Customer Reviews

Adesso CYBER TABLET 12X9" GRAPHICS/DRAWING TABLET WITH 2-BTN USB PEN AND MOUSE ( CYBERTABLET 12000 )

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I own the Aiptek Hyperpen 12000u graphics tablet, which is the exact same item as the Adesso CyberTablet 12000, only it is sold under the Aiptek brand.

I went to school for Graphic Design and in 2006 I graduated with my bachelors in that field. I currently work full time for at an in-house graphic design department for one of the world's largest printing and marketing companies.

I bought this tablet in about 2003 because I felt that it would help with my projects in school. I originally was looking at the Wacom Intuos 6x8 graphics tablet, but the price tag for that particular item was far outside what I could afford while paying for school, my car and other bills. I had used the less expensive Wacom Graphire 4x5" tablet but I was not impressed. The build quality was good, but it was too small to really do any kind of detailed work with it.

A friend of mine who does a lot of artwork on the computer turned me onto the Aiptek 12000u (which is again, the same unit as the CyberTablet 12000) which he paid about double the price here for at a local brick and mortar hardware chain. A 12x9 tablet for about half the cost of the Wacom Intuos I was looking at caught my attention so I looked online, found the tablet on Amazon and did what any college kid would do, asked my parents to buy it for me.

The build quality of the Hyperpen is good. It is a solid unit over-all. I have dropped mine dozens of times and it still works flawlessly. The pen feels a little flimsy, but no worse than say a bic pen. Mine lasted for about 4 years before I had to recently replace it (replacements available on the Aiptek website). A replacement pen cost me only $10 plus shipping, which is a great value considering a replacement pen for a Wacom tablet costs in the $60 range. The pen requires a AAA battery and because of this is a little heavier than a Wacom pen, but almost all of the weight is the battery itself, and I am one of those people who prefer a pen with a little heft to it. For me the vast savings over the cost of a Wacom tablet outweigh having to use a slightly heavier pen.

The mouse of my tablet was basically useless. But I didn't buy a tablet to use the mouse. I have a very decent optical mouse that fulfills all of my mousing needs, as I am sure most people who are considering this tablet do.

I use this tablet nearly every day at work and it performs flawlessly. I use it mainly with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and 3, and Adobe Illustrator CS2 and for those programs it is worth its weight in gold. It has full pressure sensitivity for CS2 and 3 (contrary to what some reviews say) and works well with Illustrator. You have to install the drivers (the drivers on the Aiptek website, which I believe are v3.15 will work well with this tablet) in order for Photoshop to detect the pen pressure sensitivity, but that is no big deal.

Also this tablet has only 512 levels of pressure sensitivity as compared to 1024 levels on the Wacom Intuos line. But I have used both tablets (12000u and Intuos 6x8") at this point, and there is no real world difference between the two. As in, you won't really notice any difference in pen pressure sensitivity.
Also this tablet is very accurate. I have it set up with "Absolute" positioning so that where I place the pen on the tablet directly relates to where the cursor appears on the screen, and with my 20" monitor using this tablet is very intuitive. I got used to it in a week, which is something I cannot say of smaller tablets.

Aside from the crappy mouse this tablet comes with, I only have 2 other negative things to say: The programmable function keys are practically useless. You cannot program them to Photoshop keyboard shortcuts or macros. I have only been able to use them to open programs. The other thing is that this tablet doesn't detect pen tilt, which is something the newer Wacom tablets do. It's not a major feature, but it is a nice one.

However the extra $300+ dollars that I have in my pocket make me feel better about not having tilt sensing on my tablet.

I would as always recommend this tablet to anyone who thinks they might want one, but cannot or will not spend a lot more money for a Wacom Tablet. If you have a lot of money to spend, definitely go with the Wacom, they are nicer, but if like most people you have to budget how much you spend, this Adesso CyberTablet 12000 is an incredible purchase for the money.

I wanted to get back into digital painting recently and so I planned on buying a new tablet and upgrading to Painter iX. Along the way of researching what new tablet to buy I ran into this brand and after seeing all of the positive reviews on this page I decided to give it a try. I was very disappointed. I have an 8-year old Wacom Digitizer II (its so old that Wacom doesn't have a single reference that it ever existed), but I assumed that my Wacom was less sensitive compared to the newer models even from non-Wacom makers. The real catalyst to buying a new tablet was that my new computer doesn't have the serial port that the Digitizer II uses (I told you that it was old.)

I plugged in the Cyber Tablet and played with it for a while and I just couldn't get into it. It doesn't have as smooth a surface as the Wacom, plus the pen is almost twice the thickness. The worst part by far is the sensitivity differences between the two; when you lightly drag the pen across the surface it doesn't always create a light line, instead its very inconsistent. I adjusted the sensitivity levels for a long time and never found a setting that solved this problem. The construction is reasonable, but it certainly doesn't feel as quality as the Wacom.

At this point I am sending back the Cyber Tablet and keeping my Wacom Digitizer II, even though it is a little banged up and I have to buy a USB-to-Serial converter to make it work. I was really excited about this lower-cost tablet after reading the previous reviews, but I am not convinced that any of them have used a Wacom before or compared them side-by-side. A Wacom tablet from 8 years ago (think 486 processors, floppy disks & serial mice) far exceeded the quality, sensitivity and usefulness of the new Cyber Tablet 12000.

This works with some applications, but so far drivers do not support use with Photoshop CS2. Support is non-existant.

The stars I give are because it has a large surface area and I can draw with big flowing lines. It's also 100's of dollars cheaper than the "other" tablet. This tablet is the same as many other brand-name tablets if you take a look at their home sites and look at photos, so finding one where the company has better support might be an idea.

I suggest NEVER buying an Adesso product...

The product I bought NEW came USED... not with all of the pieces... and then afterwords they wouldn't even let me return it. Want to try talking to a customer service rep? Go ahead and try calling any one of their business numbers... because not one of them is going to be answered.

Ok, never buy electronics online. I first ordered this tablet online, and when I got it, it installed just fine, however, the pen was not working. Had Adesso send a new pen. Seemed to work fine. But when I started drawing, the tablet itself made the pen jerk at two spots which looked like two strips might not have been working. So it was impossible to draw anything with it. Had that returned for a new one.

Now when it comes to actually drawing, the pressure sensitivity and the actual use of the pen itself were just downright awkward. Pressure is one thing, it can be adjusted and I could just learn how to use it. But the pen itself needs to be almost pointing directly down on the tablet in order for it to even see the pen was there. Tilt the pen too far down like a normal person draws, and the point of the pen would no longer be touching the pad, because it's so small.

It has a USB cable, so it should be plug and play. The tablet gets recognized, but the pen takes a while for it to even be able to move the mouse cursor around to do anything with it. The pen and mouse are wireless, so the tablet picks up their signal when touching. There's a light that keeps flashing when neither is touching the pad, but when they do the light stays lit. But even with this happening, the pen does not always begin working even if the light is lit.

Simply getting a hold of Adesso was a chore in itself. After going online sending e-mails, and even calling them on the phone, the whole situation took a few months in total for them to give me a return number so I could mail it back to them, until they finally had the free time to send me a new one, which is still not reliable.

Now buying a pricey product online was my own fault, because if you get it at the store you can return it right away and have the whole thing settled in a day or two. Sending things by mail takes days, weeks, and eventually a few months in my case. Don't buy this, or any product from Adesso.

Well, I have owned this tablet for a couple years now, and I have to be honest... it wasn't all I had hoped for in a tablet. My pen broke after only a couple months. T_T Luckily, Adesso will happily replace the pen for free... (even though it took them 3 months to finally send it.)

Part of the reason it broke may have been because I jammed up the buttons on the pen, but it's hard to avoid pressing them when they're convienently positioned right where you're trying to grip the darn thing. With this second pen I have been careful not to jam the buttons, just in case, but it still acts up every once in a while. (Yes, the pen has incredibly useless buttons on it that are supposed to work like mouse buttons, I suppose. You do have the option of turning the buttons off though, so nothing happens when you press them.) (Except, apparently, the destruction of your pen.)

Also, the pen tip and surface of the tablet does not encourage steadiness- it is too smooth, and that makes it a bit harder to draw with. The pen also has a tendency to lose it's pressure sensitivity after awhile.

The size is a very nice factor, and overall I can use it without too much trouble (though it slows down or freezes every so often.) If you have the extra money, however, I would definitely suggest you get one of the more expensive tablets out there, especially if you're planning to draw with it a lot.

If you don't have the extra money, don't fret- this tablet WILL work for now, though I'm not quite certain about it's life expectancy. I have used it on and off over two years and it has worked pretty well in Photoshop 7.

Oh, and as mentioned in an earlier review... the mouse that's included with the tablet is COMPLETELY useless, so don't throw out your old one.

^-^ Cheers!

this is a pretty cool device. the only problems i have with it are you have to hold the pen really close, there is no erase feature (you cant turn it over and erase like a pencil, and i cant get the function buttons to work (which is no big deal at all). do i regret bying this? no. would i have bought something else if i was mondo rich? yes. but still, for the price, you cant complain.

This thing is absolutely amazing!

Hooking it up took exactly 1 minute, and within the hour I was creating Illustrator paths that were previously impossible, and the airbrushing you can do with something like Photoshop is off the chart good. If you are thinking of a career that has anyhting to do with computer graphics you'll NEED a tablet, and with this one so much less expensive than the Wacom version, and IMO almost the same quality. You can't go wrong.

This product works as advertised. Its pen has a double-function "lever style" button -- looks like half of a gator clip, and a pressure sensitive nib. I found the packaged mouse is extremely useful, because trying to use the pen as a mouse can be nerve-wracking.
The Cyber Tablet uses wintab32, so the pen works with any application that supports wintab32. This product works well with GIMP 2.2.8 (with GTK 2.6.9) which supports pressure senstivity, and Corel PhotoPaint 8 (rev. C) which does not.
This product does not support "pen tilt" (angular sensitivity). However, not having "pen tilt" appears to have saved me $350.

The tablet is big so it can be hard to store. the drivers work well with Photoshop CS and I'm happpy with it. This Tablet is good for beginners. Tilt sensitivity would be nice though.