LM Digital Drawing pads

Daughter is turning 13 and loves drawing using FireAlpaca.  We want to get her a drawing tablet and are leaning toward the XP-Pen Deco Pro Medium which runs $130.

This one:

Our considerations are larger drawing surface and tilt function pen. 

Huion Inspiroy is similar but slightly more expensive.

Here

Both brands have versions in the next step down which would save money but none of us has ever used this type of input device so we aren't sure where to focus.

Huion mid grade

XP-Pen midgrade

Then to add to the confusion, there are lots of other brands to consider like this one:

Gaomon

Help, please.

Wife is big into the stuff. I'll ask her. She's gone through a few different models over the last decade and helped my kid sister (16) find one. 
 

So, wife has a Wacom Cintiq 13". It's a bit spendy. Little sis has an xp-pen 10", which is what she would recommend for starting out.

Wife also is waiting on a new iPad Pro which with a good stylus (she got the apple one) and some app* I can't remember, but costs $15 or something, should be a good mobile substitute. 

* the app is Procreate and costs $10. Cant give a review yet, since her new iPad is still in transit. 

While I am an Art Director that uses Photoshop for digital design literally every day, I've never liked tablets.  This information is not helpful to you.

My wife however is a classically trained painter who makes her living as a Digital Artist, and uses a tablet to create the closest thing to magic I've ever experienced. Which is a very often occurrence these days due to the current WFH scenario. I asked her moments ago what she thought, and she recommended the Wacom Intuos line. They're not pricey, come in a number of sizes, and are the real deal/brand name. This information might be helpful to you.

I have industrial designer friends that swear by the Cintiq, but those cost challenge money and I think it'll be a few years before the wee one graduates to such extravagance.

I've got two, an old Wacom with an 10" or so square surface and an XP-Pen Artist 13. My daughter uses the Artist 13 constantly and never touches the Wacom. She mostly uses Krita and GIMP. If you can swing it, a display tablet is much better.

For a 13 year old with no tablet, anything you get will be a game changer. And eventually she will want to upgrade anyways, no matter what she gets now. You might consider using some of your budget on Clip Studio Paint. It is one of the best drawing softwares available for amateurs or pros and the budget version can be had for a one time payment of $50.

I've been using a Wacom as my primary interface for a couple of decades, partly because my joints prefer it over a mouse and partly because it's SO much better for photo work. Current is an Intuos 5 which has been solid. A coworker has one of the super-fancy Wacoms that has a screen and I an jealous, but I've never had the chance to use it.

The stuff people create with ProCreate and an Apple Pencil is pretty amazing. It's also a cheap entry into digital art. I know a lot of people like it because you can do it anywhere, unlike a digital pad (Wacom) or similar. 

Downside, as mentioned, is the silo effect. ProCreate could go away just after she finally starts to master it, and picking up another program might be difficult. That being said, ProCreate is quite popular and has been around for awhile, so I don't forsee it suddenly disapearing tomorrow, and if she decides to go to school for digital art she'll learn on the mainstream PC based programs anyway.

I'd forgotten about this thread. Bought her the first one linked in my post, XP-PenDeco Pro Medium. She likes it.