replaced traditional graphics tablets. As the cost of displays are lowered and the quality risen, more digital artists and illustrators have found drawing directly onto a screen easier and more natural.

This guide focuses in on tablets that have an integated screen, although we do have the best drawing tablets guide which includes more traditional tablet options as well, as these can still have a place when it comes easing back pain and versatility (see the How to choose section). Drawing tablets, in general, enable artists to create artwork without the need of pen and paper. Devices that have a built-in screen mean creatives can draw ‘directly’ onto the tablet rather than seeing their brush strokes on a separate monitor.

We’ve thoroughly tested and reviewed a wide array of different drawing tablets with a screen and have collated all the best ones into this guide. We’ve also categorised them so you can quickly find which ones best suit your specific needs. Our reviews assess each one’s design, performance, software and price to find the best option for different uses. I have also personally tried and reviewed some of the best drawing tablets with a screen for this guide.

My best overall winner is the XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2), which is a relative newcomer to the market. If you’re looking for a budget option, then you should consider either the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 or the Ugee 16 at No.2 and No.3 on my list. For more help with buying a drawing tablet, check out our best budget drawing tablets and best tablet with a stylus guides.

Best drawing tablet with a screen: quick list

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Best drawing tablets in full

Best drawing tablet with a screen overall

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Need to know: The Xencelabs Pen Display 16 impressed in our review and continues the manufacturer’s push to be the best Wacom alternative. This drawing tablet with a display features a fantastic 4K OLED display, professional grade colour coverage and smart design choices for a reasonable price. It doesn’t feature on-body Quick Keys like Wacom Cintiq Pro or virtual keys, so you will need the Quick Keys Remote, which is sold separately unless you buy the bundle deal.

Design: The Xencelabs drawing tablets always impress, and the Pen Display 16 is no different. This display is slim and lightweight yet doesn’t skimp on the build quality or reliability. In our review we noted how it felt solid and durable despite feeling light and agile. It remained cool and quiet even after long hours of use.

The display has a ‘fat’ bezel that has been designed for resting your wrist and prevents your stylus falling off the end of the display when sweeping across it. The bundle version includes a case, stand and Quick Key remote – this features ‘rubbery’ tactile keys and LEDs for easy use (it’s the best remote we’ve tried).

Features: This tablet features a lovely 4K OLED screen with 98% of Adobe RGB,
98% P3-DCS and 99% sRGB. In our review we found its anti-glare coating worked well in direct sunlight. The Xencelabs Pen Display 16 comes with two stylus, one slim and one fat with a mix of buttons, and both are very accurate in our tests.

One downside is the display lacks gesture control – it’s not a touchscreen – so you will need the Quick Keys remote, which only comes packaged with the bundle model. Not all artists like touchscreens, as they can interfere with with pen strokes (if you want a good touchscreen then the Wacom Movink 13 and iPad Pro on my list are good options).

Where the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 also shines is with its software support; it’s fully customisable, can be connected to multiple screens and tailored to be used across many different digital art apps, each with its own set of shortcuts (these can also be downloaded and installed).

Price: The Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is competitive with Wacom for price and specs; at $1,249 / £1,199, the Bundle deal, which includes the Quick Key Remote and Mobile Stand, is worth the extra cost over the Essentials option ($999 / £969). This costs more than the XPPen XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) at No.2 on my list, which offers better value, but its Quick Key remote and some design aspects are not quite as good as the Xencelabs range.

If you need a larger screen, the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 repackages the same tech and design ideas into a larger display and costs $1,899 / £1,850, which is around $600 / £600 less than the similarly specced Wacom Cintiq Pro 24. The advantage of the Xencelabs is it’s not only more affordable but comes with everything you could need in the box.

For the balance of specs and build quality the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 gets my vote as the best drawing tablet with a display overall. The new Wacom Movink 13 (below) is a little cheaper at $749.95 / £729.98, and it has a 4K OLED touchscreen, but it’s smaller and has inferior colour coverage.

Read the full review: Xencelabs Pen Display 16

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Best value drawing tablet with a screen

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Need to know: The XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) improves upon its predecessor with superior performance when it comes to display and colour technology. The 4K resolution looks amazing and with 16K pressure levels, artists are guaranteed to get the control they need. There’s also a QHD version with a refresh rate of 165Hz.

Design: Everything about this tablet oozes quality. The 24-inch display looks amazing at all angles and there are no buttons to distract or get in the way. I also love the four curved corners, which make handling the device very nice indeed. With that in mind, it’s as solid as a rock with no chance of bending or warping. The stand is located at the back, with adjustments made using the built-in paddle. The mechanism locks strongly into place, so there are no concerns about it slipping during use.

While the display and stylus tech impresses, the XPPen Quick Key remote isn’t quite as feature-rich and feels a little ‘plastic-y’ compared to the solid, LED laden Xencelabs remote that comes with the Pen Display 16 (above). The display also not a touchscreen (and neither is the Xencelabs) but the Wacom Movink 13 at No.6 is.

Features: The standout feature of the XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) is the vibrant 4K display with Calman-certified colour management. As a result, you’re guaranteed true-to-life performance. In my review I did note this display did require a lit of fiddling to calibrate, and takes time to set up.

The tablet also covers sRGB, Adobe RGB, and Display P3 colour spaces. The package also comes with dual X3 Pro series styli which deliver 16K ultra-sensitive pressure levels for creating premium digital art.

Price: The XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) costs $1099.99 / £1199, which puts it in the same ballpark as the Xencelabs Pen Display 16. This price includes two stylus and a quick shortcuts remote. With this in mind, and while there are issues over the remote and a complex calibration process, the XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) is a fantastic value for money drawing tablet with a screen.

If you’re happy paying an absolute premium, then you could go for the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 ($1,599 / £1399.99). Alternatively, XPPen also produces a 16-inch version of the Artist Pro, which can be picked up for less ($599.99 / £529.99).

Read the full review: XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2)

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Best budget drawing tablet with a screen

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Need to know: The Ugee 16 is a very affordable display, and easily the best budget drawing tablet with a screen we’ve reviewed. Despite costing a fraction of other displays on this list it still features a good display – Full HD display as opposed to 4K – and a stylus with 16K levels of pressure. It does have some nice software too, and offers ‘virtual Quick Keys’ accessed on the display in the same way as the more expensive Wacom Movink 13.

Design: If you want a more traditional design the Ugee 16 is a good option, as it features on-frame Quick Keys as opposed to using a remote like the Xencelabs and XPPens on my list. With that said, the on-frame dial and buttons don’t have the same solid, rubberised feel as the Xencelabs remote. They don’t have the same resistance as a Wacom, for example, and can feel a little plastic-like.

The design overall is very neat and clean, with few ports to get in the way – for example it uses power from the connected device so doesn’t need to over-port the frame. The display itself is smooth to the touch, offers a good anti-glare coating and nice colour coverage, but it is Full HD 1080p, rather that 4K, which is now the standard (but then there’s that sub-$200 price point).

Features: This budget drawing tablet with a display is very easy to setup and feels nice to use, and in our review we noted how accessible it was to create with, and lasted hours without getting hot or making a noise.

The Ugee 16 (also called the Ugee 15.4, because that’s the screen size, the 16-inches is the frame size) comes with some nice accessories for a budget tablet, including a metal folding stand and Ugee’s U-Pencil that has 16,384 levels of pressure sensitivity, the same as the more expensive XPPen at No.2. The on-frame Quick Keys and virtual keys are fully customisable and the software is easy to use.

The display, while only Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution features 143% sRGB and has an etched anti-glare covering, so it has that nice toothy resistance you get from good drawing tablets. It may not be 4K or OLED like the Movink 13 or Xencelabs on my list, but for the money the display is a good budget option.

Price: The Ugee 16 costs $199 / £210. Considering it comes with excellent accessories and performs really nicely, for this price, I’d recommend this to students or beginners.

Read the full review: Ugee 16 review

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Best drawing tablet with a screen for 3D

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Need to know: Unlike standard drawing tablets with a screen, the Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) has a CPU, the M4 chip, and OS, so it can run apps and enable you to draw directly into the screen. It’s an excellent all-round, reliable tablet that features some exclusive digital art apps, including the newly released ZBrush for iPad (read our ZBrush for iPad review), making it ideal for 3D artists.

Design: The iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) has a slim, solid uniform design that continues Apple’s trend for simple, clean form factor. It doesn’t change things up, but does nicely refine the established look. There’s a smaller 11-inch model too, which is slightly lighter but maybe too small for a dedicated drawing tablet.

The display is, frankly, stunning. It’s Apple’s Ultra Retina XDR display at 2752 x 2064 resolution with 1,600 nits peak brightness. Colours are punchy and vibrant and there’s no latency or lag. It’s a multi-touch display so trumps many on this list – though the cheaper Ugee UT3 is touch as is Wacom’s Movink 13. It is a glossy and reflective display, despite an antireflective coating, which for some artists can be an issue. A textured nano-glass coating, preferable for digital art, costs extra.

Features: The iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) is a very powerful tablet and represents the peak of this tech. Dedicated drawing tablets like the others on this list lack the CPU and power of the iPad Pro but they do offer better dedicated drawing experiences. But, the iPad Pro does use Apple’s new blazing fast M4 chip and will run smoothly. As mentioned, the Ultra Retina XDR display is beautiful and offers an adaptive refresh between 10-120Hz with True Tone for adjusting colour intensity.

While you do need to pay extra for a stylus, the new Apple Pencil Pro is one of the best stylus around. While it doesn’t have the 16K levels of pressure sensitivity found in the XPPen and Ugee stylus on my list (that come for free) Apple’s pen does feature unique gesture control – squeezing it brings up tool menus while ‘Barrel roll’ enables you to turn the stylus in your hand to change the shape of the brush – to go alongside standard tilt and palm rejection.

The only other drawing tablet with a screen on my list that is comparable is the Ugee UT3 at No.5, which is an Android tablet. It’s no real comparison but it’s more than half the price and offers a display designed for digital art – antiglare and etched.

Price: The cost of an iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) varies with the build you choose, but the starting price for a modest 256GB build is $1,299 / £1,299, the 11-inch starts at $999 / £999. It’s a $100 / £100 upgrade for nano-textured glass, which you’ll need, and tehe price keeps rising when you add more memory, which you’ll need. For example a 1TB 13-inch model is $1,899 / £1,899. So you can see, this isn’t the cheapest entry on my list, but for 3D artists wanting to sculpt in ZBrush on the sofa or travelling, it’s ideal.

Read the full review: Apple iPad Pro (M4, 2024)

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Best Android drawing tablet with a screen

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Need to know: The Ugee UT3 is the newest Android tablet made by a drawing tablet brand and aimed at artists. It’s a dedicated mobile tablet that features a CPU a and GPU for running new apps, and comes with its own stylus, sleeve and stand. While it’s not as powerful as IPad Pro (M4) the Ugee UT3 is a fine tablet for artists wanting to create on the go.

Design: This is Ugee’s excellent drawing tablet tech put into an Android tablet – they also make the best budget drawing tablet screen at No.3, and they have a good reputation for making affordable drawing tablets

The Ugee UT3’s design impressed me when I reviewed it, as it feels very premium. Unlike other budget Android tablets, such as the XPPen Magic Drawing Pad, the Ugee UT3 is made from metal not plastic and is just 6.95mm thin, with a 2400 x 1600 resolution, 60Hz, anti-glare, etched display. It weighs 760g, which is heavier than Apple iPad Pro (M4) – 579g – but still light enough to hold in one hand and paint. It features soft curved edges, slim bezels and a near edge-to-edge screen design. Overall, it really feels more expensive than it is.

Features: With a display refresh rate of 60Hz and a 2.4k resolution the Ugee UT3 isn’t the most advanced tablet, and as expected lags behind iPad Pro (M4) but also the Wacom Movink 13 (next on my list), which has a 4K OLED screen designed by Samsung. But it can display 16 million true colours, and for this size, that 2400 x 1600 resolution is nice and lively. It also features a NanoMatte finish that offers a paper-like feel and an ant-glare coating for use under all lighting conditions.

The Ugee UT3 comes with a stylus included, which is slim, lightweight and a little shorter than standard stylus. While current stylus that come with drawing tablets with a screen on this list feature up to 16K and 8K levels of pressure sensitivity as a rule, the Ugee U-Pen is an older 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, lower than anything else on this list. In my review I noted how this does have a tendency to lag with drawing fast and quickly, and lacks precision when drawing fine details. But for loose sketching and painterly styles it’s fine.

One thing that came up when I reviewed the Ugee UT3 was the low level of palm rejection, which meant I had to use the enclosed drawing glove to prevent my hand interfering with the art.

As a bonus, this tablet also comes with some extra essentials, including a protective sleeve that doubles as a stand, as well as spare nibs and a drawing glove. Ugee has also included digital art apps pre-installed – ibisPaint and MediBang – and its own art app, HiPaint, as well as the new PaintPal Ai app.

Behind the display the Ugee UT3 offers some solid specs, it features the newer MTK Helio G99 (MTK8781) 8-Core CPU and comes with 8GB RAM, 256GB memory and has a Micro SD to expand its storage. The 13MP and 8MP cameras are decent and good enough. Overall the Ugee UT3 is a good tablet for gaming, web browsing and media streaming as well as creating art with.

Price: The Ugee UT3 costs $429 / £455, which is very good value (and it comes a protective case and stylus). There is a smaller 10.36-inch model, the Ugee UT2, with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage for $249 / £264, too.

Read the full review: Ugee UT3 review

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Best drawing tablet with a screen for mobility

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Need to know: The Wacom Movink 13 is elegant and wonderful to use. This a clever mix of Wacom’s drawing tablet tech with Samsung’s display know-how, coming together to create one of the thinnest, lightest drawing tablets with a screen I’ve used. It’s roughly A4-size, features a 4K OLED Samsung screen and comes with Wacom’s new Pro Pen 3 stylus. It doesn’t run apps, so you will need to connect it to smartphone of laptop.

Design: At just 4mm thin (it tapers from 6.5mm to 4mm, averaging 4.5mm) and weighing just 420g Wacom Movink 13 is the best drawing tablet with a screen for mobility. While it can’t run apps like iPad Pro when connected to a smartphone running Clip Studio Paint or Autodesk Sketchbook it’s an excellent portable display.

The design is lovely too – curved, subtle and clean, making it nice to hold and sketch with; care has been taken to add the USB-C port and power button to the top, so it can be used left- or right-handed.

Features: First, that display: it’s a 13.3-inch OLED screen developed by Samsung and offers high contrasts and pure blacks, with 100% DCI-P3 coverage and 95% Adobe RGB and can display over 1.07 billion colours in 10-bit depth. This is a touchscreen display, unlike other tablets on my list, so you can use gesture control and the stylus together. Unlike the Ugee UT3 on this list there’s no issue with latency, lag or palm rejection.

The touchscreen also enables Wacom’s new ‘virtual keys’ to come into their own; this display features 16 customisable buttons on the screen itself, that can be accessed when drawing to adjust brush settings and more. There are also This unique feature makes this an ideal mobile tablet. There are also traditional customisable buttons on either side of the tablet frame.

The new Wacom Pro Pen 3 stylus is included, and features 8,192 levels of pressure, 60-degree tilt and three customisable buttons. It’s slim and nimble, but if you’re used to Wacom’s classic chunky 3D pen it can take some getting used to. The advantage of using a Wacom is the software support is excellent, and Movink 13 will work perfectly with every major art app – 2D or 3D.

The only downside I found when reviewing the Movink 13 is a protective sleeve or case isn’t included, and for a time I did misplace my Pro Pen 3. Wacom does sell a sleeve and stand separately, and for time during Black Friday Wacom did offer bundle deals.

Price: Wacom Movink 13 costs $749.95 / £729.98, so it’s not the cheapest drawing tablet with a screen on my list, but its one of the more innovative. If you really need a pro-level drawing display for mobile use, this is the one.

Read the full review: Wacom Movink review

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Best drawing tablets with a screen: also recommended

XPPen Magic Drawing Pad: was $499.99 now $424.99 at xp-pen.com

Similar to the Ugee UT3 on my list but smaller and features a slightly slower CPU. But, it does come with a better stylus that offers 16k levels of pressure sensitivity.

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Huion Kamvas Pro 27: was $1,999 now $1,799 at store.huion.com

The Kamvas Pro 27 is one of the best drawing tablets with a screen, and it’s huge. Despite the lower price for this larger display, it doesn’t skimp in tech or accessories. It’s not made my main list as its simply too large for most and the XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) is a more maneable size.

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Wacom One 13 Touch:

If you want Wacom tech and a touch screen for a little less money, then the One 13 Touch is a good option. It’s display can compete with Movink 13’s 4K OLED and its stylus is a generation behind too, but for the price this entry-level Wacom is good.

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Best drawing tablet with a screen: how to choose

Deciding on which is the best digital art tablet for you can come down to a number of factors, including size, resolution and price. But picking a drawing tablet is as much about how you intend to use it and whether this is your first tablet or not. Here we break down the key things you need to keep in mind.

Size If you have the space, then a drawing tablet of 16 inches and up is a good size, as it enables you to ‘sweep’ your arm across the surface for a natural drawing motion.

Price There are lots of drawing tablets to choose from in the ‘budget’ category, and the best Huion tablets as well as those from Ugee and XPPen are excellent options. When considering price, also look at what is not included, as some brands omit the drawing stand and some cables. The new Wacom One series is a more affordable entry point for this established brand, too.

Stylus Here you’re looking for at least 8,192 levels of pen sensitivity; older or non-specialist styli drop to 4,096, which is okay for general tasks but not ideal for digital art these days. When testing a stylus for reliability, I usually track around the tablet, edge to edge, and run strokes across the tablet of varying pressures to create thick and thin lines, and crucially draw small, tight circles—cheap styli struggle here.

Drivers A drawing tablet’s driver is the software you download to your computer to calibrate the tablet’s accuracy, latency and how it connects to installed art software. From experience, this is where cheaper tablets stumble. Wacom for example, is superb and stable with all the main digital art apps, while budget brands can be harder to setup and work with fewer apps.

Screen type Drawing tablets ship with different types of screens, including LCD, Super AMOLED, or full-HD IPS. The screen type will affect the performance and usability of the tablet, with the higher-performing ones costing more. When considering the screen type, you’ll want to focus in on the desired resolution. In simple terms, the higher the resolution, the more detail you’ll be able to see as you draw. Newer XPPen and Wacom pen displays offer the option to toggle the display on and off.

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Best drawing tablets with a screen: how we test

We test and review our drawing tablets as they’d be used by you if you bought one. This means we spend weeks using a drawing tablet with a variety of digital art software to create art.

Some of the main things we look out for when testing are factors like the pressure sensitivity and accuracy, the colour gamut and accuracy, the screen quality and brightness and the ergonomics of the tablet, all of which factor into a whole host of use cases. We run the same stroke tests to gauge how sensitive a stylus is, for example, heavy to light pressure and tight circles.

Things we look for in our reviews and tests include stutter, lag and latency; where possible, we try and correct any problems and in doing so, we test each tablet’s driver software and calibration software.

We also like to ask questions directly to the manufacturer if there’s an issue, and often there is a known problem and a software update is due. We also like to retest drawing tablets over time to see how they have improved or if a manufacturer has added to its package with a free stand or alternative stylus.

We also want to see a nice and easy set-up, especially for pen displays and tablets, which often require specific drivers to be installed on the PC or laptop you’re plugging it into. If the tablet includes (or is best compatible with) a specific stylus, we also test these to see how ergonomic they are and assess any features these add to the drawing experience as well as build quality.

Additionally, we experiment with each tablet’s unique settings and features, fiddling with the drivers where relevant to see how far you can push the settings as well as trying them on a variety of connections—this can mean testing a drawing tablet with Mac, Windows and Android devices. You can read a general guide to how we test and review on Creative Bloq.

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Who are drawing tablets with a screen for?

Drawing tablets with a screen are for digital artists who want to be able to draw directly onto the artboard without brush strokes needing to be transferred onto another monitor. As a result, the drawing process is much more natural and intuitive. We also love the fact that you’re able to watch your brush strokes at the same time as seeing what you’re drawing.

In general, drawing tablets are the ideal way to use the digital art software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Rebelle 7 or Corel Painter. There are different apps for iPad and Android too; for example, the iPad exclusive Procreate Dreams has been designed to use Apple Pencil. The best 3D modelling and VFX software really needs to be used with drawing tablets too, and it’s worth noting many artists prefer the thicker stylus of Wacom when modelling in ZBrush and Maya.

The difference between a dedicated drawing tablet and an iPad that can be used for art is the feel of the screen; a drawing tablet from Wacom or pen display from XPPen will have a etched screen for a tactile paper-like feel, while iPad screens are glossy and hard (the feel of drawing on an iPad comes from the sensitivity of the Apple Pencil). You can also change nibs on a stylus for a different feel, for example felt nibs are good for a softer, brush-like sensation.

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Best drawing tablet with a screen: frequent questions

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