When you decide it’s finally time to buy a drawing tablet, or upgrade your current device, Wacom is often the first brand you think of.

Wacom is a japanse brand and industry standard that known for their high-quality drawing tablets in artistic fields for decades.

Most artists would love a wacom to work with. But they aren’t the most affordable option out there, especially for hobby artists interested in digital art.

Are you worried about picking the right wacom tablet for your needs With such a big investment and so many choices available, you want to make sure it’s a perfect fit.

Making an informed decision doesn’t have to be a harrowing journey. In this guide, I’ll suggest recommendations for all users and skill levels.

Who uses Wacom tablets?

Wacom tablets are largely used by artists, designers, photographers and professionals who work in the visual arts industry in general.

Apart from those, most art students these days also own at least one cheap drawing tablet such as the Wacom Intuos pro or any other from the list below.

Are Wacom Drawing Tablets Good??

If your looking for the best that’s out there right now without money being an issue, go with the Wacom tablets.

Brand Reputation: Wacom tablets have always been considered the industry standard for digital artists and designers.

They are what professional film-makers, animators, industrial and fashion designers, illustrators, and professional creatives of all kinds around the globe use.

High Build Quality: When it comes to reliability and durability wacom tablets remain a premium option, thanks to their extremely high-quality components.

I know people using some wacoms for 5-10 years sometimes. They are build like a tank.

Excellent Drawing Performance: Part of the reason Wacom tablets are the best on the market is its precise pressure-sensitive, battery-free pens.

Wacom stylus has the most precision, accuracy and control of all the tablets I tested, especially compared to other chinese brands like Huion and XP-Pen.

Rich functionality: Wacom tablets offers numerous features include multitouch, tilt recognition, Bluetooth, express keys, and more to enhance the designing experience and bring out the best in you.

Best Compatibility: Wacom provides the most stable and reliable drivers that compatible with practically every computer and piece of artistic software.

Bonus software: To get you started, Wacom provides you with free creative software and offers. Other budget brands generally do not offer this bonus.

Plenty of choices: While Wacom does still sell plenty of pro-spec tools with pro-spec price tags, it has also filled out its range with well-priced tablets that are well-suited to beginners.

Cost Effective: When it come to the Price tag, the initial investment for wacom tablet can cost more than other chinese brands. However, Since every tablet is built to last, which means you’ll cost less in the long run.

The 7 Best Wacom Drawing Tablets of 2025

Here are my top picks in each of Wacom’s main product lines. Those are the models I feel are the most competitive in 2025, representing the best bang for the buck for any creative professional.

1. Wacom One Small & Medium

Wacom One Small & Medium tablet is the perfect entry level product for beginners, students and those seeking a budget-friendly option.

You’ll have two choices of sizes of active area: Small (6.0 x 3.7 in), a perfect size for carry out, and Medium (8.5 x 5.3 in) for those who want a little more freedom to create.

You can elect to connect via usb-c cable or Bluetooth, but wireless pairing is perfect if you like to create on the go.

The EMR battery-free pen boasts 4,096 pressure levels and tilt support, providing nuanced control over your strokes.

The drawing surface is slightly textured, provides a bit of resistance, making the experience of drawing incredibly satisfying and paper-like.

2. Wacom Intuos Pro

The best non-screen drawing tablet for professionals is Wacom Intuos Pro tablet.

The Wacom Intuos Pro is available in 3 sizes: Small (6.3 x 3.9 inch), Medium (8.7 x 5.8 inch) and Large (12.1 x 8.4 inch) with a price difference of around $100 between each size.

The best part is its pro pen 2 stylus that has impressive pressure sensitivity — 8192 levels! — as well as tilt response and virtually lag free tracking.

Other benefits include a touch ring and more customizable ExpressKeys, and the option to use different texture sheets (sold separately) so you can personalize the feel of your tablet.

Finally, The quality of touch input on an Intuos Pro isn’t up to the best trackpads, but is still very good and comes in handy for zooming, scrolling and switching between windows while working.

This tablet is the essential tool for comic book artist like me or any other artist. From editing photos to 3D sculpting, the Wacom Intuos pro is an amazing pen tablet that match the needs for any artist.

3. Wacom one 13 touch

The Wacom One 13 Touch has been one of the first more entry-level display tablets on the market today to include multitouch support.

It is designed as an entry level tool for people unfamiliar with digital art and/or drawing monitors.

Wacom One 13 features a 13.3 inch LCD screen with 1080p resolution and 99% sRGB color gamut. So it’s not as high as the Cintiq Pro line in terms of clarity or color accuracy but it will do the trick.

The tablet’s drawing surface has a nice matt finish, which helps to reduce the glare and provides a texture that really nice to draw on.

Multi-touch support enables touch gestures for navigation and control. If you don’t need this function, you can get the smaller and cheaper version – 11.6-inch wacom one 12.

The stylus is lightweight and battery-free. Tilt recognition is ok. Although it only supports 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity instead of 8192 levels, Line performance is still very good.

No wrestling with HDMI cables— The single USB-C connection is brilliantly straightforward, lead to a quick connection to computers or android devices.

4. Wacom Movink 13

Wacom Movink 13 has thin and light frame and supports single usb-c cable connectivity, making it more mobile and convenient than other pen displays.

Although it has just full HD resolution on a 13.3-inch display, the OLED display panel is bright, vibrant and has excellent contrast.

The parallax and multi-touch technology of the display are also of high quality. The display surface is matte with a slight texture. Anti-glare works well enough and there’s anti-fingerprint coating.

The tablet uses a dedicated version of the Wacom Pro Pen 3 with a new, slimmer tip, offers low initial activation force and great pressure curve, very responsive.

In addition, the three pen buttons are assigned to Erase, Pan/Scroll, and Right Click.

This one is all about the mobility. If you want lightetest 13″ drawing OLED screen to work with your laptop on the go this is one for you.

5. Wacom Cintiq 16 & 22

The Wacom Cintiq 16 (15.6 inch) or Cintiq 22 (21.5 inch) may not be the newest or most feature-rich, but it offers a balanced combination of features and prices.

They both include the Wacom Pro Pen 2. You’re getting Wacom’s second best pen ever on their lowest priced Cintiq ever.

They have Full HD resolution, 72% NTSC color gamut, and a plastic film protective layer, which makes your creative session productive and comfortable.

They are ideal for Artists who prioritize a larger drawing surface(especially cintiq 22) and prefer the Pro Pen 2.

6. Wacom Cintiq Pro 16, 24

The older Cintiq Pro comes in multiple sizes:  Cintiq Pro 16 (16-inch),  Cintiq Pro 24 (24-inch), and  Cintiq Pro 32 (32-inch), with Ultra HD-4K resolution at 3840 x 2160, and has incredible 96%-99% RGB color accuracy.

The Cintiq Pro also has an etched glass protective layer, laminated screen, multitouch capabilities, and significantly quicker response times. Then there’s the Pro Pen 2 input, which is so precise it feels like you’re really drawing on the display.

These Cintiq Pros are utilized in design, animation, illustration, and photography studios around the world — because of its precision, feel, resolution, and color accuracy.

However, they will takes up bigger footprint on your desk than newest cintiq pro models (Cintiq pro 17, 22 & 27) due to the thick bezel. Additionally, They lack the 120hz refresh rate of newer models – only 60HZ , which is less smooth for drawing.

7. Wacom Cintiq Pro 17, 22 & 27

The newer modern Wacom Cintiq Pro Line is expensive, but that’s because it was made for high-end professionals.

The highlight of the Cintiq Pro 17 (17.3 inch), Cintiq Pro 22 (21.5 inch) & Cintiq Pro 27 (27 inch) is its display, which boasts a stunning 4K HDR display with impeccable color accuracy that displays over 1 billion colors — far beyond what most illustrators.

120Hz Refresh Rate near-zero screen latency, which Offers a smoother and more responsive drawing experience. Beyond that, the anti-glare etched glass feels wonderful to draw on. Laminted screen reduces or eliminates parallax.

You can also get a more modern Slim design with thin bezel and much-reduced footprint, great for those looking to save space with a smaller mode.

Drawing with the best wacom pro pen 3 stylus is great. it has great pressure and tilt settings, you can draw super crisp line, feels more accurate and nature.

Though it’s absolutely the most expensive of the group, it earns its price point as the tablet that professional artists swear by and that you will almost certainly be using in your future career.

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Wacom Tablet

When selecting a wacom tablet, there are several vital factors to consider to ensure that it aligns with your artistic needs and preferences.

1. Types of Tablets

There are three fundamental types of Wacom tablets.

Drawing Tablets without screen: These are the most common and cheapest type of drawing tablets.

These devices don’t have screens of their own and require to connect to a laptop or desktop monitor to work. Wacom Intuos and Intuos Pro tablets are of this nature.

Anything you draw is reflected on the monitor of the PC you’re hooked up too not on the tablet itself.

If you have never used a drawing pad, it might feel weird and unnatural sketching on your tablet, while looking at the screen. But you will quickly develop the hand eye coordination and pick it up quickly.

Drawing Tablets with screen: The second type of graphics tablet has a built-in screen that usually reflects the screen of the computer you hook it up too.

So you can see your work and draw directly on it, instead of having to look at a separate computer screen like you do with traditional pen tablets.

Although a drawing tablet with a screen does sound automatically superior at first glance, the Cintiq tablets cost much more than a non-screen drawing pad. Tablets like this are Wacom Cintiqs.

Note that these pen displays must be plugged into a computer to work. They doesn’t have it’s own onboard memory, cpu, operating system etc.

Standalone Drawing Tablets: If you need portability you should look at the Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 or Pro 16 (Discontinued and Outdated) standalone pen display. You can draw wherever you wish, even on the go.

These will always be standalone with the tablet functioning by itself and have stylus pens as an add-on being an accessory you buy to use with it.

They also cost significantly more than a cintiq display tablet because you’re paying for the extra processing power and storage and convenience of being able to use them as a PC, etc.

2. Pressure Sensitivity

The adjustable pressure sensitivity on wacom tablet lets you customize how it will respond to the pressure you apply.

The higher the pressure sensitivity, the more control and variation you have over your line width, opacity, and color.

Most modern wacom tablets range from 4,096 to 8,192 levels of sensitivity, and a minimum of 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity is the lowest acceptable number.

Whether or not you need this totally depends on the type of work you do. If you’re using your Wacom tablet to do concept sketches or doodles, for example, you likely wouldn’t notice the difference between the levels of pressure sensitivity on the different Wacom tablets.

Working with fine detail or high-end print work, though, you’ll notice it right away.

3. Tilt Sensitivity

Tilt sensitivity is Required to correctly simulate the shapes of natural brushes, making it a must-have feature for illustrators working in programs that simulate natural media.

Tilt gives much more natural results in those cases and there’s no software workaround for that. Standard Wacom intuos lacks this feature.

4. Multi-touch

If you’re a desktop computer user, chances are that you’re going to miss having touch support for OS gestures and navigation.

The quality of multi-touch on a wacom tablet isn’t up to the ipad, but is still very good and comes in handy for zooming, scrolling and switching between windows while working.

5. Tablet sizes

If you use a non-screen graphics tablet, Tablet size (refers to active area) choices should be relative to your computer screen size.

The size affects how much you can zoom in and out, how much detail you can add, and how comfortable you are with the hand movements.

Generally speaking, you’ll want the graphic tablet size to be close to the size of your monitor.

6. Screen Size, Resolution and color accuracy

If you choose a wacom cintiq pen display tablet, Your tablet’s screen is your digital canvas.

Generally, Choose a device with bigger size, high resolutions, color accuracy, and good brightness levels.

Larger screen tablet size enables greater drawing space, so you won’t feel trapped or constrained by a small sketching area.

Additionally, A higher screen resolution means higher clarity and sharpness of the image. The higher the gamut the more colours it can display.

7. Refresh Rate

The refresh rate of your display refers to how many times per second the display is able to draw a new image

The vast majority of wacom pen displays up to 60Hz. Only a handful of cintiq pros support refresh rates of at least 120Hz.

More frequent screen updates, or a faster refresh rate, make for more fluid and responsive graphics.

8. Non-Laminated VS Laminated Screen

Laminated screens are standard on most cintiq pro drawing tablets these days, and it’s not hard to see why.

Non-laminated displays have two layers with space in between, while laminated displays consist of a single, multitasking layer.

Laminated displays do look better because the display is fused right up to the glass, there’s no air gap so it just looks like a cleaner and crisper image.

They’re also essential for artists, as reducing parallax error makes for more accurate and pleasurable drawing.

9. Etched glass Surface vs AG Screen Film

Both Etched glass and AG film offer the anti-glare by the diffusion effect. Also, They both offers some texture – so you will find that your pen grips the surface a bit better.

Etched glass is created by sandblasting or using acid to etch patterns onto the surface of the glass. This etching turns the very smooth screen surface into something more coarse.

However, The etched patterns of glass surface are permanent and resistant to wear. As a comparison, Anti-Glare film scratches easily, therefore it is in the constant need of replacement.

Luckily, AG film can be easily removed and replaced without damaging the glass surface.

10. Other features

When shopping for a drawing tablet, there are more factors to consider than mentioned above.

Connectivity: do you need a cable, a wireless adapter, or a Bluetooth connection?

Express keys: Consider the number of buttons and shortcuts available and the ability to customize them according to your needs and preferences.

Compatibility: Make sure your favorite art software is compatible with the wacom tablet and your computer.

What is the best wacom tablet for beginners?

Simplest and most reliable thing to do is get a One by Wacom (2019), available in small (CTL-472) and  medium version (CTL-672) – especially as you are a beginner. It’s a very good non-display tablet, and if you get serious about digital art you can always explore more expensive things later.

If you wanted a screen tablet and wanted to save a bit, I heard the Wacom one 13 (1st gen) was also great for the price under $230. The screen is non-laminated, no multi-touch, doesn’t support usb-c to usb-c cable connection, instead a 3-in-1 cable – a bit messy.

Conclusion

For something that you may need and money is not an issue, Wacom will be your best bet for multi-media designs, 2d and 3d animation, illustrations and so on.

Each wacom tablet on our list has its unique strengths, catering to a wide range of artistic styles and preferences.

From the powerful Wacom Cintiq Pro to the budget-friendly Wacom one Small & Medium, there is no shortage of options to suit your personal preference and individual need.

Prepare to capture your ideas with precision, refine your sketches effortlessly, and create breathtaking artworks with these 7 must-have wacom tablets.

Let your imagination soar and take your creativity to unprecedented heights as you explore the limitless possibilities of digital sketching!