Review: Premium and affordable Deco Pro (Gen 1) from XPPEN

Time for a drawing tablet review of a premium pen tablet from XPPEN, the first generation Deco Pro.

I’ve been using one for more than a year already at the time of writing this. I also mentioned it in this list of tablets under $100. It’s light, beautifully designed, and packed with all the necessary features you need to make high-quality work. A worthy weapon, I think, for both seasoned and beginner digital art adventurers.

Before I get into this drawing tablet review, I want to point out that I bought this tablet myself. It was not supplied by the company for the purpose of the review. I got it when I needed an affordable upgrade to the Wacom Graphire3 that I began my digital art journey with. So with that out of the way, let’s take a look.

We’ve also a got a review of the Deco Pro Gen 2 which was released in early 2023.

What’s in the box…

Inside the box you will find:

• The oh-so-slim Deco Pro
• Battery-free stylus, pen holder, and 8 extra pen nibs.
• USB to USB-C cable
• USB to USB-C and USB to Micro-USB adapters
• 1x drawing glove
• Quick guide, warranty and Thank You card

Drawing Tablet Specs…

• The dimensions for the Small are
  Total size: 13.8 x 7.85 x 0.65″ – With an active area of: 9 x 5″
  Weighing: 630g (1.39lbs)
• and for the Medium
  Total: 15.74 x 8.94 x 0.65″ – With an active area of: 11 X 6″
  and weighing: 812g (1.79lbs)
• The stylus contains two buttons. Weighs only 13.3 grams.
• Supports up to 60 degrees of tilt
• 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
• Report rate of 200 RPS
• 8 programmable express keys
• Double wheel: 1x Mechanical and 1x Virtual wheel/trackpad
• LED lit wheel and corners of active area. Can be switched off.
• Suitable for right- or left-handed use.
• Compatible with Windows 7 upward, Mac OS 10.10 and above, and Android devices 6.0 and above.

Testing 1, 2…

The XP-Pen Deco Pro Series is compatible with Windows 7/8/10, Mac OS X 10.10 and above, Android 6.0 and above. It works with most major creative software. So far I’ve tested it in Photoshop, ClipStudioPaint, Sketchbook, and Krita without hassles.

Drawing tablet review – XPPen Deco Pro on PC:

First thing’s first, when you plug in your tablet, is to head over to the XP-Pen website to download the appropriate driver. From there you can customize things to suit your drawing process.

What’s great about how this tablet is designed, is that you can easily rotate and set it to left-hand mode. On some tablets that means putting the wheel in a slightly weird position, but with the Deco Pro, placement of the wheel and express keys is exactly mirrored.

Easy set-up and driver navigation…

Here you can adjust your pressure sensitivity, rotate the tablet, adjust the pen button functions etc. If you are using multiple displays like I am, you can set exactly which monitor you want your tablet mapped to, or even what portion of that monitor.

You can also customize the 8 express keys to suit your workflow in different programs by creating a profile for each. The same applies for the dials.

I work primarily in Photoshop and found the default button settings perfect to speed up my work.

The drawing experience…

I find drawing on the Deco Pro to be very comfortable. The surface, having a very slight grain to it, feels more paper-like to draw on. I didn’t experience any lag or jitter while making lines. The pressure sensitivity was perfect, and the spinny wheel…ah the spinny wheel.

This is definitely a feature that I’ve come to like so much that it may well influence my future purchases. Of course, one could get a controller like XP-Pen’s AC19 Shortcut Remote that has programmable rotary, but I like having this on the tablet itself.

I tend to keep the mechanical wheel set to adjust the size of my brush. You can, however, also have one of your express keys set to switch the function of the wheel to, for example, zooming in or out of the canvas. And likewise for the trackpad or virtual wheel.

So with 8 programmable keys on the tablet, 2 on the stylus, and the mechanical and virtual wheel, there’s a lot of room to customize things to best suit how you work.

Deco Pro on Android Devices:

This might be a particularly nice feature for those with a larger Android device who like to draw on the go. Some things that you will unfortunately lose are the functionality of the express keys and mechanical wheel, and the tilt recognition. I don’t think this is too big of a deal because primarily this tablet is intended for use with a computer. It is nice however as an extra to have when you mission to a coffee shop or are on long train trip.

This doesn’t work on ALL Android devices, so it’s best to double check compatibility here if it is an important factor for you.

I’ll do a more detailed review of using this drawing tablet specifically on Android trying some different apps at a later stage.

If you are looking for something specifically to use with an Android device though, then I might recommend the Deco Mini 7. It’s half the price but still has the main feature of good pressure sensitivity, and is both light and compact while giving a solid size working area.

Drawing Software Options?

When you purchase Deco Pro, and register it on the XP-Pen website, you get a choice of two software options for free. These are ArtRage5 and openCanvas, and are for PC.

There are a few other really free good software options out there which I mention here: 5 free digital drawing apps for mobile and PC.

I also recommend checking out Clip Studio Paint which you can use for digital painting and even animation (EX version). It’s a once-off payment that makes for a great, affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop. They occasionally run a special where they slash the price down by 50%. So keep an eye on their social media pages for that. It’s also available for Android.

Who’s this tablet for?

So who would I recommend this to? If you’re a long time digital artist on a tight budget or a beginner, I think the Deco Pro is a great option. The affordable price point of this means you could start on this as a beginner and really grow into it over time as you improve. Whether you are doing photo editing, digital painting or sculpting this will serve you well.

So if you would like you get your paws on one of these tablets, you can find it on AmazonUS here or from the XP-Pen online store where you can get 20% off.

Optional extras or replacements…

So these aren’t necessary but might be worth considering, as a back up, or if you happen to need to replace something…

Things I’ve made with this tablet

Just thought I’d throw in a couple of examples of the pieces I’ve done with this tablet. They were painted in Adobe Photoshop. You can read more about the artwork on the left here.

Wrapping up:

So that about covers it for this review of the Deco Pro S If you enjoyed this drawing tablet review, let me know. Or if you own a Deco Pro already and want to share your experience, drop me a comment. I’d dig to hear from you.

If you prefer to draw directly on a screen and want to see what XP-Pen has to offer, head on over to this post where we list a few of them. We hope to do a pen display drawing tablet review or two here in future, so stay tuned to our Tech section.

Got a tablet already and eager to draw with friends? Then you might want to check out Magma Studio which we chatted about in this post.

Full Disclosure: This post does contain affiliate links, so should you make any purchases through them, as an Amazon Associate, I might get a small commission. This doesn’t affect the price for you in any way, but it does help me to keep creating content here for you.

Deco Pro Gen 1 versus Deco Pro Gen 2

The second generation of the XPPEN Deco Pro has a new design, and some improved features. First, the shortcut buttons and dial are separated from the main body into a wireless shortcut remote. Then the significant improvement lies the pen which boasts 16k levels of pressure sensitivity, and less initial activation force at only 3grams. Full review here.