New Graphics Tablet Trust TB-7300
I’m writing about this tablet because its one of those amazing things out there that people just don’t know about. Or are too “programmed” to think otherwise, or just don’t want know the truth otherwise they would regret something. Or just following the Wacom crowd!
I’ve been an owner of graphics tablets for over 10 years, my first was a Wacom, 2nd was a Nisis which was a rebrand of an Aiptek like Trust tablets.
This is based on MY experience as a computer artist in Animation and Illustration. I haven’t tried the high end graphics tablets from Wacom and I really have no intention of doing so with their current prices, maybe when I’ve achieve the success thats needed to afford them but that time isn’t the present.
I am COMPLETELY satisfied with my current tablet!
Now I must admit the Wacom was a good tablet but I eventually found it too small for drawing properly on the computer, I remember my first time using the pen, it felt “weird” as all tablet users will recall, drawing on the pen without looking at the pen surface, it took a getting use to but nothing too difficult, few hours practice and you kinda take it for granted.
I read a lot about advice on the size of the tablet to get. In my experience the best size is the one that matches closest to your computer screen. Well yea, there are so many different size LCDs and only so many graphics tablet size but generally most are the size of A4 so I guess an A4 tablet size would be the best size graphics tablet to get.
When you get a smaller tablet theres more “adjustment” needed because of the size difference from the screen, thats that initial getting used to when you first use a graphics tablet on the computer.
A larger than screen tablet will give you the opposite adjustment effect.
I can’t really recommend getting a tablet signifficantly larger than your LCD screen it just feels… wrong.
When you get a tablet, it should be a good one to use for a long time, but maybe this is why so many people stay with Wacom because they are used to it and a small change would be noticed and would feel different to what they been using for so many years, they don’t want to adjust so all they do is complain and that is crap for a person new to graphics tablets.
Ofcourse there are many factors in deciding what graphics tablet is the right one for you. Size, Price, Quality.
Wacoms are expensive!, not all but the good ones are, compared to the competition if you can call it competition… Wacom have a monopoly on graphics tablets, they can charge whatever they want. They also may have to price them higher since its aimed at “professionals”.
The Nisis tablet was bigger compared to my old Wacom, it was A4 now things felt more natural when I was working on some artwork on the computer, It was sufficient, nothing exceptional, just an average tablet, it had its flaws, but I managed to make use of it. I admit it wasn’t a good tablet overall, but the size made it comfortable enough to draw with. Over time it just lost it’s performance and shows its age in the growing advancement of new more powerfull computers. It was affordable about £50, my Wacom was £90, how times have changed!
Wacom tablets don’t need batteries, that is one of the best advantage Wacom has I think.
I’ve change my Nisis pen battery about 5-8 times now in its 5 year life. So its an absolutely tiny overhead in batteries for a non-wacom brand. Not really a deciding factor anyway.
In comes the new Trust TB-7300
Now I didn’t just see this tablet and bought it straight away, I wanted to do some research on it, I found out everything I could on it and compared it to the rest of the tablets, now it being fairly new, there wasn’t much information about it, which is why I’m writing this!. Theres also not much information about it because of….yes that monopoly called Wacom, everywhere I went was Wacom this… Wacom that… Wacom is what the professionals use… I GET IT! BUT! Expensive! and completely out of my price range!
I first compared the specs.
Trust TB-7300
1024 Pressure sensitivity
200 Reports Per Second
4000 Lines Per Inch
60 Degrees tilt (The angle at which the stylus can go and still work)
32 User Programmable Macro
2 Wheel Pads
Widescreen and Standard Screen modes
30.5 x 19.5 cm Drawing area, just a little under A4
Average Price £85
£78 with delivery, final price I paid.
Wacom Intuos3 A4 since thats the closest equivilant in specs I could find.
1024 Pressure sensitivity
200 Reports Per Second
5080 Lines Per Inch
60 Degrees Tilt
Programmable buttons available
Erasor
Mouse
Standard Screen mode (Widescreen makes available)
30.5 x 23.1 cm Drawing Area
Average price £310
As you can see the biggest difference is only the price, the specs of the Trust tablet was just as good as the Wacom for less than a 1/3 of the price!
I needed an A4 tablet, so Trust was the obvious choice, its the same as the Aiptek 14000U and the Genius M712 tablets, but those makes were more difficult to get hold of and the Trust one mention it had tilt but the others didn’t spec it so I went for the Trust make.
Could I have saved up and get a Wacom? Yes, but Would I?, No, Why? because times have changed, technology as advanced, that Wacom tablet had been around for well over 5 years, I’d imagine its good but I can also tell that someone would come up with a tablet just as good as it by now, and I was right.
Is it better than the Wacom if price wasn’t a factor? I wouldn’t know until I’ve used the Wacom. but judging from the specs I’d say it would be a very small difference if any at all!
I would like to point out the visuals, the Trust tablet, I think looks amazing, the tablet build feels and looks very solid, the pen doesn’t feel as well built as the tablet but I have no problems using it.
The border of the tablet is reflective, a finger print magnet, but makes the tablet look professional, the macros buttons also are shiny, all the shiny parts come covered in a cling film for you to peel off, which kinda of shows the amount of care and quality they put into it.
The only downside is with the pen nib which I found, wears out a little too fast, it’ll be another overhead along with the batteries, but you can configure it so you don’t need to press down too hard to get the lines you want.
I was amazed at the precision and quality of the response from this tablet, Its on a whole different level of my previous tablets, I guess thats the high LPI and RPS in action. It just blew me away and now here I am writing about it. This is how impressed I am with it.
One of the best piece of gear I’ve ever purchased. Its so good it makes me want to use it more and more.
I’m extremely glad that I didn’t get a Wacom instead, I can not imagine the Wacom being that much better after using the Trust tablet, it would have to do the imposible.
Works with every software I’ve tried on it except Photoshop 64bit. See Update below.
If you need a tablet for drawing I would recomend the Trust as an alternative even if you could get the Wacom.
Its THAT good!
These drivers will increase the pressure sensitivity GREATLY!
www.waltop.com.tw 32Bit Windows XP/Vista
www.waltop.com.tw 64Bit Windows
www.waltop.com.tw MacOSX
Update
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Well I’ve been using this Tablet for a good few months now. A few things pop up here and there but I must say they were all fixed. One of them was a strange problem, it was when using the tablet for longer periods, it would start to jitter so basically useless when that was happening. At first i thought it was because the pen was getting warm and that might have affected the electro magnetic field in the stylus because when leaving it to cool down resulted in it being ok again but this was a temporary fix.
Determined to fix this problem permanently I messed about with the stylus, I took it apart!, its not as hard as I thought it would but if not careful you could damage it, the circuit board does come out thru the battery compartment. Just don’t bend anything too much!
After getting the circuit board out I noticed a “tuning” screw fitted, (you can see it through the stylus button). That was it!, basically the jitter problems were fixed from tuning the screw to perfection, it took a bit of trial and effort most of the time it completely messed up the input of the stylus but once fine tuned, ALL jitter problems solved! The stylus works so perfect after and I’ve not had a single jitter problems since and I must say not having them is absolutely fantastic.
Sure it wasn’t suppose to happen in the first place, but its good they did put this tuning screw in. Otherwise I’d have to basically buy another pen every time and pray that they were tuned properly to avoid the jitters.
Now I had tested the tablet extensively with 64bit Photoshop and can say It does actually work with it, with the 64bit drivers obviously.
Also working with pressure sensitivity on Ubuntu 9.04 Linux
I’ve also had the chance to use it extensively with MacOSX, theres just one little bug in OSX, when opening a drawing program like photoshop with the stylus, the pressure just wont work properly until you use the mouse first. Thats the only problem that needs fixing. Other than that this tablet is simply amazing in OSX. I didn’t use the Macros in Windows but on OSX i did play around with them and must say its a very nice feature to have and don’t think I could live without them now. They make navigating the desktop so much faster and fun.
Now I’ve got the tablet working perfectly I couldn’t be more happy with it, it’s so smooth to use and I’d definitely recommend it over a Wacom Intuos 3 A4 anyday.
Update For Linux
This is a little update for people interested in this Tablet with Linux
First of all making this Tablet to work in Linux takes a little bit of tinkering, it wasn’t a straight plug and play. Also there are so many different distros and versions, however I don’t think the tablet works in a lot of them. If you are using a distro or version of Linux that is different from the one I got mine working on then I can’t say for certain it will still work since Linux is always developing. Even more so if you are using a Developing Version. I am on Ubuntu Janty as mentioned else where on this site.
I know the Latest Beta releases are tempting to use, trust me, I used to absolutly love using unreleased programs, bleeding, cutting edge latested versions, I still do… but thats only because I love learning so much. However if you are serious about using this tablet for work you should only use stable versions of the OS.
How to get the tablet to work in Ubuntu. I actually posted in the Ubuntu forums about this as I couldn’t find any other information from any other Trust TB-7300 users. It didn’t require any driver hacking even tho I was given advice to do that. I can’t really go through all the steps here since it would take too much space and I would probably miss out some details, so you will have to look for it in the Ubuntu forums, the post is here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=122735&page=12
I uploaded my configuration file here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UXHFNOT4
Which you need to copy into the /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/
The config file is all you need to get the Tablet to work in Ubuntu Jaunty, You may need to re-plug in the Tablet.
I must admit, every rare time I do use my tablet in Linux, I’m always tempted to stay on it, the only problem stopping me from doing so are certain programs I can’t live without, plus the ocassional game. Because in Linux the Tablet works absolutly fantastic after configuration, but one downside is that only one button on the Pen works.
Q & A – Not for the deluded?
I’ll just leave this spot for my answers for any questions I get, I will answer to the best of my experience and abilities. I might get a bit rude but hey I’m just being honest!. There are way too many factors that make things go wrong, but in my experience most of it is user error. So go and learn if you don’t want things to go wrong?
Hot keys – Uses – Mostly for short cuts to short cut keys, can be used for save/open/close etc, can also be programmed to open software.
64Bit Windows – If you are having problems getting the tablet to work on a 64 Bit os then its probably because you are using the wrong drivers. If you think your are using the right ones then keep on believing it! 
Waltop vs Trust – I should have mentioned this in this post but I didn’t really think people would actually care. Yes! Aiptek 14000u, Trust TB-7300 and the Genius M712 tablet are all the EXACT same tablet, which in turn are all a Re-Brand of the Waltop Tablet! All the drivers you find from all Re-Brand’s sites will in turn be straight from Waltop.
Trust vs Real Paper – I guess I’ve gotten so used to using the Tablet so much I really haven’t notice certain quality issues, Or maybe I don’t have or experience them either from the way I hold my Pen or I just got lucky with a better version of the same product? haha. No seriously it’s NEVER going to be like holding a real pencil because it’s just that! It’s NOT a real pencil!
Trust vs Wacom – Just get a Wacom and stop bothering me… unless you’ve donated… to me that is!…
Tip wear – As mentioned already above the default drivers that come with the tablet are crap, not only are they outdated, they will also give incompatible problems with the latest OS updates etc. Fast nib wear doesn’t just happen on this tablet however, if you search around you will find equally priced Wacom tablet’s nibs also wear just as fast.
Windows 7 – I have noticed a bug with Windows 7 and the drivers when I tested Windows 7 when it first came out, you need to disable Windows 7 builtin pen support for the drivers to play nice with the OS, apparently Windows 7 has it’s own semi-functional drivers for this tablet, Like mentioned AGAIN above… latest drivers will fix such problems. Last I check Waltop has updated the drivers once again, and even I’m running outdated drivers… time to give them a visit once again.
Spare Nibs – Aiptek Shop
In: Hardware · Tagged with: graphics, pen, tablet, TB-7300, Trust
on July 16, 2013 at 4:03 am
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Hello, every time i used to check blog posts here in the
early hours in the morning, since i love to gain knowledge of more and more.
on December 20, 2012 at 4:59 am
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I’m really impressed together with your writing abilities and also with the format for your blog. Is this a paid subject or did you customize it your self? Either way stay up the excellent high quality writing, it is uncommon to look a great weblog like this one today.
on January 26, 2012 at 8:21 pm
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You saved me 400E for Wacom tablet, i knew that trust is just re-branded but i didn’t remember the “Waltop”.
Works like a charm.
Bought iMac recently and Trust don’t have drivers on the website. Downloaded the driver from Waltop and I’m in pure joy
on September 18, 2011 at 8:10 pm
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I have had the tablet for a little over two years now and it has been pretty solid, the drivers are a little flaky at times but overall the experience has been good.
However recently I am painting more at higher resolutions and the tablet is beginning to fall over a bit, it is producing weird artefacts on my paintings and random horizontal lines.
Trust are sending me out a new pen, but I suspect it could be the limitations of the tablet at 5000×5000 500dpi.
Either way I feel I have reached the level where I can justify getting myself a Wacom Intuos4, but ultimately it was the Trust that took me there.
on September 15, 2011 at 5:07 pm
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hi, ive had this same talblet for 2years now and it has never given me much trouble, my only problems are the pen nib,lights and also the tracing sheet.Because i take my tablet around lots of places the sheet seems to get bent and this effects the pen. im not sure wether i should take the sheet off or find a replacement one, if so who knows where i can get one&a new pen, ive tried the trust website extra part section but im not sure the exsact date i got the tablet ,apart from this the tablet is very good! and im sure i wont need to buy a more high quality one than this.
on February 20, 2011 at 12:42 am
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Hey. I’ve got a TB 7300 and I really like it so far. The only problem that really bugs me is the nib. It’s worn down and I have 2 replacement nibs, but I don’t know how to change them. I took the pen apart down to the battery, but I dare not go any further because I don’t want to break it. Help?
on January 20, 2011 at 1:33 pm
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Hello,
I have a TB-7300 running in win7 x64 and I’m desperate with the lots of issues when running any program which makes use of presure sensitivity. I’ve read your article and seen the links to alternative drivers downloads but all the links are outdated.
Could you please tell me to what tablet model corresponded those drivers so I can try to find them?
on May 13, 2010 at 11:01 pm
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Very nice review, My last tablet was a trust so when it died (after working fine for 2 years) I thought I’d upgrade to this. I have been having the problem you seemed to have fixed with that tuning screw thing… one question though how do you get to it? I’m the kind that gets paranoid about breaking things, hehe Kinda makes me wish I had just gotten the same one I had before XD Any help would be great, thanks.
on May 12, 2010 at 3:15 pm
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I installed a trust TB-7300 driver and upon restart my computer went into a loop, there is a blue screen but flashes for part of a second.
I tried to restart in safe mode so I can go back to previous set point (I always create restore point before installing anything). When I do this my pc screen is full of text,
multi(0)disk(0)rdisc(0)partition(1)…
At the end there are different drivers listed
I think I have no option but to reinstall XP? Anyone else have this problem???
on February 23, 2010 at 9:02 pm
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Mark,
I noticed the same thing quite soon right after I unboxed it. The tip got worn out in lightspeed. I simply ripped that craplayer of tracingsheet and threw i in the bin. It rough surface and the pens tender tip is nothing but a proof of bad engineering.
on February 8, 2010 at 6:03 pm
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Hi I bought a trust tablet pre christmas – never used one before but have found it very good – used it a lot in fact for some illustrations and have flattened the pen nib! I have tried replacing the nib with the ones supplied but the pen is almost unusable – it moves all over the place especially as a pointer – when I touch the tablet it is better but not as good as it should be – there is no reconfiguration process – is there? It sounds like your jitter problems previously mentioned – just wanted to check before I take the pen all apart?
on January 15, 2010 at 1:50 am
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Hi, I’ve just bought a 7300 to go on my brand new Windows 7 Dell Studio laptop. I’ve got a slightly different problem but there seems to be a lack knowledge (published) out there so maybe someone here can help. I’ve installed the drivers on the disk, and BOTH the Windows 7 drivers from the Trust site, uninstalling between each instal. I CANNOT get the Tablet recognised as a HID if I boot with it connected. I have to plug / unplug at each boot / shutdown. Tried Trust’s help and got the same ‘..must be the USB..’ response mentioned elsewhere in this blog. Anyone got any suggestions?
on January 13, 2010 at 10:55 pm
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Hi all,
Im using Win7 x64 and I bought a TB-7300 Widescreen Tablet from Trust. I’ve used wacom products for ages but this time i thoght i’ll try something new.
I discovered a new dimension in annoying screwups. The tablet works flawless except for one thing. The marker is too slow… If i draw a fast stroke over the tablet, the marker is almost a second behind reality. This emmediedtly reduces the tablet from the poor cousine to the retarded poor inbreed cousine. Suddenly it pops out of it and works quite alright for a minute, then again back to the neanderthal-level again…
Maybe its the Win7 x64… Possible.
Have a nice one!
on December 6, 2009 at 11:16 pm
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Bought one of these as well, much due to your review of it.
And Thanks for it, I mean, I was considering saving up for an Intuos to have a bigger active area, but I stumbled upon the Trust tablet, searched youtube for videos, and found my way to your blog.
had it for a week now, so I’m still in the progress of getting used to it, but I’m really getting a hold of it, and I think the Trust helps making my first tablet experience a great one.
on November 2, 2009 at 8:31 pm
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The tablet support is broken in 9.10. I’d look into it but can’t be bothered. Use Windows… or stay on Jaunty.
on November 1, 2009 at 12:42 pm
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Hello!
I have the Trust tb-7300 design tablet and want to switch from windows to ubuntu 9.10 (karmic). the tablet driver is the only thing keeping me from switching (I already installed photoshop with wine). I downloaded your config and after installing it, the system crashes whenether I plug in the tablet (just as mentioned in the comments). Is there a way to get it running in karmic? I downloaded the driver from http://www.waltop.com.tw/download.asp?lv=0&id=2, too. But I don’t know how to install them (the readme file is weird). I’d be great if someone could help me!
on September 23, 2009 at 5:21 pm
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http://digitalbluewave.blogspot.com/2008/10/genius-wizardpen-with-intrepid-ibex.html
http://www.waltop.com.tw/download.asp?lv=0&id=2
- can you fix two missing links in the original comment and delete this and previous comment please? Thanks.
on September 23, 2009 at 3:43 pm
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ok. This is embarrassing
wizardpen — http://digitalbluewave.blogspot.com/2008/10/genius-wizardpen-with-intrepid-ibex.html –
“waltoptablet” driver — http://www.waltop.com.tw/download.asp?lv=0&id=2 –
I was using two consecutive ‘>’ and ‘>’ and ‘<<'). Could you maybe edit my comment before previous comment and delete last two ones? Thanks.
on September 23, 2009 at 3:36 pm
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two links were eaten in my last comment -
wizardpen
“waltoptablet” driver
on September 23, 2009 at 3:33 pm
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twenty unplugs/replugs later I have found out the following about Ubuntu 9.04:
wizardpen <> won’t offer anything more compared to wacom drivers, it stopped working correctly in gimp after 10 seconds, at which point I gave up
wacom drivers don’t see pen’s two buttons as two separate events, however I was able to make them do mouse right-clicks with the following /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-x11-input.fdi – http://pastebin.ca/1576517
input.x11_options.USB and input.x11_options.TPCButton do nothing, tablet only works in absolute mode, in relative it stops responding completely; out of scroll, zoom and volume functions we only get vertical scroll with wizardpen/wacom drivers… I did not try sensitivity options http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/inputdev
If “waltoptablet” driver <> is open source, then why isn’t it included in later linux kernels? Looks more promising with such options given in README as:
Option “Mode” “absolute”
Option “USB” “on”
Option “KeepShape” “off”
Option “Pressure” “Soft”
Option “debuglevel” “0″
on September 20, 2009 at 12:06 pm
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I agree with the overbright LED lights being a distraction, it did get to me a little as I do usually work with the lights off.
I used masking tape over them to dim them down, it helped a little. I suppose if you want them off completly you could just tape over them with plastic tape.
As for more of my experience with this tablet in Linux I will update my blog post.
on September 19, 2009 at 5:11 pm
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Also I want to know about your linux experiences. It appears that Trust Tablet is just a rebranded Waltop Tablet http://www.waltop.com.tw/productDetail.asp?id=24 and the support for Waltop devices was removed from linux driver (for reasons I do not know yet):
http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/
Worse yet – this makes X crash then you plug in any Waltop tablet in Ubuntu Karmic Koala:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wacom-tools/+bug/392825
Do you know if Waltop tablets support will be abandoned from linux kernel completely? And what are these strange drivers you have compile yourself provided @ http://www.waltop.com.tw/download.asp?lv=0&id=2 ?
on September 19, 2009 at 4:51 pm
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I kind of was a little disappointed that it doesn’t feel as sensitive as real pencil on real paper, even though I should have expected this from a cheap tablet.
I also do not like that pen tip shakes a little sideways – shouldn’t it stay firm and only allow the tip to move up/down? Or is there a purpose behind this?
Thirdly that blue power button is very, very irritating in dark room. It’s bright and it flickers too frequently, almost at one second intervals. It should just stay permanently on once connected, right now I call this bullshit-unintuitive_wtf_were_engineers_thinking-design.
And thank you for alternative drivers! This TB-7300 here would have been smashed to pieces in rage had I not accidentally find your review! The ones that were included on the CD make you wonder if Trust even tests them at all… and … I think I found even better drivers for Windows 7 (could be so for XP too, haven’t tried yet):
http://www.geniusnet.com/geniusOnline/portlets/supportArea/drivers/showItem.do?productId=670046&os=Windows%207
I am not sure what to think of this tablet yet, I am a strong propopent of “use the right tool for the right job” and have found some convincing evidence that this tablet will not hinder your artistic abilities:
http://hbdesign.deviantart.com/art/Sin-123214764
http://himeviti.deviantart.com/art/It-s-War-now-124339388
… yet I remain sceptical.
on August 22, 2009 at 9:42 pm
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Tnx!
this was very useful. I already have WACOM intuos2 A4 and purchased TRUST TB-7300.
WACOM have the same jitter problem with pen and its possible that if there is
aluminium object near or over the tablet makes some interference ( I have Macintosh aluminium keyboard)
WACOM pen problem is also solved with that little tuning screw
My TRUST tablet will arrive in September and I’ll be happy to informe you about my impressions about it.
I hate WACOM’s monopolistic politic and I want to support some newcomers
tnx again, and sorry for my bad English
on August 16, 2009 at 3:09 pm
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Thanks, I’ve been thinking about buying a tablet myself and as you put it, all that anyone says is Wacom, Wacom, Wacom… Great review, really glad you through in the bit about Ubuntu Linux, because that is my operating system of choice.
on August 7, 2009 at 6:14 pm
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Excellent review! Mint takes Ubuntu and makes it work! After your review, I plan to use it.
on August 3, 2009 at 10:33 pm
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Thanks for very infomative blog. I have been using Trust wiriless 1200 for many years and love it. It came with Art Dabbler, simple, no frills, brilliant. I am hoping it will work with my new OSx on Imac. my old Mac was OS9. Fingers crossed. Any suggestions if it doesn’t. I am trying it tomorrow.
Caroline
on July 19, 2009 at 11:13 am
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HI There,
I see you linked to waltop for the drivers on OSX; is that because the waltop is the same as the trust and there are no trust drivers?
Cheers
Ian H
on July 19, 2009 at 2:05 am
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Hey dude! i’ve had this tablet for a while myself, absolutely loving it!
I was on windows XP before, now i’ve changed to Windows 7 64 bit.
Unfortunately, pressure sensitivity doesn’t work anymore!
I get it working if i disable the tablet pc option but then it only works for a while.
Strange stuff, if you’ve got any idea whatsoever about what i can do please tell me mate
Cheers on getting one as well! I think people look down on it because of the Trust brand.
on June 9, 2009 at 3:42 pm
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hello,
thank you for this text.
it’s very hard to find a tutorial or any help using this tablet. it’s the first one I buy and i still don’t know how to use it very well. is it possible, for example, to use the hotkey buttons in relation with photoshop? (like, k1 to a pencil with a small stroke, k2 to one with a medium stroke, and so on?) if not, what is the use of those buttons?
thanks a lot,
Nuno Cruz