I use a Wacom Intuos 3 6x8 drawing tablet that I have had since 2007. It's a workhorse, sturdy, and has done well for me. Almost everything I've ever made digitally was made on this thing.

I had a Monoprice tablet that I used for a little while that worked fine, and kinda actually helped me with my transition from traditional art to digital, as the surface on it was toothier and felt a little closer to what I was used to. However, the pen did require batteries where the wacom pen does not.

Third-party tablets (both drawing and screen ones) work fine for the most part, but take a little extra wrangling to get the software working just right in windows. Wacom, due to being pretty much the industry standard, has much better software that works a lot easier, though you do pay a premium for their products.

Having used both, and having somewhat of a tech background, I will say Wacom is very much worth it. Even if tinkering with drivers to get a third-party one working right is do-able, a Wacom is just so much easier to deal with, with a lot fewer headaches.

Take this with a grain of salt, however. I'm not 100% on how their more modern products are because, as stated before, my tablet is from 2007 so that's the only one I can truly vouch for.