Digital Drawing Tablet XP-Pen Deco 02 Review

[qiandu]

Hello everyone. I see some posts here of people looking for advice on which tablet to buy, so I thought, why not posting a review of a great product that I got lately? I hope this is not against any forum rules, I'm just reviewing a product that I bought with my money and I just wanted to have some fun writing it, I hope this can help someone out there looking for a good option with an eye on the wallet .

I used to have an Intuos Pro Medium, but then it died on me so I looked for a replacements and I got this nice product here: https://www.xp-pen.com/goods/show/id/324.html .

The Deco 02 is a sleek tablet with a matte finish and a great paper-like feeling while drawing. The Active area is 10 x 5.63 inches (25,4 x 14,3 cm) , so it’s actually bigger of some products that can easily cost much, much more. It has 6 buttons and 1 scrolling wheel. Every button can be remapped to the functions you like, and you can give the wheel up to 5 different functions, like increasing/decreasing brush size, zooming, rotating, etc.
The ring is smooth and glossy but, if you like, you can put a rubber protection over it to increase the grip and control (included in the box). The connection is USB type C, so it can be plugged in either way. That’s great, because the tablet design is symmetrical and can be easily flipped for left-hand users.

The Pen is one of the most distinguished features of this tablet. There’s a cilinder in the box which functions as slipcase for the pen and storing for the 8 replacement nibs included. The shape of the pen is exagonal, with a rubber grip, made to feel like a traditional pencil shape. The ergonomics is really great and you can use it comfortably for hours. It has a single programmable button and, surprise surprise, an “eraser” tip on the other side! There are very few tablets that still retain this feature. I tested it in Photoshop and it works fine. Personally, I don’t use it much, because I prefer to use the eraser hotkey instead, but I know this is an important feature for many people and if you like it, well, it’s here.

The tablet has 8192 pressure levels and, I can assure you guys, you can actually feel all of them . The pressure curve is really smooth, but you can easily adjust it to suit your tastes (more on that later). Strokes come out very precise, lines are smooth and weighted exactly as I want, even if I’m not using things like line stabilization. No sign of jitter or discontinous lines, pen performance is basically perfect.

A word on drivers: the control panel is very complete and you have all you need in a nice compact window. You can change the buttons functions, select the monitor correspondence, you can even shrink the active area if you want, for those who like to draw with the wrist. You can see the pressure curve on the left and you can actually change it to suit your tastes easily by dragging the blue line. The curve you can see up here is my favourite, because I have a very light hand and I don’t like to press too hard to get the maximum values.

You can set different functions on the buttons for different programs (like PS and CSP), and the drivers can memorize the functions. When you open the programs, it automatically detects which software you’re using and you don’t have to change anything, you can dive straight into drawing. Handy!

I tested the tablet with Photoshop CC, Clip Studio Paint, Krita and Mischief with no issues, all programs function normally.

The Verdict

10 OUT OF 10, 5/5 STARS, 5 THUMBS UP!!11!1 XD

Jokes aside, I don’t really believe in numerical scores :P, so here’s a rundown of this tablet pros and cons:

Price/performance: the ratio is really impressive, expecially for someone like me used to a tablet which costed x5 the price of the Deco 02. It’s perfect for beginners and amateurs, but can be easily used for professional work with no issues.

Drawing performance: I really can’t find any issues with it. The tablet is precise and reliable. Lines come out exactly as I want them to be, and if you’re like me and use lineart a lot, that’s really important.

Drivers / support: Drivers are complete and stable, you can easily tweak every aspect of the tablet functionality to your likings. Xp-Pen releases a new version of the drivers quite often, I think 4 times only this month XD. According to my experience and my friends who are clients of this brand, they’re quick to respond to any technical issues.

Cons?: I really had to think hard to find any. I guess the only complaint that I have is the design of the single pen button, which doesn’t protrude from the pen so it can be a bit difficult to find by touch sometimes. But it’s the only minor complaint over a really really solid tablet.

I think this tablet is a really solid choice for everyone. Good as a first tablet, nice for professionals too. Look out people, there’s finally competition in town!

[Ramo]

Thank you for the information! Very Good review!

Could you help me with some other new information so that I can make my mind between the Deco 02 and Deco 03?

First of all I love the design and the stylus design, but I've read some reviwers that founded the stylus to be very short. If possible, could you compare the size os the stylus of you unfortunately dead Intuos Pro Medium with the stylus of the Deco 02? I have a Intuos Pro Small and that would meke it easier for me to have an idea on the size of the stylus.

Second, did you have any problems with the eraser writing instead od erasing? AKA just doing the exact same thing as the point intead of the opposite? I've also read some complaints about that.

And Third: Does it have wireless functionality? I thought it was a given on the DECO line, but watching a recent review on Youtube I missed the position of the dongle on the stylus case and started to wonder...

That's it.

Thank you again for the very good review!