My son has recently started getting into drawing, and showed me some of his stuff. I am pretty impressed, especially after learning he draws with an app on his phone by zooming in really far to do each little part. I’d like to give him like a digital sketchpad he can use with his laptop. I’m looking for recommendations. What do you use? What do you like about it? What’s the price range? Where do you buy them?
PS he is 18
Thanks so much!
I don’t do a lot of digital sketching but I think iPad + procreate is the standard for every digital artist I’ve come across on YouTube and some art discords I’m on.
Edited to add - sorry I just re-read your question, you are looking for something like a wacom or similar that can connect to his laptop, not something standalone. Someone gave me a recommendation for a different brand on a discord a couple months ago, I’ll see if I can find it.
My daughter does a ton of digital art and she swears by her iPad/Apple Pen/Procreate. It’s the gold standard for digital art. She had a wacom with her computer previously, but the apple pen and procreate have been much easier for her to use.
Ahhhh I was afraid of that. We are an Android family 
Thanks! I will look into it.
We’re an android family too, so 100% sympathize. I’ve thought about getting an iPad/Apple Pen to do some digital art myself, but the cost is too much to justify for the tiny bit I’d use it. My daughter lives on her iPad though and draws all the time.
My daughter has the XP-Pen magic drawing pad. It’s a standalone drawing tablet, so not what you are looking for. But we are very happy with it, so I would recommend looking into the XP-Pen brand. From what I read while researching the tablet for my daughter, they are considered a good brand and they have products that might fit what you are looking for.
I have a small Wacom tablet for when I want to draw on my laptop, but it kind of depends on what software you’re looking to use also. I recently bought the Affinity Design suite as an alternative to the ridonkulous cost of adobe, so I finally canceled my subscription. (One time cost for that includes all versions of their programs, so even though I have a mac, I’d have access to download the PC software if I switched.)
There are also free drawing/graphic design alternatives still available. I haven’t used it in a long time, but I think I liked Inkscape a bit when I was using it.
As for the little drawing tablet, it took a little learning curve to get comfortable with it, but it wasn’t super expensive. (I think I bought on ebay for maybe $40?)
Though not a pen and tablet drawing option, the Affinity Design suite is a fantastic alternative for Adobe. Their 3 main apps mimic InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. And Adobe files open pretty seamlessly in Affinity. And the one time fee is very affordable.
I haven’t used a drawing pad in years, but keep researching and make sure whatever you purchase is returnable if it doesn’t suit your son. If you are looking for an iPad, ask friens if they have an older one, or try Backmarket.com for good refurbished items. I haven’t bought a latest model phone in years. A model back a version or two or three is good enough for me.
Affinity Designer (“Illustrator”) definitely works for the pen and tablet drawing option! 
A lot of what I do digitally needs to be in vector, so I like to do as much directly in vector as possible (especially since the one downfall of Affinity is its lack of image trace options. Grrr)
The drawing tablets (like the Wacom I mentioned) are basically just another external cursor, but way easier than trying to draw with the internal cursor or a mouse, at last for me.
Editing to add a photo of my little drawing tablet (on my laptop keyboard for size comparison). The only reason I don’t use it super often is because Affinity also includes the iPad app, so I tend to draw on there.
I was just looking up the XP-pen tablets, and it looks like they also make little drawing tablets that would work with a laptop!
Yes, that’s what I was aiming at.
When I was looking into it, I learned that there are two approaches to the standalone drawing tablets. One was tablet/phone makers making a product for artists, and the other was makers of connected devices like the wacom tablet making a product for artists that want to be more mobile. So basically, taking what they know about input devices that are for drawing and art and making it more mobile.
For connected devices, with or without their own screen, there are indeed a lot of options.
This great info about Affinity Designer. Thanks.
