Review: Parblo Intangbo SW pen tablet

Review unit provided by Parblo

The Parblo Intangbo SW is a 7 x 4 inch wireless drawing pen tablet released in September 2024. The price is USD 59.99 and it comes with one year warranty.

Currently, only the small model gets the wireless feature. There's a good chance the company may add wireless to the Parblo Intangbo M pen tablet too.

Video review

Bottom line

The tablet is well made and looks good. There's unfortunately diagonal line wobble and jitter so the tablet may be suited for casual drawing and not professional art where accuracy is needed. The tablet has Android support but switching between Android and Computer mode is not easy -- more on that later.

Specifications

As listed on their website:

• Pen Technology: battery-free electromagnetic resonance
• Workspace: 7 x 4 inch, 177.5 x 103.81mm
• Sensing Height: 8 to 10mm
• Resolution: 5080LPI
• Report Rate: Wirelss≥200RPS, Wired 280RPS
• Pressure Sensitivity: 16384 Levels
• Pen model: new S01 pen
• Pen buttons: 2 buttons
• Tilt Support: ±60 degrees
• Interface: USB-C
• Power Supply: USB 5V
• Battery: built in battery 1200mAh
• Shortcut Keys: 6 customizable express keys + mechanical mute wheel
• OS compatibility: Windows 10, 11, MacOS 10.12 and above, Android 8.0 and above, Harmony OS 1.0 and above
• Certificates: RoHs, CE, FCC, KC
• Dimensions: 273.8 x 169.1 x 8.5mm
• Tablet weight: 350g
• Package Size: 285 x 180 x 36mm, 629g
• Operating temperature/humidity: 0-65 Celsius degree/20-80%
• Storage temperature/humidity: -10-70 Celsius degree/ 10-90%
• Color: Black/ Purple

Things included

• Pen tablet
• Parblo S01 pen
• 6x replacement nibs
• USB-C to USB-A female adapter
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• User manual

Design

The Intangbo SW pen tablet is available in purple and black colours. These are well made tablets that look good. Build quality feels solid enough even with the plastic body.

The drawing surface is matte textured and provides a subtle tactile drawing experience and good control for the pen.

There are 6 customisable hotkeys and a dial.

The tablet has Android support and but you have to switch to Android mode before the drawing area can map properly to the vertical (only vertical) drawing of an Android phone or tablet. To switch to Android mode, you press and hold 5s on the two buttons closest to the dial. To switch back to Computer mode, you press and hold 5s on the two buttons one button away from the dial.

Switching between Android and Computer mode is not easy because you have to check the status light. It's difficult to check whether you've switch successfully. Parblo should have used a switch instead for this.

On the left are the

• Power button: hold 2s to power on, and press three times for Bluetooth pairing
• USB-C charging port: Tablet can still be used while charging
• Reset hole

Pen holder's located on top of the tablet.

The back does not look completely flat, and this applies to both the purple and black review units I received. When the tablet is on the table, one or two rubber feet are not in contact with the tablet, and hence the tablet can glide if you push it. If you want more grip, you will have to buy bigger rubber feet and paste them beneath the tablet.

Pairing with Windows OS is not as straightforward.

From the Bluetooth page in Windows Settings, you have to set the Bluetooth device discovery to "Advanced", check "Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer" in "More Bluetooth Settings", and click "OK".

Parblo actually has an instruction page with Bluetooth connection to Windows.

If you do not go through the steps above, Windows will not be able to detect the tablet's Bluetooth. I've tried three laptops.

Driver

Mac and Windows drivers are available. UI for the Windows driver does not look good but at least it's functional.

This is where the hotkeys can be customised and you can input your own keyboard shortcuts.

The pen's two side buttons can be customised. I usually set Switch Display to one pen button, but Parblo's Switch Display is actually WinKey + P instead of the cursor switch for displays. Without Switch Display, it's not convenient to move the cursor from one display to the other.

Pressure curve can be adjusted by moving the three control points. If pressure is not working as expected, you'll have to enable or disable Windows Ink for testing.

Mapping can probably be left as default.

Tablet orientation can be changed for left handed users. You can also set the drawing area aspect ratio to match your display.

UI for the Mac driver looks much better.

Line tests

These line tests below are from Medibang on Windows, and Windows Ink has to be enabled.

Sometimes there are issues with stray strokes at the start of the line. Sometimes the line will not start drawing until a second later.

1. Initial activation force is low so the pen is quite sensitive. There's diagonal line wobble or jitter so accuracy is affected.

2. Lines are not able to taper smoothly, naturally.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. This is also a diagonal line so there's also diagonal line wobble and jitter.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure. There's diagonal line wobble and jitter here.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. Cursor misalignment test for pen tablets is not necessary here.

Medibang Paint on Mac does not have the issues with stray strokes or starting strokes, and lines can taper more naturally. Unfortunately there's still the diagonal line wobble and jitter.

Drawing performance with Krita on Windows is not ideal. Lines are either too thick or thin, so you need more precise control to get the lines to appear the way you want, and strokes do not taper smoothly.

Clip Studio Paint has the best performance on both Mac and Windows, but there's still the diagonal line wobble and jitter.

Drawing experience

The pen has great support for pressure sensitivity and tilt sensitivity also works well.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint on a Mac. It is extremely challenging to draw the straight lines due to the problem with diagonal line wobble and jitter. It's gonna be difficult to draw vehicles, buildings, furniture or anything with straight lines.

Drawing organic subjects is easier as diagonal line wobble or jitter is not as obvious.

Android support

Parblo actually has an Android driver that can customise the hotkeys but not the pen buttons.

The pen tablet has to be set to Android mode first by holding down button 3 and 4 before the drawing area can map properly to the Android device.

If you have to switch between drawing on Android and computer, the mode switching is very troublesome as you cannot be sure whether you have successfully switched to the mode you want.

Conclusion

The tablet is well made and looks good. Unfortunately Parblo has not fixed diagonal line wobble or jitter problem that the Intangbo M and Intangbo X7 also have. That's unfortunately because the pen has great support for pressure sensitivity.

So due to the pen performance issue that affects accuracy, this pen tablet is only suited for creating casual art and not for professional art.

Pricing is quite attractive though for a wireless tablet of this size.

Pros and cons at a glance:
+ Beautiful
+ Solid build quality
+ Wireless cable-free setup
+ Low initial activation force
+ 6 replacement nibs included
+ Works with Android
+ Textured drawing surface provides nice tactile experience
+ 8 shortcut buttons and dial
- Slight wobble with diagonal lines
- Tilt sensitivity does not work consistently
- No Display Switch functionality is inconvenient for dual display setups
- Switching between Android and Computer mode is troublesome

Availability

The Parblo Intangbo SW are available from these links
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/4fTGgt1
Amazon MX: https://amzn.to/4dw0N5t
AliExpress: https://bit.ly/3X2IOh6