Review: Ugee M908 drawing pen tablet

Review unit provided by Ugee

The Ugee M908 and Ugee M808 are the latest budget graphics pen tablets that Ugee released in October 2023. The prices are USD 49 and USD 39 on Ugee online store respectively. The only difference between the two is M808 doesn't have dial.

Bottom line
It's a good looking tablet with fantastic drawing performance. Build quality is plasticky but solid enough. The hotkeys and dial are useful if you need them. The pen produces a nice tactile experience on the matte drawing surface. Pricing is reasonable and competitive with other brands. There are no deal breakers.

Specs

• Dimensions: 330.1 x 210.1 x 9.3mm
• Active area: 10" x 6.25" (254 x 158.8mm)
• Weight: 495g
• Pressure levels: 8192
• Tilt: ±60°
• Shortcut keys: 8 buttons + 1 scroll wheel
• Report rate: Max≥220RPS
• Reading resolution: 5080LPI
• Reading height: Max≥10mm
• Ports included: USB-C
• Pen: Battery-free Stylus PH23
• Compatibility: Windows 7 or later, Mac OS 10.10 or later, Chrome OS 88 or later, Android 6.0 or later, Harmony 2 or later, and Linux

Things included

• 1 x Ugee M808 Pen Tablet
• 1 x Battery-free stylus PH23
• 10 x Replacement nibs
• 1 x Nib extractor
• 1 x OTG USB-A to USB-C adapter
• 1 x USB A to C Cable
• 1 x Quick guide
• 1 x Quick guide for Android
• 1 x Warranty card

Design

This design is quite a departure from the common rectangular shape. The corners are now rounded off to give the pen tablet a more casual and fun look. The tablet feels plasticky but build quality is solid enough.

This is not wireless and hence has to be connected with cable to a computer.

The drawing surface area is 10 x 6.25 inches and this pairs well with most display sizes up to 27-inches. One downside is the drawing surface is quite susceptible to fingerprints.

The four big rubber feet behind have good grip on the table.

The pen tablet is quite thin. It uses a three layer design with the middle layer extruded inwards.

There's a pen holder on the right side.

There are 8 hotkeys and a shortcut dial for shortcuts. These are all customisable. The buttons have good feedback when pressed.

The Ugee PH23 supports tilt, 8096 levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. It's not powered by battery so no charging is required.

Built quality is solid enough. It's lightweight and the matte textured surface has enough grip and the pen is comfortable to hold.

There are two side buttons on the pen.

The drawing surface is textured to provide a nice tactile drawing experience. The pen nib is firm and has minimal to no movement.

Driver

Drivers are available for Mac and Windows.

Here's where you can customise the two side buttons. Mouse mode is available and this lets you push the cursor around, instead of having cursor track according to where the pen tip is on the tablet.

Here's where you can customise the pressure curve.

Here's where you can customise the 8 hotkeys and the dial.

There's no button in the middle of the dial so you will have to set one of the eight hotkeys to switch functionality for the dial.

Default shortcuts for the dials are:

• Zoom
• Scroll
• Brush size
• Rotate
• User customise

Rotate works with Photoshop and Sketchbook, but not with Clip Studio Paint, Medibang, Affinity Photo.

These are the shortcuts you can set to the hotkeys and pen buttons.

You can also create groups of shortcuts for specific apps, and those shortcuts will load automatically when the app is active.

Line tests

The line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro. You can expect similar drawing performance with other apps.

1. Initial activation force is minimal. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. There slight jitter with slow diagonal lines but that could be due to my hand.

2. Lines are able taper quite smoothly.

3. Line transition from thin to thick is smooth. Thin lines can be drawn easily after drawing thick lines. This also means the pen is sensitive enough to detect big and minimal changes in pressure sensitivity.

4. Line consistency can be maintained consistently by applying pressure consistently.

5. Tapping the pen sometimes does not produce dots, and you will have to tap again. This does not happen with Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop.

6. Cursor tracking is accurate. There are no issues with joining lines. The boxes were drawn with a thick brush and I could vary the pressure to produce expressive lines.

Pen performance is consistent and predictable other than the issue with drawing dots with Medibang.

Tilt works fine with Photoshop, Sketchbook, Krita.

Android support

There's no Android driver so the hotkeys, dial, pen side buttons and pressure sensitivity cannot be customised.

One third of the tablet's drawing surface, a vertical rectangle on the left side near to the hotkeys, is mapped to the vertical orientation of the Android tablet.

Tilt and pressure sensitivity works.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is great. The pen feels good. Even though the pen isn't more bulbous near the tip, thankfully the textured surface is grippy enough to prevent my fingers from sliding down.

This was drawn with Clip Studio Paint.

I was able to get the lines to appear the way I want them to. I did not experience any jitter or wobble with diagonal lines.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint. No issues.

This was also drawn with Medibang.

Android support

There's no Android driver so the hotkeys, pen side buttons and pressure sensitivity are not customisable. However, it is still possible to customise the pen pressure if your drawing app has that feature.

You can map a portion or the whole drawing surface of the tablet to the Android device you're using. You can use the K7 and K8 to switch between the two mapping options. The Android device will always have to be in vertical orientation.

Having Android support will benefit those who want to draw on Android tablets or phones that have no pen support. I tested with a Samsung Tab S9 FE and the cursor is visible.

Conclusion

The Ugee M908 offers excellent drawing performance. The build is plasticky but that's alright considering the price point, and most pen tablets at this price point are plasticky. One downside is the drawing surface is quite susceptible to fingerprint smudges.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ A new less rectangular design
+ Good drawing performance
+ 10 x 6 inch is a good size that pairs well with most display sizes
+ 10 replacement nibs included
+ Textured drawing surface provides nice tactile experience
+ 8 shortcut buttons and dial
+ Supports Windows, Mac, Android
+ Affordable
- Drawing surface is susceptible to fingerprint smudges
- Build quality plasticky

Availability

The Ugee M908 and Ugee M808 are both available from Ugee online store.

You can also find this on AliExpress and Amazon. Use coupon code 108V8A8A for 10% off.