The first generation of Adonit Dash had potential but it did not live up to my expectations. The second generation has surprised me with its improvement. The stylus that I'm reviewing today is provided by Adonit.

Design

Highlight of this stylus is the 1.9mm tip. With a tip this small, you can write or draw without the tip blocking the line beneath.

Unfortunately, the tip still wobble slightly when in contact with the screen. I said "still" because there are other Adonit styluses with tips that are designed this way. I always thought that the wobbly tip has something to do with pressure sensitivity however this stylus does not support pressure sensitivity. There's also another stylus released recently called the Adonit Snap that also features the 1.9mm tip but there's no wobble there. So I wonder why the tip has to wobble with Dash 2.

On the left is the 1st gen Dash. Dash 2 has a gap between the tip holder and the body.

The metallic body is solid and matte surface finishing looks good. You can choose from three colours: black, silver and bronze.

The stylus also comes with a clip.

The diameter is quite similar to a wooden pencil and the weight is 12g which is quite lightweight.

Battery

The battery is built in and you have to charge it with the USB thumb drive charger provided. Be careful not to lose the charger because you'll have to buy a replacement. I've lost one before and had to buy a replacement, and days later I found the original in my bag.

I don't like the thumb drive charger. I would have preferred charging through micro-USB because those cables are almost ubiquitous.

Battery life is rated to last 14 hours. Unless you draw 14 hours straight, that's ample battery life in my opinion.

Quality of the battery is questionable. The 1st generation Dash that I've reviewed almost one year ago can no longer charge with the USB charger. I don't know if it's a problem with the stylus or charger. But that's not the only Adonit stylus that I have that had battery issues so I felt I had to mention it here.

Once you click the power button on the back, the stylus switches on instantly. You'll see the green indicator light flash.

Features

Dash 2 is an active stylus that's designed to work with any touchscreen devices. The fact that it does not need Bluetooth connection is convenient because after you switch it on, you don't have to waste time waiting for your device to find it.

Performance

Below are apps that I've tried with the stylus. Unless otherwise mentioned, they are all iOS apps

• Sketches Pro
• Procreate
• Adobe Draw
• Adobe Sketch
• Medibang Paint Pro
• Wacom Bamboo Paper (iOS and Android)
• FiftyThree Paper
• Penulimate
• Notability
• GoodNotes
• Notes Plus
• Inkcredible (Android)

When using this stylus, I test for accuracy and responsiveness. There's no pressure sensitivity and no palm rejection.

Overall, the accuracy is quite good and misalignment is not a big problem. Accuracy also depends on how you hold the stylus. With my normal handwriting position, I can see that the lines come out just beneath the tip. If the stylus is tiled more horizontally, then the line will appear around 2-3mm away.

As for responsiveness, it depends a lot on the app used. Most apps I use are quite responsive and lines come out with minimal lag. Procreate and FiftyThree Paper have some lag but not a big issue. Those two apps are best used with Adonit Pixel and FiftyThree Pencil respectively.

Handwriting apps
For handwriting, Penultimate and Wacom Bamboo Paper perform the best and was able to capture my handwriting accurately. Other apps like Notability, GoodNotes and Notes Plus are not as good and make my handwriting look wobbly and skewed at times. On Android, there's some misalignment with Wacom Bamboo Paper unless you hold the stylus vertically, but with Inkredible it works fine.

In short, the performance depends on the app you use.

Notability

Penultimate

Notes Plus

Is the diagonal jitter still there?

One significant improvement over the 1st generation Dash is that Adonit has minimized the slow-diagonal-line-jitter issue. Drawing diagonal lines slowly no longer produces obviously wavy lines, however there's still slight jitter if you are looking for it. The jitter issue can be considered a deal-breaker in the earlier model but with Dash 2, it's no longer a significant problem.

This was drawn on Wacom Bamboo Paper. I managed to join all the lines effortlessly without much misalignment issues. The diagonal strokes are drawn very slowly. The jitter is not obvious and this is great because the 1st gen Dash had serious issues with jitter.

Here's the jitter comparison between Snap, Dash 1 and Dash 2.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with Dash 2. It works well on most drawing apps. With handwriting apps, it really depends on which one you're using.

The diagonal-line-jitter problem is almost gone which is a significant improvement to me.

The other downside to me is the quality of battery, but that is something I can only know in the future.

So with this model, I can now say it's good enough that I can recommend to note takers and artists who don't need pressure sensitivity.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Small, light and portable
+ Works well with most apps
+ Does not require Bluetooth for writing/drawing
+ 1.9mm tip does not block the lines that come out beneath
+ Slow-diagonal-line-jitter significantly minimized
- Potential battery longevity issue

Availability

You can find the Adonit Dash 2 on Amazon through the links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Recently, a company called Pendorra asked if I wanted to try out their stylus pen. The design looks quite similar to the Apple Pencil so I was intrigued enough to try it.

Since the Pendorra stylus looks so similar to the Apple Pencil, I'll compare the two in this review. In terms of functionality, the Pendorra stylus is similar to the Adonit Dash 2 so I'll compare that too.

Shown above from top to bottom: Adonit Dash 2, Apple Pencil, Pendorra Stylus

Here are some characteristics and features of the Apple Pencil

• It has a slightly smaller diameter
• It supports pressure sensitivity
• It can only be used on iPad Pro
• It requires Bluetooth

Here are the key characteristics and features of Adonit Dash 2

• It has a slightly smaller diameter
• Pressure sensitivity not supported
• It can be use on any tablet
• Bluetooth not required

Here are the key characteristics and features of Pendorra stylus:

• It has a slightly thicker diameter, like those fine-tip Sharpie markers
• Pressure sensitivity not supported
• It can be use on any tablet
• Bluetooth not required

Build quality

Build quality of the Pendorra stylus is good. It feels sturdy. It comes in four colours: rose gold, silver, grey and pink.

It has a nice weight and is well balanced.

The body is metallic and it has a smooth surface finishing unlike the glossy Apple Pencil. The texture is nice to touch. However, since it's metal, it feels colder compared to the plastic body of the Apple Pencil. This is something I noticed only when comparing the two styluses.

The stylus is battery powered and you have to charge it with via USB. At the back of the pen is a male micro-USB port.

Unlike the Adonit Dash 2, the tip on Pendorra does not wobble.

You have to connect it to the USB adapter provided to get the rectangular Type A USB port that you can plug into your computer or charger. When charging, it sticks out of the port horizontally so be careful not to knock it or break anything.

Be careful not to lose the end cap with the power button. If you lose that, there's no way for you to switch on the stylus.

Writing or drawing performance

This is an active stylus with a 2.2mm tip. The tip is small so that it does not block off much of the lines beneath.

The Pendorra stylus is said to support all mobile OS platform, i.e. iOS, Android and Windows.

However, the writing and drawing functionality depends on the app, OS and device that you're using.

I have found out that the orientation of your device plays an important part to whether or not you will get any misalignment to the strokes. Actually, this is not much different compared to using active styluses like the Adonit Dash 2 or Snap.

So here are my findings when it comes to misalignment of strokes

iPad Pro (iOS 10.1.1)
Portrait mode: Works perfectly. Line appears directly beneath the tip
Landscape mode: Misalignment

iPad Mini (iOS 10.1.1)
Portrait mode: Misalignment
Landscape mode: Works perfectly

Android 6 phone
Portrait mode: Misalignment
Landscape mode: Works perfectly

Android 7 phone
Portrait mode: Misalignment
Landscape mode: Misalignment

Below are screenshots of the iPad Pro in different orientation and hand positions

iPad in portrait mode with horizontal stylus position

iPad in portrait mode with vertical stylus position

iPad in landscape mode with horizontal stylus position

iPad in landscape mode with vertical stylus position

The Pendorra stylus works perfectly, at normal handwriting position, when used with the iPad in portrait mode. This is the mode more suitable for taking notes. There is no misalignment. The lines appear directly beneath the tip. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the stylus works so well.

However, when I turned the iPad to the landscape mode, the misalignment problem appeared. Lines now appear around 2mm away from the tip. The strange thing is, when I tried it with my Android phones, I observed different results. With one Android phone, there was misalignment in portrait mode, and with the other phone there is misalignment regardless of how the phone was oriented. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the Android OS version or with my phone.

This stylus does not use Bluetooth to pair with your device. You can press the power button on the back and it turns on instantly. There is no support pressure sensitivity or palm rejection. So to prevent stray strokes from appearing, you have to lift your palm from the writing/drawing surface.

When I was using the stylus, there was generally minimal lag, or there's no lag that I would consider a deal breaker when it comes to writing or drawing. Also, whether there is lag or not really depends on the app you're using.

In the above picture, P are lines from Pendorra and A are lines from Adonit Dash 2. Drawing diagonal lines slowly does produce some jitter. The amount of jitter will depend on which app you use. For example, Medibang Paint will have more wavy diagonal lines compared to Wacom Bamboo Paper (shown above).

Conclusion

In short, if you want a stylus for taking notes with the iPad, the Pendorra stylus works well when the iPad is in portrait mode.

If you're using it on Android, it could be a hit or miss. I've put the Adonit styluses through the same tests and the results are the same. Stylus performance on the Android can be slightly more unpredictable.

As for the pricing, it's quite competitive with Adonit Dash 2. So it really comes down to which body design or battery charging system you prefer.

Availability

You can find this stylus at Pendorra.com and Amazon USA

Huion makes a lot of drawing tablets for digital artists. The Huion Inspiroy G10T is one that shows us that Huion is capable of building high quality products as well, which is not to say that their other products are low quality. But the G10T is on another level in terms of build quality.

I've used this for a few weeks already ever since Huion mailed me a review unit, and now's the time to share my thoughts.

Here are all the items in the box:

• Tablet
• Pen case
• Pen
• 8 spare pen nibs
• Nib remover
• Charging cable for pen
• Wireless USB receiver
• USB C cable

The Huion Inspiroy G10T is a wireless graphics tablet. It works on either Windows 7, 8, 10 and Mac OS 10.10 or newer.

The current price is US $140. At this price range, it competes with the Wacom Intuos but it has a build quality to compete with the more expensive Wacom Intuos Pro.

The drawing area is 10 by 6.25 inches. The surface is smooth matte and offers a nice feeling as the pen glides on its surface. The bezel around the tablet is minimal and corners are rounded off. The tablet takes up a small footprint on the tablet, except that it's quite wide.

The back is a solid piece brushed aluminium. The build quality for the whole tablet feels sturdy and classy, high end. All other Huion tablets feature plastic bodies so when I first saw this tablet, I was actually blown away but the design and build quality. It's a step up from their other tablets, like the H610 Pro, 1060PLUS or the wireless Giano WH1409. The metal back and wonderful finishing make this feel like a premium product.

One of the key features is the touchpad on the side that comes with 6 physical shortcut buttons.

The trackpad works like those on laptops. You can use finger gestures on it, like pinch to zoom, double finger drag to pan, etc. Unfortunately, it does not work as well as it should be. First, you need to use an app that is capable of taking advantage of finger gestures. And even when in an app that supports finger gestures, it does not work that well too. It is like the finger gestures are bind to keyboard shortcuts. Rotating does not work well with the apps I've tested on. By that, I mean sometimes the app or touchpad would not recognise that I am rotating with my fingers. The same finger gesture would work perfectly on a smartphone, iPad or other mobile screen tablets. Even something simple like scrolling webpages with the touchpad is not smooth. Panning in graphics software is a hit and miss too.

That's the USB receiver should you want to use the tablet without cables.

You can still use the tablet while it's charging. It charges via a USB C cable. So there's no more fumbling on which side to inside the micro-USB cable. The battery included is a 2500mAh battery, about the capacity of smartphone batteries, and is supposed to last for 40 hours. Battery life is good. I've not had to recharge for weeks after the first charge. Of course if you use it more regularly then it would drain the battery faster.

That's the power button with the indicator light but the side of the drawing area. It would light up then the pen is in hovering or on the drawing area.

That's the pen case that comes with all the other accessories. It's also very well built and closes with magnets.

In it are the pen, 8 extra nibs, nib remover and the USB wireless receiver.

The pen also needs to be charged to before it can be used. The battery is inbuilt and the charging cable looks like proprietary ones.

Build quality of the pen is great and it's comfortable to use. However, the 2 side buttons are flushed too close curve of the body so it's difficult to feel them or know that they are there by feeling. Having the buttons more extruded would have been better.

The pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and works very well.

Drivers

There are various settings that you can change, namely:

• Pressure settings
• Pen buttons
• Left and right handed use
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts
• Map the drawing area
• Rotate the workspace. E.g. Use the tablet in portrait mode

While the build quality is generally good, there are some quirks or driver related issues. I've tested the tablet on both Windows and Mac and here are my findings.

On the Mac

I'm on Mac OS 10.12.2. Huion recommends you use at least Mac OS 10.10. I tried Mac OS 10.9.5 and the driver works but I wasn't able to get into the settings dialogue box to change anything.

The pen does not work instantly upon reboot. You have to wait for the driver to load first.

• Photoshop CS5 produces dots initially and then works fine. You have to wait a while if it doesn't work initially. Quite irritating. Other than that, the strokes are smooth and taper nicely. I cannot Cmd+Space and pen click to zoom (but this works fine in Medibang).
• Medibang Paint Pro 10.2 can produce unwanted splotches randomly, often triggered by sudden change of pressure
• Illustrator CS5 works fine.
• Mischief works fine.
• Tayasui Sketches Pro works fine.
• Krita works fine.
• Affinity Photo and Designer work fine.

Photoshop CS5 (Mac). I had to wait a while for the pen to not produce dots. Another frustrating thing is I can't use the Cmd+Spacebar and click with the pen to zoom in or out. I can do that with a mouse, and with Medibang Paint Pro, but somehow that shortcut does not work here, even though the icon as I press down the keys clearly show the magnifying glass.

Medibang Paint Pro 10.2 (Mac). There can be weird splotches if you vary the pressure too drastically while drawing.

On Windows

• Photoshop CS5 crashes when tablet is used, e.g. pen clicks
• Illustrator CS5 works fine
• Photoshop CC brush does not paint
• Illustrator CC pressure does not work
• Medibang Paint Pro 10.2 works fine
• Mischief 1.5 can't move the cursor with the pen
• Whenever I click buttons on the task bar, it would read as a click+hold hence moving the buttons around.

There are many quirks in different software. I am not able to test this against a larger number or different versions of software but so far, it's quite frustrating to face so many bugs.

Conclusion

There are usually some bugs with Huion tablets but the amount of bugs with the G10T is more.

So while the build quality is excellent, the functionality is questionable. The combination of issues I've faced makes it a deal breaker.

How well the tablet is going to work really depends on which app and OS you're going to use it with. The touchpad does not work well with finger gestures so it is as good as not being there. More shortcut buttons would have been better.

When it works, it works really well. When it's not, it feels like you're spending extra money on features that don't matter because ultimately, you want to use this thing to draw. If you just want a tablet for clicking, like working with Lightroom, then yeah, go ahead. When it comes to drawing strokes, well ...

My recommendation is to read more reviews before getting one. That's just my opinion. I'm surprised that all the other reviews currently on Amazon are all positive: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

If your experience with your G10T is different from mine, I would love to hear from you in the comments section.

If you do want a wireless tablet, I recommend checking out the large Huion Giano WH1409 or the medium size DWH69 too.

Availability

You can find more reviews and the G10T at these links below.
Huiontablet.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Hi, I’m Iris. Let’s discuss the HK1560 monitor display from Ugee!

Disclaimer: I bought the UG2150 (absolutely love it, 100% recommend it), and was sent the HK1560 along with it to test out. It is fairly new, so if you are reading this at a later date, please continue to research if anything has changed. I got these through PNBOOTECH, other sellers might provide different accessories or customer care.

Overall, I think it is a really great tablet! I’d rate it approximately 4 out of 5 stars and I’d recommend it to most artists. But one issue with the display that I talk about later will show why I don’t think it’s as perfect as the UG2150 for example.

Even so, I actually think it is better than the comparable Wacom 13HD which, to me, is uncomfortably small. Somehow the couple of extra inches on the HK1560 are enough to make it a perfect size for home or away from home. The display is decent quality, and the pen is super responsive, and usual tablet concerns like cursor lag or parallax are totally acceptable and not a problem with the HK1560.

For reference, I have owned a Yiynova MSP19U+ for 3 years, and regular Wacom tablets (Intuos, Graphire), and I have tried Wacom Cintiq a little bit (24HD, 13HD).

The HK1560 is so light (bit less than 5 pounds, 2.27kg) and sleek. Its design is simple and practical. I could see myself or anyone else carrying this in a backpack or case, with a laptop, to a coffee shop or anywhere else to draw, take notes, or other work/hobby purposes. The HD resolution (1920x1080) looks crisp and nice on this monitor (HDMI cable provided)

The stand has a very fluid adjustment handle, good angle range, and is very solid. I tried to mount the HK1560 to my standard HP single monitor arm, but because the HK1560 is very light (not heavy enough to keep a lowered position on the arm) and the VESA monitor mount screws do not screw in far enough to mount it tightly (they fit in the correct placement but the holes are shallow, so it ends up too loose), using it with a monitor arm seems like it would be difficult to do. Maybe some monitor arms allow for lighter monitors though (the HK1560 is just a few pounds, most monitors are heavier), and you could find very short screws to make it work. That’s fine though, because the stand is good, and keeps this tablet simple to carry around. It doesn’t take up much space at all.

The tablet lacks express keys, which I never use, but I know this matters for some people. I suggest either placing your keyboard behind it to the side, or a small shortcut gamerpad (tartarus, or other remote controls being made for this recently).

The screen itself is glossy, clear, and clean (no dust inside or defects on mine). Some do not like this drawing surface because it can be very reflective in some situations, or because of its slippery surface. Personally, I think this is very easy to get used to, and I enjoy it, so I don’t understand those complaints. However, if you hate it, there are slightly textured screen films available, like MXH from Photodon. I got one for my Yiynova and enjoyed it, so I got one for my UG2150. Currently (December 2016), however, Photodon does not offer one that fits the HK1560 perfectly. They probably will in a few months. These diffuse light, making the surface more matte and textured, bringing the drawing feel closer to a Cintiq but not 100% the same (perfect for me though!). Some complain that this tablet is squeaky. Occasionally it can squeak, but using any screen protector and a tablet glove fixes most of it. I still prefer a small panty hose sock with a hole cut through it, over any tablet glove, as strange as that sounds.

Overall the drawing feel on the HK1560 is good but not perfect, like most Cintiq alternatives. The tablet does not overheat after being used all day, it only becomes a little bit warm in the center.

I love that you receive two pens, and that they are rechargeable by USB (two charger cables too!). The pens have a nice look, good drawing and button feel, comfortable weight distribution (weighs almost exactly as much as a wacom pen), and long lasting charge. I think the rubber seams on the pen can be improved, as they are visible and can be felt more than those on a Wacom pen when you drag your finger across (not a big deal though). I also think more variation in the nib textures would be great. They are all the same glossy plastic. While this is durable and fine, more choices would be interesting. You are also given quite a few of them! Additionally, the nib container doubles as a great pen stand.

With Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint (a.k.a. Manga studio), Paint tool Sai (I use version 1.1), Paintstorm studio, FireAlpaca, Zbrush, Blender, Sculptris, it works perfectly.

The range of pressure is wide (opacity and size respond very well). The lines follow the pen so closely, there is practically no delay. For sculpting or texture painting in 3D softwares, every change in pressure is present in your strokes as well. Very responsive.

With Krita, Autodesk Sketchbook and Mischief, I experience bugs while drawing and/or no pressure. This is because they do not support this tablet well yet. In time, they might. The Yiynova became more compatible with art software over time, so I think this will be the same. And programs like Krita are always being updated and improved. Please be aware that certain companies, Autodesk for example, may have exclusive contracts/deals with Wacom. (The tablet listing says it supports Sketchbook, and it's possible that it does! I use Windows 7 and don't update much, so maybe it works for others! Please check with other reviews.)

Note: I have a friend who purchased the UG2150, he uses it with windows 10, and for him Autodesk Sketchbook works perfectly (full pressure recognized when making a stroke). Since everything else I tried worked the same on both tablets, I assume the same for this point. So it will probably work for you! He also showed me how an older alpha version of Krita worked perfectly on his 2150, and then the newer version had the same bug happening between brush strokes that I experienced on mine. Knowing it worked in a past version of Krita, I think this should change in the future. I say this to reassure you that this and other display tablets are mostly compatible with softwares.

You can adjust your pressure curve in the tablet drivers, but I think in the future that max pressure while pressing even lighter should be enabled.

I’ve been told that Lazy Nezumi (and probably other methods) can help adjust the pressure curve/feel (how the pressure is interpreted). Some software let you adjust that in settings, too.

Calibrate the HK1560 with Windows display tools (very simple to do), and use LCD calibration websites like lagom.nl to get desired results with the settings buttons on the monitor.

The display looks great right out of the box, but the colors and contrast were a bit too strong for me, so I calibrated a little. By the way, some settings in the menu do nothing or can't be changed (colors are on a blocked ‘warm’ setting for mine, so I had to make sure I calibrated it to a more neutral look, basing myself on greys and comparing to my other screen), I'd like if this were a little more flexible, like having a neutral setting build in. The display is good quality though, because it does well (but not great) with those tests (subtle and perceivable differences between hues/values/etc). It also does very well with displaying various images and video. However, the UG2150 does much better (as good as a good quality monitor). The HK1560 displays a bit more choppyness and banding in gradients of color (stripey sections instead of smooth blends). I noticed this when painting with low opacity; slight variations can look a little rough sometimes.

For most users, I think it’s totally fine. If you’re using it for watching videos, drawing in line mostly, inking comics, doing vector/illustrator work, collecting reference images, sculpting/modeling in 3D, it could go unnoticed. If you have another monitor to show you if your work looks different on another screen, that’d be best. I don’t think it would bother everyone, but for me it’s an important downside. I want smooth gradients and no patchiness. I have been told this is a little better on other models, and hopefully getting better with different production batches of this tablet so please check and ask others if this is still standard for this tablet.

Because of one current flaw I have noticed while testing it (I’m sure it’s related to the banding I mentioned above, too), I think that this model suits most users like I stated above (working only with lines, flat color, taking notes, almost anything), except for professional digital artists seeking a 100% accurate display (I often paint and check my illustration with a light and dark background, and make other quick changes). The display auto-adjusts contrast in certain situations (quick changes in dark or bright elements on screen in Photoshop, MSpaint, etc), creating flickering and inconsistent values and colors when painting in Photoshop and other software. I’ve shown this issue towards the end (at 44 minutes) of my long youtube video review of both tablets if you wish to see it in action.

Video Link with Timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH2LmJG8tKI&t=44m05s

I imagine that this will be fixed as soon as possible, as it is something that can be corrected by changing a setting on other display devices, but so far this one does not allow disabling of this.

We have kept in contact about this issue, testing it on different computers and with different plugs, and they even let me trade in the first one for another one, to check if it was not just a one-time error. I really appreciate this effort.

I have also received an answer from them recently saying that this problem was present on maybe 20% or more of their first production batch of this tablet. They told me that in the future, this problem should not be present on this tablet, and that many of them don’t do it at all. I have no way of verifying this, so I choose to trust they will improve it and just let you know this information so you can make your own decision on what you think about it :)

To me, this is an important flaw for my usage of this tablet, but I think Ugee can and should fix this soon, making this basically a perfect product for any and all users.

I trusted this tablet before I bought it, since I heard that it uses nearly identical drivers as the Yiynova (UCLogic). The driver interface could be more appealing, and pen tilt support should be added eventually, but overall I think UCLogic makes a great tablet driver software!

When I contacted Ugee about the UG2150 and the HK1560, they were very informed and kind to me. The shipping was so fast, they arrived within a week, and were super well packed. (Thank you Tiffany and the team for your great service!)

One last note, just in case:
Please use the very simple user manual instructions to install, (drivers from the website are usually newer and better; choose according to your tablet model and system). Getting started with the tablet is so easy, if the steps are followed correctly. I’ve seen complaints from people online, and user error is almost always the cause. Sometimes Windows can cause the tablet to misbehave (also happens with Wacom. all types of tablets share similar issues and fixes). Disabling flicks, handwriting, digital ink, tablet input panel service, etc., will usually fix everything. Personally, I have helped a few people figure out tablet issues, or sometimes they find a solution by accident or trial and error, and personally I have barely ever had problems with mine. It all depends! Sometimes it just takes opening the driver and checking one thing, or rebooting.

Please be patient, look it up, ask questions, and understand that this is normal.

I hope I helped your decision! Good luck :)

Availability

You can check out more reviews on Amazon. Links below.

Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Now that CES 2017 is over, let's check out the products that interest artists and designers.

Wacom Intuos Pro 2017 & Paper Edition

Wacom has updated their Intuos Pro graphic tablets for 2017.

The new Intuos Pro comes in two sizes, medium and large, and sells at USD $350 and $500.

Additionally, there's the Intuos Pro Paper edition. The Paper edition features a clip-on attachment that allows you to clip paper onto the tablet, draw on it, and have that drawing digitally captured. This is the technology from the Wacom Slate (previously known as Spark). The Intuos Paper edition cost $50 more, with the medium selling at $400 and large at $500.

The tablet will use the Wacom Pro Pen 2 that features 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. As with the Pro series tablets, the stylus support tilt sensitivity too.

The tablets are now wireless, connecting via Bluetooth. With the Paper edition, you can actually draw on paper outdoors, and sync your drawings back when you're at home or office.

ASUS ProArt PA32U HDR Display

This is a 4K panel with HDR capabilities. Here are the specifications:

Resolution: 4K (3840 by 2160)
Refresh rate: 60 Hz
Brightness: 1000 cd/m²
Viewing angles: 178 degrees
Pixel density: 138 ppi
Color gamut: 99.5% Adobe RGB, 95% DCI-P3, 100% sRGB, 85%Rec. 2020
Connection: 1x Thunderbolt 3, 1x DisplayPort 1.2
Price: Unknown
Availability date: Unknown

This monitor competes with the BenQ BL3201PH and the Dell UP3216Q

Dell UP3218K

Just because they can, Dell has launched the world's first 32-inch 8K monitor. The price is USD $5000. That's like 4 times the price of their 4K UP3216Q. Insane.

Resolution: 7680×4320
Refresh rate: 60 Hz
Brightness: 1000 cd/m²
Viewing angles: 178 degrees
Pixel density: 138 ppi
Color gamut: 100% Adobe RGB, 98% DCI-P3, 100% sRGB, 100% Rec.709
Connection: 1x Thunderbolt 3, 1x DisplayPort 1.2
Price: USD $5,000
Availability date: March 2017

Because of the need to support 33.2 million pixels, you'll need a powerful graphics card, or two. Dell has not mentioned any compatible graphics card yet.

Dell Canvas

Dell Canvas is the competitor to Microsoft's all-in-in Surface Studio.

Unlike Microsoft's offering, the 27-inch Dell Canvas will be using Wacom technology. The pen will support 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt. No battery required in the pen.

Note that this is a monitor so you can connect your own computer. The IPS panel is said to support 100% Adobe RGB.

Lenovo X1 Yoga

Lenovo's X1 Yoga is a 14-inch laptop that runs Windows 10. Just like their Yoga series laptops, you can flip the keyboard all the way to the back.

It supports a stylus but there's no information currently on whether or not it can support pressure sensitivity.

Two years has passed since I compiled the list of pen displays in 2015.

Here's the updated list of all the pen displays/monitors and Cintiq alternatives as of January 2017. If you want detailed reviews for specific models, check out the reviews I've published so far. This list below is a just guide that looks at the pros and cons of available options currently in the market.

This list does not include portable tables such as iPad or the Surface Pro 4. If you're looking for a portable setup, visit this article.

Why choose a pen display/monitor over portable tablets for drawing

One advantage that pen displays offer over portable tablets is the screen size. For the same price, you can get a pen display with a larger screen. A larger screen is more comfortable to draw on and easier on your eyes. It's like drawing on an A4 vs A5 paper. With a smaller screen, user interface may be small and you have to squint your eyes to see.

The other advantage is pen display technology has matured and offers better accuracy and sensitivity compared to tablets and their stylus. The only tablet and stylus combination currently that can match pen displays or tablets like the Wacom Intuos is, in my opinion, the iPad Pro and Pencil, but even that is a compromise because it's running a tablet OS, which brings me to the next point.

Pen displays allow you to use your existing computer, OS and desktop software. Note that there are tablets that run Windows 10 and can use desktop software, however because of the screen size, sometimes they are not the best choice to run those software, e.g. small user interface, or interface not design for small screen form factor. Moreover, such tablets are often not as accurate compared to pen displays.

So basically, if you're looking for large screen, accuracy and the ability to use desktop software, going with pen displays is the more appropriate choice.

Alright, the list of pen displays or Cintiq alternatives are arrange alphabetically according to brand.

Artisul

Artisul is a brand from UC-Logic, a company based in Taiwan. It is known for having its pen digitizer technology used in other pen displays, so much so that sometimes you can install its driver to use with other brands.

In recent years, they have released their own products, and they are the Artisul D10 (2016) and Artisul D13 (2016). I've personally reviewed both and I'm pleasantly surprised by how well they perform.

+ Good build quality
+ Tactile buttons with good feedback
+ Can be powered by USB 3 port
+ Stand can be used for other tablets
+ Stand can be adjusted to many positions
+ Cheaper than Cintiq 13HD
+ Runs cool, only the bottom right is slightly warm
+ Wireless and battery-less pen
+ Pressure sensitivity works great
+ Strokes taper well* and have no jitter
+ Relatively lightweight, compact, and hence portable.
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Windows drivers can't customize specific keys or combos
- Only HDMI port so you might need an adaptor
- Strange stroke tapering effect in Photoshop (Windows)

If you have limited budget, Artisul D10 and D13 are good pen displays to consider. The added advantage is since they are small, you can easily bring them around if you need to.

Bosto

Bosto is a company from China. These are the current pen displays they sell currently, arranged from large to small:

• 22HDX (my review)
• 22UX
• 22HD mini
• 22U mini (my review)
• 14WX (my review)
• 13HD

In short, the mini versions are the pen displays without the physical shortcut buttons. They are all IPS panels with 1080P resolution.

I've reviewed some but I'm not listing their pros and cons here because I'm not sure about their future. Their latest model is from 2015 so they may not be keen to be in the market anymore, and that may affect their customer support as a result.

Dell

Dell isn't a company that I would expect to go into the pen display market for creative professionals but in CES 2017, the Dell Canvas was announced.

Every since I saw the Microsoft Surface Studio, I had wished for that monitor to be sold separately. Dell Canvas is that monitor, except at a lower resolution.

This is a 27-inch pen display features a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and it supports 100% Adobe RGB. It also comes with a remote called the Totem that looks quite similar to Microsoft Surface Studio's Dial.

The best part is, the Dell Canvas is said to be using Wacom technology. The battery-less pen will support 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt.

The estimated shipping date is in April 2017.

Huion

Huion is probably the arch nemesis of Wacom. They probably have released more tablets and monitors than Wacom has in the recent years, and they are getting better each year.

This is the company that really pushes the Wacom the market leader and I like that because with competition you get better products. And in Huion's case they want to create products as good but sell at a cheaper price.

The pen displays that Huion is currently selling are:

• GT-220 v2
• GT-220 (my review)
• GT-190S
• GT-185 (my review)
• Kamvas GT-156HD

Huion pen displays have decent build quality. They support features like 2048 levels of sensitivity, IPS panels with good colour reproduction, extra replaceable nibs for the pen.

For some reason, the Huion pen displays work almost flawlessly on Macs. On Windows, more specifically with Photoshop, there's this slight jittery effect to the strokes, at least for the GT-220 ver 1 that I tested. It could be a non-issue if you're getting it for photo editing, but for drawing I prefer the strokes to come out perfect. Luckily there's this plugin called Lazy Nezumi Pro (not free) that smooths out the Photoshop strokes.

Huion has since released GT-220 ver 2 and that has been getting mostly positive reviews.

If you prefer a smaller form factor, there's the new Kamvas GT-156HD. Despite the smaller screen, the price is surprisingly similar to the big brother GT-220. The specifications of the smaller Kamvas is pretty similar to other Huion pen display, except it has physical buttons.

It features a 1080P screen with 14 express keys and touch bar, anti-glare screen, new driver and pen.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface Studio is on this list because you can also use desktop software with it.

The 4500 x 3000 resolution screen is a beauty, and with the hinge system you can move it into any angle. It's a 28-inch 4500 x 3000 resolution screen. There's no mention of the exact gamut range it supports except that it supports a "wide color-gamut". Microsoft promises fast color profile switching between sRGB, DCI-P3, and Vivid (P3-D65).

The price insane, with the base model starting at USD $2,999.

My only concern is the accuracy and sensitivity of the Surface Pen. All other pen displays on this page feature excellent accuracy (after calibration) and sensitivity. I've used Surface 3 and Surface Pro 4 and they suffer from the common tablet-stylus problem of jittery strokes when diagonal lines are drawn slowly. Unfortunately, I've read online that this issue is still present even in the Surface Studio.

Monoprice

I always feel that Monoprice is a rebranded pen display. Their pen displays are similar in physical design to Huion, Ugee and Bosto mini. So it can be the case of identical pen displays coming from the same factory but branded differently.

There's the Monoprice 22 (2016) which looks like the Huion GT-220 and the Monoprice 19 (2014) which looks like the Huion GT-190.

Not just design, the specifications are also very similar. 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, 1440x900 resolution, TFT panel with 16.7 million colours, 250cdm2 brightness, 700:1 contrast ratio.

So I really can't say who copied who. Huion, Monoprice, Ugee or Bosto?

Ugee

Ugee only has two pen displays, the 2150 (2015) and HK1560 (2016). Reviews for them are quite good on Amazon.

Here are the respective detailed reviews for both models:
http://www.parkablogs.com/picture/review-ugee-ug-2150-pen-display-monitor
http://www.parkablogs.com/picture/review-ugee-hk1560-pen-digitizer-display

The Ugee 2150 is very similar to the Huion GT-220. So the pros and cons are pretty similar.

Wacom

Wacom currently has lots of different Cintiq available but for simplicity's sake, I would just group them into two: the old and the new.

The older generation Cintiqs are the 13HD (2013), 22HD (2012), 24HD (2011), 27QHD (2015).

They are the only company with pen displays that also feature finger gestures (at an additional price compared to standard models). Build quality is excellent. Their drivers work with almost all software and generally have no issues (of course there are exceptions). The main advantage is they play well with all the Adobe software. And because a lot of artists use Wacom, whenever there are issues, you can usually find the same problem on forums, and maybe with an accompanying solution.

The Cintiqs from Wacom are quality products that command the additional price premium.

Those are the older models. Going forward in 2017, Wacom has released the Cintiq Pros.

There's a 13.3-inch model which features 1080P resolution, and the 15.6-inch model with the 3840 by 2160 (4K) resolution. The 15.6-inch model is the first pen display (not tablet) that I know of to have such a resolution. And such high resolution means you must work with recent software that have been updated to take advantage of that resolution. If you're using older Adobe software (CS6 and older), you're going to see tiny user interface.

The new Wacom Pen 2 features 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and 60 degrees of tilt sensitivity (which currently is a feature only Wacom has currently). There are no physical shortcut buttons and are instead replaced by the Wacom ExpressKey which is extremely handy and sold separately.

If you want the best pen display and have the budget for it, then the Wacom Cintiq Pro is currently the best there is. Hopefully, they will come up with even larger sizes. 4K on a 15.6-inch screen just doesn't cut it for me. I like larger screens!

Wacom pens do not require batteries, just like the pens from Artisul, Bosto and the one from Dell Canvas.

Wacom Cintiq Pros color gamut support is at 87% and 94% Adobe RGB respectively.

XP-PEN

The physical design of the XP-PEN 22HD (2016) also looks similar to the Huion, Ugee, Bosto Mini and Monoprice.

I was sent one for review and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. It actually had none of the Photoshop strokes issues that I've experienced with Huion. It works well with all the graphics app that I've tested on both Windows and Mac. Usually when I review such pen displays, there would usually be some issues with some apps but for the most of the apps except Mischief, the XP-PEN 22HD works almost flawlessly. Having a good driver really makes all the difference in functionality.

Usual specs are there. 1080P, IPS panel, 2048 levels of pressure.

Pros
+ Good built quality
+ IPS panel with good colour reproduction and viewing angles
+ 2 pens include
+ Spare nibs included
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity works well
+ Input for DVI and HDMI, and has adaptor for mini-DisplayPort to HDMI
+ Works well with most Windows and Mac graphics app, except Mischief (Windows)

Cons
- Glossy screen prone to reflections, depends on your working environment
- No shortcut buttons on the monitor itself
- Gets warm at lower right after a while
- Wires behind prevent the display for going to it's lowest possible position
- Parallax that's compensated by software settings
- Pen needs charging

Yiynova

I've many Yiynova pen displays featured on the blog, from smallest to biggest:

• Yiynova UC-logic SP-1001 Pen Digitizer Tablet Monitor
• Yiynova MVP10U Tablet Monitor
• Yiynova MVP10UHD+IPS USB Digitizer Tablet Display
• Yiynova MSP19U+ Tablet Monitor
• Yiynova MVP20U+RH
• Yiynova MVP22U V3 Pen Digitizer Tablet Monitor
• Yiynova MVP22U+RH Pen Display Monitor

Reviews for their pen displays are generally positive. However, the latest model which is the MSP19U+V5 and the MVP22U(V3)+RH are from 2015. While not as new as the competition, their performance and drawing functionality are still good enough to compete. Hopefully, they will release new products soon.

They have a pen display with remote that feels like it was inspired by the Wacom ExpressKey Remote.

Detailed reviews

To check out detailed reviews of specific pen display models I've featured on this blog, visit
http://www.parkablogs.com/content/list-of-art-products-reviewed

Conclusion

So many pen displays, which one should you get?

If you want the best, go for Wacom Cintiq Pro, perhaps the Microsoft Surface Studio or Dell Canvas.

If you want the all round budget performer with a larger screen at affordable price, check out the XP-PEN 22HD or the Huion GT-220 v2.

If you want something compact, check out the Artisul D10 and D13, Huion Kamvas GT-156HD and Wacom Cintiq Pro.

If you want budget, then it has to be the smaller Artisul D10 and D13.

If you find this compilation helpful, share it with your artist friends.

"What's the difference between the Huion H610 Pro and the 1060 PLUS?" is the a question I get asked frequently. I've decided to answer this in blog and video so that I can link back to it in the future when I get asked again.

Here's the short summary, in terms of drawing functionality, there is no difference. The main difference comes in the physical design, and the 1060 PLUS has more physical shortcut buttons.

By the way, there are two versions of the 1060 PLUS. The new one is called the NEW 1060 PLUS. The difference is just in physical design.

Here's the long version.

Specifications are pretty similar. Drawing functionality is essentially the same for both tablets.

The main difference is PLUS has 12 physical shortcut buttons and there's a 8GB microSD card included. I usually recommend PLUS over PRO because of the extra shortcut buttons. Having the microSD card is useful too because you can store files or drivers on it and transport the tablet from office to home and have access.

The other difference is the physical design and look. The PLUS's surface area is one seamless piece where as the PRO is divided with a line to separate the drawing and button areas.

The L-shape cable for the PLUS is good design. With the horizontal cable that comes out from the side of the PRO, when I access the physical shortcut buttons, I always press my hand on them. With the PLUS, the cable is out of the way.

Price difference isn't too much, less than USD $10, so I always recommend getting the PLUS because the extra shortcut buttons.

I've just borrowed a Lenovo Yoga Book from my friend for this review.

Just like my other tech reviews, this review will focus on the drawing capability of the Lenovo Yoga Book.

Here are some key features and important things to note.

• This is a so called 2-in-1 tablet. You can use it as a laptop or tablet
• You can draw on the keyboard area with a pressure-sensitive stylus
• The stylus allows you to use ballpoint ink on paper, or the plastic tip for drawing
• To use the stylus on the screen, you have to turn on AnyPen mode in settings

Basically, just think of the Yoga Book like fusing a Wacom Intuos to a tablet.

Video review

Here's the 20 minute review that talks about the same things on this page.

Specifications

There are two versions, Android and Windows.

Android is the better choice in my opinion because it's designed for tablets, for touch screens, for processor efficiency. The Intel® Atom™ x5-Z8550 processor included in the Yoga Book isn't that powerful, so if you run apps like Photoshop, it's going to lag (according to another friend). I would recommend Windows only if you have specific apps, desktop apps, you need to use.

Android version currently retails at USD $500. Windows version is $50 more.

Here are the main specifications:

Processor: Intel® Atom™ x5-Z8550 Processor
OS: Android 6 or Windows 10
Storage: 64GB with microSD card slot for up to 128GB.
Memory: 4GB
Battery life: 8500 mAh, around 7-9 hours depending on usage
Weight: 690g
Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.72 x 0.38 inches (25.6 x 17 x 0.96 cm)
Screen: 10.1 inch 1080P resolution up to 90% sRGB
Brightness: 400 nits
Colors: Black, gray, gold
Wifi: Yes
Ports: micro-USB, micro-HDMI, 3.5mm headphone
Speakers: Side facing

What's in the box

• Yoga Book
• Pen
• 3 ballpoint refill
• Notebook holder and notebook
• microSD card slot ejection pin
• Charger and cable
• Manual

Design and build quality

The Yoga Book is a lightweight (690g) and compact 2-in-1 tablet. The physical size is slightly larger than my A5 sketchbook, and it's thinner (0.96cm)

This is the front. The Yoga Book is available in grey and gold. The one I have is gold. I suppose grey will look nicer.

And this is the back. As there are no rubber feet on the back to raise the laptop, this means it's likely to scratch the metalic surface.

The unit that I have already have several hairline scratches. You can buy a sleeve for it but I don't think a case will work well because of the hinge system.

The build quality is good. However, when I pick it up using the keyboard, I can hear some flexing sounds. Not a big issue.

One of the design highlights is the so called Halo Keyboard. There are no physical keys. The typing surface will light up to show the buttons. Typing on it feels like typing on a touch-screen. One issue that I have is the learning curve. When typing with normal keyboards, I look at the screen and not at the keys. When typing using the Halo Keyboard, I find myself looking at the keys and not the screen, as such, I can sometimes lose track of what I'm typing on the screen. It takes time to get use to it.

There's supposed to be haptic feedback when using the Halo Keyboard. Press a button and the keyboard vibrates. I turned that off and it seems pointless to me.

There's no good reason for the inclusion of a keyboard if it's not optimal for typing. The Halo Keyboard is not the best keyboard for typing. However, we have this keyboard because it also doubles as a drawing surface. So the drawing surface is the selling point. If not, you could have gotten yourself the Lenovo Miix 510, Surface Pro 4 or basically any tablet with detachable keyboard. But those tablets have a downside (more on that later).

The trackpad is too small to be useful. Anything, there's a touch-screen so it's just much faster to just use your finger and tap.

The other highlight is the hinge system that allows the keyboard to flip all the way to the back of the screen, 360 degrees.

This allows you to use it like a real tablet. Since there are no physical keys, it feels nicer to hold the back.

You can fold the Yoga Book into any angle. This is great if you want to prop it up on the table to watch video.

At some parts of the hinge, there are loose parts and this causes certain parts to move around and create unwanted sound.

The 10.1-inch screen supports 1920 x 1080 resolution. It's an IPS panel so viewing angles are decent. I've read that it can support up to 90% sRGB. Different websites report different colour gamut support. Lenovo's website said it has 70% colour gamut. Adobe RGB? Anyway, colour reproduction is more than satisfactory for me for a laptop in this price region. The screen is bright and the colours are vibrant.

There aren't many ports on the Yoga Book. On the left side are the micro-USB port for charging and data transfer, and then there's the micro-HDMI port (no cable provided). On the other side is the 3.5mm audio jack.

Battery life is around 7 to 9 hours depending on usage.

That's the pen provided. It supports pressure sensitivity although I'm not sure exactly sure how many levels. No battery is required. This is a full size pen and it feels good when held in hand. It's balanced and not too heavy.

The pen has the option of using ballpoint or plastic tip.

For the ballpoint refill, you have to get the MiniStar refill. I've tried the Zebra brand refill that's similar in dimensions and it does not work. This is the same issue with the Wacom Bamboo Slate -- it's like the Yoga Book without the screen.

The pen is for use on the keyboard area. You cannot draw on the screen with the pen.

The cap can be used to change the tips. Just put the tip into the hole on the cap, tilt it, and pull out the tip.

Putting the tip back is as easy as slotting it back it.

The plastic tip is small. When drawing, it feels like drawing with a normal pen.

Before drawing, you have to switch the tablet to drawing mode. Just press and hold the pen icon at the top right until it lights up and you're in tablet mode. To go back to keyboard mode, press and hold the pen icon again. Easy.

This is the notebook holder, aka Yoga Book pad.

The 75-page notebook means 11.6 by 6.4 inches. A5 is 5.8 x 8.3 inches. So the notebook is much wider.

The notebook has two holes on the side that you can fit into the two magnets from the pad. That will keep the notebook in place when you write on it.

Since the notebook is not standard size, it will be difficult to use other notebooks, e.g. the ubiquitous A5 notebook. Lenovo sells the notebook at USD $15 which is bloody expensive!

If you really want to use your own notebook or paper, you have to find a way to clamp it down, probably with some clips. Make sure the clip doesn't scratch the back.

To get your drawing captured accurately, you have to draw within the active area. The active area is marked by four Ls at each corner.

When you're in the drawing mode, everything you write on the paper will be recorded and shown on screen instantly. You can use any app while writing or drawing. Accuracy is very good.

I've tested Adobe Photoshop Sketch, Wacom Bamboo Paper, Medibang Paint Pro. Response time is good. Lag is very minimal to none. How much lag there is depends on the app. For example, Adobe Photoshop Sketch has slight lag whereas Wacom Bamboo Paper has no lag at all.

There's no jitter or wavy line effect when drawing diagonal lines slowly. That line above was drawn slowly with a ruler.

Pressure sensitivity works for both the ballpoint and plastic tip.

The type of variation you can achieve for the stroke thickness will depend on the app. Apps like Wacom Bamboo Paper limits thickness.

Apps like Medibang Paint allows maximum variation depending on your pressure, so it can achieve really thin and thick strokes. Stroke variation and pressure sensitivity support all comes down to app support.

When you tilt the Yoga Book in portrait orientation, it switches from keyboard mode to drawing mode. Problem is the gyroscope isn't perfect, so sometimes it may switch modes when you lay the Yoga Book flat on the table. It's better to switch to drawing mode manually by pressing and holding the pen icon on the keyboard.

By default, you won't be able to use the stylus to draw on the screen. To draw on the screen, you have to turn on AnyPen mode in settings first. There won't be any pressure sensitivity when you draw on the screen though. The big problem when using the stylus on the screen is there can be broken lines because the screen wasn't able to detect the stylus all the time. There's also the jitter wavy line effect when diagonal lines are drawn slowly. Basically, it's not a satisfactory experience working in AnyPen mode. Drawing and writing on the keyboard area is so much better.

Who is this for?

When it comes to capturing strokes, the Yoga Book does a very good job of doing so.

Drawing on the Yoga Book feels like drawing with the screen-less Wacom Intuos. As there are so many tablets available in the market, why not get one so that you can draw on the screen? The main reason is many tablets suffer from the problem have having jittery wavy lines when diagonal lines are drawn slowly. The other reason is if the stylus is not specially made for the tablet, there can be parallax. Third reason is price.

There aren't many tablets with pressure sensitive stylus that can produce perfectly accurate strokes. The only ones I know of are the Apple iPad Pro and Pencil and the Wacom MobileStudio Pro. Both are expensive options. I've no experience with S Pen from Samsung tablets so I don't know how they perform (if you know let me know). The one I'm most curious about is the performance of the Samsung Tab A 10.1 (2016) with S Pen (I'm going to review that soon).

The other selling point is the ability to use ballpoint on paper. This is for people who prefer the tactile feeling of writing or drawing. However, the spare notebooks sold by Lenovo is just too expensive at USD $15. I find the matte surface keyboard area to provide a nice texture for writing or drawing with the plastic stylus tip. I have absolutely no problem using that instead of the notebook for taking notes. And the Yoga Book is fantastic at taking notes. Just like how it can accurately capture my drawing. It can accurately capture my handwriting as well.

Conclusion

The price point of the Yoga Book is quite good. USD $500 for the Android version is more expensive than some other tablets, such as the Microsoft Surface 3 or Samsung Tab A 10.1 (2016) with S Pen. However with the Yoga Book, you can be sure that the strokes will come out exactly the way you want them to be. And that to me is the selling point of this tablet.

Overall, the Lenovo Yoga Book gets a 4 out of 5 stars for me. For drawing or note-taking purposes, 5 out of 5 stars since it does what it's marketed to do perfectly.

As usual, if you find this review helpful, share it with your artist friends.

Availability

You can find the Lenovo Yoga Book and more reviews on Amazon. Links below.
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

I've got my friend Mindflyer and Lenovo Singapore to thank for arranging a review unit of the Lenovo Miix 510 for me to check out.

The Lenovo Miix 510 is a 2-in-1 computer, just like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Acer Switch Alpha, all of which have active styluses.

As usual, my review will be from the perspective of an artist. I'm not interested in running benchmarks because all those things aren't that important when it comes to drawing. My priority is to find out how well performs when it's being used as a digital sketchpad.

Let's take a look at the specifications first:

• Processor: Intel® Core i3-6100U (2.3 GHz), i5-6200U (2.3 - 2.8 GHz max), i7-6500U (2.5 - 3.1 GHz max)
• OS: Windows 10
• Screen: 12.2-inch
• Resolution: 1920 x 1200
• Storage: Up to 1TB SSD
• RAM: Up to 8GB
• Graphics: Intel HD Integrated Graphics 520
• Ports: USB Type C, USB 3 Type A, audio Jack
• Dimension: 30 x 20.5 x 0.99 cm (or 1.59 cm thick with keyboard)
• Weight: 880 g or 1.25kg with keyboard
• Active Stylus: Included
• Battery: 39 WHr

The Miix 510 comes with a keyboard cover, stylus and charger.

Design and build quality

Build quality is excellent and the unit feels solid. It weighs 880g and goes up to 1.25kg with the included keyboard.

The build-in kickstand uses the Lenovo's hinge system, and it's able to position itself to any angle.

The hinge is tight. But if you rest your hands on the screen to draw, the screen will be pushed down to the lowest angle.

That's the recessed area to open the kickstand. The unit is cooled by fans and there are vents at both sides and top.

Overall design looks fine and very functional. SP4's design is cleaner by comparison.

The keyboard cover uses faux leather which is easier to clean. It protects the Gorilla Glass screen but the brushed aluminum back is exposed. You'll probably want to get a case for the back because any scratches will make your heart ache like getting a scratch on a new car.

The keyboard cover attaches to the tablet using strong magnets, and you can use the magnets to tilt the keyboard at an incline. When drawing with the keyboard attached, the drawing hand would brush against the keys. I usually detach the keyboard as I don't like that feeling. I prefer using a Bluetooth keyboard instead, placed by the side.

The keyboard is fine to type with but definitely not the best. I like the large arrow keys which I use often, but the small Shift key on the right could be bigger.

The ports included are a USB 3 Type C and A. If you want to connect to an external monitor, you'll need an adapter. I tried charging the Miix 510 with my phone's USB Type C cable and it wasn't able to. There' no mention whether the USB Type C can be used for charging, so it's advisable to use the big and heavy charging adapter provided. If USB Type C charging is possible, Lenovo probably won't have included the round charging port in the first place. It would have been so nice to have 2 USB Type C ports though, one capable of charging.

Miix 510 is heavier than SP4's 786g but lighter than ASA12's 910g. It does feel heavy compared to SP4 but it's still relatively light, but much heavier with the keyboard cover added.

Screen

The 12.2-inch screen features a 1920 by 1200 resolution which is lower compared to SP4's 2736 x 1824 resolution and ASA12's 2160 by 1440. The resolution is perfectly usable. On a 12.2 inch screen, it's still not too pixelated.

The biggest advantage is for apps not optimised for high resolution screens, the user interface, buttons and menus will be rendered at very comfortable sizes. For example, running Adobe CS6 or older apps on the SP4 will give you tiny icons, icons so small that even with a small tip stylus it can still be challenging to click.

In my review for the ASA12, I actually praised the 2160 by 1440 resolution just because it's lower than SP4's. And now I applaud the Miix 510 for actually using the 1920 by 1200 resolution. My use case could be unusual because I'm still hanging on to using old Adobe CS6 (which is still serving me very well). High pixel density screen can give you sharp images and text but I still value usability and prefer having larger icons and menus even if they are slightly pixelated --- but seriously they aren't really that pixelated on the Miix 510.

Colour reproduction is fantastic. The screen is vibrant, and there's no colour shift when viewed at angles.

Performance

My unit comes with the core i7-6500U with a dual 2.5Ghz that goes up to 3.1Ghz. There's 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage on board. Performance is snappy. If the price difference between the i5 and i7 isn't too big, then it might be worth upgrading. But it's important to get at least 8GB of RAM. Having 256GB storage would be good because with the 128GB storage, the actual size would be around 108GB with Windows OS installed.

There's no microSD card slot so you might want to increase the storage at the time of purchase as you won't be able to do so later on.

Battery life is 4-6 hours. Yes, I'm giving you a wide range because it really depends on what you're doing. If you want to sketch non-stop for 4 hours, sure no problem. If you want it to last all day, have that charger nearby. Battery life is not as good as SP4, but SP4's battery life isn't that good either when compared to laptops. It's a shame the Miix 510 can't be charged by the USB Type C port because having a power bank can really lengthen your working time.

Lenovo Active Pen 2

This is the essential tool for drawing on the screen.

The battery powered stylus uses a AAAA battery. If battery life is anything like SP4's Surface Pen, it should last for months.

This is an active stylus so you're going to get the hover mode, and perfect palm rejection when hover mode is in effect. An active stylus on a Windows tablet is almost always better compared to a capacitive stylus, such as the stylus used by the Samsung TabPro S.

This stylus uses Wacom technology and supports pressure sensitivity. There's option to change the pressure sensitivity in step but no pressure curve for you to adjust. You can also customize the two shortcut buttons on the side of the stylus.

I wasn't able to find documentation that mentions the actual levels of pressure sensitivity supported. When I'm using it, it's definitely more sensitive than any of the capacitive styluses that I've used (that's all of Adonit's styluses) and on par or even better with the Surface Pen and the one from ASA12.

The pen holder included can be plugged into the USB Type A port.

When the tips get worn out, you can replace them. I wasn't able to find any replaceable tips included in my box though.

Drawing performance

The Lenovo Miix 510 comes pre-installed with Wintab driver. Thumbs up for Lenovo with that move.

Wintab driver is required for Photoshop to produce pressure sensitive strokes. I let out a gasp of relief when I saw that the first line I drew with Photoshop was smooth and the pressure sensitivity works perfectly. The thin and thick transition is smooth and the strokes taper gradually as I lift off the stylus. With many other Windows tablets that I've tried, I often need to install Lazy Nezumi Pro plugin to get smooth lines for Photoshop but with the Miix 510 there's no need to do so. Nice.

My happiness is short-lived because, as usual, Photoshop (I'm using CS6), still gives me problems on tablet platforms. Sometimes, I would randomly get thick strokes as if pressure sensitivity was lost. You can see in the picture above, everything was fine until I had to draw the cubes. There, I encountered the random-thick-line syndrome. I found someone asking about the same problem on the Adobe forums but the solution posted did not help me.

Problems with strokes are usually caused by Wintab, so I downloaded Wintab driver from Microsoft's website and reinstalled it.

Reinstalling Wintab fixed the problem with the random thick lines. In the end, I guess you still have to manually install Wintab to get Photoshop working fine.

There's also slight jitter for diagonal lines that are drawn slowly. When drawing at moderate speed, the usual speed I work at, I don't get the jitter. Some graphic apps actually don't have jitter so it really depends on how good the app is designed. But if you really need that level of accuracy, the jitter could be the deal breaker.

Another thing with (only) Photoshop is, after using it for a while, it would seem to lag. The strokes would come out slower. I've changed the settings for the cache, history state and RAM allocation but the lag will still come back after a while, and after a while it will go back to normal. Weird.

Compared to the Apple Pencil where you can get strokes without pressure as long as there is contact with screen, with the Lenovo stylus you do have to apply slight activation force to draw. In actual use, it feels very similar to using Apple Pencil or Wacom Intuos stylus. That's very satisfactory to me and I would give it 4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars for the implementation (5 is reserved for Wacom Intuos styluses).

I've tried the stylus with Medibang Paint Pro, Krita, Paint Tool Sai, Wacom Bamboo Paper, Sketchable, ArtRage Touch, Sketchbook and Illustrator (CS6) and the stylus performs almost flawlessly. Palm rejection works most of the time as long as you're in hover mode. The only issue I had was with Mischief because that app does not work well with Wintab drivers, hence I have to use a hack to turn Wintab on and off.

When it comes to taking notes, I use Squid and the experience is great. The stylus tip glides smoothly on the glass surface and I was almost able to match the speed with of a real ballpoint pen. This is a huge plus for those looking for a note taking tablet. It was able to capture my handwriting relatively well but not as accurate as the Lenovo Yoga Book. On a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is being able to capture my handwriting accurately, Miix 510 would score a 4, while the Yoga Book scores a 5.

I don't really use One Note but in case you do that's the handwriting sample above.

There's minimal parallax error for a 12.2 inch screen. The cursor is always beneath the tip.

The tip is smooth on the glass screen and glides freely, but sometimes it's a bit too slippery for my liking but it's good for handwriting. It takes a while to get used to it,

Unfortunately, the design of the stylus is not perfect. Having a small tip is a good thing. However, the front of the tip holder is quite big and it blocks the line of vision to the lines drawn. This is alright for people who take notes, but for artists who want to see where their lines are coming out from, it can a problem. And you can't tilt the pen too much because that tip holder is big and will touch the screen.

Conclusion

Pre-installing the Wintab driver is a great move. Not everyone who buys this 2-in-1 computer will know that you need the Wintab driver in order to get pressure sensitivity working right. Going online to find the Wintab driver and install may be easy but it's still an additional inconvenience. Unfortunately, not all apps work perfectly. I had problems with random thick lines with Photoshop. And Mischief doesn't work with the Wintab driver.

Overall drawing experience is very satisfactory when the drawing apps work. After installing Wintab, my workflow was pretty smooth without hiccups.

The pricing for Miix 510 is very competitive. The i5 model with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage is selling at around USD $700 and that includes the keyboard cover and stylus. That's around the same price as the Acer Switch Alpha 12. Both 2-in-1s are USD $300 cheaper than the Surface Pro 4. Surface Pro 4 is a good product but Lenovo Miix 500 is equally as good, but cheaper.

Price cutting and competition in the 2-in-1 computer market is brutal, but it really benefits consumers. So either Lenovo is making little profit on the Miix 510 or Microsoft is making a huge profit off it (probably so).

So is the Lenovo Miix 510 a capable digital sketchpad. Yes, but it has some glitches with Photoshop and Mischief as mentioned earlier. Thankfully, there are workarounds so it's not a deal breaker.

Overall, my rating would be 4 out of 5 stars. The downsides are the battery life, weight when compared to other 2-in-1s and the design of the tip holder.

If you're currently looking for a digital sketchpad that runs Windows, you should check out the Miix 510, SP4 and ASA12. Stay away from the Samsung TabPro S and Huawei Matebook.

One last thing, do not confuse the Miix 510 with the 1.75kg Yoga 510 (14-inch). The Miix 510 comes with the active stylus that's optimal for drawing.

If you find this review helpful, share it with your artist friends.

Pros
+ Sturdy build quality
+ Has USB 3 Type C and Type A ports
+ Nice weight for its size but too heavy for handheld drawing
+ Built in stand that you can adjust to any position
+ Pressure sensitivity of the stylus is on par or better than Surface Pen.
+ Stylus feels good to draw on the screen
+ 1920 by 1200 resolution means user interface of all apps are at comfortable sizes
+ Screen has good viewing angles and colours
+ Good stereo speakers
+ Able to install desktop and tablet apps
+ Wintab driver is pre-installed
+ Snappy performance generally
+ The stylus included uses Wacom technology
+ The stylus pressure sensitivity and buttons can be customised
+ Keyboard cover is included
+ Keyboard is relatively good to type on

Cons
- Battery life could be better
- No display port included
- No microSD slot included
- The stylus' tip holder is big and blocks off the line of vision to lines drawn
- Photoshop has random thick line problem with default Wintab driver
- Photoshop lags after a while and goes back to normal
- USB Type C port cannot be used for charging
- Keyboard cover does not protect the back of the tablet
- 880g tablet weight is heavier than SP4

Availability

Check out more reviews of the Lenovo Miix 510 through the direct Amazon links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

If you make any purchase through the links, I get a little commission at no extra cost to you.

I finally found a secondhand unit at good price and bought it for this review. As usual, my review is written for artists who are thinking of getting a tablet like this for drawing purposes.

The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S was released in March 2016 to replace the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.

Specifications

• OS: Windows 10
• Dimensions: 11.43 x 7.83 x 0.25 inches (29 x 19.9 x 0.6cm)
• Weight: 696g (not including keyboard)
• Screen: 12-inch Super AMOLED
• Resolution: 2160 by 1440
• Processor: Intel Core m3-6Y30 Dual 2.2Ghz
• RAM: 4GB
• Storage: 128 - 256GB
• Battery: 5200mAh with fast charging
• Battery life: 4-5 hours in real life
• Port: 1x USB Type C
• Wifi: Yes, of course

Design and build quality

The design of this tablet is beautiful, build quality is excellent and the 12-inch AMOLED screen looks sharp.

In theory, color gamut support is up to 99% sRGB and 85% Adobe RGB. Such colour reproduction for a tablet is fantastic. BUT that wonderful colour reproduction only works well around the centre of the screen. Areas near the edge have a slight blue tint to it. Is that why AMOLED computer monitors aren't that popular in real life.

There's only 1 USB Type C port. To use other devices like SD card reader, USB thumb drive, or connect to external monitor, you'll need to get the Multiport Adapter which is sold separately.

The included keyboard cover uses strong magnets to attach itself to the tablet.

The exterior surface finishing is tough faux leather which I prefer over the SP4's because it's easier to clean.

Typing on it is uncomfortable because the keys are spaced to close to one another and there isn't much key travel. Its main use is to protect the tablet. Typing is secondary. The good thing is the keyboard cover is included in the price. There's no backlight though.

Keyboard cover allows for two position. The lower angle is nice for drawing.

Trackpad is useable, small and meh.

General performance

The Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor is not that powerful but good enough for a tablet. Performance is snappy almost all the time. For the price paid, it better be.

The 5200 mAh battery with fast charging capability but in real life it's just average charging speed. Battery life is around 4-6 hours depending on what you do, instead of the 10.5 hours marketed by Samsung. Battery life is actually not too far behind Microsoft Surface Pro 4 which only has a 5087 mAh battery. Anyway, both tablets lose out to Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch's 10,307 mAh battery.

Maximum RAM is at 4GB is which is sufficient for light users. If you want to run lots of apps, prepare for slight lag. In real life I don't really notice lag with my workflow.

When you first use the tablet, be prepared to spend an hour or two to install the Windows and Samsung updates. The latter will give you access to the Samsung TabPro Pen Manager, which only tells you how much battery life is left in the stylus. You can't customise the stylus' shortcut buttons or pressure sensitivity.

Galaxy TabPro C Pen

Oh hey, guess which other stylus does the TabPro C Pen looks like? The sub-par Wacom Creative Stylus 2 (for iOS use only).

The tip to the TabPro C Pen has a more textured rubbery feel compared to the shiny polished plastic tip of the Creative Stylus 2. Rubbery tips are not good for writing because of the friction. For drawing purposes, it's works fine, and the tip is small and does not block off lines beneath.

There are two shortcut buttons on the side. Their functions depend on the app. By default, double clicking on the first button brings up the Windows Ink Workspace which is a menu of links to other apps. Double clicking the other button brings up Scrap Box which allows you to screen capture. As mentioned earlier, there's no way to customise those two buttons.

The stylus uses a micro-USB port for charging, the port that many Android phones and other device uses. Nice.

The TabPro C Pen is not your typical Samsung S Pen. There's no hover mode, so you won't see any cursor moving around as you hover the pen above the screen. This is unlike the S Pen, Surface Pen in Microsoft Surface Pro, Wacom Stylus in their Cintiqs or other Windows tablets with stylus specially programmed to work with the hover mode.

Here are some things to get used to. You can't tap+hold to scroll webpages unless you're using the scroll bar. And you can't hover over a file to right-click with the stylus to call up the contextual menu.

One irritating thing about the stylus is it will not be detected when you reboot the system. You have to press the side button to power on the stylus again.

Drawing performance

First of all, if you want to use pressure sensitive brush with Photoshop, you have to install the Wintab drivers. Secondly, because Wintab drivers may not work well with other graphics software, you have to use a hack to turn Wintab on or off.

Palm rejection, lag, jittery diagonal lines depend on the apps you use.

How well palm rejection works depends on how well the app is designed. I've tried several apps and palm rejection does not work perfectly. So stray marks are still likely. This applies to all the apps that I've tested and listed below. This issue with palm rejection is not anything new with capacitive styluses.

There may be slight jitter in some apps when drawing diagonal lines slowly. This is a common problem with digital styluses. To get perfect accuracy, you have to get big rubber tip styluses like the Adonit Mark for example but that will block the view of your lines, or the Adonit Jot Pro (the one with the disc tip). However, such styluses don't support pressure sensitivity.

Anyway, the jitter is present. This happens if you draw very slowly. If you draw at moderate speed, the lines will be smooth. I point this out because this is a potential deal breaker for those who need precision.

Shown above are strokes from Medibang Paint Pro. You've to decide for yourself whether or not the amount of jitter is acceptable to you. I drew the boxes very slowly. I drew the "MEDIBANG" words at moderate speed and they look fine.

Slow diagonal strokes from Mischief seem to have more jitter compared to Medibang Paint Pro.

The Galaxy TabPro C Pen supports pressure sensitivity. I'm not sure exactly how many levels. The information is difficult to find so I guess it's not a marketable number. It works but the line thickness variation you can get depends, again, on the app you use. If I have to rank this stylus in terms of sensitivity, it would be Wacom, Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, and then this pen should rank similarly to the Adonit Pixel (for iOS devices).

Below are the individual performance with apps that I've tested.

Wacom Bamboo Paper
+ No lag
+ Pressure works
- Jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines
- Palm rejection works mostly but stray strokes from palm not uncommon

Photoshop (I'm using CS 6)
- Minimal jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines
- Small user interface elements, buttons, menu with the 2160 by 1440 resolution
- Pressure works only after Wintab is installed
- Lots of glitches with Wintab. E.g. Broken lines.

Medibang Paint Pro
+ No lag
- Minimal jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines
+ Pressure works

Mischief
+ No lag
- Minimal jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines
- Does not work with Wintab on

Krita
- Minimal jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines
- Initial delay for each stroke to appear
- Pressure sensitivity doesn't work

Artrage Touch
+ No lag
+ No jitter
+ Pressure works

Sketchbook
+ No lag
+ Pressure works
- Minimal jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines

Sketchable
+ No lag
+ Pressure works
- Minimal jitter wavy effect with slow diagonal lines

Paint Tool Sai
+ No lag
+ No jitter
- Pressure doesn't work

Squid (Note taking)
+ Works well

Overall, Medibang Paint and Sketchable work quite well. Photoshop, I'm still using CS6, gave me the most problem, as always on such tablets. After installing Wintab, I had problems with the strokes' thickness, broken lines, lag.

For handwriting or note taking apps, Squid works well.

Conclusion

When it comes to the feeling of using the stylus to draw, I would say that it's quite similar to the Adonit Pixel (for iOS devices), but somehow it doesn't seem to be as sensitive and there's more jitter. Maybe that's got to do with the fact that this stylus is actually a rebranded Wacom Creative Stylus 2.

I feel that the active styluses in Surface tablets, Acer Switch Alpha 12 and Lenovo Miix 510.

I've reviewed several Windows tablets and so far, every one has some glitches, and there are also glitches in certain apps. It really comes down to app support. If you happen to be using an app that doesn't have much trouble, such as Medibang Paint Pro or Sketchable, then the Samsung TabPro S is a good tablet to consider getting. If you use other apps, you have to decide whether you can live with those minor inconveniences. Since I still don't want to upgrade to Adobe CC, I won't be able to test the compatibility with the CC apps. Unfortunately for me, Photoshop CS6 with wintab always have some glitches here and there but it's almost unusable here. If you're also using TabPro S and Photoshop, do share with me your experience.

The issue with jittery diagonal lines when drawing slowing happens here as well, as with the other tablets I've mentioned. If you draw at moderate speed, that not an issue.

If you are getting one to take notes, the stylus may be a bit slow because of the rubbery texture on the solid tip, but it does not make those tapping sounds on glass surfaces.

There are many Windows tablets in the market today. It's difficult to find one that's flawless for artists. There's always some sort of compromise.

At the same price point, you can check out the Acer Switch Alpha 12 which offers 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. If you have more budget, the Lenovo Miix 510 is a good performer and provides more value for money compared to Surface Pro 4. You may also want to consider the Lenovo Yoga Book 10.1-inch Android version.

Overall for drawing purposes, I would rate this 3.5 out of 5.

If you find this review helpful, share it with your artist friends.

Pros
+ Sturdy build quality
+ Beautiful design that can compete with Apple iPad
+ 696g weight is relatively light for a tablet this size
+ 2160 by 1440 resolution
+ AMOLED screen is vibrant but does not have excellent viewing angles
+ Able to install desktop and tablet apps
+ Snappy performance
+ Keyboard cover is included
+ Keyboard cover protects the back of the tablet
+ Keyboard cover comes in two useful position
+ The multiport adapter (not included) is cheaper than Apple's by USD $10.

Cons
- Stylus (USD $40) is not included
- Pressure sensitivity of the stylus is not as good as SP4 or Lenovo Miix 510
- Stylus is capacitive instead of active, so palm rejection is iffy
- Stylus tip has more friction and is not conducive for writing fast. Drawing is alright
- One USB 3 Type C port only
- Keyboard has no backlight
- The multiport adapter (USD $35) is required if you want to use USB devices and charge at the same time
- Battery life could be better
- Good speakers but side facing
- No display port included
- No microSD slot included
- Keyboard is lousy to type on
- Wintab driver has to be installed to work with Photoshop

Availability

Check out more reviews of the Samsung TabPro S through the direct Amazon links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

As for the pen, just search for "galaxy tabpro pen" on Amazon.

If you make any purchase through the links, I get a little commission at no extra cost to you.

There are many styluses in the market but it generally comes down to two types: active and capacitive.

When you're buying a tablet for drawing purposes, or for use as a digital sketchpad, you should know the difference between active and capacitive styluses so that you can spend your money wisely.

The pros and cons to each type of stylus are related to how the stylus works and the technology involved.

How does a capacitive stylus work?

A capacitive screen has an electrostatic field. When tapping on the screen with your finger, it will distort the field. The processor will detect where the distortion happens and work out what you're tapping on.

One condition for this to work is, the tip has to be wide enough to generate capacitance for the screen to register. That's why styluses cannot have tips that are too small.

How does an active stylus work?

An active stylus works with a digitizer screen. The digitizer is a special sensor built into the touch screen that actively senses for the presence of a compatible stylus.

This digitizer technology allows for additional features that are not possible with capacitive styluses. For example, when the stylus hovers on the touch-screen, a cursor may appear, and when the cursor is over a file you can click on the stylus side button to get a contextual menu. Or with some styluses, you can flip the stylus around and the tablet would automatically switch to erasing mode.

Pros and cons of capacitive styluses

+ They work with all touch-screens: Such styluses will work on both Android, iOS and Windows tablets. By the way, the iPad uses a capacitive screen. There aren't any active styluses that work with iPads.

+ They are cheap: There really isn't a lot of technology involved to justify a high price tag.

+ They don't require batteries (usually): A capacitive stylus can also be a digital stylus. I'm not sure whether these digital styluses are actually capacitive so I shall just use the term "capacitive" with quotes. For example, Adonit makes a lot of such styluses for iOS devices. These digital styluses require battery power. The battery power is used to simulate capacitance to work with a small tip. These digital styluses typically connect to the tablet via Bluetooth for extra features, e.g allows for the use of shortcut buttons on the side or pressure sensitivity.

- The tip is big and blocks off the lines beneath: Self explanatory.

- The tip is not as accurate as an active stylus: A capacitive stylus is not as accurate because the large tip blocks the line of sight with the lines produced. However, there's a stylus called the Adonit Jot Pro with a plastic disc that allows you to see through to the line and is extremely accurate.

- There is no palm rejection: The tablet can't really differentiate the stylus tip from your finger tips. So no easy way for the tablet or app to implement palm rejection perfectly. Apple Pencil seems to be the only stylus currently to have good palm rejection capability, but it's not 100% flawless either.
Drawing with capacitive stylus will involve lifting your hand from the screen to prevent stray strokes.

- There is no pressure sensitivity: There's no digitizer to sense the pressure you apply with the stylus so you don't get pressure sensitivity with capacitive styluses.

- Can have parallax error: Where the lines come out from beneath the tip depends on the angle the stylus is held at. That's why some drawing apps allow you to choose your hand posture. Sometimes, parallax may appear when the touch-screen is in portrait mode, not landscape mode, and sometimes it's the other way round.

- Digital "capacitive" stylus have jitter problem: The major downside of digital "capacitive" styluses is when drawing diagonal lines slowly, those lines tend to be affected by jitter and appear wavy. Some stylus will exhibit more obvious jitter while others less. This affects accuracy and is often a deal breaker for artists who demand accuracy. This problem only affects digital styluses. And such digital stylus are only created for specific devices.

The capacitive styluses below will work with all tablets:

• AmazonBasics stylus
• Adonit Mark
• Wacom Bamboo stylus
• Adonit Jot Pro

These are digital "capacitive" styluses:

• FiftyThree Pencil (made specially for the FiftyThree Paper iOS app)
• Adonit Dash 2
• Adonit Snap
• Apple Pencil (only for iPad Pro)

Pros and cons of active styluses

+ They can be more accurate: Active styluses does not suffer from parallax error. The cursor is always beneath the tip. Hence, they are more accurate. However, the accuracy can be affected by the diagonal-jitter-line effect that plagues digital "capacitive" styluses.

+ They have pressure sensitivity: Pressure sensitivity is also a feature sought after by artists. The digitizer screen is able to register the pressure you apply with the pen and create the appropriate thickness for the stroke.

+ They have perfect palm rejection: Main advantage of an active stylus is they support palm rejection. With active styluses, there's the hover mode when the stylus is near the screen, and a cursor will appear. The device will know that there's a stylus and treat other contact on the screen as unwanted, hence you can get flawless palm rejection. However, the stylus must be close to the screen at all times.

+ Can have more features: With some styluses, you can flip the stylus to switch to eraser mode.

- More expensive: Active styluses are definitely more expensive compared to capacitive styluses. E.g. The Adonit Pixel for iOS devices currently cost USD $80, the Apple Pencil is USD $100.

- Requires app support for full customisation: To have full support of the features, the active stylus requires support from the OS and apps. For example, the OS must provide some driver that allows you to adjust the pressure sensitivity, or customise shortcut buttons.

- They only support the devices they are made for: The more significant downside is active styluses only work with devices they are made for. It's usually the case that you cannot use an active stylus that's not designed for the products they support. For example, Microsoft Surface Pen only supports Microsoft Surface products. You cannot use a S Pen on a Samsung tablet that does not mention that it supports S Pen. More specifically, the Samsung Tab A cannot work with the S Pen while the Samsung Tab A with S Pen can. Even though they are both Samsung Tab As, the former has no digitizer built into the screen.

Conclusion

So what's the best tablet and stylus combination out there in the market today? If you are thinking of buying a tablet, check out the list of Surface Pro 4 alternatives that I've compiled

If you already have a tablet, it depends on what tablet you have.

iOS devices: If you have an iPad non-Pro, the best stylus currently in my opinion is the Adonit Pixel. For iPad Pro, the best stylus is of course the Apple Pencil.

Android and Windows devices: Unlike iOS devices, there aren't a lot of digital "capacitive" styluses you can choose from. So it comes down to mostly the simple capacitive and active styluses. The best capacitive stylus for drawing is the Adonit Jot Pro but as mentioned earlier, it does not support pressure sensitivity and palm rejection.

The best active stylus is the one that's designed to work with your tablet. If your tablet does not specify that it can work with an active stylus, it cannot work with one. E.g. Microsoft Surface Pen works only with Microsoft Surface products. Samsung S Pen works only with phones and tablets that mention explicitly that they can work with the S Pen. Lenovo Active Pen only work with their Miix 2-in-1 tablets (another others that I may not know of).

Samsung TabPro S is a 2-in-1 tablet that works with a digital "capacitive" stylus. But seriously, if you're going to buy a Windows tablet, buy one that supports an active stylus because of all the advantages that it can offer. My recommendation, Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Lenovo Miix 510, Acer Switch Alpha 12 or the Lenovo Yoga Book. If you have more budget, consider the Wacom MobileStudio Pro.

If you find this article helpful, share it with your artist friends.

Hey guys, I've managed to borrow a Wacom MobileStudio Pro from my friend Ben Qwek for this review.

When the MobileStudio Pro was first announced, I wrote an article talking about issues you should look out for. Now that I've used the device, I'm able to share with you my findings.

Before I start the review, let's look at the different configurations available.

There are two sizes, 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch, with the following configurations as listed:

13.3-inch MobileStudio Pro:

• i5 chip, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage: £1,399 / €1,599.90 / US $1,499.95
• i5 chip, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage: £1,649 / €1,899.90 / US $1,799.95
• i7 chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage: £1,799 / €1,999.90 / US $1,999.95
• i7 chip, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage: £2,299 / €2,699.90 / US $2,499.95

15.6-inch MobileStudio Pro:

• i5 chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage: £2,199 / €2,599.90 / US$2,399.95
• i7 chip, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage: £2,749 / €3,199.90 / US$2,999.95

You have options for Intel i5 vs i7 processors, 4 - 16GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage and the option of either Intel Iris Graphics 550, Nvidia Quadro M600M 2GB or the M1000M 4GB.

The huge price jump from the 13-inch 256GB and the 512GB model is the inclusion of the Intel® RealSense™ R200 3D scanning camera in the latter.

My friend uses the model with 13.3 inch screen, 16GM RAM, 512GB storage and Intel Iris Graphics 550.

What's included and not included

The box comes with

• Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13
• Wacom Pro Pen 2
• pen case with 3 replacement nibs, color rings and nib removal tool pen holder
• AC Power Adapter + power cable (USB Type C)
• Quick Start Guide
• Cleaning cloth

Build quality

The unit weighs 1.42kg and feels very solid. Build quality is excellent

Because of the size, it's very portable. You'll want to get a sleeve for it though if you want to bring it around because it's expensive and you won't want any scratches on it.

On the back are huge hard rubber feet with good friction. The horizontal ventilation holes are hidden very nicely on the device, some along the edge, and some behind the raised rubber feet.

The surface finishing is mostly matte.

The Expresskeys have a firm feedback when pressed. There are 11 buttons total, include the 5 buttons on the rocker wheel. You can customise the buttons to any functions or keyboard shortcuts that you want.

Only the 512GB model has a fingerprint sensor that you can use to unlock the device at a touch.

The buttons and ports on this side are for volume, orientation lock, power and comes with 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot for expandable storage.

On the other side there are 3 USB Type-C ports. They can be used for charging, or for connecting to an external monitor, or connecting to a Mac or Windows computer for use as a normal Cintiq — as in using the MobileStudio Pro as the external monitor instead.

To connect to another monitor or computer, to have the tethering option, you need the Wacom Link adapter that's sold separately.

This is the 3D camera. I don't use it so I've nothing to say. The model that has the 3D camera is significantly more expensive.

Screen

The 13.3 inch screen has a resolution of 2560 by 1440. Aspect ratio is 16:9.

I've mentioned in many of my other reviews for drawing tablets that such high resolution on small screens can be a downside when using older software that hasn't been updated for such high-res screen. For example Adobe CS6 and older software will have small user interface elements, such as small buttons and menus.

I used Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC and both look great. The menus and buttons are large enough and easy to click with the stylus. Individual pixels are not discernible and such high resolution (220PPI), graphic files, photos, vector art all look sharp.

The matte screen diffuses reflection and has a nice texture to draw on, a texture similar to their Wacom Intuos tablets. Shown in the photo is my glossy screen phone placed on top the MobileStudio Pro.

Colour reproduction is excellent with support up to 96% Adobe RGB. So this tablet is definitely fit for high end print production work where you need to compare printed proofs.

The only downside to the screen is the brightness. The brightness of 250cd/m2 is satisfactory but could be brighter. When working indoors, it's not going to be a problem though. Anyway, I use the tablet mostly at 50% brightness. The matte surface also affects the brightness. Glossy screens usually look brighter and more vibrant.

Battery life

Battery life depends on your usage. I was told by Ben then you can get 4 hours if you draw continuously. If you do processor intensive tasks, open lots of apps in the background, Youtube, music, all those things are going to affect battery life of course.

Charging is via any of three USB Type C ports available. The power brick is quite big.

Wacom Pro Pen 2

This is the second generation stylus for the Wacom digitizer displays.

It's nice to hold with the huge rubber grip. Two buttons are on the side.

Eraser is on the back. No battery is required to use the stylus.

The pen case includes a few replacement nibs, an in-built nib remover, and several coloured rings if you want to change the ring at near the nib section for aesthetic purposes.

This is the small pen holder that can be attached to the side of the tablet. I'll be very careful not to break that small extrusion inside the hole.

The Wacom Pro Pen 2 supports up to 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, and 60 degrees of tilt range and level.

Customizing the settings

Just like other Wacom tablets, the MobileStudio Pro has lots of settings you can change, e.g. touch gestures, pressure curve, shortcut button mapping, etc.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance and functionality is excellent.

If you've used their Wacom Intuos products before, you can expect similar top level performance and sensitivity, except this time you're drawing on a screen. I've not actually used their Cintiq products so I can't compare. But without comparing to the Cintiq, the performance here is definitely more than satisfactory.

Parallax is minimal as the glass screen is quite close to the display. The cursor will always be beneath the pen tip but when you look at it from the side, it may not. So to get the best performance, it's best to calibrate the screen to remove the parallax error totally. Next is to customise your own pressure sensitivity curve — default settings work fine for me.

Drawing on the matte screen with the plastic tip provides a nice tactile feeling. It has just the right amount of friction that's close to that of pen on paper.

The stylus is accurate, responsive and has no glitches.

I've tried Photoshop CC and the strokes are smooth, tapers nicely and pressure sensitivity works as expected.

Same applies to Medibang Paint Pro and Adobe Illustrator.

The MobileStudio Pro has a touch screen and can support finger gestures, e.g. pinch to zoom, rotate, pan. Finger gestures depend on the support of apps that you use. Finger gestures work well with Photoshop, Illustrator and Medibang Paint Pro when I tried.

The hovering distance is around 1cm. Palm rejection is almost flawless, at least when I used the tablet I did not experience a single incident creating an unwanted stray stroke.

Unlike many other Windows tablets that I've reviewed, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Lenovo Miix 510 and Acer Switch Alpha 12, the MobileStudio Pro does not have any problems with drawing slow diagonal lines. In short, the lines from the MobileStudio Pro will always come out the way you expect them to be.

Was I able to detect any difference between 2048 vs 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity? Nope. Wacom's pen technology has been very good ever since their stylus supports 2048 levels of pressure. Their old pens are already very good. I can only say that this Pro Pen 2 is slightly better but there's no way for me to perform any conclusive tests.

Accessories not included

Wacom sells three accessories to go with the MobileStudio Pro. They are the keyboard, Wacom Link adapter and stand.

The stand offers three positions. I know of another stand that will work well with the MobileStudio Pro and that's the Artisul stand.

The Wacom Link is very useful since it allows you to connect to an external monitor, or allows you to use the tablet as an external monitor to your other computers.

Conclusion

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I've reviewed a lot of drawing tablets.

I can say confidently that the Wacom MobileStudio Pro is the best tablet that I've used. The price tag is certainly quite high but you do get what you pay for. You can certainly get other tablets at lower prices, but you will not be getting the drawing performance of the MobileStudio Pro — and if you do let me know.

I've not seen any other tablets that's able to match the MobileStudio Pro in terms of accuracy, except perhaps for the Lenovo Yoga Book but that's unpowered and has a small screen.

The MobileStudio Pro runs on Windows 10. You can use it with Mac also but you will need to connect it via the Wacom Link adapter (USD $69) to your Mac.

I don't really have much complaints except perhaps for the brightness which I feel can be brighter. Maybe battery life can be better too. Those are subjective.

The 13.3-inch model is a good size and highly portable. It's a delight to use it with apps that have been updated for high resolution screens. Should you need a larger screen, there's the 2.2kg 15.6-inch model with 4K resolution.

In terms of drawing performance, it gets a 5 out of 5 stars from me. If you're a digital artist who needs accuracy or who wants the best tablet to create digital art, definitely check out the MobileStudio Pro.

Pros
+ Sturdy build quality
+ Design looks great
+ Has 3 USB Type C ports
+ Matte screen that provides tactile surface to draw on
+ Has microSD slot for additional storage expansion
+ Nice weight for its size, 15.6-inch is much heavier
+ Large rubber grip on the back
+ Compact pen case with all the pen accessories inside
+ Wacom Pro Pen 2 has 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Pen has tilt sensitivity
+ 2560 by 1440 resolution is great, provided you use apps optimised for high res screens
+ Lots of customisation for the pen and shortcut buttons
+ Screen has good viewing angles and colours (96% Adobe RGB)
+ Able to install desktop and tablet apps
+ Snappy performance
+ Silent fan operation unless you're rendering video
+ It's not too warm when operating
+ Lots of different configurations available, but no 1TB storage option

Cons
- Battery life of 4 hours continuous use
- Brightness of 250cd/m2 could be higher
- Be careful not to break to small extruded part on the small pen holder
- Only the 512GB model has the fingerprint sensor
- No stand included

Availability

You can check out more reviews on Amazon from these direct product links below:

Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Wacom Link adapter
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Samsung has revealed the Galaxy Book and Tab S3 at MWC 2017. These two 2-in-1 tablets come with improved S Pen and should interest artists looking for a digital sketchpad.

Here's the table comparing the specs of some of the latest tablets and 2-in-1s

My gripe so far with Samsung has been the frail thin looking S Pen. The new pen is thicker and more comfortable to hold. The tip is still small (0.7mm) and there are now 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

The S Pen is an active stylus that supports pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. There aren't any reviews out yet, but 2017's model is already an improvement because it uses a larger size. I was disappointed with the Samsung TabPro S so I'm happy to see that the S PEN is now included both with the Tab S3 and the two Galaxy Books

Tab S3 runs Android. Galaxy Book 10 might be under-powered when it comes to running heavy graphic software such as Photoshop as it only has the Intel m3, dual 2.6GHz. Galaxy Book 12 uses an Intel i5 dual 3.1Ghz which is more adequate.

Another thing I really like about the Samsung tablets is they have expandable storage via the MicroSD card slot.

I'll see if I can get the Samsung tablets for review in the future. Stay tuned.

To read more about other features of the Tab S3 and Galaxy Book, visit https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-expands-tablet-portfolio-with-ga...

To check out other digital drawing tablets, visit http://www.parkablogs.com/tags/drawing-tablet-reviews

Few weeks ago, Parblo asked if I wanted to review a writing tablet for them. The review does not sound too difficult to do so I asked them to send a review unit over.

You can think of the Parblo Pearl P10 (Amazon UK) as a small electronic blackboard.

The whole plastic construction makes the product feels very lightweight. The build quality is alright. It does flex a bit when you try to bend it.

It comes with a stylus for writing but you can just use any hard point stylus to write on it. The stylus does not require battery to operate. The tablet detects pressure to create a stroke. For example, you can't use your fingers to write but you can use your fingernails to.

The unit itself is powered by a CR2032 battery. This is the type of battery commonly used in clocks so you can find them easily at shops that sells clocks, or on eBay.

The main use of this tablet is to make temporary notes or quick drawings. For example, you can write down your to-do list of the day, list for grocery shopping. It might be useful to fix a magnet behind it and stick this to a fridge door. Not sure if the magnet would affect the device or not though.

Should you need to erase, you just press the button at the bottom of the tablet and the screen is wiped clean. There's no way to erase certain parts of the screen, or any undo feature. You start with a clean slate each time you erase.

The default colour of the screen is black. Strokes that appear on it appear to be light blue. The contrast is good enough for reading. I feel that it might be better to have a white screen with black strokes, such as what you see on the Amazon Kindle.

The screen size is 10-inches and it's a comfortable size to work with.

The Parblo Pearl P10 is currently sold on Amazon UK at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06VT31SWD/?tag=parblo-21

It's available either separately or with a bundled wool carrying case.

Overall, it's a straightforward device to use. It can't be more simple.

Here's the Artisul Pencil Sketchpad review that I've postponed for a long time. I actually received two tablets from Artisul 4 months ago in December. The reason why I took so long is because I wanted to wait and see if there are going to be driver updates to solve the issues that you'll read about later. I've waited too long and decided to finally just put out this review and move on.

Artisul is a company from Taiwan. If you don't already know, I've reviewed two other products from them, the Artisul D10 and Artisul D13 pen digitizer displays. The D10 and D13 are good products. So when Artisul asked if I'm interested to check out their new Artisul Pencil Sketchpad, I said sure.

Unfortunately, the Artisul Pencil isn't as good as I expected.

Build quality

The packaging is cute. It's a see-through packaging box that allows you to see the product inside. The stylus is actually designed to look like a yellow hexagonal pencil. The target market perhaps is not the same as those looking at the Wacom Intuos Pro.

The build quality doesn't impress me. The drawing surface is a one thick matte surface plastic board pasted onto foam. For some reason, it reminds me instantly of beer coasters. The huge piece of foam does a good job preventing the tablet from slipping.

My first instinct when holding the tablet was to try to bend it to see how durable it is. That was when I saw a sticker behind that says you should not bend or fold the "sketchpad". I didn't bend it of course. It would damage the electronics hidden between the foam.

The bottom line is this tablet feels cheap. I guess the upside is, it's much lighter compared to other tablets so if you need to bring this around, you probably won't even feel its weight when it's in your bag. It so light you can use it like a hand fan.

Design

Since the small tablet has the USB port at the top, I have to put my keyboard by the side so that the cable doesn't get in the way.

The medium tablet with the USB port by the side, so I can either put the keyboard by the side or at the top. However because the shortcut buttons are actually protruding out, I find myself pressing the top left button frequently by accident.

The light strip in the middle of the shortcut buttons that would pulse with blue lighting. When the pen hovers over, it turns blue.

Pen

The pen is designed like a hexagonal pencil and feels good to hold. It is made of hard plastic and comes with two buttons on the side and an eraser at the back. It is not battery powered so it does not require charging.

The size and weight is just right. It supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Driver settings

The driver allows you to assign shortcuts to the pen's buttons, and change pressure sensitivity.

You can also customize keyboard shortcuts to the physical shortcut buttons.

The connection is via a micro-USB to USB cable. The tablet also comes with some replaceable nibs and a nib remover.

Performance

I've tested the tablet with Windows and Mac and it's a mixed bag for me.

I like the feeling of the pen tip on the drawing area. It has a very tactile feel to it. It has even more texture compared to the Wacom or Huion tablets. It's not textured to the extent that I think it would wear off the tip fast.

The tablet is responsive and has no lag.

Where the problems start is when you actually use the tablet. Let me start with Windows first.

Windows
I'm using Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 by the way.

With Photoshop CS5, it is difficult to get a stroke with consistent width. In the screenshot above, look out for the variations in thickness for the strokes on the left. It is as if the pressure is change ever so slightly all the time when I was drawing. I do not have this problem with other brands of tablets. Even with Lazy Nezumi Pro plugin turned on, I wasn't able to get the slight variations in thickness. And I wasn't able to get the strokes to taper to a sharp point as I lift the pen.

Performance with Photoshop CC 2017 is much better. I no longer have the problem with varying pressure sensitivity, and was able to taper the stroke sharply. And strokes overall are smoother.

Adobe Illustrator, Mischief, Medibang Paint Pro and Krita all work perfectly. There are no issues with the strokes.

The biggest problem I've faced is the pen would just stop working after a period of time. I'm not sure of the exact amount of time because I do not keep track. If you can complete your work before it stops working, great. If not, the only way I know of to get it to work again is to restart the computer. It's very likely to be a driver problem.

Plugging the USB cable in and out will disable the tablet. To get it working again, you have to restart the computer, again.

I'm using Windows 7 and there's a problem with dragging and dropping. I can click and hold a file, drag it to another folder, and the cursor will freeze before it reaches the destination folder. It's very irritating so the work around is Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V.

Mac
Here are the issues on Mac at a glance:
Photoshop CS5: Inconsistency with the pressure
Illustrator CS5: Pressure
Affinity Photo: Inconsistency with the pressure
Medibang Paint Pro: Works fine
Krita: Wobbly diagonal lines
Tayasui Sketches Pro: Works fine
Mischief: Inconsistency with the pressure

Medibang Paint Pro works fine.

Mischief seems to have some issues with the pressure sensitivity. It's the same problem I face with Photoshop CS5 on Windows.

Another issue is when I tried drawing diagonal lines with a ruler, the lines aren't perfectly straight. The diagonal lines wobbles slightly. This is the type of wobble commonly seen in screen display tablets so I'm really surprised to see the problem here.

Conclusion

So I did not have a good experience using the Artisul Pencil tablets.

If you're using the latest version of Adobe software, there probably isn't going to be much issues. The potential deal breaker for me is, with Windows, the pen would stop working after a period of time, and there's no obvious way to get it working again short of rebooting the system.

The accuracy of the tablet is also questionable.

I probably won't recommend this to digital artists who are serious with their work. If you just need a tablet for clicking instead of drawing, then maybe you can consider this but even so at the same price, you can get other brands that perform better, unless you really need the tablet to be really lightweight in which case this is unbeatable.

Availability

Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Dell Singapore has loaned me another monitor to review and this time it's the Dell U2917W.

This is my first time using an extra wide monitor with an aspect ratio of 21:9 (that's like 2.33 in the film world). My preference is for 16:9 or 16:10 monitors.

As usual, my review is from the perspective of an artist, graphic designer, photo and video editor.

I would like to start this review by saying that you should get a monitor for the type of work you do. That's pretty obvious, right? Maybe. Because of the work I do, even after using this monitor for 2 weeks, hours each day, I have not gotten used to the extra wide aspect ratio yet, and I doubt I ever will. More on that later.

Currently, the extra wide monitors that Dell sells are the U3417 (which replaces the earlier U3415W) and the smaller U2917W (which replaces the earlier U2913WM). Below's the specs list comparing the two.

Dell U2917W specifications

:

Two important things to note. The U2917W is a flat screen monitor unlike the U3517W which is curved. The resolution it uses is 2560 x 1080 vs 3440 x 1440 of its larger brother.

Build quality and design

Build quality of Dell monitors are usually very good. Same applies here. The monitor looks great. It has the matte surface finishing to the body and the screen.

That's the stand. You should be able to use a VESA arm if you want.

The monitor still has a sizeable thickness from front to back, but not too different from other brands of IPS LED monitors.

These are the ports beneath. There's a full size DisplayPort, mini DisplayPort, DisplayPort out, 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x USB3 upstream, 2 HDMI and 4 USB3 (two on the side).

These are the two USB 3 ports on the left side of the monitor. There's no card reader.

Power switch and menu buttons are at the bottom right, facing downwards. The power light indicator is small and not obtrusive. Buttons has a nice touch to them. You can do the PIP feature if you want to.

Bezel is not as small compared to the Dell U2716D or U2717D. The bezel size is just right for me. The bezel on the top and sides are flushed to the screen. The bottom bezel protrudes out slightly and is thicker.

The screen is matte. The matte surface is said to be some anti-glare. I think it works well. If there wasn't any mention, I won't even know it's there. Most importantly, the screen looks sharp.

Who is this monitor for?

Because of the extra wide aspect ratio, this monitor is more suitable for people who game or watch a lot of 2.33 aspect ratio films, and also want a monitor that has good colour reproduction.

Is it good for designers and content creators?

My review is from someone who uses a monitor for content creation. More specifically, I use my monitor for graphic design, video and photo editing and writing.

My main monitor uses 2560 by 1440 resolution. Switching over to 2560 by 1080 feels like a major step backwards to me. The 2560 by 1440 monitor offers 33% more resolution. Basically, with more resolution, I was able to see more of my working space and content and the user interface. The extra pixels really help with productivity.

For example in Final Cut Pro, a Mac video editing software, I rarely have to scroll to see my clips or all the stuff in the time line.

This 21:9 aspect ratio does not work well when editing photos with Adobe Lightroom. Working on a 3:2, 4:3 or even 16:9 photo will leave significant empty space on the sides. This also has the effect of making your main photo look smaller because it's now squashed vertically.

Doing page layout or graphic design isn't really too bad. It's quite good actually. There are plenty of horizontal space for the palettes. However, if you're using a tablet, such as a Wacom tablet, to map that tablet to the whole screen would mean you are not going to maximise the whole working surface area on the tablet. Most graphics drawing tablet nowadays are designed for 16:9 screens.

Watching 16:9 content on Youtube, which basically means most content on Youtube, will give you black bars on the sides which can be quite distracting, more distracting compared to horizontal black bars.

Some 2.33:1 content on Youtube are formatted for the 16:9 aspect ratio. Those would have large black borders all around.

Colour reproduction

The monitor is advertised to support 99% sRGB gamut. I measured 100% sRGB colour gamut support with the Spyder5PRO calibrator. I also measured 77% Adobe RGB and 72% NTSC.

Viewing angles are great. Colours appear to be reproduced evenly across the screen. Even when looking straight into such a wide screen, there aren't any colour shifting on the sides. TN panels for example will have those colour shifts on the side even when you're not looking at the screen at an angle. I'm pleased with the colour reproduction. The 100% sRGB colour gamut support means this monitor is great for general purpose use, except perhaps for extra gaming where you need higher frame rates (60Hz here) or better response time (5ms here).

For those who appreciate good colours and want a quality screen, the Dell U2917W delivers on that front.

IPS glow and backlight bleeding

Since this is an IPS panel, it does have that characteristic IPS glow, more evident when your room is totally dark. IPS glow during normal room lighting conditions should not present itself.

My unit has some backlight bleeding at the top left, bottom left and right. It's not that obvious and not enough for me to be dissatisfied with it. Under normal conditions, this backlight bleeding does not show up, just like the IPS glow.

By the way, from the reference photo, if you see a large gradated lighted patch, it's because my camera is not centred properly in front of the screen. That's the IPS glow and any slight change to the angle of the lens can produce significant effect of an IPS glow.

Conclusion

Overall, the Dell U2917W is a quality performer. There aren't really any downsides to the build quality or the colour reproduction.

This monitor is best suited for those who consume majority of their content in 21:9 aspect ratio. For example if you watch a lot of films in the 21:9 aspect ratio, it is satisfying to watch them on this monitor. Gaming with such an extra wide screen feels quite immersive, but this the frame rate and response time doesn't compare with dedicated gaming monitors, however you do get better colours here.

I don't think this monitor is a good general purpose monitor. If you want Youtube 16:9 videos, you'll get thick vertical black bars by the side.

Content creators, photo and video editors should avoid this monitor because of the aspect ratio. Most software aren't designed for extra wide aspect ratio, and make poor use of the space. E.g. Photo editing with wasted space by the side. Final Cut Pro or other video editing software can do better with more vertical working space. Every time I use this monitor, I have a strong urge to switch to my 2560 x 1440 monitor. I work most of the time on my monitor, so I don't need the 21:9 aspect ratio.

The price of this monitor sits between the 1920 x 1080 and 2560 x 1440 monitors. That's not surprising considering the amount of pixels that it has is also in between. If you're coming from a 1920 x 1080 monitor, again unless you watch a lot of 21:9 films, I won't recommend this monitor. There's no point in getting an extra wide screen like this but don't use it to its full advantage.

If you're someone who consumes a lot of 21:9 content, I feel that this is a quality monitor you can consider. And for the price that it's selling at, it's quite worth the money.

Availability

Check out more reviews and the price of the Dell U2917W on Amazon at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

I've been getting quite a lot of requests for the review of the new XP-PEN Artist 16. So let's get on with this review.

Disclaimer: XP-PEN sent over a review unit for this review.

XP-PEN currently has three sizes for pen digitizer displays. There are the Artist 10.1, Artist 16 and Artist 22. So the Artist 16 is the medium size pen display in the product line.

I've reviewed the Artist 22 last year and was reasonably satisfied with its performance. That product worked well and predictably. As a quick summary, the Artist 16 performs quite well but I discovered some issues. Anyway, let's start with the specs:

• Product dimensions: 40.5 x 25.5 x 3.3cm without stand
• Active area: 34.4 x 19.3 cm
• Screen: 15.6 inches with 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Panel type: IPS
• Colors: 16.7 million
• Contrast: 1,000:1
• Input ports: HDMI and USB
• Pen: Rechargeable
• Pressure sensitivity: 2,048 levels
• Resolution: 5080LPI
• Report rate: 200 reports/second

And these are the things included in the box:

• The display
• mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter
• USB cable for connecting the display and computer
• HDMI cable
• 2x stylus pen with stand
• 2x charging cable for the pen
• 8x replaceable nibs
• Power cable and power brick
• Manual and driver CD
• Black glove

The only graphics port on the Artist 16 is the HDMI port. They have provided a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. So if your computer has either HDMI or mini-DisplayPort, you're good to go. If you output from a DVI port, then you will need to get a DVI-HDMI adapter.

Build quality and design

The build feels pretty solid. There's a good weight to it but it's not that heavy since it's just a 15.6-inch display.

There's a matte surface bezel with rounded corners. 8 physical shortcut buttons are on the left. For left handed users, that might be an inconvenience?

The screen is glossy with a black bezel as well. The screen is a 15.6-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution. It's the same resolution as the Artist 22. Because the screen is smaller, everything appears sharper and it's more difficult to spot the pixelation (although it's still there). It's a perfectly fine resolution to work on. User interface elements like menus, buttons are all at decent sizes and easy to click accurately with the pen.

The stand behind is adjustable at different angles. When the monitor is almost vertical, it's the bottom of the screen and the stand propping it up. When you tilt the monitor is almost flat, the bottom lifts up and it's only the stand supporting the monitor, and because the base of the stand is smaller, it has tendency to wobble more when you press down hard while drawing. The stand from the Artist 22 is better because it's the stand that supports the monitor at all angles.

That the latch that you can release to change the angles.

The cables now come out from the left side. So when the monitor is laid down, the cable are not being pressed upon.

The IPS screen and colours

The IPS panel is supposed to have good colour reproduction but it is definitely not as good compared to normal IPS monitors. When I first turned on the power, the colours were off by quite a bit. I used the Spyder 5 Pro calibrator to calibrate it. The monitor's settings only allow you to adjust the brightness and contrast. So colour calibration has to be done either through your operating system's colour management, or with the help of a calibrator (which saves a lot of time).

On the other side are 5 menu buttons to access the monitor's menu.

I calibrated the monitor three times actually. First time, it had a sRGB gamut readout of 86%. I adjusted the contrast via the monitor and calibrated again and I got 89% sRGB. On the second day, I still wasn't pleased with the colours and calibrated it again, this time it reached 96% sRGB. The colours look relatively good now, but you can't really compare to standard IPS monitors out there. Viewing angles are decent. The glossy screen is reflective so it could be a problem if you have lights coming from your back or top. Compared to matte screen pen displays like the Artisul D10, Artisul D13 and Wacom MobileStudio Pro, the glossy surface does have the advantage of making the screen look brighter and colours slightly more vibrant.

Drivers

As usual, uninstall all other tablet drivers before installing the XP-PEN's.

After installation, you will need to restart the computer for the stylus to work properly.

For this review, I was only able to test it on Mac OS. I currently do not have any Windows computer to test it on so you might have to get an idea of how it might perform on Windows via the Artist 22 review. If you don't want to read that review, I'll just summarise it here: All drawing apps work fine except Mischief.

With the driver, you can adjust the pressure sensitivity, customize shortcut buttons on the stylus and on the monitor, and also calibrate the monitor for parallax error. Talking about parallax, the glass is a few millimetres above the screen so there will be some parallax error. But parallax can be corrected easily via software so it's not a problem.

On the left is a picture to show you the distance between the tip and the screen. Picture on the right shows you how it would actually look when you're using the pen.

The pen

XP-PEN has generously included 2 pens and charging cables. Not many companies include backups. They did this with the Artist 22 also.

The pen has a nice size and comes with a huge rubber grip that covers perhaps 70% of the body. There are two side buttons but no eraser. You do need to charge the pen and the charging port is behind the pen. Since you have two pens, you can charge both and when battery runs low, you can swap. You can still use the pen while it's charging though.

There's a pen stand provided and inside are 8 replacement nibs. You can put the pen either vertically (which I like) or horizontally.

Since the screen is glossy glass, you'll get the hard tip on glass drawing experience. It does not feel as good compared to drawing on matte surface but it's certainly not a negative experience. Main thing here is the pen doesn't squeak when the nib moves across the glass.

Drawing performance

Overall, drawing performance is good. The pressure sensitivity works very well. The display is responsive and lines appear instantly as they are drawn. There's no lag.

Here are the apps that I've tested
Photoshop CS5: Works fine
Illustrator CS5: Pressure does not work
Affinity Photo: Works fine
Krita: Works fine
Mischief: Works fine
Medibang Paint Pro: Works fine
Tayasui Sketches Pro: Works fine

These are strokes from Photoshop CS5 (Mac). I used the default pressure curve and the pressure sensitivity support is very good. You can draw very lightly on the screen and it will produce a line.

Lines are smooth, tapers gradually when you draw and lift fast. In short, performance is predictable, just the way I want them to be.

These are strokes from Medibang Paint Pro (Mac). It works very well too. Same findings as Photoshop.

Tayasui Sketches Pro is a tablet app that's ported over to Mac OS. It works fine too.

The monitor would get warm after a while. The warm area is around the top left in the shape of a horizontal rectangle that takes up 1/3 height and 1/2 width.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the performance.

There aren't many issues except for the pressure not working with Illustrator CS5 (Mac) and the issue with colour calibrating. I have a colour calibrator and won't know what to do without it. *laughs*

Once it's up and working, it performs predictably. There are no glitches or strange things happening. Lines come out the way I want them to, and there's no lag.

So should you get the Artist 22 or Artist 16? Main difference is the size, and the Artist 22 does not have physical shortcut buttons. I'm fine working on either sizes. The working surface area of 15.6 inches is roomy and allows me to draw comfortably without squinting my eyes. If you have a limited budget, the Artist 16 is cheaper by over USD $120 (currently). As a Cintiq alternative, it's performs and competes well.

Pros
+ Good built quality
+ IPS panel with decent colour reproduction and viewing angles
+ 2 pens include
+ Spare nibs included
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity works well
+ 8 physical shortcut buttons on the monitor
+ Input for HDMI, and has adaptor for mini-DisplayPort to HDMI
+ Works well, predictably

Cons
- Pressure does not work with Illustrator CS5 (Mac)
- Requires proper colour calibration to get the colours looking right
- Glossy screen prone to reflections, depends on your working environment
- Gets warm at top left after a while
- When monitor is laid out and supported only by stand, it can wobble when you press hard.

Availability

You can find the XP Pen Artist 16 and more reviews on Amazon. Purchases though the links get me a commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this.

Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es

Some places called it Artist16 (without the space).

Disclaimer: Parblo sent me this tablet for review. This is not a paid review.

Special thanks to Parblo for sending me the tablet for review.

Prior to receiving the tablet, I don't really have any impressions of Parblo tablets. I've seen them on Amazon and that's about it.

The Parblo Island A609 is the latest budget tablet from the company. Here are the key specifications

• 5.25 by 8.25 inches working area
• 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
• 220points/sec report rate
• 5080LPI resolution
• 60 degrees tilt sensitivity

What's interesting to me is this tablet actually has tilt sensitivity. Having tilt sensitivity is quite uncommon for tablets and more so on budget tablets. This tablet is currently selling for less than USD $45 on Amazon (at the time of this writing).

Build quality and design

The build quality is pretty standard, no different from other screen-less graphic tablets that I've reviewed. It feels solid. For the price, the build quality is satisfactory.

The working measures 5.25 by 8.25 inches. That's almost A5 size. It's considered a medium size and it's a comfortable size to work on.

The drawing surface is smooth and the stylus glides on it smoothly. The Wacom Intuos 2015's surface has more texture on it so by comparison the A609's is a bit slippery. Not a big issue though.

Corners of the tablet are rounded off.

The drawing surface is a large seamless piece. There are 4 glossy physical shortcut buttons that are flushed to the surface.

The 2m long USB cable is attached permanently to the tablet. I hope that connection doesn't spoil in the future.

Installing the driver

No driver CD is included. You've got to download the driver from their website. Make sure to connect the tablet first before installation.

Oh, yeah, remember to uninstall other tablet drivers if you have them to prevent conflict.

For my review, I've tested the tablet on both Windows and Mac.

I noticed on Windows, after installing the driver, it made my system slow. I'm not sure if it's because of my computer, which is slow to begin with, or it's because of the driver. I can't confirm. But when drawing inside graphics application, the speed is fine.

These are strokes from Photoshop CS5.

This is the settings dialogue box. You can check the pressure curve, button settings, mapping, left and right handed use.

There is ability to bind a specific keyboard shortcut to one of the four physical shortcut buttons on the tablet. However, you can only set the keys to the on-screen keyboard buttons shown to you.

With the driver, you get to adjust the pressure sensitivity.

If you're left handed, you can change the orientation of the tablet too.

The 4 physical shortcut buttons can be assigned functions or keyboard shortcuts.

On the menu that pops up when you click on the buttons, there's nothing that says you can assign a key. However the function is actually there, just that it's not labeled properly. It's the third menu item from the bottom.

When you choose to assign your own keyboard shortcuts, an on-screen keyboard will appear. This on-screen keyboard only has limited keys. That means there will be some shortcuts that you won't be able to set. For example, in Photoshop, to change brush sizes is to press either [ or ]. Those two keys are not on the on-screen keyboard. Bummer.

For Mac users, the drivers can be found under System Preferences.

The stylus

Build quality of the stylus is decent. It has a matte surface and feels good to hold. The stylus is rather long and has a nice lightweight feel to it.

The stylus does not require any battery. There's no eraser on the back though.

There are two buttons on the side which you can customise.

5 replacement nibs are provided, together with a nib remover.

Drawing performance

The tablet performs quite well with all the graphics applications that I've tested.

Pressure sensitivity works well. There's no lag. Lines appear instantly as they are drawn.

Actually, pressure sensitivity works too well. I had to use the driver to make it less sensitive.

These are strokes from Photoshop CS5 in Windows 7.

These are strokes from Photoshop CC (Win). The vertical strokes were drawn with a brush that has tilt function. The thick lines were drawn with the pen tilted while the thin lines were drawn with the pen held almost vertically.

This is Adobe Illustrator CC (Win).

This is Medibang Paint Pro (Mac)

Adobe Illustrator CS5 (Mac)

Adobe Photoshop CS5 (Mac)

Conclusion

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the performance of the tablet. Everything works as expected and the way I want them to be.

The only issue is perhaps the drawing surface is a bit smooth. That will take a while to get used to.

As a general purpose graphics tablet, it works very well. If you're looking for a tablet that supports tilt sensitivity, the Parblo Island A609 is a good one to consider.

The size is just nice and it's priced right.

Availability

You can find the Parblo Island A609 through the following links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Parblo.com

I managed to borrow the Windows version of the Lenovo Yoga Book from a friend for this review. If you don't know, I've already reviewed the Android version of the Yoga Book a few weeks ago. I was just interested to find out how the Windows version perform compared to the Android version from the artist's perspective.

Since I've already reviewed the Android version, I'll just talk about some of the key issues and differences I noticed rather than rehash what I've already said.

I've also made a video review if you're interested. It covers the same content as the text below.

Halo keyboard

After using the device for a few weeks, I haven't gotten used to typing on the keyboard and I probably never well. The concept is cool but when it's not actually productive to type on this. Because there are no individual raised keys, I have to look at the keyboard when typing. If I have to look at the keyboard, I would rather look and type on the on screen keyboard.

Battery issues

Charging the battery can sometimes be quite fast while on several occasions really slow. I'm not sure if it's a case of me not connecting the cables correctly or not but there was once I charged it over night and the next day it charged to 90% instead of 100%. Battery life is quite good though, at 7-9 hours, depending on what you do of course. But generally speaking, I would say the battery charging is quite slow.

Ideally, you will want to use the charge provided by Lenovo. Other charges charges the device really slowly.

Transferring files

Since there are no standard sized USB ports, you have to transfer files wirelessly. Transferring huge files to and from the Yoga Book is very tedious. It really comes down to how good your wifi connection is. It really made me realised the importance and usefulness of a standard sized USB port.

You can of course get an a micro USB to standard USB adapter. These things are very cheap on eBay. Lenovo should have included one because it's so convenient.

Storage speed

There's 64 GB storage on board with 4 GB of RAM. The storage speed is not very fast. Extracting a zip file is much slower compared to other computer systems. I did not measure the time, but trust me, it's slow.

Since the OS and apps are install on the storage, you can expect them to launch a bit slower too, especially large desktop apps that require more memory. How slow? It's about the same time as launching apps from 3.5-inch hard drives.

Tablet apps load much faster.

You can draw on the screen

The stylus can be used to draw on the screen. However be prepared for broken lines or weird looking strokes.

Drawing and writing performance

As mentioned in my review for the Android version, when it comes to capturing strokes, the Yoga book is very accurate.

Below are some stroke samples from various apps that I've tested.

In order to get pressure sensitivity working, you need to install Wintab drivers. Strokes above are drawing in Photoshop. It's fine when used to draw lines, but when you start adding more layers, styles, or draw in large dimensions, the lag will become more noticeable. There's only 4GB RAM on board and that has to be shared with Windows OS as well.

There's some slight line skipping with Adobe Illustrator. See the cube that I drew on the left. Line skipping happens when drawing fast.

Using desktop graphics apps isn't very productive on the Yoga Book. When using Photoshop and Illustrator for example, I would often use keyboard shortcuts and since the keyboard area is used for drawing, I would need an external keyboard to access those shortcuts. Also, the user interface is designed for desktop use, so if you make a mistake, there's no undo button and you have to undo via File->Edit->Undo. Imagine Undo-ing a few times with the stylus.

Not being able to access shortcuts is quite detriment to productivity and is one good reason to not use desktop apps for drawing purposes. Desktop apps don't usually support finger gestures, unless if you're using Adobe CC.

Art Rage works well.

Sketchable works well too. Generally speaking, tablet apps work very well on the Yoga Book. Perhaps because their system requirements aren't that high. Tablet apps are also optimized for small screen tablet use, with user interface catered for that too. So you can access shortcuts via the buttons on screen easily. Some tablet apps also support touch features such as rotate, pan and zoom.

Note that I was also able to draw a straight diagonal line perfectly with a ruler. Usually tablets have the jitter diagonal lines problem but not so with the Yoga Book.

Medibang Paint Pro works fine for the most part but when you start drawing really fast, the lines will appear angular. Draw slow and there's no issues. That's weird.

Mischief has issues with Wintab. The initial stroke has tendency to be straight. So if you're drawing curves, or a circle with your first stroke, it may come out straight before it starts curving. It's a deal breaker. The workaround is to turn off Wintab when using Mischief and turn it on again when using other apps. Inconvenient. Or just skip using Mischief altogether.

I also tried taking notes with Wacom Bamboo Paper. It was able to capture my handwriting very well. The experience of writing on the keyboard area is great. There's a nice tactile feeling that's better than writing on glass. And since you're not writing on the screen, there's no palm rejection issues to worry about. There's also no lag so the words appear instantly as I wrote. Great.

Conclusion

You'll have a more pleasant experience with tablet graphic apps on the Windows version Yoga Book. If you use desktop apps, it's not going to productive, it also starts to lag rather quickly and it takes a while to load as the apps are often big.

One advantage of the Windows version is the fact that you can run desktop apps. So if you want to run things like Microsoft Office, you can do so. But since I'm reviewing from the artist perspective, I'm just pointing out that desktop graphic apps are going to be slow.

Personally, I find the Android version more enjoyable to use because all the apps are already designed for tablet use. But ultimately, it comes down to what apps you use and what you want to do on the Yoga Book. The Windows version is also more expensive so overall, I'll give the Android version the recommendation.

That's all. I hope this review is helpful.

If you really want to get the Windows version, at least watch my video review to see how the drawing experience is like.

Availability

You can find the Lenovo Yoga Book and more reviews on Amazon. Links below.
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

If you make any purchase through the links, I get a little commission at no extra cost to you.

Ever since my iPad Pro broke down (the battery died), I've been wondering which tablet to get next. I contemplated about getting the Samsung Tab S2 but I'm glad I held out until the Tab S3 came out.

This review, like my other drawing tablet reviews, will look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 from an artist's perspective where I'll talk about the S Pen and how it performs with selected drawing apps.

What's included

These are the things included in the small matte black box

• 9.7-inch tablet
• Charging adapter
• USB type-C charging cable
• Ear phones
• S Pen
• Nib remover and 5 replacement nibs

Specifications

• Screen size: 9.7-inch
• Resolution: 1536 x 2048
• Aspect ratio: 3:2
• Weight: 429g (wifi) 434g (LTE)
• OS: Android 7
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820
• CPU: Quad-core (2x2.15 GHz Kryo & 2x1.6 GHz Kryo)
• RAM: 4 GB
• Storage: 32 GB
• Card slot: microSD up to 256 GB
• Speakers: 4
• Audio jack: 3.5mm

Design and build quality

Galaxy Tab S3 looks sleek. The build quality is solid. It is a decent competitor to Apple's iPad, and because the Tab S3 comes with S Pen, it's a very worthy competitor to the iPad Pro.

The tablet is every bit as premium as it should be since it's quite pricey. But is there a market for such an high end Android device? You can get Android tablets for less than USD $200 easily nowadays, maybe even less than $100. It really depends on what your look for and expect.

The tablet is really lightweight at 429g. The front and back are glass. Corners are rounded off. I recommend getting a case to protect it, preferable one that can prop it up so that you can watch shows without holding it in hand.

At the bottom of the tablet is the physical Home button. On the left is a Multi-app button, and the right is the Back button. Most tablets that I've used have their Back button on the left so it feels weird to see arrangement like this.

Screen

The 9.7-inch screen sports a 3:2 aspect ratio with 1536 x 2048 resolution. That resolution means user interface and everything you see will be sharp, unless you're looking at a low res photo or video.

The screen uses AMOLED technology. Colours are exceptionally vibrant, darks are incredibly dark. Contrast level is better compared to LCD backlit screens. However, that heighten colour saturation really feels unnatural to me. There are other colour settings you can choose from, namely AMOLED Cinema, AMOLED Photo, and Basic. But those three settings make the colours slightly muted, and the white look like newsprint, so that's not the result I'm looking for too. To me, LCD backlit screens still produce more natural and pleasing colours.

I know of no other way to calibrate the colours. If you do, let me know.

The other thing about AMOLED screen is, there will be colour shift depending on your viewing angle. Tilt the screen slightly and you will be able to see a white screen turn slightly blue. That's the same observations I wrote about in my review for the Samsung TabPro S.

General performance

General performance of the tablet is very snappy. There's no lag at all with any of the apps that I've used.

Having 4 speakers is a major plus. There are two side facing speakers on each side of the tablet. Volume is more than adequate and very satisfactory. Speakers are best when they face forward. Their arrangement here is second best. I haven't found a tablet with front facing speakers yet.

S Pen

The S Pen is included with the tablet.

In the previous model, Galaxy Tab S2, there were two versions, the S Pen version and Non-S Pen version. The Non-S Pen version does not come with the S Pen, and even if you choose to buy the S Pen later, it will not be usable because the screen does not have built in digitizer.

With Galaxy Tab S3, I'm glad that Samsung has decided to remove the confusion. There's only one version of Tab S3 now and all Tab S3s support the S Pen.

The S Pen feels a bit small to me. But it's already bigger than previous design so that's a plus.

There's only one button on the stylus and by default it's mapped to open up this feature called Air Command. Air Command has quick shortcuts to let you create or view notes, translate words, screen capture, and perform other utility functions. As far as I know, there's no way to map that button to app shortcuts.

The pen tip looks kinda small, but it's quite strong. It glides rather smoothly on the screen. I wished it had a bit more friction. If you wear out the nib, there are 5 replacement nibs available.

Drawing performance

In short, drawing performance is very good on most of the drawing apps I've used.

Pressure works well on Wacom Bamboo Paper. There's no diagonal line jitter. Lag is minimal. This is a great app for taking notes as it's able to capture my handwriting quite accurately.

Pressure does not work with the tools on Tayasui Sketches. That's just how that app was programmed. And there's this strange lag that happens whenever you try to close a loop while drawing. Weird.

Pressure sensitivity with Medibang Paint Pro is not turned on by default. So you have to get into the settings to turn that on.

After you're turned on pressure sensitivity, everything works fine on Medibang Paint Pro. This is basically the Photoshop alternative on Android, except it's made with comic drawing as its focus.

Pressure works with Adobe Photoshop Sketch, however that functionality is limited by the tools and how they are programmed.

Pressure works with Adobe Sketch. It lags quite significantly so it's not pleasant drawing with this app.

Sketchbook works fine. Pressure works.

There's slight lag with certain brushes in Artrage. Pressure works.

That's how my handwriting looks like with the note-taking app called Inkredible. It's able to capture my handwriting quite well, but it's still not as accurate compared to Lenovo Yoga Book. I would have preferred the tip to have a bit more friction when it comes to writing. Right now, it feels a bit too smooth. It's a small issue. Everyone has different preference.

Squid is another note-taking app. Here, my handwriting wasn't captured as well as Inkcredible. I think there's more software correction that changes my strokes slightly. Maybe that's why my handwriting looks a bit different from what I expect.

Ultimately, if you're looking for a tablet to take notes, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is a decent performer in that area. The best note taking tablet is still the Lenovo Yoga Book in terms of how accurately it can capture your handwriting.

Here's the summary. The S Pen works extremely well when it comes to drawing. There's usually no lag unless the app is poorly designed, palm rejection works almost flawlessly with the 1cm tip hovering distance and pressure sensitivity is very good.

There's no way to change the pressure curve but thankfully by default, the pressure settings is quite good. The S Pen is really sensitive. You can draw with the lightest of pressure on the screen and you'll be able to get a very thin line. Tap on the screen and dots appear easily. Every works as expected.

Another great thing about the S Pen is, there's no jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly. The problem with wobbly diagonal lines is common with other tablets and styluses. Thankfully, that's not a problem here. Lines on the Tab S3 comes out exactly the way you want them to be.

iPad Pro vs Samsung Tab S3

It depends on what you want to do with your tablet.

As a portable drawing device, both are quite well matched in my opinion. iPad Pro has Procreate, Android has ArtFlow. Both platform has solid graphics app. iOS used to have the advantage but the variety of graphics app on Android is catching up very fast. And many graphics app on Android are also very good.

At the time of this review, the price of the Galaxy Tab S3 is USD $599 on Amazon USA. iPad Pro is selling at the same price, but the Apple Pencil is an extra USD $99.

The prices above are for the 32GB model. The 128GB model of the iPad Pro starts at USD $799. With the Galaxy Tab S3, you can get a 128GB MicroSD card for less than USD $70. That's the beauty of having expandable storage. Another thing I really like if you can connect Android tablets to any computer and it will function as an external storage for easy file transfer.

I used to think that Android tablets are behind the iPad and iPad Pro as portable devices for creating art. That's certainly not true for me anymore. With the Samsung Galaxy S3, I think Android devices are now perfectly capable of drawing whatever the iPad Pros can do. It's a huge step forward, and a great improvement to the earlier Tab S2.

Conclusion

If you have the budget for a high end tablet, you won't go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. It's a sleek looking tablet that is also a very capable digital sketchbook should you choose to use it as one. I wished there was an even larger option, like the 12.9 inch iPad Pro.

Is it worth the high price? It's up to you to decide.

Pros
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Lightweight at 429g
+ 4 speakers
+ Very vibrant and bright screen
+ 3:2 aspect ratio screen
+ 2048 x 1536 resolution
+ Snappy performance
+ Android 7
+ S Pen is included
+ 5 replacement nibs are included
+ Excellent pressure sensitivity
+ Palm rejection works almost flawlessly
+ No jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly
+ S Pen is very accurate
+ MicroSD card slot available
+ Good battery life
+ Lots of decent drawing apps on Android

Cons
- Slight colour shift occurs when viewing angle changes
- Screen colours are too vibrant, almost unnatural
- No way to change button function on S Pen
- Pricey

Availability

There are quite a lot of good bundles on Amazon. Some bundles have MicroSD card, cleaning fluid, case, USB Type C adapter.

Check out more reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp