Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office
by Genius
|
List Price: Our Price: $59.95 You Save: $40.04 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $50.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office
Customer Review: Very, very good for the money.
Summary: 5 Stars
Alright, I waited a full month before doing this review because I wanted to make sure I was testing what the product really was, and not what it started off being. Overall, this Genius tablet has been working great and has been a great asset to my digital drawing. Also, for those who say that it doesn't work well with Windows 7 I ask: Have you downloaded the add-on off of [...]? If not, there's your problem.
Now for some specifics.
Sensitivity: This tablet is very good. You can set the sensitivity, and other features, quite easily. Sure, sometimes the sensitivity came off and on, but it eventually went away through weeks of tweaking the settings (if you have the same problem, wait for a week or two and it should go away). Now, the tablet's sensitivity is working just great! For those who say that the tablet has dead-spots, please skip over to my section on "Battery" because, unless it is truly the pressure sensitive area that has the problem, it is the pen's battery.
Size: I don't know why people would want a bigger size, or a smaller size for that matter, because the 8"x6" tablet is a really good size to start on. In reality, the tablet is much bigger than I had anticipated.
Pen: What can I say? It's a good pen. The buttons are good, the feel is good,and the pen tip is quite good as well. Now, if only they had a grip for that thing for when I draw for more than one hour at a time... that would be great.
Battery: Now, I have read plenty of reviews that said that the batteries that came with the tablet were a bunch of bologna. I took that advice, got a battery from my parents' room, and put it in the pen. When I had installed the things in the CD AND the add-on from the [...] website, I tried out my new tablet. At first it worked like a charm. However, I noticed that in certain spots, the pen would stop working. I went over and over the same spot, but the computer would only register few movements in that general area. Once some time had passed, I could draw over that area easily, but another area would become "dead", or so I thought. It went like this for about two weeks, and then I finally changed the battery to, what else, the battery that came with the tablet. The "dead" spots disappeared altogether. In short, the batteries that come with that come with the tablet are not a sham. They're good, really good. In fact, I'm still using the first battery that came with the tablet.
Installation: I heard to ignore the CD altogether when installing it, but I chose to ignore the advice instead. To tell you the truth, I'm glad I ignored the advice. After all, why would Genius send something that would just mess with the computer? Do they REALLY want a thousand people, per day, telling them that their CD does not do what it is intended to do? My advice is to pop in the CD, read through the already printed instructions, wait for the 10+ minutes of installation (depending on your computer RAM, I think), and download the add-on from [...] for your specific operating system (OS). After that, if you have the same problem with sensitivity that I had, you should check the settings with the tablet often in case they change unexpectedly. Other than that, your tablet, after you check the battery on the pen, will be working well.
Overall, this tablet is great. The ONLY thing that I have against this tablet is that it is too big for my work area. That, however, is something that applies only to me. Do your own measurements and it should become clear if you have enough space for this. Then again, you can clear area.
I hope my review will help some of you thinking about buying this tablet and some of you who are having these temporary problems with the tablet.
Thank you for reading,
Abdiel
Customer Review: How to use the tablet/ Different features
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my friends has a drawing tablet and I wanted one because I was thinking about going into graphic designing. I spent a while looking for different drawing tablets, and when I found this one, I didn't think it would be very good quality, because it was about $50 cheaper then most of the other pen tablets. I looked at it more, and realized that it might not be so bad after all, and for the time being, I would not be doing anything professional with it. I looked at the most recent one star reviews and the most recent five star reviews, which all proved their point well, but I decided to buy it. The tablet came in the mail a day earlier then it was supposed to and I was so excited that I installed it right away. I installed all the drivers first, and then I plugged in the pen tablet. Both the mouse and the pen need a AAA battery to work, which are included in the package. It was easy to put the battery in the mouse, but it took me a while to figure out how to put a battery in the pen. There is a small gray notch on the back of the pen which you have to press with a closed mechanical pencil, or something else small enough to press it. At the same time, you gently pull on the bottom of the pen and slide it so that the part is above the gray line that separates the two halves.
I was a little annoyed at first because I could not get the mouse to work. I then discovered that the mouse will only work on the tablet itself, which is bigger than I thought it would be and provides plenty of space to work with.
I have used the pen tablet with Adobe Photoshop (which is included-trial version), Coral Painter (Also included- trial version), MS paint and Gimpshop. Some of the reviews warned me that the pressure sensitivity wouldn't work, but that is only if you use the brush tool. If you use the pencil tool, the pressure sensitivity determines the opacity of the brush, the airbrush tool also determines the opacity, but never gets completely opaque, and the pen tool changes the size of the brush.
The computer knows whether you are using the mouse or the pen, and each remembers the FG and BG colors, the tool and the type of brush. For example, if when using the pen you have the pencil tool with a 9 px brush , a FG color of green and a BG color of blue, and you switch to the mouse you can change to a brush tool with a 20 px brush, with a red FG color and a pink BG color, and then switch back to the pen, you will have the 9 px pencil brush with blue and green FG and BG colors again.
When you use the pen, touching the pen to the tablet is like clicking. If you hold the button on the side and touch, it is like a right click. To move the courser around without clicking, hover the pen above the tablet, but do not actually touch the pen to the tablet. The sensor is strong enough to pick up where the pen is.
Where ever you put the pen on the tablet is where it will appear on the screen. For example, if you put the pen in the leftmost bottom corner of the tablet, the courser will appear in the leftmost bottom corner of the computer screen. The same is not true with the mouse, the mouse acts like a regular mouse.
I hope this review was helpful.
Customer Review: Best thing ever?
Summary: 5 Stars
This was my first tablet. I thought this was a good choice because of its cost, it made sense to me to first try and see what using a tablet feels like and if I liked it, I could always upgrade to a better one if I saw the need for it.
So I had no basis obviously to say whether this tablet is better or worse than other tablets, for all I knew other tablets are even better.
That said I was beyond pleased with this tablet, it was better then I could have imagined.
I expected a learning curve in using it, but I didn't expect to get the hang of it in literally moments.
I highly recommend this tablet.
What made me decide to write this review is this:
Long since then I decided to get a tablet laptop with wacom functionality built in.
But I believe I have discovered that the laptop's tablet functionality is not as good as the Genius tablet.
To the point where I even considered hooking up this Genius to it.
IF I remember correctly, I think one user review on here criticized the tablet for requiring that you press really hard on the pen to get the highest end of the pressure sensitivity.
But this is NOT a flaw, this is a great benefit.
The Genius allows you to get a much higher range of line thickness without having to change pen/brush size settings.
And it gives you much greater control of the thickness of your lines.
The only reasons it should come off as a flaw is because you had your pen/brush size settings tailored to your other tablet, instead of changing them to better take advantage of the Genius. Just because you used settings that were way off for the Genius, is NOT the Genius's fault.
Because the Genius was my first tablet, I did not have this "problem" since my brush size settings were not predefined. I decided on settings around the genius.
I enjoy my tablet laptop but I was disappointed how relatively "narrow" the range of pressure sensitivity is on it compared to the Genius. Even a delicate touch will result in maximum line thickness whereas with the Genius gives you brilliant control.
The only problem is I don't know if all tablets are like my laptop, or if the sensitivity varies from tablet to tablet.
For all I know, wacom tablets (actual tablets) are superior to a tablet laptop.
But I had to write a positive review for this thing, just of the fact that something so inexpensive is possibly better than a tablet laptop.
And because of the possibility that someone might have written off the Genius's greatest strength as a flaw. (ugh!)
Technical information:
We have Geniuses hooked up to Windows 2000 and Windows Vista. The Genius works out of the box but requires the included installation CD to activate pressure sensitivity and the ability to alter tablet settings such as adjusting the working area of the tablet. The tablet caused errors in Windows Vista when the tablet was plugged in while the PC was on, but the errors were resolved when Vista was updated using Windows Update.
Customer Review: I am really happy with this.
Summary: 5 Stars
I was looking for a cheapo graphic tablet.
I ended up here. I bought this product for less than 50 bucks, new. (The Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office)
I was a little worried because there were a lot of negative reviews......
Now that I have put hands on it, I am glad I ignored the nay-sayers.
I have a Wacom Intuos 3 at work. I actually PREFER this genius product.
I had no trouble installing at all, however I did have to get my drivers from a 3rd party site....... No worries tho because they worked perfectly and easily with no hassle.
It works fantastically well in Photoshop. I am thinking that some of those who were having issues with pressure in photoshop may not realize that in Cs3 and Cs4 there is no longer a selection box that says "use pressure" and that hey have to enter the brush control box and adjust it under dynamics. For instance if you want to control stroke width or color jitter with pressure you open the Shape Dynamics Menu and define your preferences. You can then lock the brush prefernce to "always on" if you wanted too...... tho I can't imagine why you would want to........
The shortcuts on the tablet itself were super easy to program and they make integrating this tablet into my workflow a breeze.
The pen is perfectly senstitive , and it is very easy to change the pen's sensitivity level if you desire to do so; it is also very ergonomic and comfortable.
The tablet is slimmer than I would have guessed from the picture (thats a good thing!), and it looks really nice on my desktop.
I am no stranger to graphics tablets and this is a darn good one. I actually like it better than the Intuos. If you are used to an intuos and use the eraser a lot you may miss it, as it is not present with the "Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office". Personally I prefer hotkeys in just about every venue.
For a 1024 sensitivity tablet this is a phenomenal price. I like the pressure curves BETTER from this than the Intuos.
I have only 2 minor gripes:
- The mouse that is included is pretty much worthless. It doesn't really matter to me as I rarely use one and prefer a trackball style when I do anyways.
- 2 The cradle for the pen could have been done a little better. I woulda rather had a little molded plastic pen stand than the crummy mouse lol. Very minor gripes indeed.
If you are looking for a good graphics tablet, regardless of your budget, you could do a lot worse than this excellent product.
5 stars, I am really happy.
Customer Review: beware of negitive reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
I was searching for a less expensive version of a wacom. If youre reading this odds are you are 2. I read many reviews on the genius tablet. some good, some bad. For 50 buck I could afford to risk it.
Its a good thing i did, because I love this device.
Lets start off with the cons: Alot of the reviews i read said the pen didn't work out of the box. Well, neither did mine. However, I replaced the battries right off. Since the originals were preinstalled i figured on a slow power drain to be the root cause.
second, alot of bad reviews said the drivers were old, and sucked. I took their word on this and went to the website. a driver search revield 2 drivers available. the first one had "vista" in the file name dated 2007. And another one dated 2004. Since my search was winXP specific. I downloaded the newer 2007"vista" file. It works flawlessly.
A little tip for you xp installers. after install you reboot. after reboot, plug in the tablet. If it doesn't work restart the pc again. this time unplug your mouse. (once you get the hang of the pen, you'll never use it again anyway. it should work just like a mouse on your desktop.
photoshop complaints. My biggest concern about the tablet was the photshop complaints I read. Again I don't completely trust reviews (good, or bad). so i visited the website (before i used the tablet!).
So, heres the deal with pressure sensitivity and photoshop. You need to set your brush to the largest pixle brush you intend to use. The max pressure you use on the pen will be that brush size. Don't set you brush at 9 pix and try to push harder on tablet to make it bigger. I played aroud with a 300 pix brush and was able to make very fine lines with the slightest pressure.
There were a few reviews about dead spots in the tablet. I'm not sure if those people realize that there is a hotkey section all around the edge of the tablet. that area on the is USER PROGRAMABLE. That right, you can program the tablet (if you used the driver version i told you too, it'll be in the system tray, control panel, and in your start menu, You choose)So yes those areas will not do anything until you tell it to. (these areas are clearly marked as little boxes around the perimiter of the tablet.
Ok, so its not a WACOM. Who cares. This device works great (once you get use to it). It does what it is designed to do, and do it well. Best of all it's only 50 BUCK!!!!!!
Highly recommended