My Tooya Pro Tablet Review

 This turned out to be one of those “happy accidents” that ended up in my repertoire. My husband was always a fan of the Wacom tablet-he pronounces it “whack ’em” I guess that’s the correct pronunciation  At some point he had misplaced his Wacom tablet and ended up purchasing the Tooya Pro tablet back in 2012-I think he wanted to incorporate it into gamer graphics (his favorite niche) plus it also featured the Photoshop bonus. 

But guess who ended up doing the lion’s share of use -Yep, yours truly! Let’s face it, if you are going to go for professional looking work, your mouse can only take you so far. Non-geometric, amorphous, and unique shapes that make up vector illustration need to be handled with precision!

Tooya Pro Graphics Tablet Review: Features and Benefits

As I said previously the Tooya Pro tablet also included a Photoshop Elements 7.0 “extra”. (It’s great for beginners to image manipulation work; like a “Photoshop Lite” version.) It also comes with an ergonomically designed stylus pen.

• Drawing area is 10″ (across) by 6.25″ (long). Great for working under a wide screen monitor with no aspect ratio issues.
• Workspace pad is 5 mm thick, so it’s very streamlined.
• Mac and Windows compatibility; specifically versions XP/Vista/7, Intel based, 10.4 and later.
• 1024 Levels of pressure sensitivity

Can also be used in conjunction with Microsoft Office programs for day-to-day writing tasks(Word,Excel, Outlook, and Power Point)

Tooya Pro Tablet Pros and Cons

Although I usually use mine for mock-ups and drawings that require fine-tuned detail, the Tooya Pro tablet also has office task functionality to boot. Since it pretty much replaces the standard mouse as the point of control, it can be used for freehand writing with aplomb. The pad is USB port operative; a blue LED light tells you it’s in operation mode. The stylus rests in a base and has a built-in “sleep mode” it goes into after 3 minutes of idleness. The stylus requires 1 triple “A” battery -that’s the “really little” not the “little” ones LOL. I always use rechargeable Ni-Mh batteries.

Like all software, tools and accessories out there, the Tooya pro tablet is not without its drawbacks and one of these may be system compatibility. I would not recommend it to users of Windows 8 and beyond and Linux users. If this is the case you may want to consider seeking a digital art tablet released a little later. As I understand Windows 8 is not that popular right now and may even be on its way out. The company that spearheaded the Tooya- PenPower, speaks of installing a driver for a differing Windows version which is a topic for another post 😊.

It’s almost a total plug and play operation, but you will need to install the program that enables the user, you-to modify the settings, including pen tip pressure-a very important thing to understand as I remember when I was first trying to master the stylus on my own.

The Tooya Pro tablet integrates easily with all the Adobe programs including the Flash products as well as the one I use the most, Corel Draw. The biggest thing I had to work on was mastery of the stylus and not hitting (accidentally) those little buttons on the side which function as mouse-click buttons. but I finally realized that’s why I had sub-menus dancing around I didn’t attempt. All I have to do is lightly tap a tool from the side panel that I need to use and boom, I can go from the Shape Tool to the Bezier on a dime. The pen tips are also replaceable, 2-3 extras are also included.

I observed that some people compared the Tooya Pro tablet to the Wacom (and a few others) – I try to be objective here having not used the latter before. Speaking of which – we later on recovered my husband’s beloved Wacom. Unfortunately, the stylus is missing. Wow, talk about a dilly of a pickle! Wonder if it will ever turn up, or if a replacement spare could be obtained? (I’d love to take this one for a test-drive and compare it.)

Conclusion

So if you’re serious about graphic art, you need a digital art tablet that’s gonna work as hard as you do,and provide reliable performance. Not just for freehand, but they’re great for tracing on photographs or other pictures you may be trying to replicate. I do this in conjunction with the grid layout on my program so I can be sure I’m getting proportions and perspectives down to the letter.

But there you have it, in terms of the best affordable drawing tablets, I’m pretty much sold on my Tooya Pro!