Ugee M1000L Drawing Graphics Tablet 10x6" with 24 Express Keys (4000 LPI 200 RPS 2048 Levels) Windows & Mac - UK Stock

I have a reasonably new WIn 8.1 PC and had a very old Wacom Volito2 tablet I used with it. The latter just about worked but not well (it's a drivers thing: it's fine on Win7 and Vista) so the Ugee tablet was bought mostly to get something I could have some confidence would be properly supported in Windows 8.1.From that viewpoint, it's fine -- but you MUST use the newest drivers from the Ugee website. The ones supplied on the accompanying CD worked as far as it went but killed my keyboard. (Other reviewers who have had positive experience with Ugee support have done better than me -- I haven't had a response to my request for support and it took some time to get the updated drivers from the website -- the download was extremely slow and could only be done with a download manager with resume support.)The tablet works perfectly, now. The pen automatically puts itself to sleep to save battery and I'm still getting used to the necessity of waking it up -- in comparison, Wacom tablets are battery-free (at least, the usb versions are) so that takes a little getting used to.The tablet also has a column of (sadly rather plasticky) buttons in a column down the left and a row of hotspots along the top of the tablet area. Their default assignments are printed on the surface but can be redefined to be anything you like: for instance, the F4 button is defined to be "Group" (^G) but I have no use for that and have changed it to send a middle-click so I can put double-click on one of the pen's buttons. They can send keystrokes, mouse events or start programs; the only sad thing is that you will have to remember what you've done. I found it best to define the on-tablet hotspots to do similar things to the defaults: Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, Textmaker instead of Word, so forth.The other nice thing is that the tablet can be told to map itself to the entire screen, or to maintain the screen's aspect ratio. (If you're tracing stuff laid on the tablet into a drawing program, you'll want aspect ratio. If you're watching the screen more than the tablet, you'll probably want the whole screen. Switching between modes is easy, however -- the settings are available after a click on the icon in the notification area of the screen (unlike my old Wacom, which required a trip to the control panel.)I should also note here that the newest drivers also support multiple monitors: the drivers shipped with the tablet did not.The pen holder containing 8 spare pen tips and a tip removal tool is a nice touch.I should say also that I use a tablet for everything -- too much mouse use gives me RSI twinges, so this review is from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't just want it for graphics work (although I do that too!) I needed to experiment with the sensitivity settings and the double-click speed to get it comfortable but the fact that I can tweak away means so can you, and as everyone's needs vary I'd say that the fact that you might need to fiddle a bit to get it completely comfortable is a point in its favour, not against.The extra weight and breadth of the pen compared to Wacom might be a small negative for some people but you're only adding one AAA battery to the thing and unless you're very sensitive to such issues I'd say you won't struggle with it -- I didn't.If I could drop half a star for the driver issues, I would, but a 4 star review seems churlish: you simply won't get better than this at this price point and it's at least as good (if not slightly better) than the rather more expensive 10" x 8" Wacom Bamboo I use at work.One (much later) addition I feel I should make: I've just updated my PC to Windows 10.The first boot into Windows after the completed upgrade, the tablet didn't work at all.Researching for Windows 10 compatible drivers, I found nothing, and Ugee support confirmed that they had no later drivers.After a day, there was another clutch of Windows-Update supplied updates and a reboot and the pen worked but the express keys on the left side of the tablet didn't. Today, I've fixed that by uninstalling the drivers, rebooting, reinstalled the drivers, rebooted again and everything's fine. Although I had to reconfigure all my preferences again, perhaps unsurprisingly. So I can report Windows 10 compatibility but you need to have some patience if you've upgraded rather than installing from scratch.

I was a little hesitent on buying this, I usually stick with Waccom and I've never had an issue with them. However after several years my old graphics tablet broke, and it just so happened I was on a tight budget (for something like this) and I needed a new one for work. Now I could just right a massive review that likely nobody would listen to, or I could just do the pros and cons... so yeah, that's better:PROS1) Siesable surface area.2) A large ammount of shortcuts to help speed things up.3) The pen sensitivity is pretty great.4) Several pen nibs.5) The back is gripped so theirs no chance of it moving while working.6) Really good price to performance ratio.7) The left side is glossy, but it doesn't seem to be a big finger print magnet.CONS1) The buttons are rebindable but only to select presets via the software provided.2) Very bad support on devices that's not running Windows.3) The surface area covers the full screen not just the working area in programs such as PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Coral Draw.4) The tablet doesn't always work, this can be fixed by removing the USB lead nearly every time you use it.5) The actual tablet size is very large, I get the feeling it's mostly wasted space.6) The shortcut keys feel a little cheap, I get the feeling they could easily break.

I can't leave a very skilled review for this item as it's the first time I have brought anything like it and haven't had much experience using graphics tablets. I have really enjoyed using it, it was very simple to set up and looks really smart. I haven't really used it to its full potential as I don't yet own any drawing software so I have only used it with free programs, but when using it I found it worked well with the programs I used it with. My two year old also had great fun drawing with it in the paint program, so it is very easy to use.

After owning this thing for 2.5 years, I've never actually managed to draw a line with it. First, getting the right drivers seemed to take an awfully long amount of time; then actually getting them to install was a major saga. Ugee have a "clever" bit of code where if the installer misidentifies files that already exist on your system it decides not to install. Suggestions such as deleting every file with "tablet" in its name on the system drive are not helpful, unless you're really into Russian roulette. Even after succeeding in installing them, it still doesn't actually work correctly, like drawing a line. So I got an extra couple of years' life out of the tablet it was meant to replace, but I'm not wasting any further time on it: it's heading for the bin.

Decent drawing tablet when it works. Very good size for it's price.Built in cable makes it awkward to pack away into a case and threatens to massively shorten it's workable lifespan with irreplaceable parts.I found both of these I purchased (and returned) had technical issues that made drawing sometimes impossible and endlessly frustrating.At the bottom are some examples of what drawing lines can be like with this tablet.The hotkey buttons on the side are very stiff. I often found them uncomfortable to use.The hotkey buttons across the top on the touch surface were often very hard to hit without looking directly at it, and for some reason the "Undo" button was placed right next to the exact piece of corner where the close window button is located on Windows systems.The surface and pen are a lot spongier and uncomfortable feeling compared to Wacom products I've tried.In conclusion, it's cheap price and good size can make it possibly decent as an entry-level tablet, but do not expect any longevity or reliability from this.