Do I need a display tablet, or is a pen-only tablet enough?

Pen-only tablets (like the Wacom Intuos line) are cheaper, more durable, and preferred by many illustrators and photo retouchers once they get past the learning curve of looking at the screen while drawing on a separate surface. Display tablets (Cintiq, Kamvas, XPPen Artist) are more intuitive for beginners and animators who want hand-eye alignment, but cost more and add cables, heat, and calibration to manage. Specialist subreddits consistently note that a quality pen-only tablet can outperform a cheap display tablet for serious work.