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That’s how I felt when I used the Veikk A15 Pro tablet. I initially got the tablet because I was extremely curious about the dial. Having used my fair share of professional tablets (including many from the Wacom lineup), I haven’t used any with a dial but thinking about the uses but it seemed like it would be incredibly useful for brush adjusting/rotations.
For context, I’ve been a digital art hobbyist for 10+ years. My daily driver is a Cintiq 13HD & I use an IPad Pro 12.9 as well for simpler work. Clearly, I am a huge fan of screen tablets but this was the first traditional tablet that made me almost want to switch back to a traditional tablet!
Here are my thoughts:
Pros:
Setup was easy and effortless. I downloaded the driver from their website. They don’t include a CD in the package, which is fine with me as I don’t have a CD-ROM drive anymore anyway. NOTE: You have to uninstall any drivers from other brands (Wacom, XP-PEN, etc) After installation, the driver automatically detected the tablet and I was able to draw in Clip Studio Paint right away without a hitch. On their interface, they labeled the shortcut keys and I had no issues with assigning shortcuts.
For the control wheel/dial, you can assign more than 1 feature to it, which blew my mind! I initially thought I would have to settle between brush size or canvas rotation but the center button of the dial controls switching (and can be customized to something else as well). At first I was struggling to figure out how to switch the dial controls, but after a quick googling, it was the center button. (The driver also says so if you check the settings, I literally was just too excited to read them all, oops.)
The product comes with SO many replacement nibs, a nib remover, and a felt sleeve as well as a pen holder. I love that in this model they included both the felt sleeve as well as the pen holder because the sleeve would be nice for traveling but I wouldn’t not use it if I was just keeping the tablet at my desk and would much prefer a pen holder in that case. (Also the pen holder stores nibs underneath just like the Wacom Pen holders do, except Wacom gives you like 4 nibs and bids you good luck while Veikk supplies you with a full ring under their holder + a baggy of extras. I’ll have enough nibs until I die--). They also give you a glove which is a nice touch! Most tablets do not come with one at this price point.
The pen is light but sturdy and comfortable to the touch. Similar to Wacom pens, it does not require charging, which is great!
The design and sleek and minimal which I enjoy and comes with 12 customizable hotkeys which is more than enough for me. The pen also has 2 customizable buttons which are nifty (I usually disable mine or set it to eye dropper in fear of triggering accidentally). The build is solid and doesn’t feel flimsy or cheap, it feels like a quality piece of equipment. I’ve used the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (which would be the Wacom equivalent in size) and this tablet is thinner, for me that’s a pro, but to each their own. Overall, I love the hotkeys + I’m a little obsessed with the dial. I did hotkey brush size settings to my Cintiq shortcuts but spamming on them to change brush sizes more than once always worried me and it’s much easier to adjust using the wheel!
Cons:
If you draw directly at a 90 degree angle on the tablet, it has a chance of making the godforsaken squeaking noise. I would assume it’s simply because the nib is new and the tablet is new and the noise would disappear with normal wear. This had me worried at first because I can’t deal with the plastic-on-plastic noise. Thankfully, if you hold the pen at a slight tilt (as you would a pencil) there is no squeak whatsoever, so this is not a big problem for me but just wanted to mention.
Wishlist:
Bluetooth usage. Not a huge issue for me as bluetooth can be unreliable sometimes and I don’t mind having my tablet plugged in but I’ve noticed that some more expensive tablets have this feature and I’m looking forward to seeing if Veikk would bring in this feature in the future.
TLDR;
This tablet is such a steal! I really enjoyed using it and this will definitely be the tablet I take on the go when I don’t want to restrict myself to the programs on an iPad and I want something portable. I would recommend it to beginners or even experienced artists looking to try something new but don’t want to break the bank. After using it, it left very little to be desired, I can’t imagine myself forking out an additional $200-300 for a Wacom. If you are looking for a non-screen tablet, I don’t see any reason to pass this one up!
BONUS: The control wheel makes the most ASMR clicking sound when you spin it. I’m in love.
