# 2025 Drawing tablet tier list

## How the tiering is done

* Price is NOT considered
* The primary consideration is drawing experience and, for tablets with screens, their display experience
* The only ranking is the different tiers
* Tablets are not left-right ordered within a tier 
* The tiering reflects my opinion as well as feedback from others (collected during a livestream on nov 12, 2025)

## Differences from 2024 tiering

Unlike the [2024 Drawing tablet tier list](/drawtab/recs/comparisons/2024-drawtab-tier-list.md)

* In addition to pen tablets and pen displays, we also ranked standalone tablets, and pens
* Instead of 1 single tier list, we created one for each category
* Instead of using a pre-built tier maker, we used a vibe coded one built in 3 hours using Google AI Studio.

## Livestream

{% embed url="<https://youtube.com/live/eA1Yjo0vGEg?feature=share>" %}

## Livestream vs this page

As always, as I learn more and get feedback I update the tier lists shown on this page.

## Tiering strategy

* COST does not affect the tier
* TIERING and RECOMMENDATIONS are based on overall DRAWING EXPERIENCE
* Some tablets might be not recommended (for drawing), but they might work well for note-taking, whiteboarding, etc. - tasks that are not about creative drawing/painting.
* Pens are the primary determinant of how pressure works for a tablet (IAF, MAX PRESSURE, PRESSURE RANGE). So it is always important to understand the included pen for tablet.
* UD-EMR pens offer OK performance. So tablets with UD EMR pens TEND to be the C tier.

## Tier definitions

<figure><img src="/files/L4Kdi3KDPlc1jjFaRbug" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Pen tablets

<div align="left" data-with-frame="true"><figure><img src="/files/dpz8JKocBeN7NLvJhQEm" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

## Pen displays

<div align="left" data-with-frame="true"><figure><img src="/files/PlJjzvScDVHiGxwMmANJ" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

## Standalone

<div align="left" data-with-frame="true"><figure><img src="/files/rz4ZvPdr49Kotzc42aKr" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

## Pens

<div align="left" data-with-frame="true"><figure><img src="/files/QEbYWUoKTUs3J8EIorxS" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>


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