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