Review: Gaomon M106K Graphics Tablet

Review unit provided from Gaomon

Another tablet review! This time it's the Gaomon M106K graphics tablet that was sent over by Gaomon (Facebook | Youtube | Twitter). Thanks!

The Gaomon M106K joins the rank of other budget tablets that I've reviewed over the years. Interestingly, when I looked at the Amazon product page, there are two versions, one for Windows only (cheaper), and the other is for Mac and Windows (a few dollars more). If you're a Mac user, don't get the wrong one. The unit that I'm reviewing is the Mac/Windows unit.


This is the simple packaging box that holds the tablet.


The things included are the tablet, pen with cap, pouch with nib remover and 4 replacement nibs, and not shown in the photo are two cables. There's no driver disc included so you have download from Gaomon's website.


The small pouch uses a click-on button for closing. It's made of some fabric canvas.


That's the rechargeable pen and cap. The build quality feel sturdy. It has a nice weight (14g). The grip is a hard matte surface and holds well in hand, and does not attract dust.


Since the pen is battery powered, it needs to be charged and the charging port is right at the back. Battery life is rated at 350 hours, which is like 14 days of non-stop drawing. Charging is quite fast, like half to an hour. If you run out of battery, you can quickly charge for 15 minutes to get some power back. The power saving mode kicks into effect when the pen is inactive for 3 minutes.


The pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. That looks like the standard nowadays. The two buttons on the pen can be customised through the driver. The cap unfortunately cannot be posted on the back.


The USB cable on the left is used to connect the tablet to the computer. The one on the right is for charging the pen.


Build quality of the tablet is decent. It feels solid, doesn't flex much. Quality is quite similar to many other budget drawing tablets I've reviewed. Behind the tablet are 4 large rubber feet to prevent it from sliding around on table. On the side is a clothed loop for holding the pen.


The tablet comes with 12 physical shortcut buttons, all customisable through the driver.


Additionally, there are also 16 customisable soft keys at the top of the 10 x 6.25 inch drawing area. For those who like lots of shortcut buttons, this could be the tablet for you. The only competitor, that I can think of now, that has this many shortcut keys is the New Huion 1060 Plus.

The drawing surface is the smooth non-glossy type, similar to the surface you see on Wacom tablets. Drawing on it with the pen feels good. There's right amount of friction and control.

Driver


This is where you can change the pressure sensitivity of the pen.


You can assign your own keyboard shortcuts to the tablet buttons.


The driver looks suspiciously similar to other drivers I've seen from other brands. In this case, even the non-translated Chinese words and layout of the driver settings are similar to that from the Huion G10T. These tablet manufacturers probably use the same tablet drivers with slight modifications.


You can change the mapping here. The 10 x 6.25 inch working area maps perfecting to a 16:9 monitor. If you're a left handed user, you can change the tablet's orientation here.

Drawing performance

Overall drawing performance is good. Pressure sensitivity works. Strokes transition smoothly. There's little to no lag. I only had issues with Illustrator CS5 (Mac) where the tablet refuses to work. All other Mac software I've tried works well.

I did not manage to test this on a Windows computer because I don't have one at home.


Strokes in Photoshop CS5 (Mac) are smooth and they taper nicely.


With Illustrator CS5 (Mac), I could move the cursor around but when I draw with the pen, nothing comes out. Or when it does, it's usually one dot or stroke out of many that I've tried.


Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works very well, as usual.


No issues with Mischief (Mac) too.


Tayasui Sketches Pro (Mac) works fine.


Works well with Krita (Mac) too.

Conclusion

Yeah, the Gaomon M106K graphics tablet performs well when it comes to drawing, except when used with Illustrator CS5 (Mac). It could be an issue with the app or the driver but I've no way to find out.

The build quality is fine, no different from other budget graphics tablet. It's solid and looks durable enough.

For those who like physical shortcut buttons, there are 12 here, in addition to 16 soft keys, so that's really convenient.

Overall, the Gaomon M106K is very competitive with other graphics tablet in terms of pricing and features.

Availability

The tablet is available from Gaomon webstore.

You can check out more reviews and other products from Gaomon on Amazon (US | | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP) and Gaomon on Aliexpress

By the way, there's a promotion running on Amazon (all) until end of September. Just use the coupon code GAOMONMK to get 30% off the Win & Mac version of the tablet.

Comments

i have a Chromebook at the moment and was wondering if I could use this tablet with this laptop?

Is GAOMON M106K Professional Drawing Graphic Tablet compatible with GIMP 2.8 on Windows 10?

In reply to by Ian (not verified)

@Ian
Unfortunately I can't answer that because I've given the tablet away in a contest. Can't test it now. It is best to ask the manufacturer if possible.

i was wondering if this tablet required a computer that had windows or mac to run smoothly or could it be used on a laptop as well cause i only have a laptop

Should i get this or h610 pro? 1060+ is a bit too expensive and h640p is too small so i think these 2 are the ones worth considering. Any recommendations?

Is this tablet good for beginners? Because I got it for Christmas and it is my first tablet. I don’t know if I should have gotten a Huion or Wacom. What do you think?

In reply to by Grace (not verified)

@Grace
It's good. Just use it. It's no different from other brands of tablets at the same price point.

This is my first pen tablet I wanted to use it with Corel Paintshop Pro and had a few issues at first which Gaomon support helped me with and it works fine now accept that sometimes it doesn't stop drawing until I tap the tablet and then leaves a blob with the brush. My biggest issue is that I have no idea what to do with the press keys or what to put in the menu and can't find any help on this.

In reply to by Margaret Waugh (not verified)

@Margaret Waugh
Could be some driver issue with Corel Paintshop Pro. Try asking Gaomon for alternate version of driver to test.

You can test other apps and see if you have similar problems. Try Krita or Medibang Paint Pro. Those two are free.

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

Thanks for that and could you tell me where I can learn how to assign keyboard shortcuts to the gaomon tablet as i have know idea how to do it. Being a novice.

In reply to by Margaret Waugh (not verified)

@Margaret Waugh
After you install the driver, just open it and look around at the settings.
There will be a page where you can customise the physical shortcut buttons, and assign your keyboard shortcuts to them.

Can I use Paint tool Sai on this tablet? (This might be a stupid question but yunno)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

@Anonymous
Unfortunately I no longer have this tablet to test. But you can try other (free) drawing software such as Medibang Paint Pro (works great) or Krita.

hi,
i have been drawing for a while now and wanted to get into the digital world of art. i have never used a tablet (with or without screen) before and i was wondering if this tablet is good for beginners. i considered getting the Huion h420 but later realized that it is too small of a tablet for me. if this tablet is not for beginners could you please let me know which one i would like.
thx.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

@Anonymous
It's a good tablet for beginners. It has a good size and affordable price.

Is this device compatible with an Acer laptop? I was wondering because i on buying it.

I also ment to say my computer is an Aser cloudbook 14

Hi, how does it compare to wacom models, like for example the Wacom Intuos Art?

Hi, Every time i try and draw a circle it draws a straight line first, any ideas why and how to fix? Thanks :)

In reply to by miss chippy (not verified)

@miss chippy
I've got the same straight line problem with one of my other tabets (can't remember which). Perhaps try using a different version of the driver? Or try installing a driver from other brands. Such tablets can sometimes use drivers from other brands. E.g. Huion, Ugee, XP-Pen, Parblo. Look for the tablet with model numbers 1060

I never had any drawing tablet before and I'm tempted to buy, I was wondering if this is good for newbie. There are so many mixed reviews when I browsed for reviews.

so i purchased a gaomon that was used on ebay.(i didnt realize it was used cause it was the same price as a brand new one) when i got set it up to my laptop the gaomon display works but the pen doesnt register. i dont know if perhaps it just isnt compatible with laptops. i dont believe the problem to be with the pen because i bought a brand new in the box pen for it and it doesnt work either. can someone please tell me if they know about the compatibility with laptops? i cant find anything about this online anywhere that ive looked

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

@Anonymous
Are you using on Mac or Windows?

If Mac, you need to enable to permissions in MacOS System Preferences. You can use this guide here (It's for Huion but the process is the same).

If Windows, contact Gaomon and see what they say.

In reply to by Jaqueea Freeman (not verified)

This is my first time getting a drawing tablet so I was wondering if you could use the tablet without a computer like will it show what your drawing on the tablet screen?

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