Looking for a budget-friendly drawing tablet that won’t take up much room we check out the Ugee S640 Pen Tablet
You may recall we recently reviewed the Huion Kamvas 24 Plus which is very much at the premium end of the market costing £899. However, there are options at the other end of the market that provide you will a budget-friendly option and that is what we are reviewing today the Ugee S640 pen tablet.
First Impressions
The market for a good pen tablet is booming with many brands offering the graphic designer in you an option to get digital and provide a superior drawing experience. The Ugee S640 comes with everything you need for a drawing tablet but without that monster price tag.
The Ugee S640 is available on Amazon for £29.99 but you can also purchase it from the likes of Onbuy & Argos. The S640 comes in 3 colours:
- Carbon Black
- Very Peri – (Pink)
- Living Coral- (Purple)
The main features of the S640 include:
- Battery Free
- 8192 pressure levels
- Pen tilt up to 60 degrees
- 10 programmable shortcut keys
Unboxing
The Ugee S640 offers the user the following when you unbox it:
- Ugee S640 pen tablet
- Battery-free stylus
- 10 Extra pen nibs
- Nib remover tool
- USB wireless receiver (comes with wireless variant only – S640W)
- micro-USB to USB-A adapter
- USB-C to USB-A adapter
- Quick Guide
- Warranty Policy
- Free driver download
Design
The Ugee S640 is a portable tablet measuring 215.3 x 162.52 x 12.06mm and when you first use the tablet the design is very simple. The front part of the tablet has a row of shortcut buttons up top followed by a drawing area in the middle. The drawing surface has a slight slope which improves the drawing comfort of the tablet.
If you turn the tablet over onto its back you can see there is a large silicon strip at the top and also at the bottom and this offers the user a level of grip and helps it stay on a smooth surface.
At the top, there is a USB port and also a lanyard hole and more importantly a pen holder. You will also notice the whole device is made of plastic which considering the cost is not surprising. However, the build quality and finish of the tablet and the quality of the buttons were impressive there are no shakes or wiggles when touching the tablet. In this review, we tested it using a Dell Laptop and Huawei P20.
Programmable Buttons on the Ugee S640
For those who use creative design applications these software programmes come with keyboard shortcuts. This tablet comes with 10 programmable shortcut buttons that are allocated above the drawing area.
These buttons include:
- Zoom
- Scroll
- Pan
- Colour Picker
- Switch between brush and eraser
- Change the size of the brushes.
The benefit of having these shortcuts makes the drawing process faster and more convenient. The buttons can also be customized with non-drawing-related apps allowing for a completely different set of shortcuts.
Drawing Surface Dimensions/Textured surface
When you consider the size of the tablet you will be able to pack it in your backpack with ease. The tablet is incredibly thin measuring just 12 inches in thickness. The Ugee S640 has a drawing area of 6.3 x 4 inches which is ideal if you have a laptop display from 13 to 16 inches.
Now Ugee protects the table from getting scratched by using a scratch-resistant surface. The textured surface has microscope irregularities which provide a little friction while drawing this helps provide better handling while drawing
Connectivity
The Ugee S640 comes with a 1.5m USB-C to USB-A cable that the USB-C end is L-shaped and that end goes into the tablet and the USB-A end goes into the computer. Now if you have a USB-C port on your laptop there is an adapter provided you can use.
Next, you need to download the free tablet driver from the Ugee website. On installing the driver it automatically detects when you connect the tablet and computer. Then it gives you settings and customization options to set the tablet as per your needs, such as to set the tablet area and screen area plus you can also reprogram the shortcut keys.
The Ugee Battery-free stylus
The Ugee S640 also comes with a battery-free stylus pen that works by wirelessly transferring power from the tablet surface. This means you do not have to recharge the stylus pen. The Stylus comes with tilt detection and 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity.
In terms of design, the stylus is made of plastic and comes with a straight cylindrical shape the fact there is no battery inside makes it lightweight and when in use it offers an excellent stylus.
There are 2x shortcut buttons on the stylus and they are fully programmable for the shortcut of your choice. So you could set one as the switch between pen & eraser and the other button could be your zoom.
When considering the performance of the stylus the pressure sensitivity works flawlessly and is very receptive to changes in pressure giving you better control over the lines drawn. There is also a report rate of 220 RPS which means you don’t see any lag between your drawing and the strokes and lines appearing on the display.
Verdict
The Ugee S640 is ideal for someone who this is their first drawing tablet but it’s also very good for an intermediate-level user making this tablet excellent value for money. In testing, we found the S640 was a good size for fitting on your desk and came with a good size area for drawing. We used this alongside my laptop so the size of this drawing tablet complemented the size of my laptop screen. If we had a bigger screen this device might feel a little unsuitable.
Overall, I liked the Ugee S640 it’s a great portable tablet that worked really well especially when you consider the price tag. This tablet is ideal for people starting out in digital illustration or designers wanting to get a task for a tablet without being hit in the wallet. We also enjoyed the inclusion of shortcut keys on the tablet saving you from always having to use your keyboard as well.
If you are looking for a drawing tablet that is budget-friendly and can be taken around with you with ease the Ugee S640 is an excellent option.
Product Rating
Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Connectivity: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Performance: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Value for Money: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Overall ranking: 4.7 out of 5.0 stars – 4.75 stars out of 5
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