Buying a Wacom in China

[ChTTay]

Has anyone had any experience of buying a Wacom writing pad/stylus in China?

I have had a look on Taobao but the prices vary wildly from around 300-500 kuai up to around 2000.

I guess I am just wondering if anyone has bought a local, cheaper chinese one (or fake wacom) and if it worked out okay?

I am looking to use it with skritter ideally.

Thanks again

[mikelove]

I'm a little biased on this because they're one of Pleco's biggest partners (we license our handwriting engine from them), but 汉王 makes very good quality tablets and I think they start in the 150 RMB range - I own a couple and haven't had any problems with them aside from the fact that they don't generally include Mac OS drivers.

[abcdefg]

I have one bought from a shop in Kunming called 文明笔。 Cost about 90 RMB. Works OK. Use mine with a Windows computer. Made in Guangzhou. Here's the website, which I found on the back of the box: http://www.wewa.com.cn/

Many were available when I went looking. Various shapes and sizes and having various features. I thought they might be a difficult to find "niche" product, but I was definitely wrong.

[ChTTay]

Thanks for the feedback. I am guessing that, if they don't include Mac drivers, they probably don't have Linux ones either but i will check it out nonetheless.

I guess I will head to my nearest electronics mall and see if anything looks decent AND works with Linux. If not, I might have to try and find a legit Wacom on Taobao.

[abcdefg]

#4 -- The tablet came with a CD which had drivers, but I cannot access it right now to see if it had Linux. My main point was that these tablets are very common here and going to look at them in the store might easily turn up what you need without your having to go to the trouble of ordering one by mail. Surprised me to see how many makes and models are available.

As I understand it from Chinese friends, these tablets are often used by older Chinese who are not comfortable with Pinyin as a way of inputting text into a computer. They are not just made for foreign students to help them in studying Chinese.

[jslee]

Anyone know what/where to buy tablets in Hong Kong?

[chestnut818]

if you want to buy it online, I think www.360buy.com is better than Taobao..the products in 360buy are more reliable..

[RedCloud]

So funny, I was thinking about buying one of these today...how difficult is it to write with them? (Roman/Chinese characters)

[dona]

I bought one from Taobao. It cost me 1900 kuai...

[ChTTay]

I still have my eyes open for a tablet but no luck just yet ... I've been to Chinese electronics markets that sell them but none support Ubunut Linux. Wacom is supported in Ubuntu but (i think) this is because there is a dedicated third party writing the drivers needed to make it work. I don't think Wacom have development/support for linux.

No way I'm switching to windows for the sake of tablet