Hello all! Thought I could finally contribute something useful to these great forums. :)

I've been exclusively using a Wacom Graphire II at work for the last two years. I love it, and find it extremely easy to use even with the limited surface area allowed.

My Christmas present to myself this year was going to be a Graphire for home use. At the eleventh hour, I opted for an Aiptek HyperPen 12000U. The product specs seemed to be nearly identical to the Wacom, the only difference really being in tablet size. The Aiptek is a whopping 9x12! I decided that if I didn't like it I could always return it and get a Wacom.

I've been using the Aiptek for about a week now, and am pleased to report that I like it just as much as the Wacom.

The differences that I've noted:

The stylus is thicker and somewhat lighter. It is battery operated, but the manual says the battery should last about a year. It doesn't say what will happen to the stylus as the battery 'runs out of juice' but I'm expecting some sort of slow performance degradation. None of these issues cause problems for me, and the pen isn't cumbersome. The button on the stem is comparable to the Wacom and doesn't cause me any more problems than the Wacom does. Errant clicking from time to time, but nothing damaging.

The drawing surface is not as smooth at the Wacom. At first, this threw me for a small loop. My Wacom is slick, and I've become very used to the feel of that. After about ten minutes on the Aiptek, though, I was used to the new texture and don't notice it anymore.

The mouse sucks. No way to sugar coat that one. It also requires a battery, weighs about two ounces and feels like a $1.50 Wal-Mart toy. It doesn't glide well, doesn't have an intelli-ball, and generally is useless. I've left my optical mouse plugged in and use that for mouse related purposes.:) My five year old son is thrilled with his new "spaceship".

All in all, I'm very pleased. For $135 or so including shipping (refurbished bought directly from the Aiptek site at http://www.aiptek.com), I've got a high-performance 9x12 graphic tablet. I feel that the differences between the Aiptek and the Wacom are slight and overall not compelling enough to convince me to shell out 400 bones on a comparable Wacom tablet. And it's got a good beat and is easy to dance to.

Amanda:)

Thanks for the info on the Aiptek...sounds like Wacom is finally getting some competition! A 9x12 tablet for that price is a very tempting deal. I'll be curious to know if the batteries do indeed hold out for a year.

Here's an update on my Aiptek tablet...

I had to replace the battery in the stylus last night. I expected to see some degradation of performance, but instead one moment it worked, the next it didn't. :) Before I let myself get upset about it I replaced the battery, and the performance is right back up to where it was before. The battery that was in there was the no-name cheapo battery that came shipped in the package, so I'm not surprised that it didn't make a year. It lasted nearly six months of a lot of use, too. I would guess that I use the tablet an average of three hours a day, everyday.

All in all, I'm really very pleased with the tablet. Good pressure sensitivity, good performance, easy to use.

There are differences between the Aiptek and the Wacom that I use at work, but I don't feel they're significant enough to really talk about.

So I guess the brunt of my update is "It's very good." On a scale of 1-10, I'd give the Aiptek a 9 and the Wacom a 9.5

interesting, I'll be take a look at the Aiptek for sure if I need to replace my Graphire in a year or two. just out of curiousity, what kind of battery does the pen use?

- David :)

Just a standard AAA. I bought a six pack right after I got the tablet and threw them in my desk drawer so they'd be handy in case it burned the juice.

If you guys want the best deal out there, go to amazon.com you can't find it by searching, but if you search through google, you can find it. If you can't find it at all, email me and i'll give you the link :knockedou It's about 150 for a brand new tablet mouse and pen, not to mention 2 day shipping. Or you can pay 132 or something like that for a new one, but free shipping since its over...eh whatever they're demand is. Anyway thanks again for this post, I had problems with mine too, whever I tried to click down on the tablet, the pen would jump to random locations on the screen. I got upset and took a 4 hour nap. When I woke up, I was disappointed to see it still didn't work with some rest. After that, I searched around on google and managed to come to this, luckily ( Thank God ) and then, I replaced the battery like she said and it worked fine...hopefully it stays that way. Anyway, thanks again!