Is one of the smallest and cheapest drawing tablets on the market enough to make decent digital art? There’s only one way to find out. So I went and picked up the XPPEN Deco Fun XS tablet for a quick review and put it to the test.
The Deco Fun is a no-frills device with the essential functionality and features that you need to start drawing digitally. Being small and Android-compatible means you can easily draw on the go with your phone. You can play OSU and write notes with this as well. It is really small though, and that can have its downsides. It may not be one of the best tablets for beginners but let’s see if this one actually has the essentials that a new digital artist on a tight budget needs.
**Note: XPPEN didn’t send me this tablet or ask for a review of it. I purchased it for the purposes of this review and the views expressed are my own.
***I paid just over USD$13 for the Deco Fun XS through the official XPPEN store on Shopee in Malaysia. Pricing may differ in other parts of the world.
Deco Fun XS basic specs
- Device size: ~18 x 13 x 1cm
- Active area: 4.8″ x 3″
- Weight: 360g (tablet only)
- Connection port: USB-C
- Compatibility: Windows, MacOs, Linux, Android, and Chrome OS (88 or later)
You can view the full Deco Fun XS specs here.
Box contents
- The XS tablet
- Connector cable (USB-A to USB-C)
- Stylus
- Spare pen nibs
- Nib remover
- Warranty card and quick guide.
The Tablet
The Deco Fun tablets come in 4 different colors (red, blue, green, and black) and 3 different sizes ranging from the extra small (4.8″ x 3″) up to the large (10″ × 6.3″).
There are no express keys on any of the Deco Fun tablets. You don’t really need them anyway. Often, the keyboard is better because very quickly you find that a tablet doesn’t have enough buttons for what you need, especially if you’re getting into 3D work.
There’s an indicator light in the center of the tablet’s top panel. It blinks while you’re hovering the pen over it, and turns solid when your pen touches the surface.
On the bottom, there are 4 rubber feet to stop the tablet from sliding around on your desk.
The tablet comes with a protective film over the working area and the gloss panel along the top. So you’ll get the satisfaction of peeling off two films.
The stylus
The Deco Fun XS comes with the P01 stylus. It has a matte plastic casing with two programmable buttons along the side. It’s slightly lighter than the X3 Elite stylus. The pen is weighted in a way where it rolls to rest with the buttons facing upward. In theory, it shouldn’t roll off your desk too easily.
Like most pens today, it’s battery-free and has 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. The XS version of the Deco Fun has no tilt functionality while the Small and Large versions do. That’s normal for tablets this size though. The Deco Fun S and L both have tilt response though.
The driver
While it is a simple drawing tablet, there are still some settings that you can adjust with your Deco Fun XS in the driver application. You’ll find the driver on the XPPEN website and after installing, will have a new PenTablet application on your computer.
The screenshots below are of the Windows version of the PenTablet application.
Drawing and painting with the Deco Fun XS
This is pretty much the smallest size of tablet that you can get from XPPEN. I started out on an old Wacom Graphire tablet that was similar in size and normally I recommend that people get something bigger than this. But if you have very little to spend, this will work fine to get started.
Generally, small tablets are not ideal for using with larger monitors. Small movements of your pen on the tablet will mean big movements of your cursor on the screen. This can make it a bit difficult to get controlled lines and detailed work without having to zoom in quite a bit. But you can program one of your pen buttons to activate the Precision Mode to help with this.
Precision Mode on a drawing tablet creates a focused area on your screen that is centered around your cursor’s position when you activated it. The corners of your drawing tablet will now match the corners of this area rather than the whole display. This gives you a lot more control for creating neat lines and detail.
A small drawing tablet can also cause a bit of pain in the wrist because you don’t have the area to really draw using the rest of your arm. Just be sure take breaks often and do some wrist stretches.
I found that placing the Deco Fun XS to the side where my mouse would normally be was the most comfortable way to use it.
Painting with it…
To see how this holds up as a beginner drawing tablet, I decided to run through some one the basic painting exercises I’ve been hosting over on the Magma YouTube channel. And hold up it did.
I had no issues with pen responsiveness and manoeuvring around my 15″ display. You definitely feel the small size but going for something more painterly is easier than trying to tight, tidy line drawings.
Software compatibility
The Deco Fun tablets works with most popular drawing and painting software. You can use it with Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Magma, and Blender without any trouble.
Testing the Deco Fun XS with Blender for this review, I found it helpful to set one of pen buttons to the middle mouse click to easily rotate around my objects.
Line test
The difference in pressure response from the P01, when compared with the X3 Elite pen that comes with the Deco MW, is very noticeable. The nib has to retract a bit before the pressure starts registering, and there is a bit of spring to it. I had no issues controlling the pressure though and getting varied line weights.
Deco Fun XS with Android
Not having a computer to draw on is no reason not to make digital art. Many graphics tablets are compatible with Android phones. You can also use the Deco Fun with something like a Galaxy Tab A that doesn’t have S Pen support.
There are no USB OTG adapters included in the box with the Deco Fun tablet though. You’ll either have to purchase one separately or get yourself a USB-C to USB-C cable to connect with your phone.
When you connect them, the corners of the tablet will match up with the corners of your phone’s display. You might get some slight distortion in the lines when you draw a circle for example. This is because the ratio of the dimensions on your screen is different from those of the tablet. When trying to make a circle on your tablet, it could create an oval on your canvas. This just takes some getting used to.
Considering the size of this tablet, you can easily fit it in a small bag together with your phone and take it with you anywhere.
The verdict
The XPPEN Deco Fun XS is a capable little tablet, and perfect for use with an Android phone. You can comfortably chuck it in a small bag to take with you, and whip it out whenever inspiration strikes. If you are a new digital artist on a tight budget, this will be fine to start with. But if you can, something a bit bigger like the Deco M will be more comfortable to use.
The price: ~US$30 (XPPEN US store – prices can vary in other parts of the world)
XPPEN also frequently runs discounts on their stores, so keep an eye out for that.
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Deco Fun XS – $29.99
from: XPPEN TECHNOLOGY CO
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