Richgv LCD Writing Tablet review: Good drawing tablet practice for kids

The Richgv LCD Writing Tablet is mostly marketed as a toy, and rightly so. But we are a creative website, so why are we reviewing it? That’s because humans, like other animals, learn vital skills through play. And creativity is most definitely a vital skill.

Almost every kid has boundless imagination, and a desire to express that imagination to the world. Many like to draw the images and words they conjure in their mind, but it’s not realistic to simply give a child one of the best drawing tablets, and expect them to translate their vision in full from day one. So things like this drawing/writing tablet aim to help bridge the gap and give children the means to develop themselves. But does it work? I was lent a sample for a number of weeks to test out the Richgv LCD Writing Tablet to find out.

Richgv LCD Writing Tablet: Display, stylus and drawing experience

The Richgv LCD Writing Tablet comes in a few colours. Each one not only dictates the external appearance of the tablet, but also the colour in which your drawings will emerge. I received the bright green one, with a bright green pen, which would make bright green pictures on the screen. Each tablet comes with a plastic pen/stylus included, designed to not scratch the low-power, single-colour LCD screen. The fact is that most anything will do as any other object scratched against the screen will leave a mark or trail, but using the pen is a safe way to prevent the screen being damaged.

I found it easy to adjust the width of the pen strokes based on the pressure I applied, which feels natural and intuitive, because of the exceedingly simple technology at work here. More importantly, I placed the tablet in hands more pertinent to the maker’s intended demographics: my six-year-old son. He’s a really expressive kid but doesn’t tend to have much patience for sitting down and drawing with a pen and paper. However, he took to this tablet immediately and would spend over an hour every day sketching, writing and doodling on it.

There is no way to edit what you’ve sketched, there’s no way to erase parts of the image/writing, as the screen can only be ‘wiped clean’ using the single button on the tablet’s front, which turns the screen black, ready for another go.

My son, being six years old and wanting to get things right on the first go in anything he does, got a little frustrated when imperfections snuck in or he made errors meaning he had to start over, instead of merely ‘wiping’ out the error while carrying on with the rest of the picture. But he soon adjusted himself to the transient nature of each creation, and soon started to demand taking the tablet with us in the car or when we went out to eat.

The bright colour, even if it’s only the one, certainly seemed to help engage him and his friends he played on the tablet with more than a monochrome screen would. The screen smudges easily, so having a scratch-free cloth at hand is essential.

Richgv LCD Writing Tablet: Design and power

The Richgv LCD Writing Tablet is light and small, and it feels just sturdy enough to be trusted in a child’s hands. We had the 8.5-inch version, which has a 5.8-inch screen and weighs only 112 grams. It runs on a CR2016 button battery, which is included and is easy to replace using a Phillips #0 precision screwdriver. It seems to have a long battery life too, as we didn’t see any drop in brightness during the time we tested the tablet.

Richgv LCD Writing Tablet: Price

The Richgv LCD Writing Tablet is very cheap. You can usually get the 8.5-inch version for under £10 on Amazon and the largest 12-inch version comes in at under £20. It’s made of cheap plastic, but it’s CE-rated and the plastic is recyclable, which is reassuring.

Should you buy the Richgv LCD Writing Tablet?

If you have a child with a creative mind and an affinity for sketching and want to develop their drawing or writing skills with a portable device, or want a cheap, mess-free way to engage kids at an event such as a party or family wedding, you could do worse than get them the Richgv LCD Writing Tablet. It’s highly affordable, low-maintenance and we’ve personally seen it engage a child that usually gets impatient with traditional drawing. Yes, there are shortcomings, such as the lack of an edit function (without literally wiping the slate clean), the smudge-happy screen and the cheap feel of the plastic, but it’s a small price to pay for a product with such a small price to pay for.