Hard Facts

M12200 offers a usable Area of 26 by 16cm. It Has 8 programmable Express keys, and a touch ring. Additionally, it also offers 13 Multimedia Keys. The pen offers 8192 pressure levels and up to 60 degree tilt support. The graphic tablet connects via a USB C cable and costs about 100€ or 90$.

Accessories

This graphics tablet comes with a lot of accessories. Besides the tablet and the pen, you get a mouse pad, two USB adapters, a glove, extra tips for the pen, an adhesive foil, and a sleeve for transport. There are two small extra cloth bags for the additional tips and the pen. The included USB adapters are a MicroUSB to USB-A Female adapter and a Type C to USB-A Female adapter. Through these adapters, it is possible to plug the tablet to an Android smartphone or tablet, or directly into laptops which only have USB C ports. Very handy. The rather large mouse pad has a lot of Photoshop shortcuts printed on it, which I found quite nice.

Installation & Software

The installation of the tablet worked smoothly on my Windows 10 system. Within a minute, the driver was downloaded and installed. The graphics tablet was immediately recognized after connecting it. In addition to the driver, a Gaomon program is installed, which you can use to configure the tablet. There you can adjust for which monitor, the graphics tablet is used for, if you use more than one monitor. You can also limit the usable area on the graphics tablet if it is too large for you. The sensitivity of the pen can be adjusted and tested. The various function keys can be assigned with shortcuts and customized for different applications. What I find unfortunate is that I have to add all my classic applications, for example the Adobe programs, manually. For example, when i installed the companion software of my Logitech MX Master 3 mouse, it scanned the PC for suitable applications and adds them automatically to the program with matching shortcut settings. I would have enjoyed a similar function here. However, this is only a small minus point for me.

I briefly connected the graphics tablet to my Android tablet, where it was immediately recognized and worked fine. Since my Android tablet already has a stylus pen, I did not test this setup any further.

I also tried the graphics tablet on my girlfriend's Macbook Pro. Unfortunately, the installation was not as trouble-free as on my Window pc. The pen was only recognized sometimes, then worked perfectly for five minutes, only to not be recognized at all shortly afterwards. Disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable did not solve the problem, neither did a reboot. Therefore I contacted Gaomon. They replied very quickly and helped me with an screen video guiding me through the different installation steps aswell as a download to a a new driver. And behold, with the new driver, the tablet worked without problems on the Macbook.

How does it feel to draw?

It’s a really nice experience to draw with this tablet. The delay is very low, which makes it pleasant to use. The high number of pressure levels is great, finest shades can be drawn easily. At first, I didn't know what would be the best use for the touch ring. However, after playing around a bit I especially like the option to undo (or redo) several steps at once by using it. Zoom levels can also be easily adjusted, but I prefer the function keys for that. Of course, the size of the brush can also be controlled with the touch ring. The pen itself feels very light, so even longer drawing sessions are possible, without any major hand discomfort. At least for me, I can imagine however, that other people might prefer a heavier pen.

I am not that much of an artist; I mostly use graphics tablets for video editing and video animation. Luckily, my girlfriend is a graphics designer and actually draws very well. So I will show you some impressions of her using it:

For my use case, like working in After Effects, some workflows are just more comfortable with the tablet. Rotoscoping a person, where precision is key, is way more fun with the pen. Clone stamping feels quicker with the graphics tablet as well.

Hardware & Software quality

I had a Gaomon tablet years ago and was quite satisfied at the time, but it was obvious that they were still far behind Wacom in terms of quality. At least back then. This gap closed significantly. The new tablet feels really high-quality. The eight programmable function keys have good pressure points, and the touch ring also feels top-notch. Especially the functional software supports my overall positive impression. The predefined system keys immediately worked flawlessly, and the touch ring was also automatically adjusted in it’s use, depending on the program. Although I’ve never missed an "open explorer" button, or buttons to control the music in the background on a graphics tablet, I actually do find it quite handy that I can do that. Because of all these buttons, the use of your keyboard becomes less frequent.

With my old Gaomon tablet, I remember that I often had to struggle a bit with the software and found it a bummer that there weren't enough manual configurations. This is no longer the case. I find it useful that not only buttons are individually programmable for every application, but also that the pen can be customized for individual applications as well. This applies to both the two buttons on the pen and the pressure level adjustment.

I had never used a pen with 8192 pressure levels before. All of my old graphics tablets "only" had 4096 levels. I found it surprising, how much pressure you can apply to this pen (this is easily tested through the Gaomon software). And if this bothers you, you can adjust the sensitivity. The size of the work area is absolutely sufficient for my taste, maybe even a bit too big. As I already mentioned tho, you can adjust that as well.

Summary

The M1220 from Gaomon really delivers a well-rounded overall performance. As soon as you unpack it, you will be quite surprised about all the included accessories. No matter if you use a Mac, Windows PC or a mobile Android device, thanks to the included adapters, you can work directly on any system. The extra pen tips, the large mouse pad and the bags are also a nice extra. The software works really well. Detailed customization for your own needs or applications is quickly possible. Drawing with the device feels intuitive and just "right". The whole experience is smooth, and you can just enjoy your drawing sessions.. Perhaps more expensive devices, work even better, but I am definitely not feeling that I am missing out on anything. So if you are not a professional artist, who needs the best of the best hardware, you will have an awesome time with this tablet.

I hope you liked my little review. If you have any questions regarding this Graphics tablet, just leave me a comment and I’ll be happy to answer your questions. I wish you guys a nice day. Cya, bye and servus!