Customer Reviews

Genius PenSketch 9X12, USB, With PhotoShop. 9x 12 working area for graphic design. Cordless wheel mouse and rubber-coated pen.

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First off- The Stylus pen conflicts with every thing. You can't hover over the Graphic Tablet without it using sticky-keys or auto-right clicking/selecting everything. I've been troubleshooting, hours on end.
The Sensitivity is flawed as well. Hovering the stylus over the tablet grants Extreme Pressure (1000+), but when actually touching the Tablet with Stylus reverts it to 0% pressure. What? The Installation program interface is cheap, and not user friendly. In an attempt to remedy this, apparently there were no options to change settings of the Tablet pressure sensory defaults.

Just a heads-up. I would not recommend this one. Might want to go for WACOM's Graphic Tablet. Apparently I get what I pay for. I can understand why it costs so much less than WACOM Tablet.

To start of, I've been using this product for 6 months already and let me tell you what it comes with first. It comes with the tablet, pen stand, "mouse", some drivers, some software i didn't really use and replacement tips.

Now the pen and mouse require AAA batteries. I would not recommend using the mouse at all, it just sucks because it feels wrong when you use it and being "wireless" like the pen doesn't entirely help. When it comes pen, it isn't bad as what some reviewers have stated. I believe that the pen is a little on the sensitive side. Like if you slightly wiggle the pen, it somewhat detects it, so you have to be a little bit more precise. However, after a few months of using it, I eventually got used to. I can now draw, trace whatever I want of course that was due to practice. It's not like wacom tablets are that perfect, because it took as much time for me to get used to my graphire 3 tablet.

Now for my feedback on this device. The buttons on the pen suck. They're hard to press, especially the left click. It's a good thing the tip acts as left click. In my opinion, if you are a rich professional artist, who like to be able to erase stuff easily and don't want to have battery problems, go with a wacom, preferably the bigger ones. For the hobbyist who just wants to be able to write and draw on a computer, its good enough with practice and make sure you hide your replacement tips well. So far, my the tip hasn't been sanded down yet.

I give this product a four for my purposes, namely drawing some non major stuff, writing and tracing on macromedia flash and photoshop.

Its cheap ! But if a good tablet is critical to your work go for Wacom ones. I didnt want to spend too much, coz I'm not a professional artist. This tablet would be bad decision if you know that you need a tablet. I didnt know, I wanted to experiment and for that purpose its good. But a better option would be to ask someone who knew. You can go for that option coz now I KNOW and I suggest that its not good enough for professionals.
Its pen is jittery so is its mouse, being an artist the precision that you look for is simply missing.
Every thing else is OK, like it worked with little work required on my part after connecting it to the computer.

Not only is Wacom continuously upgrading their drivers, their tablets perform flawlessly. I own a PenSketch and I suffer from the same problems other reviewers have complained about: the click detection is erratic; a right-click and a middle-click will often send a false left-click as well. Genius is not only not updating their drivers (at the very least) to compensate for the faulty sensors: useful troubleshooting is almost impossible to come by.

You can download the latest OSX Driver with Photoshop CS4 support at:
www.geniusnet.com
navigate to the drivers section, follow instructions.
I purchased this driver several months ago. I've been delighted with how well it works with most of my programs - it worked with everything except Photoshop CS4, which is my primary drawing and painting tool. The lack of support for CS4 was a minor issue, as I still have CS3 and CS2 installed on my Mac, but it was a minor annoyance.
With the release of their latest driver with CS4 support, this driver is now exactly the tool I need for most tasks.
I am a painter as well as a photographer, and when I paint I like to use broad, gestural strokes with bold line structures. A tablet that can track well is very important - I can't work fluidly if my line lags behind my pen a second or two - my Genius tablet tracks quickly with no appreciable delay! The pressure sensitivity is comparable to the much smaller Wacom tablet I had been using. The Genius Tablet allows me to adjust sensitivity through the brush palette in Photoshop so all the flexiblity of my favorite tools is there.
But what really shines here is the size! The 9x12 drawing surface gives me plenty of room for the big, broad strokes I love - terrific!
Another feature I like is the clear plastic sheet that covers the tablet - it allows me to place a drawing on paper there for reference so that I can draw without looking at the screen so much. Particularly in the initial phases of a painting, this is a great benefit.
All in all, for the price you can't beat this tool.
If you need a tablet, this is a great entry level tool -

Drivers and software installed easily in XP, plugged tablet into USP port and device was immediately recognized. I had been using a HyperPen tablet with 6x8 drawing area for years, with 3084 LPI and 512 levels of pressure sensitivity. It was adequate for most applications, but I wanted a greater working area, and more pressure sensitivity. I had learned that Genius upgraded the PenSketch 9x12 from 2000 LPI to 4000 LPI, and that fact, combined with an adequate 1024 levels of sensitivity - and the low price - led me to purchase the PenSketch 9x12.
No, it isn't close to a large Wacom Intuos, just as a Ford isn't a Ferrari. If you have over $700 to invest in a large graphics tablet, by all means go with Wacom. If you're on a budget, however, the Genius PenSketch 9x12 is an excellent tablet provides a lot of bang for the buck.
I use the tablet extensively for photo editing in Adobe Photoshop, and for graphics in Corel Painter, and I am extremely pleased with the ease of use. I was especially pleased with how well the 20 buttons (five of which are customizable) unobtrusively arranged along the top of the working area functioned perfectly in the applications. Very convenient to bring up custom brushes and custom color palettes at the touch of a button.
A word of warning: both the older 2000 LPI version and the improved 4000 LPI version have the same UPC code. The Item Number of the older PenSketch is 31100006101, while the updated 4000 LPI version is Item Number 31100059100. Some retailers may have the older version in stock, with the new item number. Likewise, while they may have the newer version in stock, their item description may reflect the specs of the older 2000 LPI version.
I have been extremely satisfied with my PenSketch 9x12 tablet. I have encountered no problems, bugs or glitches. Overall, I'd recommend the unit to anyone who wants a very good large-working-area graphics tablet at a great price.

Seems to work OK.
Limited extras compared to Wacom tablets.
OK for the price.
Would I buy it again... yes, if I couldn't afford a Wacom.

I have found the Genius PenSketch to be a really sophisticated and precise work tool for graphic design. It is very customizable. I use it mainly with Photoshop CS and Word 2007. It works well both with with Windows Vista on my laptop and with Windows XP on my desktop. It also comes with its own software which has some interesting features which I have not yet had much time to explore. Windows Vista added some other basics when it installed the driver, but those added capabilities do not seem to interfere at all with its versatility in Photoshop, and it still installed all the bundled software.

This was a gift for my sister that is a fashion designer, she loves it becuase is easy to use, light weight. She says that she uses all the time, and would not be able to work now with out it, so i guess thats a 100% recommendation from her :-)

Considering the quality in comparison to the price, I found this product to live up to my expectations. it was a real bargain. The first one that I purchased was stolen. The second one performed just as well as the first one. I have found this product to hold up very well and I am very satisfied with both the product and the servicing of my order on both occasions. Thank You. AFL