Review: WoodPad 10 Graphics Tablet, now 2x bigger

This is the new WoodPad 10 graphics tablet which is the larger model of the original WoodPad 7 that I reviewed a few months ago.

In my review of the WoodPad 7, the downsides are the rather small active area to work with, and the lack of stroke tapering with Photoshop (Mac) and Medibang Paint Pro (Mac). The WoodPad 10 has obviously addressed the small drawing area. As for the drawing performance, well, read on.

The packaging box is simple and nice. The box has a magnetic latch that opens easily to reveal the items inside.

What's included are the tablet, pen, USB cable, three replacement nibs and a nib remover.

The size of WoodPad 10 is almost two times the size of WoodPad 7. The diagonal measurement is 10 inches. Actual width is around 9 by 6 inches. This is a much more comfortable size to work with.

This tablet connects to the computer via a microUSB to USB Type A port. As you can see, the tablet is very thin. It's also lightweight because of the bamboo material that's used to make the surface, but it's definitely very solid. If you need to bring the tablet around, such as to and fro office, you probably won't feel the extra weight.

The back has a large piece of black foam and four rubber feet are located at the corners.

The logo is etched on the left side of the tablet and looks really nice. The look definitely feels very organic because of the bamboo.

The pen supports tilt sensitivity and up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. It is battery-free so it doesn't require charging.

The pen has a large rubber grip that's nice to hold. Overall, it feels lightweight, just the way I like it, but it has a very solid build quality to it. The white colour matches well with the colour of bamboo.

There are two side buttons on the pen but no eraser on the back. The default nib on the pen is the soft tip with additional friction for better control.

You can swap out the nibs very easily with the nib remover. If you need a smoother nib, you can use the hard surface nibs included.

Driver

No driver disc is included so you'll have to download the latest driver from the WoodPad website. The version that I've tested for this review is version 1.03. The driver supports both Mac and Windows.

The Mac driver I've used is version 1.03, and the Windows driver is version 1.14.

This is where to change the pen settings. You can customise the side buttons with various mouse clicks, to run applications and keyboard shortcuts.

The driver's second tab has mapping options. You can choose to let the tablet work like a mouse if you want to. The most obvious feature that's missing is the lack of left-handed mode.

Drawing Performance

When drawing fast in Photoshop (Mac), such as when hatching, the lines will taper abruptly with a trailing thin line.

This is the same problem when I tested WoodPad 7. If you're just drawing normally, you won't see the problem though.

Other than the line taper issue, the tablet works fine with Photoshop (Mac).

Photoshop has tilt brushes and those work well too. The brush strokes will change depending on the angle of the pen.

Krita (Mac) works fine. The broken line problem that I saw with WoodPad 7 has been solved.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) works well.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works well.

Photoshop (Win) also has some line tapering issues. Other than that, the pressure and tilt sensitivity works well. Strokes are also smooth.

Other drawing apps that I've tested on Windows work fine. The apps I've tested are Adobe Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint and Medibang Paint Pro.

Conclusion

Design is the main selling point of WoodPad. Overall performance is good except for the tapering issue with Photoshop. Other drawing apps that I've tested on Mac and Windows work fine. Pressure and tilt sensitivity work great.

The larger working area is now larger and more comfortable to work with compared to WoodPad 7 which feels rather restricted. The drawing area here is almost twice the size of WoodPad 7.

The price of WoodPad 10 is US $99 which is actually on the high side especially when there are cheaper alternatives from Huion, XP-Pen, Parblo and Veikk. What the WoodPad has that others don't is the beautiful organic look of bamboo. It's the design that makes it look very different from all other, usually black, tablets.

Whether or not it's worth the will depend on whether you appreciate the design.

Here's a list of pros and cons:
+ Design looks good
+ Build quality is solid
+ Drawing functionality is overall satisfactory except for the tapering issue with Photoshop
+ Pen has good pressure and tilt sensitivity
- Some issues with Mac versions of Photoshop
- No shortcut buttons on the tablet
- No left-handed mode

Availability

You can find WoodPad 7 and WoodPad 10 on Amazon at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J2482PR?tag=artprdus-20