Sorry, just catching up
@Fuckingfuckssake - if you look at the XP-Pen website, or find them on Amazon (usually identical pricing) you'll see the two different options - with screen and without. Either way, they need to be connected to a computer of some sort, but with the display screen, you'll be able to also see it where you are drawing, as opposed to without a display, where you need to watch it on the screen of your computer if that makes sense? So without a display, it basically works like a large, much more accurate mouse and trackpad - though obviously much, much easier to manoeuvre and more versatile. For drawing space, the Star 03 is perfect at 12 inches, not too big, but definitely big enough; but if I were using it as an additional screen, I'd probably opt for something a bit bigger. Having said that, I'm not experienced in if there's a good zoom function or something on a display model.
@buckeejit
DD doesn't have experience of the apple pen or tablet, but has heard the sensitivity and pressure levels of the pen are really good. However, the sensitivity is ALL on the pen, not the tablet at all, and is obviously much more expensive to replace the Apple pen if something goes wrong. We're not huge Apple fans here (bar the pre-teen) so no idea what sort of customer service comes with a product like that.
If your DS has previous graphic drawing experience, in theory the Apple set up could be a good move, but if this is really the first delve into that sort of thing, the XP-Pen tablets offer more than enough.
@friskybivalves
Has to be used with a computer/laptop unfortunately. I asked my DD the same question, as I'd hoped the display screen models could be completely portable, but sadly not. We've not found anything that is completely stand alone, so assuming one exists, it's likely way out of our price range 
@Arthien
It's seriously worth taking the hit. DD agrees that it is worth at least twice the RRP, so over £100. Easy. Adobe Creative Cloud offer a really good discount to students - think it's around £200 a year, or £15-ish a month on a 12 month contract? Raises slightly after the first year, but still lower than full price. You need an educational email address to register for it ( so .edu or .sch or whatever) but you'll continue to get the discount as long as you have access to the email address. I think in Scotland, kids have access to their Gov issued sch accounts to age 25, so it's quite a saving. We have one account for the house, in my eldest DC name, but you download the apps individually, so one DC has photoshop and animate, the other uses AI for video editing. As long as they both use the same sign-in, it works to share. I'm sure there's a decent cloud storage with it too. I really need to investigate exactly what comes with it, as it's pretty extensive.
Hope that was every question. DD has been super thrilled to be able to share it with you. She's so enthusiastic about her drawing, and her graphic tablet and really excited at the thought of other kids getting in to graphic drawing too 