Drawing Tablet / Stylus Recommendations for Rnote

[dkmar]

Hi all. I have never used a wacom or anything before, but I am interested in using rnote for my math notes, annotating pdfs or lecture screenshots. Any recommendations? I use a mac day-to-day if that makes a difference. Sub $100 preferably but I'm open to opinions 🙂

[Doublonmousse]

Well, I'm not sure, my first tablet was a cheap wacom one (before I switched to tablet pcs instead as it's closer to paper vs writing on a black surface and seeing on a screen further down) and it does work on mac (with the drivers installed).

Pretty sure first prices are easily <100$ though maybe you can get better things around that price point ?

[HappyHippo77]

Wacom would be an awful choice if you're going for sub-100$. Their prices are generally quite inflated. I don't know that I've ever even seen a sub-100 USD Wacom tablet. Huion generally is better in terms of price, but I don't know what their Mac drivers are like. Generally using any kind of non-Apple hardware with a Mac is a bit like pulling teeth. I will say that using a graphics tablet takes a lot of getting used to. You wont find one that has a screen without spending way more than 100 USD, so your only option in that price range would be small screenless tablets, which basically require you to use muscle memory alone to draw. It's not easy to write text with, especially in the beginning.

As Doublonmousse suggested, 2-in-1 laptops or PC tablets are generally going to be a better choice for someone not looking to do digital graphics professionally. I myself recently started using this app because I just finished refurbishing an old Inspiron 13 2-in-1 that I got for free. If you can manage to find a damaged PC with a tablet mode and pen support for a reasonable price, and you're willing to spend some time learning how to repair them, the total cost could easily be under 100 USD. When I got this laptop, it was not only barely functional, but actively dangerous to use, as it had an expanded battery (among other issues). It only cost me about 60 USD to fix it, although I already had purchased a repair kit which could add to the price. Add the 15 bucks I spent getting the right pen (Dell PN350M) and it's still under 100 USD. Only downside is you probably wont be able to recover the original OS, so you'll either need to buy Windows or use Linux. If you're used to using Mac then Linux is probably the way to go. Believe it or not the two are quite similar.

You might also be able to find refurbished PC tablets if you don't want to do it yourself, but that will probably be a ways outside of your price range. Long story short, basically anything you can buy that will be easy to use is going to be more than 100 USD. If you're willing to spend some time learning how to write on a screenless tablet, look for small Huion tablets. Otherwise you can either learn to refurbish old PC tablets or adjust your budget.