Is the Parblo Mast 10 the best budget drawing tablet?

VINCENT HOLBROOK
Feb 4, 2019
3 min read

Is the Parblo Mast 10 the best budget drawing tablet?

I originally bought the Mast 10 for digital design classes at Cal State Long Beach. I am currently in the Industrial Design program and we use drawing tablets every day as well as programs such as Sketchbook Pro, Solid works, and the entire Adobe Creative Cloud. I decided to give the Mast 10 a shot after doing some extensive research and seeing all the positive reviews. In this review I plan to share the things I did not know until using the Mast 10.

I have gotten to use it extensively for about 3 years now and know pretty much all its pros and cons so let’s not waste any time, here they are:

Pros

· Affordable, you can find this thing on amazon for about $120.00USD right now (Feb 2019).

· Lightweight, easy to travel with, it only weighs 1.4lbs /0.675 Kg and is compact enough to fit in most backpacks and handbags.

· Battery-free, it is completely powered by your computer or laptop.

· Battery-free pen

· Comes with a few accessories like a felt bag and smudge guard.

· 6 programmable hotkeys

· Non-glare screen

· Feels, premium and well-constructed

Cons

· Only 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, originally, I did not list this as a con but because drawing tablets are getting better and better every year, this number is actually pretty low, and it is noticeable if you have worked on anything with more. But as a beginner this number is not bad.

· 75% color gamut, again if you are a beginner this number is not bad, but now having used other tablets, it is very noticeable.

· Not 100% reliable, the tablet will work well for several months and then will get glitchy and need to be updated, once you update the drivers it works fine once again.

· Pen must be calibrated every time you use it. I have noticed that I will constantly have to re-calibrate the pen, even after working for several hours.

· Pen feels cheap, because it is made of plastic the pen is a lot lighter then I would prefer, I fix this by adding a small fishing weight on the inside and that helped a lot.

· 2 cables, nowadays drawing tablets have a 3 in 1 cable so that is why I include this as a con.

· Drivers do not get very frequent updates, so normally when there is a bug, it will be awhile until it gets resolved.

· No Stand, I had to find a stand that worked with it, otherwise you are going to be holding it on your lap or flat on a table, which, overtime, does start to hurt the wrist, neck, and eyes.

· Pen Parallax, no matter how many times you calibrate, there will always be a bit of parallax between the pen tip and the cursor on the screen.

Not my image, Credit goes to ParkaBlogs

What comes included with the Mast 10:

Summary:

For $230 the Parblo Mast 10 is a good option for someone either starting out in graphic design or someone trying to save some money. Me, personally, have gotten great use from my device and it has been a great tool in my educational and professional life. Here is a link to amazon so you can pick one up yourself.