Hi there,

my young kid is using Krita on an old Linux laptop with a Wacom Bamboo tablet and she's getting quite good at it.

I'm considering buying a better device for her, one that allows to draw on the screen with a proper pen. The pen displays I have seen are fairly expensive and still require a imho complicated cabling setup, but I want my kid to just start drawing when she feels like it.

My problem is that there are very few hardware reviews out there that discuss if a laptop with an active pen is suitable for doing art. There are the Microsoft Surface devices which seem to be good, but quite expensive. I'm currently zeroing on the Acer B118 series, which is designed for school use, seems to fully support Linux and appears to be very robust while being inexpensive.

What device can you recommend? Is anybody here using an Acer B118?

Hm... I haven't got experience with that model, but I see from the specs that it comes with a Celeron CPU, which means it's going to be really, really slow.

I've got most experience with Lenovo's Yoga series. Not ideal, the screens are apt to kind of blister where you touch them, but they do work.

The Ideapad C340 with AMD Ryzen processor has a pen and is about the price of the Acer, at least in the Netherlands (398 vs 449 euros). I haven't got direct experience with that model either, but I'd sooner buy that one than the Acer.

hzulla wrote:Hi there, my young kid is using Krita on an old Linux laptop with a Wacom Bamboo tablet and she's getting quite good at it...

In my humble opinion I would say let her get even better at it

I personally don't by into the hype of display tablets, drawing on a monitor (let it be display tablet or touch monitor) has very little advantage if any to a regular drawing tablet other than portability, and the price of them are definitely not proportional to its usability, the screens are hot, you (or your kid) will be worry to rest the hand on it, the cursor delay is always weird when you look directly at what you are drawing, unlike regular tablets, that are nowadays blasting fast, even with some delay, the feel is quite different, etc.

In either case, when buying a new pc, don't skip the real specs, as Boud mentioned, that processor is weak (like really weak), 1.1 Ghz, is really not something you want to spend money on for drawing purposes, is cheap but would be useless and frustrating. Laptops are inherently less powerful per dollar than pc unfortunately, thus your options are small when talking about budget. If you skip a drawing display and go for a decent laptop + regular drawing tablet, you may find a better deal, but if the drawing on the screen is a must, don't go cheap, you will regret it on the long term.