My Wacom Intuos Medium was well loved, but broke, So I wanted to invest in another drawing tablet.
Wacom is the industry standard, but I think the competition like XPPen is getting better, which bodes well for us artists!
I did a bit of research and decided that this XPPen Deco 03 wireless graphic tablet seemed like a great deal, considering its prices and features.
My old Wacom Intuos was also a bit small. This tablet is bigger and better, and I am quite enjoying it so far. This is my review of the XPPen Deco 03!
What’s in the Box?
It was quickly delivered and I opened the packaging to find the tablet and accessories contained in a sturdy flip top box.
On inspection I found that the box was quite substantial and really secure unlike like some other tablet packaging I have experienced in the past.
The contents in the box are Deco 03 Tablet, P05 stylus, Pen Holder with 8 spare pen Nibs, 2.4GHz Wireless receiver (USB-A), A USB-C to USB-A Cable, an Anti Fouling drawing Glove, user Manual, etc.
The pen case is a pleasant surprise since it holds everything you need for your pen, great for carrying out.
The lid is quite heavy and is designed to become the pen stand which is a really useful. The other side of the pen case holds the 8 extra pen nibs and 2.4GHz wireless USB dongle.
Design & Build Quality
The tablet has a fairly sleek design with a big flat surface, a special red dial and six buttons in the top left corner.
The tablet has a nice feel, fairly light, premium and felt strong enough to take the usual knocks and bangs when being moved.
The corners are rounded, but the edges where your arm rests probably could be smoother.
The back of the tablet has 4 round rubber feet which keep the tablet in place.
Big Drawing Area
The DECO 03 has a big drawing area of 10 by 5.62 inches, which is bigger than wacom intuos and gives me plenty room for arm movement, making drawing easier and a lot more comfortable.
The surface of the tablet is fairly rough and gives drawing on the tablet a nice amount of resistance, which feels paper-like.
Stylus Pen
It includes a P05 battery-free pen that has a fairly large soft rubber grip with a bulge near the end to catch your fingers.
Holding the pen is very comfortable and enjoyablet. The 2 pen buttons protrude slightly from the surface of the pen, making them easy to find and use by feel alone.
I’m glad XPPen finally decided to create this type of premium pen instead of continuing to use their thinner plastic pens.
The pen is not battery-operated but works via EMR Tech, meaning it doesn’t need to be charged.
It has an impressive 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity allowed for nuanced strokes, from the faintest details to bold lines, all captured with precision.
Express Keys
The 6 expresskeys have fairly good feedback when clicking them, but I would have preferred them to be slightly easier to click. They require a bit more force than I would like to click them, and they’re actually pretty loud when you click them.
The main selling point of this tablet is apparently the red dial, that offers shortcuts for zooming, rotating, and changing the size of the brush. It spins really smoothly and clicks nicely every ~15 degrees of rotation.
Wireless Connectivity
This tablet uses an L-shaped USB type-C cable which connects to a USB type-A port on your computer.
Thanks to the nature of USB type-C, you can reverse the L-shaped cable for use in both right and left-handed modes.
The DECO 03 supports 2.4GHz wireless connectivity and has a USB-A receiver. If you want to use the tablet in wireless mode, you just click the wireless on/off switch which is located on the back of the tablet by the dial.
I thought I wouldn’t care for it so much but oh man was I wrong! I love not having even more cables on my desk! The charge lasts for a wonderful amount of time, I have no complains!
Tablet driver
The tablet driver is extremely easy to install. You don’t even need to have your tablet plugged in to install it!
Just go download the latest version directly from XPPen official site and remove all other tablet drivers you have on your computer before installing it.
Once you’ve installed the driver, it should create a desktop shortcut for you to easily access the tablet settings.
When your tablet is plugged in, the XPPen driver icon should appear in the system tray in the bottom right. You can also access the tablet settings by clicking on that.
If the installer doesn’t prompt you to restart your computer after it finishes, I wholeheartedly suggesting restarting your computer anyways to allow Windows to properly update the files necessary for the driver to run smoothly.
The XPPen driver is a simple one page driver with all the important settings in one window. Here you can set the pen buttons and pen pressure, and choose which monitor the tablet maps to.
Drawing Experience
This Deco 03 tablet gave me a fantastic drawing experience that I really haven’t felt in quite a while. If we are just talking about the drawing experience itself, then I honestly think this tablet felt the best out of every screen-less tablet I have tested so far.
For those interested, I mainly use a mix of Photoshop CC, Krita, Clip Studio Paint and Illustrator CC for graphics work.
XPPen also offers several free digital art apps and I downloaded a number of them – ArtRage Lite. Using these will help you gain experience with the tablet and the functionality of the pen.
The 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity is awesome for this price point, as it?s on par with Wacom?s Intuos Pro line of tablets.
At first, I was a bit taken aback by how hard I had to press the pen to get darker lines at first, but I simply adjusted the pen pressure curve and the stroke control felt extremely good after that. When doing gradual increases and decreases in pressure, the lines come out perfectly as expected and there are no skips or jumps in the pressure at all.
Both the stylus of Wacom Intuos and DECO 03 doesn’t have a tilt sensitivity, not a big deal for me. Just mentioning for information as some people do care about this function.
The P05D stylus of XPPen Deco 01 V3 has a tilt angle of up to 60 degrees (which can be very useful when using certain brushes, if you are into them).
The Wacom intuos has that thing to keep your pen in which I actually like a lot, but the pen stand of xppen deco 03 is just beautiful, especially because it also serves as pen nibs storage.
I love the texture of drawing surface, since it balances perfectly between roughness and smoothness. It’s not as rough as Wacom Intuos, and since you have 8 replacement nibs it’s not a big problem.
You will eventually rub the texture of the tablet smooth like with Wacom intuos, but it’s nothing need to worry about as you will still be able to draw on it.
Personally, I had a bit of discomfort with the non-rounded edge of the tablet because my table and tablet are higher than my elbow, but if I sit with my back straight, my elbow is high enough that the edge doesn’t really dig into my wrist. Of course, I wish XPPen had made the edge rounded instead but it shouldn’t particularly be a problem for most people.
Regarding the wireless mode of the tablet, it works and certainly tolerable, but it’s not perfect, especially when drawing with really fast motions.
In Conclusion
If you have a tight budget or just for save some money, I really recommend the XPPen Deco 03 to any beginner who is consider getting a Wireless drawing Tablet under $100 USD.
I don’t regret getting it for one second! It’s been a great replacement to wacom intuos, which can achieve the same level and complexity of artwork, and I really think it’s a quality product.
I hope this review helps! I XPPEN seems to show passion for their products, and their customer service is pretty responsive as well!
