Customer Reviews

Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office

5 star:		(184)
4 star:		(121)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(55)

 

 

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

This is the first tablet I've ever had. I purchased it because of the low price, thinking that I would just deal with the defects inherent in buying a cheap product. However, I have yet to encounter any defects! It works perfectly with my existing programs, the stylus is comfortable to handle, the tablet is light, easy to transport and plug in, and the pad is very sensitive. Definitely worth the money and I would recommend it to any first time tablet user. It's incredibly easy to use. My only complaint is the hot buttons on top all look the same, but I solved that by putting little stickers above the ones I use the most often to differentiate between them!
I can't imagine what more a person would want from a tablet, to tell you the truth, and why buy a $100+ one when you can get this?

I have both the WACOM tablet and this Genius tablet. The WACOM is a better quality tablet for the professional artist and designer. This tablet is great though for those just starting out and don't want to spend the extra cash. I guess with these tablets you do get what you pay for. Works great with WINDOWS XP. Not sure about Mac or Vista though. Cursor does jump sometimes... be warned. Also, I'd never get any tablet larger than the 8x6... really no need for it. A small footprint works great. Good Luck!

After using my sister's tablet a few years ago I wanted to have my own, but could never afford it... Until now. I ordered one for my birthday and couldn't wait to get it, and there was no disappointments when it arrived. It was bigger than I thought it would be, which is prefect because I thought it would be kind of 'dinky'. I love that it's plug and play if you don't want to install the drivers right away, but you won't get the varied pressures until you do, so be warned. It also works in many image editors like Paint shop Pro, Gimp, Photoshop products, Open Canvas and of course, Microsoft Paint and it even lets me use it before I log in to Windows. My only complaint is that is lags slightly in Open Canvas at times, but not enough to bother me much. I know I got a good deal for a great price. I'm going to buy another one for my boyfriend because he keeps trying to borrow it.

...when you can get a Genius for half the price? I will admit that the pricier ones are nice, but the genius tablet works great for only costing $50 bucks. It's smooth, you change the settings, though sometimes I wish I could make it a little more sensitive, that's the only thing that really bothers me about it. It always works, always senses the pen/mouse. And if you have vista, your computer will automatically recognize it so you don't even have to download the software.
8x6 is the perfect size, not too small, not too big. It sits nicely on my desk without taking up too much room.
It's great. Perfect for professional stuff or just for messing around. It's my new mouse for my laptop.

This is my first and only experience with a graphics tablet EVER, that said, I am very happy with it (I've only had it for three days).
The first thing that struck me is how thin the unit was, (about an eighth of an inch in the front, and maybe a half inch in the back. It is pretty light, yet not at all flimsy. I found the drawing area to be larger than I had expected, and since the drawing surface represents your entire screen I think a much larger area would make it awkward when using it as a mouse (meaning, to go from the upper corner to the bottom of the screen, you have to do the same on the drawing area.) This is just how all pads work when using them as your mouse.
And speaking of the mouse, at least one reviewer had called the included mouse "useless" and I mostly agree. While the mouse works okay, it must be used on the surface of the pad, and it's a little frictiony (is that a word?) when you slide it around, which made me worry about unnecessary wear to the drawing surface. Really, if you already have a good optical mouse that you're comfortable with, you will want to skip the included mouse altogether.
I used the pad with "The Gimp ver 2.2" which is an open-source graphics program (i.e: FREE!) and it worked seamlessly with the Genius MousePen Tablet- Like they were made for each other! It came budled with Adobe CS3 Extended, and Corel Painter X (Trial versions) I have yet to check out, but it's nice they are included.
All of the buttons along the top of the pad (new, open, save, print, exit, cut, copy, paste, undo, back, forward, e-mail, and www) worked perfectly with no set up whatsoever. I was pleased when the "www" button launched my browser with a tap of the pen.
One little tip, you'll want to keep the pen mostly straight up and down when you are drawing, as the tip is pressure-sensetive and works badly if you slant it too much. HAVE FUN!!

It may not be a Wacom, but darn it, this is amazing for the price. I'm a linux user and by following a tutorial at the ubuntu forums, I found installation to be very easy. The tablet mouse is a bit small, but tablet mice in general may always be a tad smaller than a normal mouse, so I can't really complain.

It's got the 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity that any professional tablet has. It doesn't have tilt sensitivity, but I'm guessing the inclusion would have lead to a price higher than what this currently is. The size, for me, is perfect as I'm kinda' used to drawing with small strokes. For someone looking for a 9x12 tablet from Genius, there is one for I think $125 or so, which isn't that bad.

As I said, it may not be a Wacom, but if you or anyone you know has interest in graphic design, do check it out. For fifty bucks, it's an amazing deal. I've had no problems so far and I'll be practicing more once I'm more adept at drawing on paper. In fact, I and anyone in the field of digital art will recommend that you learn drawing skills, whether it be figure drawing, scenery, cartooning, anime, or whatever, first. Then, once you're good at that, make the leap to the digital world.

This is one of the best purchases I've made. I would give this 4 stars since it doesn't have tilt sensitivity, but I'm too happy with this to let a minor quibble get in the way.

Oh, and if you haven't gotten triple-A batteries in a while, start getting some. The stylus and mouse each take one. Also, keep the stylus away from pets =)

For anyone who uses open-source software such as Gimp, Krita, and Inkscape, I highly recommend this.

I bought this for my embroidery program because it has a freehand drawing tool, and it's kind of hard to draw with a mouse. Wow this Graphic Tablet is great, makes my life so much easier. After reading many other reviews I was a little scepticale about what I was getting. I have to say that this meets my expectations, I am very happy with it. If your a beginner like me start with this tablet, installation was a snap and it's easy to use.

I have really enjoyed this tablet. I am a college student, and I've been able to use it in my classes to draw diagrams and to copy notes onto Microsoft OneNote. Using it, I can do my homework and save it electronically without hassling with the paper. I have very bad hand-writing, but Vista's handwriting recognition is almost perfect.

Having a tablet also opens up the world to many other possibilities. MS Paint is a lot funner. Be sure to download Microsoft's free Powertools Suite (especially the Font tool). Using it and my tablet, I created a font with my own hand-writing! Even though you can't export the fonts directly, you can save them onto your desktop and than copy them to C:\Windows\Fonts .

The button shortcuts are handy, although the tablet writing area might be a little too large. The entire tablet is super thin, though.

With that said, there are a few drawbacks. The mouse is worthless. If you don't write for a while, the tablet shuts down and you have to click the buttons on the pen to turn it on again (to save the battery in the pen, I suppose). If you have Vista, you will need OneNote to use your tablet to write in Word (First you write in OneNote, and than you copy and paste over into Word). For Vista users, the PenSuite will not work, which is partially compensated for by Vista's plug-and-play tablet programs. You will also have to download drivers from the Genius website. Tech support is horrible!

Becoming proficient on this tablet takes time, but if you want do bridge the gap between paper and electronics, go for it!

I too have never owned a tablet. I did a lot of research on them, but ultimately it was the price that was going to make the deal. I ripped this puppy open as soon as I received it and plugged it in. It was very easy to get it going. I have only used it in Illustrator with great results. One day, my toddler got a hold of it and I was freaking out, thinking it was surely going to be broken. Even after being roughed up, this thing still works great. I almost went with a smaller one for the same price because I had heard the quality might be a little better, but I really wanted more drawing space so I went with this one. Since I have only owned it for a few months, I can't tell you how long it will last, but everything looks good for now. I'm very happy with it and the price is great.