I would second the h60.
It has a decent sized drawing area and for under $100 it's great for a beginner.
Just out of curiosity... how does the Huion compare to the Wacom Intuos Draw? What will I miss if I opt for the Huion instead of this one?
Get the largest Wacom model you can find for the price and don't be afraid to look for used ones, because in your price range you will be likely forced to resign to small models and people tend to upgrade from them after a while, so such investment isn't particularly wise. Avoid anything with touch interface, it's widely regarded as useless, go for non-touch versions and save some money. Intuos Pro Medium is currently considered #1 choice for professional digital artists, but it falls outside your budget.
The closest competitors to Wacom are Monoprice tablets, but they have all sorts of driver and build quality issues. Huion is another leading competitor, offering a particularly attractive Huion H610PRO tablet for a very affordable price. That would definitely be a good alternative to Wacom products, but make damn well sure to test it before paying or at least make sure you have a very good return policy. I had to return mine, because it couldn't draw straight diagonal lines and it's not exactly an uncommon issue. But if you get a working model, for the price it can't be beat.
All non-Wacom products seem to have severe compatibility issues with Windows 10 at times, so keep that in mind if you're running that.
That's the one you're looking for, I think. I'm picking up one for myself closer to Christmas. Wacom did some really shady rebranding last year when I was looking at tablets, and I don't want to support them if I can help it.
I chose the Huion H610 Pro because it was large and capable enough for a beginner artist, without breaking the bank. The H610 Pro sells for $80USD, has a rechargeable pen stylus with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and has both hotkey buttons and hot cells.
If you were trying to buy a Wacom-brand tablet with those same features, at that size (10in X 6.5in), it would be probably in the $150+ range. For a beginner artist, that's rather pricey, so I recommend going with a Chinese made tablet like the H610 Pro, or the UGEE G5 or even a Monoprice tablet, because the price is much more palatable and you'll get the same features. The only thing you're really sacrificing is a name-brand and depending on what you go with, driver support.
This weekend I've been working with a new tablet that I was sent in, the UGEE G5, and so far I'm in love with it. It has 8GB of on-board memory with drivers pre-loaded into the tablet, a scratch/wear resistant surface, amazing drivers and the pen feels much more comfortable and ergonomic; It even has a toggle eraser button which has made my life so much easier. The tablet itself comes with a dial wheel that can be remapped to do different functions, similar to the type of wheel you'd see on some of the larger Cintiq models by Wacom.
Anyways, if you're not looking to break the bank but still have something capable enough to limit you only by your skill, I recommend these:
Monoprice 10x6.25 Pen Tablet $60 USD
It, in the end will all come down to what you want, and how you want to use it, etc. I'd say that the strongest recommendation I can give for something that isn't Wacom is, right now the UGEE if you can budget it. You can't go wrong with Monoprice though, just keep in mind that they are a wholesale company, so your mileage may vary with them support wise, but for the most part their tablets get really good reviews.
They all use UC Logic digitizers though.
Hey OP, I just got one of those the other day as a beginner as well (http://www.amazon.com/Huion-H610PRO-Painting-Drawing-Graphics/dp/B00GIGGS6A/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1442728903&sr=1-1&keywords=Huion+H610+Pro) and it is really amazing. Would totally recommend
If there are only two choices here, I would chose Wacom tablet for its good fame and good quality. But the price is relatively high. There are also many other famous brands like Huion and monoprice. I strongly recommend Huion tablets which are affordable and durable. http://www.amazon.com/Huion-H610-Graphics-Drawing-Tablet/dp/B00GIGGS6A/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?m=A30BRCK3LE6SB5&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1410862891&sr=1-2