Review unit provided by Gaomon

Gaomon WH851 is a wireless pen tablet that supports tilt and 16,384 levels of pressure sensitivity. This tablet was released in late 2023 and the price is USD 59.99.

Bottom line: The tablet looks good and works well. The pen is incredibly sensitive and accurate. Drawing performance is consistent and predictable. The one limitation is the tablet is only available with an 8x5 inch drawing surface area.

Things included

• Pen tablet
• AP519 pen
• 20 pen tips
• Pen tip remover
• Cleaning cloth
• Artist glove
• Tablet sleeve
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• USB-A to USB-C adapter
• User guide
• Warranty card

Specs

• Pen tech: Battery-free EMR
• Pressure levels: 16,384
• Pen resolution: 5,080 LPI
• Accurage: +-0.3mm
• Sensing height: 1cm
• Report rate: Wireless ≥190PPS, Wire ≥380PPS
• Touch: No
• Automatic shut-down: 15 minutes
• Wireless connection: Bluetooth 5.0
• Battery capacity: 1,300 mAh
• Battery life: 18 hours
• Hotkeys: 8
• Dial: One
• Product dimensions: 289 x 171 x 7.8mm
• Weight: 397g
• OS support: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android

Design

Design of the pen tablet looks good. Corners are rounded off. Edges are beveled. Build quality is quite good even though everything's made with plastic.

Only two colours are available: Grayish Green and Dark Gray.

The 8 x 5 inch drawing surface is matte textured and provided a nice tactile drawing experience with the pen. 8 x 5 inch drawing area pairs well with displays up to 20 inches. For displays 24-inches or larger, I recommend getting a pen tablet that's 10 x 6 inches but the Gaomon WH851 is only available in one size.

The AP519 pen has a big rubber grip and is comfortable to hold. The two side buttons are customisable. The pen tip has slight movement when in contact with drawing surface.

There are 8 customisable hot keys and one dial with a button in the middle for switching between the three functions that can be set to the dial.

The dial has grooves to make it easy to control and turn.

By the left side is the USB-C charging port and power button.

Driver

There are drivers available for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

This is where you can adjust the pen pressure curve and customise the two side buttons on the pen.

The 8 hotkeys and dial can be customised on this page. You have to tap on the hotkeys you need before you can customise them.

These are the possible shortcuts you can set to the hotkeys. There's Switch Display function which works well. Switch display will switch between display #1, #2 and across #1 to #2 with each press of the shortcut.

By default, the whole drawing area is mapped to your desktop. You may want to remap the drawing area if the aspect ratio of your desktop is very different from the tablet (16:10).

If you're left handed, you can change the tablet orientation 180 degrees.

Drawing tests

These are line tests created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. Initial activation force is low.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick is smooth. The pen is capable of detecting minimal changes in pressure after drawing thick lines.

4. Lines with consistent width can be drawn easily by applying consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn by tapping the pen on the tablet.

6. This is the test I use for checking cursor misalignment but this is not a pen display so this test is not relevant.

There's the usual input lag or latency with pen tablets and is normal.

Overall drawing performance is consistent and predictable. Lines are able to come out exactly the way I expect them to.

The pen is very sensitive and accurate. Thing lines can be drawn easily simply by glancing the pen on the drawing surface.

Drawing experience

Drawn with Medibang Paint Pro.

It is easy to draw expressive lines because the pen is so sensitive. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. This means you don't have to adjust brush sizes often, and can just concentrate on drawing, so that's great for productivity.

I did not experience any issues with drawing or the driver.

Android support

There are a few things to note when using the pen tablet with Android tablets.

• There is no driver so it's not possible to customise the hotkeys.
• Pen pressure adjustment is only possible through selected drawing apps.
• There is no way to confirm whether the cursor will be visible. And if there's no cursor on your Android tablet, drawing is not possible
• The Android tablet has to be in vertical orientation. The pen tablet has to be in horizontal orientation and only the far left vertical rectangle area is usable
• Tilt works

Battery life

Battery life is rated for 18 hours. If you draw 6 hours daily, the battery life can last for three days.

I wasn't able to test the battery life because it's difficult to test. The tablet will power off automatically after a period of inactivity. The tablet can still be used while charging.

Conclusion

This is a pen tablet with excellent drawing performance. The tactile drawing experience on the matte drawing surface is terrific. The pen tip may wear down faster with the texture but Gaomon has provided 20 replacement pen tips.

I actually don't have any negative things to say about this tablet. Maybe the battery life could be longer?

The technology for such pen tablets has matured many years ago so nowadays it's easy to find pen tablets with excellent drawing performance at affordable prices, and the Gaomon WH851 is one of them.

This is a pen tablet I can recommend easily to beginners and even to professionals as long as you're comfortable with the 8 x 5 inch drawing area. You can also get this as a gift since it's not too expensive.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Good looking design
+ Decent build quality
+ Excellent drawing performance
+ 8 x 5 inch drawing area pairs well with 20-inch or smaller displays
+ 20 replacement nibs included
+ Textured drawing surface provides nice tactile experience
+ 8 shortcut buttons and dial
+ Supports Windows, Mac, Android
+ Affordable
- Only available in 8 x 5 inch size
- Battery life perhaps could be longer?

Availability

The Gaomon WH851 is available from Gaomon online store

Use coupon code Parka to get 10% off.