

Small graphics tablets, such as the One by Wacom, are about the size of a mouse pad (with an active area around 6 by 4 inches) and highly portable. This can mean less arm fatigue, but when you’re working on large (or multiple) displays, you may need to zoom in to work with fine details or map the active area to a portion of the screen.

Compatibility and stability: Although “no one will explicitly ask about the quality of the driver software, they should,” Jim Mortensen said.

However, many of our long-term Wirecutter testers have used their tablets for years, and they say an extra $20 was worth paying for double the pressure sensitivity over the course of their artistic development. We found that a minimum of 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity (pressure sensitivities scale upward in intervals of 512) is plenty. The higher the pressure sensitivity, the better you can control the line weight (how thick and opaque the lines are, based on how hard you press down on the tablet with the pen). Pressure sensitivity: Many of our experts agreed that the most important feature of a drawing tablet is its pressure sensitivity.
