Genius EasyPen M610XA drawing tablet reviewed

Brian Ambrozy 9 Aug, 2012 at 3:24am ET Article published in Tech

A digital tablet is something of a life-changer for some people, depending on what they do with their computers. Those who want to draw, write, practice new language characters, or sign documents find that having a tablet is essential—one of those “once you’ve tried it, you cannot go back” sort of things.

The problem with digital tablets is they have always generally come in three flavors: sort of cheap and almost useless, very expensive, and insanely expensive. Those who are professional artists (that is, the tablet is a tool which generates revenue for them) are smart to invest in a professional tablet. The Catch-22 with that situation is that someone who would benefit from a tablet (and might become more productive if they had one) might not be able to make the jump into the tablet world because of the prohibitive cost. Students, entrepreneurs, and hobbyists fall into this category.

There is definitely a mid-range market for tablets; Wacom markets the Bamboo Create, which is $199.00, for example. There are compromises in this mid-range, though; the size is much smaller and the resolution and sensitivity are lower than many professionals can realistically deal with.

Genius has released a product in this exact mid-range, but they want to have fewer compromises. They’re marketing their new EasyPen M610XA to budding professionals, students, and others who want the benefits of a high-quality digital tablet without having to spend hundreds of dollars. The EasyPen M610XA comes in at $169.99, and at least according to the specs, should out-perform the $30 more costly Wacom equivalent. Let’s check it out.

Specifications

1024 sensitivity levels
200 PPS polling rate
Active area 6” x 10”
OS Support Windows® 7/Vista/XP/Mac OS 10.4 or above
Digital pen accuracy ±0.25 mm
Resolution(LPI) 4000 LPI
Transparent overlay sheet
Software hot keys
Software bundle: Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, Corel Painter Essentials 4, PenSign, PenDrawer

Hardware

The tablet build quality is good. It doesn’t feel cheap, and the transparent overlay sheet is a very nice touch for those who prefer to trace. The included pen runs on a single AAA battery and feels good in the hand. The buttons on the tablet are substantial and have a very positive click, as well as a brushed steel finish.

The major downside is that the USB cord is attached permanently to the EasyPen. It’s not clear why they chose to do this, and it’s not a great idea. Just as one example, I’ve had cats that used to love to chew on cords. A replaceable USB cord is kind of a no-brainer with any corded peripheral, especially one that gets heavy use like a tablet. Most particularly, a tablet isn’t going to be constantly hooked up to the computer for many. It’s something you hook up when you want to use it. Having the USB cord attached to the device itself is a pretty poor design choice.

Another downside is that the pen is not double-ended. That is to say, you can’t flip it over to erase like you can with the Wacom Intuos (admittedly, a much pricier device). If you want to erase, you need to press a physical button on the tablet to turn erase mode on and off. It’s not a big deal and you get used to it fast, but it’s not as natural as the ingrained habit of turning a pen upside-down to erase.

EasyPen m610XA interface

Software

The control panel for the EasyPen is spartan, but totally functional. It’s not nearly as confusing as Wacom’s, just for comparisons’ sake. You can calibrate the sensitivity, program the “soft” buttons with a series of pre-determined functions. The defaults are probably the most useful anyway: Undo, Erase on/off, Zoom In, Zoom Out.

The bundle includes a full copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, a last-gen software package that is nonetheless absolutely functional and powerful. It also comes with Corel Painter Essentials, another really excellent program for almost any art needs that aren’t production-level professional.

Functionality

The EasyPen, once installed, operates extremely well. The sensitivity is really quite remarkable. Having some years of experience with Wacom (both entry-level and mid-range), I was quite surprised to find that the less expensive EasyPen tablet performed exactly as well as its more well-known competitor. Put another way: She’s got it where it counts.

The pressure sensitivity is the real killer app here; at 1024 levels of sensitivity, it feels extremely natural once you get over the disconnect of drawing in front of you while your eyes are on the screen. The professional-level 4000lpi resolution handshakes with this nicely, giving an extremely natural feel to the actual sketching.

However, there are some places where the Genius EasyPen falls flat. It’s difficult to explain if you’ve never used a Wacom Intuos, but things like quick-switch buttons to bring up the brush dialog, move the canvas around, zooming, and other simple functions that are commonplace when sketching and painting are slightly less natural-feeling with the EasyPen. You can still do all of the same things, but they are usually one extra button or step. For most people, this is not a problem. For professionals in a high-speed workflow situation, this is probably kind of a dealbreaker. Then again, if you’re a professional, you’re not shopping for $169 drawing tablets.

Final thoughts

This device fits exactly where it’s aimed: a niche where people who are willing to have a slight less elegant workflow experience can save a ton of money and get a good, high quality drawing surface. Yes, you lose some of the refinements of the better-known brand, but the actual guts of the tablet are excellent. This is a perfect tablet for anyone willing to sacrifice some features and functionality while focusing on what’s important: the drawing.

I’ll handily award the Genius EasyPen M610XA the Icrontic Stamp of Approval for a product we recommend.

The Genius EasyPen M610XA is available for Mac and PC. Buy.com has them on sale for $119.99 right now and Amazon has them for $126.99.

Comments

9 Aug 2012 ~ 4:32am Meng Lu Is it support android 4.0 system in the future? And Google Nexus 7 VS Genius EasyPen M610XA?
9 Aug 2012 ~ 9:27am JBoogaloo This is a great write up and the tablet seems like it would be fitting for someone (unsure student, beginning art student, hobbyist, etc...)who is looking to jump into the digital art world (art focused students can usually get a great deal on Bamboo's or Intuos' through schools for about the same price as this...maybe a bit higher, but worth it). The size is great for those trying to make the transition from paper to computer (personally, I'm a fan of the smaller size tablets). My first one was a POS for 99 bucks (12x12) and I wish this had been around when I got into animation school a few years ago.
My only gripe is with the pen. The very basic design is a bit of a bummer and it seems to only come with two pen tips (standard tips from what I read). At the $169.99 price tag I would have hoped to see maybe a few more nibs offered, especially if Corel is being offered as a SW download. Either that, a bit more software offered OR a higher sensitivy level. My Intuos was only $200 and it came with 2048 sensitivity level (a world of difference), a cafe press premium 5yr membership (free), Corel, Sketchbook, Painter, Elements and a couple others that I really dont use, lol.
I would certainly agree, compared to other junk tablets our there, this is a great deal for a pretty good tablet to cut your teeth on and develop a bit as a digital artist.
9 Aug 2012 ~ 11:15am mertesn I purchased a Wacom Bamboo Pen + Touch a few years ago and it's been a really good, inexpensive tablet. It can be found rather cheaply now - Amazon has it for $55.99.
9 Aug 2012 ~ 11:30am JBoogaloo THAT is an excellent deal!
9 Aug 2012 ~ 11:56am Garg
I've got one of those Bamboo Pen + Touches too, @mertesn. I've hardly used it, but I've been satisfied with the performance (as a non-artist).

A few things to compare between it and this Genius tablet:
- The Bamboo Pen + Touch also has a permanently attached USB cable. I'm guessing that's common at this price point.
- The Bamboo Pen + Touch does have a two-sided pen, so those can be had at cheaper than professional grade.
- Both tablets have the same 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity.
- The Genius has a much higher resolution at 4000lpi vs. the Bamboo's 2540dpi.
- The Bamboo Pen + Touch does not have a built-in tracing sheet.
- I LOL'd as soon as I saw those Web and Media buttons on the Genius tablet, but I guess they can be remapped to something useful.
Finally, the smaller physical size of the Bamboo Pen + Touch makes it trickier to use if you have a large screen. It confuses the hell out of me in Eyefinity, given that the aspect ratio it's mapped to doesn't match its physical dimensions. I don't know if any other tablet's software can compensate for that, though.
9 Aug 2012 ~ 12:52pm JBoogaloo
I've got one of those Bamboo Pen + Touches too, @mertesn. I've hardly used it, but I've been satisfied with the performance (as a non-artist).

A few things to compare between it and this Genius tablet:
- The Bamboo Pen + Touch does have a two-sided pen, so those can be had at cheaper than professional grade.
- The Bamboo Pen + Touch does not have a built-in tracing sheet.
Finally, the smaller physical size of the Bamboo Pen + Touch makes it trickier to use if you have a large screen. It confuses the hell out of me in Eyefinity, given that the aspect ratio it's mapped to doesn't match its physical dimensions. I don't know if any other tablet's software can compensate for that, though.
Good points Gargoyle. Here's my personal take on some of these, if you don't mind.

Two-sided pens are alright, but honestly I can take it or leave it. It's just easier to shortcut options in PS (or any other art program) and use those.

The tracing sheet really doesn't provide anything more than a thin plastic cover so when you're tracing you don't smudge your pencil (or other medium) work. With 1024 sensitivity one doesn't need to push hard on the tablet (think tracing pictures of some other cherished piece of art) so no worries there. Other than that I've found them to be completely useless and prefer to be without them. Besides, when rotating paper to be traced with a tablet the tracing sheet gets in the way.

As far as the size goes I wouldn't say the small size of the tablets make things trickier it just takes a little getting used to through a bit of slight frustration and practice My experience has run me into many artists (traditional and digital), like myself, who prefer the small size to the bigger ones (insert crude joke). There are a few that like a bigger size, but because of other features and work specific art. I'll have to find it, but Bamboo has a setting where the tablet will map to your screen area if you would prefer that. I personally don't like this because it leaves drawing in any application to a limited portion on your tablet and then you're busy zooming in, panning, etc...yeah, ef that. I would prefer to create the whole picture first utilizing the whole size of the tablet and refine later.
10 Aug 2012 ~ 2:26pm RWB I own the Genius F610 which I got for $70, it is big and works great under Windows, it seems to share a lot of the same specs as the one in this article.... I managed to get it to work under certain linux distro's but it wasn't easy nor did it work well with only certain applications actually.

What I liked about the driver software was how well it works with dual screen and gives you the ability to select which screen the tablet should work for, if not both. I don't have the software or tablet with me but I also want to say it also gives you the ability to create screen margins so that you can fine tune the area you want to draw in but I might be wrong. These really are great bang for your buck.
31 Aug 2012 ~ 1:17pm midga Nice write-up! Many times I've considered jumping into the world of owning a tablet. This sounds like it'd be a good one to do it with.