Thanks again to Huion for providing me with a tablet for review.

The Huion Q11K is the latest wireless graphics tablet from Huion.

Build quality and design

First thing that got my attention was the size of the tablet. The working area is 11 by 7 inches. Diagonally, that's 13 inches. That's huge! It can barely fit into my backpack. Should you need an even larger wireless tablet, there's the enormous Giano WH1409.

The build quality is fine. The body is mostly plastic but it feels solid with little flex. It definitely does not feel as premium as the Inspiroy G10T (also wireless) which I reviewed months ago.

The drawing surface is slightly smoother than Wacom tablets. It would have been great if there's just a tiny bit more texture, but that's just my personal preference.

Quick specs

What it comes with

• Tablet
• Pen
• Pen stand
• Replaceable nibs
• Wireless USB receiver
• Tablet charging cable
• Pen charging cable

Pen

The stylus included is battery powered. Charging is via the back of the pen, so there's no eraser at the back. There are two side buttons that you can customize with the settings.

The stylus is long, has a nice weight and good to hold. It feels a bit cheap but that's probably because it's a bit light.

The pen stand allows the stylus to be put horizontally or vertically.

Inside the stand are 8 replacement nibs.

Instead of including a separate nib remover, the nib remover is not built into the pen stand. It's a smart design and better that way.

The wireless USB receiver is also held inside the pen stand. You need to plug this into your computer for the wireless capability.

There are 8 physical shortcut buttons on the tablet. Each button can be customised to a specific keyboard shortcut of your choosing. The buttons have a firm click to them.

Since the tablet is wireless, it's also battery powered. That's the charging port at the top, and the power switch beside it. The battery life of the tablet is rated to last for 40 hours. When the tablet has no power, you can still use it provided that you are charging it. Same applies to the stylus. Basically, for normal drawing sessions, the battery life should last for 2 weeks, that's if you draw 4 hours each day for 10 days.

On the right side of the tablet is a on-off switch to lock the physical shortcut buttons to prevent accidental presses. It's good to have but rather unnecessary.

Settings

That's where you customize the keyboard shortcuts to the 8 physical shortcut buttons on the tablet.

You can map the tablet to a specific area of your screen. By default, it's mapped to 100% of the screen. The tablet is designed for 16:9 monitors. If you're right handed, you can choose to rotate the tablet 180 degrees via the settings. That's the left handed mode.

You can change the sensitivity of the pressure curve here. However, you're not allowed to drag the curve. So you're limited to the predefined pressure curve supplied. I find the default sensitivity to work quite well.

Drawing performance

I'm glad to report that there are no glitches when I used the tablet on Windows and Mac.

Photoshop CC on Windows 7

Illustrator CC on Windows 7

Photoshop CS5 on Mac

Illustrator on Mac

The tablet also works without issues on the Mac with Mischief, Medibang Paint Pro, Krita, Affinity Photo and Tayasui Sketches Pro.

In all the graphics software, I was able to get the lines I expected. The stylus is very sensitive. Personally, I can't tell the difference between 4000+ and 8000+ pressure levels. The feel the same to me.

The stylus is accurate. Strokes taper smoothly. The transition between thin and thick is smooth. There are no jitter in the lines. The stylus works very predictably and consistently.

Conclusion

Overall, the tablet works well, predictably and consistently without any issues. Sometimes with Huion tablets, there can be driver glitches but those are absent with the Huion Inspiroy Q11K so that's fantastic.

If you need a wireless tablet, this is one to consider. If you need a smaller wireless tablet, there's the DWH69. If you need something larger, there's the Giano WH1409.

Availability

There's currently a 15% discount for the tablet on Huion's website. Usual retail price is USD $120. The discounted price is USD $102. Discount ends on 28 May 2017. You have to get it directly from Huion at https://www.huiontablet.com/inspiroy-q11k.html

Otherwise, you can still find the tablet on Amazon as well. Direct product links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

This article compares some of the more powerful ultrabooks in the market. Like all my other tech reviews, this article is written from the perspective of an artist, graphic designer and content producer (I make a lot of videos).

So what's an ultrabook? That's just an extremely portable version of the laptop. For the purpose of this review and comparison, I've only included ultrabooks that are only less than 1.4kg (~3 pounds).

Check out the table of specifications first. I've only listed the highest configuration. There are, of course, lower models with lower specifications which are more affordable.

Few things to note.

In the column that says TB3, that's Thunderbolt 3 through the USB Type C port. That port can let you connect an external monitor but you would usually need to get an adapter if that's not already provided. When I label the port as a non-TB3, it means the USB Type C port has no Thunderbolt interface, so you can't connect an external monitor to it.

The prices listed are official retail. To get the current price, just click on the names of the models.

Compromise

To squeeze so much components into an ultrabook means there's going to be compromise. Luckily for graphic designers, the compromise usually isn't that much of a deal breaker because computers nowadays are pretty powerful.

The first compromise is usually the lack of a dedicated graphics card. All the ultrabooks have the Intel integrated graphics. Thankfully, to run apps for photo editing, illustration, page layout or web design, the ultrabooks above are more than capable. Some are going to be slightly more suitable though, which I'll point out further below. You can even edit videos with these, but since all the ultrabooks have dual-core processors, rendering time is gonna be long. I would not get an ultrabook for video editing --- quad-core is a must.

Second compromise is build quality. Depending on how the ultrabook is built, more weight usually means having a more sturdy build quality. In terms of build quality, from the best in my opinion, would be the Apple Macbook Pro 13, Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre X360. Macbook 12 has good build quality but the keyboard is crap.

Third compromise is the lack of ports. In order to make ultrabooks that small, sometimes even space for the ports have to be sacrificed. Since I'm someone who uses SD cards everyday, almost every hour, having a build-in SD card reader is incredibly convenient. The only ultrabook with the full-size SD card reader is the Dell XPS 13.

Which is the most powerful ultrabook

Going by processor speed, the most powerful one is the Apple Macbook Pro 13. However, processor speed does not determine everything. I've actually used a Macbook 12 (review) before graphic design and it's actually fast enough. Most of the ultrabooks are at least dual-core 2.2Ghz and above, so they are going to be fast enough for graphic design purposes.

What's also important is the type of storage speed. There are two types of storage interface, PCIe and SATA. The interface determines the transfer and loading speed. In real life, PCIe interface is going to give you faster booting time, apps load faster, files transfer, save and open faster. The difference in performance is something that can be felt easily because a lot of activities rely on storage speed. You'll only notice processor speed when you're doing processor intensive tasks, like you're exporting a batch of photos, or rendering videos. But even for photo or video editing, you still benefit immensely from a fast storage drive to read/load the photos and videos.

As for RAM, 8GB is the bare minimum I would recommend. 16GB is recommended. If you cannot upgrade RAM at a later date, e.g. if you can't open the ultrabook, it makes more sense to pay to upgrade the RAM at the time of purchase.

In short, in order of importance, get a fast storage drive, 16GB RAM, fast processor (I'm only putting this last because I feel that processor speed nowadays are quite fast anyway).

About the screen

I prefer a large screen. It's just easier on the eyes. Lenovo X1 Carbon has the largest screen at 14-inches and is surprising light at 1.13kg. Razer Blade Stealth has the best screen with colour support for 99% sRGB and 99% Adobe RGB, but only if you upgrade to their 12.5-inch 4K screen.

Which screen you should get depends on how much time you spend on the screen.

Since ultrabook screens are so small, if I can, I'll always connect an external monitor to it. Of course, if you're on go and have no access to an external monitor, it's better to go for a larger screen. Most of the ultrabooks have 13.3-inch screens and that's a good size to get.

I'm into print production, so I won't even colour proof my graphic files on laptop screens. Some screens can be good, like the Razer Blade Stealth's, but they are not that good.

Another important thing to note is, for screens with resolution higher than 1080P, if your software is not updated to take advantage of that resolution, user interface may look tiny. E.g. Older versions of Adobe CS 5 and 6 will have tool bars, buttons and menus at really small size.

So which are the best ultrabooks?

The selection is going to be a bit bias since it's based on my preferences.

Let's narrow down the selection by the process of elimination.

Ultrabooks with SATA storage drives are out. Those are LG Gram, Samsung 9 and ASUS UX330.

Those with battery life of less than 8 hours are out. Those are Razer Blade Stealth, Samsung 9, Zenbook 3.

Those without Thunderbolt 3 or a display port are out. Macbook 12 is out.

What we are left with are Dell XPS 13 (12.9kg), Lenovo X1 Carbon (1.17kg), HP Spectre X360 (1.31kg) and the Macbook Pro 13 (1.37kg).

I'm not a fan of those flip-able tablet laptops so the HP Spectre X360 is a no go for me.

I'm actually a Mac user but the recent Macbook Pro 13 with that gimmicky touch bar doesn't do it for me. Basically, I don't see how it can help me save time. There's a MBP 13 without the touch bar but it only has two TB3 ports. It is a good ultrabook but the competition is really fierce. Since there are only USB Type C Thunderbolt ports, you need to get an adapter to connect a monitor. And knowing how Apple like to overprice their peripherals, you may be tempted to get third party adapters that does not work and waste money in the process.

Lenovo X1 Carbon is quite good. Keyboard's good. It has three USB Type A ports, HDMI and Mini Display ports, and a microSD card slot. When you consider the weight at 1.17kg, it's impressive.

Dell XPS 13 has that full-size SD card slot that I really like. The screen and build quality is good too. However, to connect to an external monitor, you need an adapter.

If you're a graphic designer, I guess it would be more practical to get the Lenovo X1 Carbon since it has the graphic ports. Having the HDMI and Mini Display ports means you can connect to an external monitor without any adapter. You can just get a cheap USB SD card reader to read your SD card. The 14-inch screen size is also good to work on if you need to work on the go.

So my pick for the best ultrabooks would go to the Lenovo X1 Carbon and Dell XPS 13. If Apple had the Macbook Pro 13 non-Touchbar with four TB3 ports, I would have included that in the top three.

So that's it for the comparison. If you use any of the ultrabooks listed above, I would love to hear about your experience with them.

Apple announced their most powerful Mac at the 2017 WWDC yesterday. It's an iMac. It's the iMac Pro.

Let's look at the specs first before we talk about who this Mac is for.

• 5120 x 2880 resolution 27-inch screen
• 500 nits brightness, Wide colour (P3)
• 8, 10 to 18-cores Xeon processor
• 32GB to 128GB RAM
• 1TB to 4TB SSD
• 4x USB 3 ports (USB Type A)
• 4x Thunderbolt 3 ports (USB Type C)
• Ethernet port
• 3.5mm audio jack
• SD card slot for UHS‑II

The specs are incredible, befitting that of the Mac Pro except it's housed in an iMac.

Make no mistake, this Mac is for a very niche target group of creative professionals. It's not for digital artists, graphic designers or photographers. It's for professionals who are always starved for time. More specifically, I think it's for people who are into serious 4K video editing or 3D rendering or animation.

What's the difference between serious vs the occasional 4K editing? Take my workflow for example, I produce around twenty 4K videos for my Youtube channel. Videos are around 10 minutes long. Each 4K video takes around 1 hour or more to export with the 2013 trashcan Mac Pro quad 3.7Ghz. While the video is exporting, I can do other tasks, like writing. So it's not a big deal if it takes 1 hour to render a video. I consider myself a casual video editor who puts out video content everyday, but I'm not the target market for the iMac Pro

For creators who need to put out 4K content ASAP on a daily basis, I think the iMac Pro can save them a lot of time. If I make eighty 4K videos a month, I would have no hesitation getting that iMac. If you're someone who can leave your video to render overnight, then this is perhaps not the Mac for you. Because if you sleep 6 hours, you can export 60 minutes of video (depending on the settings of course).

For those in 3D animation or modeling, it can really save a lot of time if your workflow involves repetitive rendering and checking.

One concern I have is how are the processors utilized. I can't confirm but when I export videos with Final Cut Pro, my internet connection would often slow down to a crawl for some reason. When the export is done, or when I cancel the export, the internet connect goes back to normal.

Other concern is the heat. Be prepared for the iMac Pro to get really hot. How hot? Hot-until-it's-a-bit-unbearable-to-put-your-hands-on-it kind of hot. My Mac Pro is already unbearably hot when exporting videos, I'm pretty sure the iMac Pro will be as hot. I'm just not sure how the heat is going to affect the components in the iMac. Regardless of how Apple is marketing their ventilation system, when you're exporting videos, it's gonna get very hot. When I'm concerned about is how it would affect the lifespan of the screen.

Talking about the screen, I've never been a big fan of built-in all-in-one systems. I've seen a lot of designers use iMac. They are powerful and save a lot of space, but you have to take into account of what's going to happen when your system breaks down.

I have the 2010 Mac Pro and the 2013 Mac Pro. I've them breaking down before. When my 2010 Mac Pro broke down, I had days of downtime. When my 2013 Mac Pro broke down I had zero downtime because I had a backup Mac (a 2.6Ghz quad-core Mac Mini 2012).

If you're a creative professional who needs to put out work daily, would you place your bet on a Mac that when it's not working, will cost you days of downtime? I guess if you can spend USD $5,000 on the entry level iMac Pro, you may have extra money to spend on backup systems as well. I'm not a serious video editor and I have a backup system to ensure zero downtime. If you're a serious video editor, you need to have a workflow that can guarantee zero downtime too.

You see, the beauty having the screen and computer separate is, when the screen is down, you can go down straight to the electronics store and pick up a monitor straightaway. When the computer is down, you can connect your backup to the monitor and get back to work straightaway. If this iMac is down, there's no way to get back to work straightaway unless you have another spare iMac, or a computer with screen. Can you imagine how many days it will take to repair the iMac Pro? Can you afford the downtime?

By the way, I've sent in my 2013 Mac Pro for servicing for quite a few times. It's a Mac OS problem that keeps crashing the system. During all those times when the Mac Pro was at the service centre, I was still able to work because I had a backup system.

So yeah, the iMac Pro may be powerful, but it's really a niche product targeted at the most demanding creative professionals. The most significant downside is what would happen when the iMac Pro breaks down --- because we all know bad things can happen anytime.

The iMac is also a good indication of where the Mac Pro is going. I'm confident that the Mac Pro entry level will feature almost similar specs, and will probably be sold at the same price, except without the screen.

I've seen some reviews saying that this is a stop gap for creators who are waiting for the Mac Pro. If you have waited so long, why not wait a bit longer for 2018 when the new Mac Pros are out?

If you happen to get the iMac Pro, I would love to hear about your workflow and what you think.

Hello readers, my name is Jose Cua, a concept artist working in the games industry. I’m always on the lookout for new art tech and gadgets. I recently had an opportunity to test and review the XP-Pen Artist 16. It is a low cost Wacom Cintiq alternative created by Japanese company XP-Pen, and is currently available through their website and on Amazon for a bargain price of less than $500!

Specs

It comes with a 15.6-inch screen, a high resolution 1920x1080 IPS display, and 2048 levels of pressure. The build quality feels good, and has solid programmable keys on the left side (I prefer this compared to touch ones that are so easily activated accidentally). XP-Pen provides 2 rechargeable pens (so you that have a spare while you charge the other), the pens have two programmable buttons just like the Wacom ones, they do feel much lighter than the Cintiq pens, but in terms of grip and feel, its quite comparable.

An adjustable stand is provided which is able to lock at any angle you desire and hold its position even with a significant amount of pressure.

This is much sturdier and, works more efficiently than the ones included with the Cintiq Companion which were limited to 3 angles. The stand connects to the back of the monitor using a Vesa connector which works out great for me because it meant that it was compatible with my ergotron arm!

After testing it a few sessions with the stand I was able to easily remove the stand and attach it to my Ergotron arm (my prefered setup, since I like to draw with the tablet raised and more vertically angled)

XP-Pen is quite generous with the amount of accessories they provide. The box contains an artist glove, spare nibs, multiple display connection options, and a screen protector. Without the screen protector the screen will leave marks and fingerprints as you rest your arm around it, and on top of that you get a rough screechy feeling when using the stylus on the glass. This does not mean it is a low quality glass, in fact, it feels very similar to an iPad Pro without a screen protector. Drawing on the XP-Pen felt much better with the provided screen protector but after a minute of applying pressure to the screen air bubbles just appear all over the place, making it difficult to sketch in. I decided to get a purchase a matte screen protector and have it attached by a professional and its been working out great since then. Feels very comparable to the Cintiq Companion's texture.

Set Up

I tested the device on a Windows 10 desktop. There were no issues getting things up and running. Driver installation went smoothly (I uninstalled existing Wacom drivers beforehand to avoid any conflicts).

The XP-Pen's configuration app comes with the basic set of options, screen calibration, express keys, and a pressure level slider. It doesn't come with the fancy bells and whistles the Cintiq's come with such as radial menu's and more versatile keystroke shortcuts. Those would have been nice but they are features I can live without anyways. Screen and pen calibration was straightforward enough (just like a Cintiq), and parallax was a at minimum.

Performance

Overall, the pen works really great except for one minor nitpick of mine which would be the pressure sensitivity. In the tablet setting app, the initial pressure settings were at the lowest (meaning it would detect your lightest strokes) there is a small box where you can test the pressure which seem fine but what you see in the test box doesn’t really reflect how the brush behaves in Photoshop.

When drawing and painting in Photoshop the initial activation point is slightly similar but in my opinion better than that of the Surface Pro 4. But what I noticed is that the pressure curve is not as gradual as the default settings on a Wacom tablet. It feels like a very steep curve compared to a linear light to hard pressure graduation. A simple analogy would be like comparing the differences between a 2H pencil (XP-Pen) with a 2B pencil (Cintiq). Very lights strokes are really easy to do (which is great) but middle and hard strokes take a little more strength than usual.

Here’s a clip showing me applying the same kind of pressure that I usually use on a Cintiq device (very light strokes were detected, which felt much better than what most non-Cintiq devices can achieve). But I noticed I was not able to hit the maximum pressure (unless I press harder than what I am used to on my Cintiq). Have a look at how big the maximum size of the stroke is compared to the actual Brush size I am using.

It is a noticeable difference to what I am used to, but this is not a knock on the quality of the device, it's just that after using a Cintiq for more than half a decade I am used to a certain pressure setting. I do however, feel that people who haven’t been using Cintiq’s for so long will not notice the difference. Anyway, this was easily resolved in a program like Manga studio which has a pen pressure curve editor (for all their individual brushes).

Here are the corrections to the pressure curve. I found that changing the curve in this manner, has made the pressure sensitivity almost identical to that of the Cintiq I use at work.

This video below shows how I was now easily able to achieve maximum pressure using the same strength that I use when drawing on a Cintiq.

This shows that it isn’t a hardware issue at all. Unfortunately programs like Photoshop or Zbrush do not have a pressure slider. XP-Pen just needs to create something that allows its users to adjust the pressure curve universally (similar to what Wacom has), this will make Cintiq users adapt even easier to their devices. I hope the developers of XP-Pen are reading this, and include this in the next update.

These are some doodles in Photoshop. Lines came out very smoothly. I loved that very light strokes were detected much better than that of a Surface Pro 4 although it still didn’t match that of a Wacom Cintiq (the difference is very little though). Despite having to press harder for the full pressure level, it didn’t stop me from sketching things after getting used to it.

Below is test session in ZBrush (Sensitivity works the same as in Photoshop). Feels a bit different from the Cintiq but nothing major that really stopped me from creating things.

Overall, I feel the XP-Pen’s performance is pretty good. But long time Wacom Cintiq users will most definitely notice the difference in the pressure curve settings, XP-Pen just needs to allow its users to edit the pressure curve, to make the the transition to their devices even easier.

More Comparisons with Wacom

The 15-6-inch screen feels great! I feel like there was just the right amount of screen space, without being too bulky to move it around if I have to. In comparison, I felt the 13 inch tablets overall were a bit too small and the 27-inch way too big. There are two Wacom Cintiq devices that are the closest to the XP-Pen Artist 16 in terms of specs, and those are the Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16.

For the Cintiq Pro 13 you are getting the same resolution, but a smaller screen, yet you are paying double the price. And for the Cintiq Pro 16, you are getting the same screen size but with double the resolution, and for triple the price.

The main differences between the Wacom and XP-Pen specs are the levels of pressure, and resolution.

Both Wacom Cintiq Pros offer 4096 levels of pressure (that's 2x what the Artist 16 has), but the thing is, can we really notice the difference? I’ve been using Wacom devices for over a decade now and so far, I honestly feel that past 512 levels of pressure we really can't tell anymore. When using a pencil how many levels of pressure do we even have control of? The pressure sensitivity has felt the same to me since my very first Wacom device, a Wacom graphire 2 which came out 16 years ago. What has changed is the level of control we have of the pressure curve, which is editable in our Wacom devices settings (allowing us to adjust very accurately how light and how hard we’d like to press the pen). In the end everyone has their own preferences and the ability to edit that very accurately is what makes the biggest difference to me.

Another main difference between the XP-Pen 16 and its Cintiq counterparts is the resolution. The Cintiq Pro 13 has a smaller screen but the same resolution and the Cintiq 16 Pro has same screen size but with double the resolution. Keep in mind that the XP-Pen’s resolution is no slouch. It comes at a full HD 1920x1080, which is comparable with a lot of higher end 15 inch laptops. The Cintiq Pro 16 however, comes with a 4K 3840 pixels × 2160 display. Certain things might seem clearer but what also happens when you increase the resolution is that your icons are smaller, buttons in Photoshop are smaller, and a lot of things will seem harder to click. Maybe there is a workaround, but to me such a high resolution on such a small screen might not be worth the extra investment. Keep in mind that things already look pretty decent in much larger screens and half of that resolution. And also that you aren’t just paying a couple hundred bucks extra, you are paying triple the price.

Overall I feel the the XP-Pen 16 holds its own very well among the growing number of tablet monitors available. I’ve been a Cintiq user for many years and all in all, aside from my main gripe of not having an adjustable pressure graph curve like Wacom (which I do hope they fix after reading this review), I feel the XP-Pen Artist 16 has performed excellently from the time I first started using it. It has a quality build, and it comes comes in a size that I feel is the new sweet spot between screen space and portability. All at an amazing price that is just so impossible to ignore. I feel the Wacom Cintiq's are still the best in their class, and if money is not an issue I would still recommend them over other devices. But I do believe that with the release of more tablets like the XP-Pen Artist 16, that gap between quality and affordability is getting closer. And it will continue to do so in the following years to come.

Availability

For more reviews, visit the following direct product links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es

Pendorra sent me a free stylus again. This time it's the Pendorra Gen 2. I've reviewed the first model way back in Dec 2016 and the company said that the new stylus has some improvements and I should check it out.

More specifically, the following issues have been resolved:

• Line deviation
• Line intermittent
• Cannot write while charging
• No way to switch off the power manually
• No low battery life warning

I'll still need to do my testing so this review's going to compare the 1st gen with this new stylus.

The new stylus has included additional goodies this time. There's a microUSB to USB adaptor, microUSB male to female cable, pen case and a thumb ring.

The pen case is pretty nice. It's not real leather but it feels nice to touch. Sewing is done well too. Not sure how durable it will be though.

That's the thumb ring that you can attach to your tablet or phone. It uses double side tape to stick to the surface.

The only change to the design of the stylus is the inclusion of the Pendorra logo printed on the side of the body. Other than that, the 1st and 2nd gen Pendorra looks similar.

The stylus is battery powered. To switch the stylus on, you just have to press the button on the back and it switched on instantly (with flashes of blue light). To switch it off, click the same button and it's off. Both the 1st and 2nd gen will switch off automatically after 2 minutes of inactivity. However, only the 2nd gen has the ability to be switched off manually by clicking the back of the button.

I'm actually not sure how long the battery can last because I don't keep track of that. Battery life really depends on how often you use the stylus so everyone is going to have different experience. The indicator light at the back will blick red when battery is running low.

The stylus has a male connector at the end of the body, so you will need to connect the adapter provided in other to connect the stylus to the normal USB Type A port. If you have problems accessing the USB port, there's now the additional USB cable. One of the improvements say that you can now use the stylus while charging, but while you are charging, there's no way to switch on the stylus because the power switch is on the back of the body's cap. Anyway, that cable is too short for you to use the pen while charging anyway.

The small tip allows you to see the lines beneath. This is a good feature compared to those big rubber tip. However...

Just like other digital capacitive styluses, how well this stylus will work will depend on which tablet you're using, the orientation of the tablet and your hand position. All those will affect the parallax.

Here's how handwriting looks on the iPad Mini (I'm not sure which version I have) with Wacom Bamboo Paper app. I guess handwriting is alright.

Handwriting on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is better (but that tablet already comes with the fantastic S Pen). That's Wacom Bamboo Paper app too.

This is One Note app on Tab S3. Handwriting is not captured as accurately as on Wacom Bamboo Paper. So how well the handwriting is capture depends on the app too.

On the iPad Mini and Tab S3, this is how the diagonal lines look like when drawn slowly. The usual jitter effect is there.

On the iPad Pro and my LG V20 (Android 7) phone though, the jitter effect is not very obvious. The 2nd generation stylus comes very close to producing a straight diagonal line. So there is definitely some improvement in this area when it comes to line deviation, but that improvement is only noticeable on the iPad Pro and the LG V20 that I've tested.

This is handwriting on the iPad Pro.

I've tested the 2nd gen Pendorra with several tablets and the results are inconsistent. I've tested for the accuracy of the stylus, more specifically, the stylus was tested for parallax error and diagonal line jitter.

Note that when I say parallax is bad, it's relative and depends a lot on how you hold the stylus and the tablet orientation. If you hold the stylus vertically like a Chinese brush, there's not going to be any parallax.

Conclusion

There is some improvement to the 2nd gen Pendorra but they aren't significant improvements. The observable improvement to me is the strokes having less diagonal jitter on the iPad Pro.

As you can see in the comparison table above, stylus performs quite different with different tablet. So there's no sure way to determine how it's going to perform with your tablet. If you want to buy it, be sure to research other reviews to see if there are other customers using the same stylus as you.

For iPad Pro users, if you're not getting the Apple Pencil, then the Pendorra might be an alternative, just that it doesn't have pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. Speaking of palm rejection, when taking notes, it wasn't natural because I had to lift my palm from the screen to prevent stray strokes. For drawing purposes I think using this stylus is still fine, but for writing it's relatively more awkward.

So these are my findings. I hope you find this review helpful.

Availability

The stylus retails for USD 40 on https://www.pendorra.com/

Check out more reviews from Amazon.com.

I did not plan on getting the new iPad Pro 12.9 but here I am with the new one. There was some battery problem with my previous iPad Pro 12.9 and it won't charge anymore. Hence I've been without an iPad Pro for months, until now.

The content in the video review below is exactly the same as my text review.

Just to do things a bit differently, I'll be presenting this review as a Q and A. Here goes.

What do you think of the new features?

The 10.5-inch iPad Pro screen is 20% larger than the 9.7-inch model. Not just that, the resolution has increased from 2048 x 1536 to 2224 x 1668. I've always felt that the 9.7-inch model is a bit cramp for drawing with all the user interface. So the extra size and resolution is extremely welcome. The 10.5-inch is still very compact because of the size and weight (469g Wifi, 477g LTE). The 2732 x 2048 resolution 12.9-inch has 2 times the size of 9.7-inch and is just a joy to draw on, but it's much heavier to bring around of course.

The improved refresh rate of 60Hz to 120Hz is a nice. Animation effects are much smoother now. Things like scrolling, swiping, panning and zooming are now smoother, relatively speaking. Apple says that the latency (delay) of the pencil is down to 20 milliseconds. With the previous generation iPad Pro, I'm already quite satisfied with the latency and usually see little to no lag. So the new refresh rate and improved latency are both welcome but they are, in my opinion, marginal improvements.

I've seen a few reviews with slow motion demos showing how the lines can catch up with the tip of Apple Pencil. Here's the thing, how much lag or latency there is depends on the app you are using. With Procreate, if you draw fast, the strokes will still have to catch up with the Apple Pencil, but that gap is tiny. With the 120Hz, the catching up is smoother, not faster. It's a none issue, just technicality. With Sketches Pro, that gap is bigger. So it really depends on the app.

True Tone? This feature take into account ambient lighting conditions to adjust the colour temperature of the screen. You have to understand that this "colour setting" is relative. Compared to the previous iPad Pro, I found True Tone to mostly take on a warmer temperature. The white on a True Tone screen actually comes very close to actual paper white in real life. That's really impressive. You can turn on/off True Tone to see the difference. Is True Tone better? I'm not sure how to answer that. Better than what? Do you compare it with a colour calibrated 100% Adobe RGB monitor? Whether you can appreciate the subtle True Tone really depends on the type of work you do.

The new iPad Pros now have 600 nits brightness. Good to have but since you don't really use that level of brightness, it's just a marketing number.

1.8% reflectivity is still reflective. I got myself a matte screen protector. If you want one, check out iCarez or Photodon.

A10X chip. I've seen benchmark that compares the speed of this new 2.38 GHz six-core CPU to laptops and it has some really impressive numbers. But again, it's just that, numbers. It comes down to the type of work you use and whether you can utilize all that power. But overall, for the price that Apple is charging, it is a powerful processor and I won't expect anything less.

How's the drawing experience like?

Excellent.

Drawing on most apps feel really snappy. The 120Hz refresh rate does make everything feel smoother. However, the speed of drawing is the same. What I mean is, when drawing really quick on Procreate, there's still that tiny game where the line will catch up with the Apple Pencil. It's the same gap on the previous iPad Pro model. However, the effect of the catching up is smoother because of the increased frame rate.

Lag and latency really depends on the app you use. For example, Tayasui Sketches Pro has a larger gap between the line and the Apple Pencil.

Accuracy with Apple Pencil is excellent. Pressure sensitivity works great. There's tilt sensitivity and pressure works there too. There's no parallax error and no slow diagonal line jitter issues.

Palm rejection works almost flawlessly.

The drawing experience on the iPad Pro is excellent. The only worthy competitor would probably be the Wacom MobileStudio Pro which is much more expensive.

What are some physical differences between the old and new?

Positions for the microphones has moved to the top and top middle. I'm still using my old case from the 1st gen and the case covers the two microphones. It's not a big deal since I don't use the camera to record any videos.

Should you get the iPad Pro?

My buying philosophy has always been these two. 1. Get the device for the type of work you do. 2. Is this new technology going to help me save time and money?

Understand that the selling point of the iPad Pro is the tablet form factor and the accuracy you can get with drawing with the Apple Pencil.

Photo and video editing aer still faster on laptops because the desktop apps just have more features.

If you're a digital artist looking for a digital sketchpad, one that can rival Wacom Cintiqs, the iPad Pro is a very worthy alternative. The experience of drawing on the screen is excellent. The Apple Pencil is accurate and there's little to no lag with most graphics apps. The ability to draw on the screen, in my opinion, is the main selling point. Digital artists and designers are the people who are going to get their money's worth.

Apple claims 10 hour battery life. I see 8-9 hours easily. One thing that I like about Apple is the battery life of their products is generally quite good, well, expect debacle for the Macbook Pro 2016.

Should you upgrade from the iPad non-Pro, or from previous generation iPad Pro?

From the iPad non-Pro? Yeah, but only because you want to use Apple Pencil with the tablet.

From the previous generation iPad Pro? There are some improvements but I don't think they are significant improvements for an upgrade. The previous iPad Pro is already a very powerful tablet. The new 2017 model is marginally better.

Should you get 10.5 or 12.9?

If you plan on holding the iPad Pro while drawing, then get the 10.5 inch. At 469g, even after adding a case, it should still be comfortable enough to be handheld for note taking or drawing.

The selling point of the 12.9-inch is the size of the screen. It's a fantastic screen that makes everything look and feel big. There are also lots of space to work with while drawing. The analogy of drawing on A5 vs A4-sized paper is what comes to my mind. But with their size comes the weight. It's a tablet that's best used laid on a table. Holding it in one hand while drawing with the other tires my hand in a minute. Not to mention the size makes it slightly unwieldy to be held in one hand.

Can this replace the laptop?

As mentioned above, the advantage of the laptop is the ability to use desktop apps, which in my opinion enhances productivity by a lot.

If you're just using your tablet to check email, watch videos, do social media updates, or occasionally edit a few photos, then yeah sure, it can replace the laptop.

The coming iOS 11 will be interesting though. The one new feature that can improve productivity is the Files app. This is something that Android devices have on day 1. I hope I can also plug the iPad into a computer and have it recognise it instantly as an external hard drive but I guess that's too much to ask for?

Which model should I get?

The two sizes are sold in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB, and in Wifi or LTE configurations.

If you create lots of content, download lots of stuff, get the 256GB model. With the previous iPad Pro, you only get 128GB for the same price so it's a better deal now. The price jump from 64GB to 256GB is USD 100, and the jump from 64GB to 512GB is USD 300.

Mine's the 256GB Wifi model. This time round, I bought AppleCare. Unfortunately, unlike laptops, AppleCare only extends an additional 1 year instead of 2 years for laptops.

For some reason, the Wifi+Cellular model is more expensive significantly. Like a USD 130 difference.

If I can find the previous older iPad Pro 12.9 at a good discount, should I get it?

I see no reason why not if you can get it at a good discount because the new one is out. If the difference is USD 200 or more, that's nice.

I suggest getting a brand new model instead so that you are still covered by the 1 year warranty. You can use the savings to get AppleCare.

What are some things you don't like?

The lightning cable included is now the short one, not the extra long one.

The power adapter included is still the 12W one which charges the iPad Pro really slowly. There are customers who buy and use the 29W USB-C charger (USD 49) instead. And that charger isn't even sold with a USB-C to lightning cable which is sold at a ridiculous USD $25.

My overall opinion

The iPad Pro is definitely a pricey device. Is it worth the money? I would say yes if you have the need to use one for work.

When I bought the first iPad Pro, I was really impressed with everything about it, except when the battery broke down outside the warranty period. If you're a digital artist or graphic designer, I'm confident you will be impressed by the quality.

This new iPad Pro may be an improvement, but to me it's marginally better than the first generation so there's no need to upgrade from iPad Pro to iPad Pro. There are many reviewers who marvel at the 120Hz refresh rate, but let's not forget that the previous iPad Pro is already very impressive. If you're upgrading from something else, then it's worth serious consideration.

If you are hoping to replace your laptop with this, I say wait for reviews for iOS 11 before you make the jump.

Parblo sent me another graphics tablet to check out. This time, it's the Parblo A610.

The main difference between the A610 and the A609 that I reviewed earlier is the A609 has support for tilt sensitivity. And A610 has 8 physical shortcut buttons while A609 has only 4.

Before I start, let me say that I've tested this tablet on Mac and Windows. Unfortunately, it did not work well on Windows so all the user experience below are from the Mac perspective.

Here's a quick look at the specifications that matter:

• Active area: 10 by 6 inches
• Resolution: 5080 LPI (Lines Per Inch)
• Response rate: 230 RPS
• Pressure levels: 2048
• Hover distance: 1cm

If you have no idea what those numbers mean, it doesn't matter. Just know that nowadays, most graphic tablets have already reach the point where specifications are more than enough to satisfy any beginner digital artist.

Build quality

The build quality is sturdy enough. The plastic finishing does feel a bit cheap but it doesn't affect drawing performance.

There are 8 physical shortcut buttons on the side. If you're left handed, you can change the settings for left handed use in the driver. The buttons have limited customisability. You can only choose the pre-defined shortcuts. You cannot create your own keyboard shortcuts.

The buttons are shiny and located just beside a long vertical strip that's as shiny. Looks like they can be scratched easily so be careful.

That's the stylus and stand included.

The stylus feel sturdy but light. The rubber grip covers the bulk of the body. Don't know if you can see it but it can attract lots of dust.

The stylus is powered by battery and needs to be charge with the cable provided. When it runs out of power, it can still be used while charging.

Inside the pen stand, there are eight replacement tips and a nib remover. The stand can hold the stylus horizontally as well as vertically.

On the left is the USB cable used to charge the stylus. On the right is the 1.5m long cable to connect to the tablet.

Drivers

On the Mac, the drivers installed fine.

On Windows, I had problems with the installation and the driver. I tried installing the latest driver from Parblo's website and my installation process freeze halfway. I'm using Windows 7 Pro with Service Pack 1. Then I tried installing from the CD provided and it installed fine.

After rebooting Windows, it takes a long time for the tablet driver to be recognised so that it can be used. After using it for a while, the driver would stop working and the stylus would not be able to move the cursor anymore. Needless to say, it's very frustrating. It's almost the same problem I have with the Artisul Pencil tablet.

I did a quick check on Amazon and noticed that there were several other reviews complaining about the driver setup and functionality with Windows. So driver compatibility is something to take note of. I experienced it myself too.

On the Mac though...

You can adjust the pressure sensitivity here but there's no pressure curve.

Left handed users can change the settings here.

This is the full list of shortcuts that can be assigned to the physical buttons. Note that there's no way to create your own keyboard shortcuts, so you can only use those available.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is satisfactory. For a tablet under USD $60, it's good enough.

The drawing surface is matte and has a nice texture with the stylus tip.

The pressure sensitivity worked quite well with the various graphic apps that I've used with the exception of Adobe Illustrator (I'm using CS5 on the Mac). I've tested Photoshop CS5, Mischief, Medibang Paint Pro, Krita, Affinity Photo and Tayasui Sketches.

Illustrator CS5 (Mac) doesn't have pressure sensitivity.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac)

Mischief (Mac)

Photoshop CS5 (Mac)

Conclusion

Build quality is fine. The tablet feels a bit cheap but since it's so affordable, it's not really a surprise.

The tablet performed reasonably well when there are no driver issues. Having read the few reviews on Amazon taking about driver issues on Windows, I would be a bit wary. The A609 by comparison has less issues with driver functionality from my experience, as well as from the other users who have left reviews on Amazon. The price difference between A609 and A610 isn't that great either, so my suggestion is actually to get the A609 instead.

If you do get the A610, do share your opinions on Amazon with a review. It would help other artists.

Availability

You can find the Parblo A610 through the following links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

And Parblo Island A609 here:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Parblo.com

Special thanks to GearBest.com for providing the review unit

The Ugee 2150 Pen Display was actually released in 2015 if I am not wrong. I had actually invited a guest artist to write a review back then when the product was just released. Should you need a second opinion, you can check out that earlier review. Two years later, the Ugee 2150 is still selling. So is it still good by today's standards?

Included items

Other than the monitor, these are the included items

• 2x stylus
• 2x stylus charging cable
• Stylus stand
• 8x replacement nibs
• USB cable
• VGA cable
• HDMI cable
• Power adapter and cable

Build quality

The design of Ugee 2150 is quite similar to many other pen displays I've featured on the blog over the years, such as the XP Pen Artist 22HD and Huion GT220.

The build quality is good enough. It feels sturdy.

The stand is detachable should you want to use a VESA mount. You can adjust the angle of the stand by releasing the latch at the top.

The 21.5-inch screen supports 1920 by 1080 resolution with a 250cd/m2 brightness. The glass surface is really glossy and reflective. When you rest your palm on the screen, it's going to hinder your palm moving around easily because of the surface texture it might be better to use the gloves provided.

The IPS panel has relatively good colour reproduction. I've calibrated the screen with a Spyder 5 Pro and was able to get a reading of 99% sRGB and 76% AdobeRGB which is good enough for a monitor in this price range. Viewing angles are decent too.

These are the buttons on the monitor.

The graphic ports supported are VGA, DVI and HDMI. Note that the DVI cable is not included. There's a USB port to connect to the computer so that the stylus can be recognised.

One of the downsides to the design is the cables come out from beneath the monitor, and when you adjust the stand to the lowest (flat) angle, the monitor is most likely going to rest on the cable, and it would wobble. At the lowest angle, you can adjust the cables in such a way that the rubber feet can get contact with the table, but this means you have to manually adjust the cables each time you lay the monitor flat. It's an inconvenience if you like to draw at such a low angle, but if you don't, then it's not really a big issue.

That's the pen and stand provided.

The pens are battery powered so you have to charge them when battery life is low. But since there are two pens provided, you would always have one to use while you charge the other. Charging port is at the back of the pen so there's no eraser.

The pen is quite lightweight. The huge rubber grip is good to hold but attracts dust easily.

8 replacement tips are provided and can be found inside the pen stand.

The pen is incredibly sensitive. Very little pressure is require to produce the thinnest of lines. If you want to create dots by tapping on the screen, you have to move the tip slightly because just by tapping, the dots won't come out.

There's some parallax error but it's not really a big problem after calibrating the screen for parallax. The pen and cursor is generally very accurate.

Driver installation

The driver supports XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 and Mac OS.

Driver installation is straightforward. I've only tested this on Mac OS. If you need a Windows point of view, check out the guest artist review.

You can adjust the pressure sensitivity of the pen, assign shortcuts to the side buttons, calibrate the screen for parallax with the driver.

Drawing experience

The monitor and pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and they work really well.

Photoshop CS5 on Mac works with pressure. Lines are smooth and can transition easily from thin to thick depending on pressure. The lines do not taper as gradually compared to Wacom tablets though.

Pressure sensitivity does not work with Adobe Illustrator CS5 on the Mac.

Pressure works with Affinity Photo.

Pressure works with Krita.

Pressure works with Mischief.

Pressure works with Medibang Paint Pro. The hatching lines also taper gradually.

Tayasui Sketches Pro does not support pressure for its drawing tools.

Video review

Conclusion

Generally speaking, the Ugee 2150 works quite well. Pressure sensitivity works with all the apps I've tried except Adobe Illustrator CS5. Maybe Adobe CC would support it but I can't confirm since I'm still using the old Adobe software.

Accuracy is good. There's no lag but this depends on your system and the apps you use. I did not face with any strange glitches so that's a major pro.

As for downsides... Since the screen is glossy, it prevents the palm from sliding around easily so you have to wear the glove. The feeling of the pen tip on plastic is not as good compared to Wacom Cintiqs because those screens have matte surface. It will take a while to get used to drawing on glossy glass screen. You may want to consider getting a matte screen protector but that would affect the image quality -- making the image look slightly more grainy.

Pros
+ Good build quality
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ 2 pens included
+ Spare nibs included
+ No noticeable lag
+ Supports HDMI, DVI-I, and VGA
+ IPS panel with decent colour reproduction and viewing angles
+ Cheaper than Wacom pen displays
+ Works well with most Mac apps except Illustrator CS5

Cons
- Cables come out from bottom of monitor affects the lowest stand position
- Glossy, reflective screen
- Parallax that's compensated by software settings
- Limited driver/stylus customizability
- No shortcut buttons on the monitor

Availability

Since this review unit is provided by GearBest, you can Find the Ugee 2150 on their website.

You can compare prices on Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon ES | Amazon IT | Amazon JP

Guest review by Jose Cua

Hi folks, Jose Cua here and this is a review for another tablet monitor, the Ugee 1910B. Ugee has been in the tablet game since 2003 and have a wide range of tablets under their belt. Their products have received generally good reviews from artist around the globe and I have been fortunate enough to review one of their monitor tablets, the 1910b.

Specs

It has a pretty decent build quality, has a resolution of 1440 x 900, 5080 lpi, and 2048 levels of pressure.

Unlike other competing models out there, HDMI is not available so it connects only through a VGA or DVI cable. If you are using other slots on your PC or Laptop you will have to buy an adapter which should be easily available on any electronics store. It’s very similar to the XP-Pen 16 and the XP-Pen 22HD in terms of accessories. It comes with similar cable accessories and 2 chargeable pens. I had a hunch that it was probably the same technology under the hood and found out that the pens on the Ugee work with the Xp-Pen and vice versa. The stands that come with the Ugee and Xp-Pen are also pretty much identical.

The stand locks firmly in any angle and while I feel this is superior to something you would find on a Cintiq 13hd or a Cintiq Companion, my preferred setup is still using a monitor arm.

Thankfully the stand is detachable and the monitor is VESA compatible so setting it up with my Ergotron was just as straightforward as my Cintiq or XP-Pen.

I was also never a fan of the glassy feel of the tablets so I had a matte screen protector attached on it as I have with all my other devices. It will set you back around 30USD but its a preference of mine and I feel the price is worth the end result. With it, it is much smoother to glide my hand around the screen while drawing.

Setting up the tablet was pretty straight forward, when installing the drivers, it automatically detects existing tablet drivers and uninstalls them for you.

How does the tablet perform?

The 1910b’s display is only 1440 x 900 compared most of the competitions 1920 x 1080 or even (4K for the Cintiq Pro 16). This is the tablet monitors main disadvantage. Text can seem pixelated or blurry when browsing, but when painting or sculpting its something that I eventually ignored. Cursor parallax is present but it wasn't as drastic compared to the XP-Pen when shifting the cursor towards corners. There was no need for me to the run calibration which was a pleasant surprise.

The Pen

While the resolution was a bit of a letdown, I was pleasantly surprised by how the pen performed! It felt very comparable to Cintiq I was using at work. The Ugee 1910b’s pen worked flawlessly! The lightest touch registered, and I felt I didn’t need to press too hard to get my middle and high pressure ranges (Compared to the XP-Pen monitors I had tested, with which I had to resort to adjusting the pressure curves using a third party app). Despite the lower resolution the tablet felt great when drawing or sculpting, and I was very satisfied with the overall experience.

Here are some line tests in photoshop. There was some very minor shakiness but that was also present in my Cintiq 24hd.

And heres a quick test in Zbrush. The tablet works with no issues in the program.

Conclusion

Being a long time Wacom user I would say they make great products, but there are many things to gripe about. The prices are very high compared to the competition out there, and the customer service has been known to be far from pleasurable. It's no doubt that they are still the leader of the pack in terms of quality and specs, but having competing products out there levels the playing field for those who don’t wish to pay an exorbitant price for a tablet monitor. And having already tried 3 tablet monitor brands, I feel that things are looking good for us artists looking for alternative. We can now have a comparable experience for half or in some cases even a third of the cost.

Overall I’d say the Ugee 1910B is a really good product! It delivers great performance at a fraction of a price for what you would usually pay for a high end Wacom device. And while it does come with some minor flaws, I feel the positive traits outweigh the negative ones. It performs comparably with the other Cintiq alternatives out there, and the pen’s initial activation and pressure curve is the best compared to the other alternatives I have tried so far. When looking for a tablet monitor, its important for me that the pen should feel almost exactly like what I am used to with a Cintiq 24hd and the Ugee 1910B passes with flying colors in that aspect. For those on a budget I highly recommend this product, the price has been slashed from 699.99USD to 409.99USD making it an absolute steal!

There are no huge issues that deter me from using it. My drawing speed actually got a little faster from being more precise. You will need enough table space for it, as I can't see myself using it without space for keyboard and a 2nd monitor.

Pros:
1. Pen pressure feels responsive and has a good level of pressure.
2. Screen doesn't get hot. (Usage in an air conditioned room)
3. 19" Screen size is very comfortable to draw on.

Cons:
1. Screen is not full HD. Personally I can overlook it because the benefit of drawing where you see outweighs this.
2. Colour isn't accurate. But I check the colours using a secondary monitor.
3. Screen glare and surface glossiness. Overcome by using a matte screen protector.

Availability

Check out more reviews at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

It has been less than a year and Huion has updated their Inspiroy G10T to the 2nd generation. In this update, Huion have increased the pen's pressure sensitivity from 2048 to 8192 levels, and improved the functionality of the trackpad.

In my review for the 1st generation Inspiroy G10T, I mentioned there were bugs that affected the functionality to the point that made the tablet frustrating to use. I'm glad to say that the bugs from the 1st generation G10T are gone. This 2nd gen model performs surprisingly well now.

For those are reading the G10T review for the first time, I'll go through all the points again. I've used this tablet on both Mac and Windows.

This is how the new packaging looks like. Other than the box and the labeled 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, there's no way to differentiate the new and old G10T. Physical design of the tablet and basically everything else remains similar.

This is how you know that you've received the updated model.

The packaging is quite neat.

A sturdy pen case is included instead of a pen stand.

This is convenient for transporting and protecting the pen.

Inside the case are 8 replacement nibs, the nib remover, the pen and the wireless USB receiver.

The wireless receiver is small so don't lose it.

The 2-button pen has a nice weight to it. Not too heavy or light. The body is smooth, matte and does not come with the dust-attracting rubber grip like some other pens.

The end of the pen is tapered and there's a charging port there. I'm not sure about the pen's exact battery life but you can still draw with the pen while it's plugged in and charging so it should not be a problem when it runs out of battery. However, drawing with the charging cable plugged into the pen feels a bit awkward because of the cable hanging behind.

These are the two charging cables. The other cable is for charging the 2500mAh battery in the wireless tablet. For some reason, that tablet cannot be used while it's charging. Somehow the tablet can detect the pen but the cursor will not move while the tablet is charging.

To switch on the tablet, you just press the power button. To switch off, just press and hold the same button for a while.

When the tablet is charged, the indicator light will turn from red to white.

Build quality of the tablet is very good. This is one of the best build quality of all the tablets I've featured.

The drawing surface is matte and has a nice texture. It feels good when drawing with the pen with just the right amount of friction for good control.

The smooth brushed metal back contributes to the premium look and feel. This tablet is does not feel like some cheap hollow plastic. So this tablet is definitely has a more premium feel compared to Huion's other wireless tablets, e.g. Q11K and the WH1409, or even the entry level Wacom Intuos.

That's the trackpad with the six physical shortcut keys.

Driver

The trackpad functionality has already been programmed with many finger gestures. For example, there's pinch to zoom which works well with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Pinch-zoom did not work well with Medibang Paint Pro (Win) -- I could zoom out but not in. Downside is there's no way to customise your own finger gestures with the driver so you can only use their gestures. E.g. There's no way to configure rotating with the trackpad.

I don't usually use the trackpad because my keyboard is always by the side of the tablet. I find it inconvenient to switch to and fro from trackpad to keyboard. Depending on where your left hand is, it may touch the trackpad accidentally and move the mouse cursor. You can switch off the trackpad if you don't want to use it.

Trackpad functionality has improved over the G10T first gen. There's only this pinch-zoom bug with Medibang Paint Pro (Win) I experienced.

Pressure sensitivity works well. I personally cannot differentiate 2000 and 8000 levels of pressure sensitivity. The default level of pressure sensitivity works well. You can't adjust the pressure curve, you can only change the dial that affects it.

Left handed users can rotate the tablet orientation settings here.

There are some Chinese words on the buttons here (only on Mac driver). Looks like the programmers left out some translation by mistake.

For the physical shortcut buttons, you can enter your own keyboard shortcuts.

Drawing performance

Drawing experience is fantastic. I did not experience any bugs.

With Photoshop CS5 (Mac), the lines are smooth and taper nicely. Some other tablets may have lines that are not smooth so I'm happy to see that the lines here are really smooth.

Pressure sensitivity works well with Illustrator CS5 (Mac) and also with all other Mac software that I've tested. With some other tablets, sometimes pressure does not work with Illustrator.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac v11) works flawlessly. The random splotch issue has been resolved.

Pressure works with Krita too.

I've also tested Affinity Photo, Mischief, Tayasui Sketches Pro and they all perform well with the G10T.

On Windows, I've tested Adobe Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and Medibang Paint Pro and they all work well. Strokes are smooth. Pressure works.

Conclusion

Most of the bugs from the 1st generation have been resolved except for the pinch-zoom with Medibang Paint Pro (Win). Overall, the trackpad works well. The tablet now performs predictably and consistently, just the way it should be.

The only downsides would be the inability to customise your own finger gestures. I'm just nitpicking because I use the keyboard more than the trackpad.

So to conclude, the Huion Inspiroy G10T looks good and performs well. I was hesitate to recommend the 1st generation G10T but the 2nd generation is easy for me to recommend.

Pros and cons

+ Good build quality
+ Good drawing functionality
+ 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Trackpad works well
+ Sturdy pen case provided
+ 8 replacement nibs provided
- Tablet can't be used while it's charging
- Pinch-zoom bug with Medibang Paint Pro (Win)

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

This is a guest review.

Hi folks! Jose Cua here. I’m an artist in the games and animation industry and a lover of tech art gadgets. I’ve been a long time Wacom user starting from the Graphire series all the way to the Cintiq’s and Cintiq companions. I’ve also used other brands from Samsung, Xp-pen, Huion, Ugee, and I’m always on the lookout for new art tools to try.

Parblo has been kind enough to send me one of their latest tablet monitors the Parblo Mast10. As with all my other reviews this will be an honest review with the artist in mind.

Short review

The Parblo Mast10 is the upgraded version of the Parblo Coast10. It is a compact tablet that features 6 express keys. The pen works well with 2048 levels of pressure and responds to very light touches (low initial activation force).

The screen is matte and has a nice papery feel that allows your hand to slide around effortlessly. While the 1280x800 resolution might seem small, it is actually sufficient for a 10” display and what it lacks in size it makes up for portability.

Compared to some larger models, device does not require an external power supply and the pen doesn’t need to be charged, making it great for those for those on the go. In terms of size and weight, it is just as light and actually smaller than an Intuos pro medium, which makes it easy to carry around, and it is also priced less!

Everything you need can be fit in the bag that it comes with. Priced at $299, it is a good value for artists who are on a budget but still want to draw directly on the screen, or artists who want to have something that they can easily put in a bag and carry around.

Long review

Here's what's in the box

(Image taken from Amazon) As you can see Parblo was quite generous with the accessories it came with.

Best of all everything you need to bring the device around can fit in the bag they have provided. (2 cables, and pen)

Build quality

Upon first inspection the build quality feels great. It has a nice plastic finish, and feels sturdy in the hand. It comes with 6 express keys which have a nice matte rubbery texture over them and a very tactile feel when pressing. Depending on whether you are left or right handed you can rotate the tablet so the express keys are on the left or the right.

Underneath the tablet monitor there are rubber tips that prevent it from slipping around while you rest it on a table.

At 1.4lbs/0.675kg the tablet is very light to carry around. The tablet is 301.88mm (L) x 209.6mm (W) x 11.95mm (H). Similar in size and weight to an Ipad Pro 12.9 with a casing, which makes it small and thin enough to easily slip in backpacks, or laptop bags.

While it doesn’t come with a stand there a few options for it.

Actto book stand

I tested it for a while with the Actto book stand. This is able to stay locked at multiple angles even with my arm resting on it. There was a bit of wobbling when I shifted the weight too much to one side but that didn’t really bother me that much.

Ergotron Arm and Laptop Mount

Another possible setup would be with a monitor arm (like an ergotron) and a vesa compatible laptop mount. I use these with larger tablets that don’t have Vesa mounts on them. This setup is much more versatile as you can adjust the height and angle of the monitor but the price might be a bit much for such a small tablet.

The Screen

The screen is a 10.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280x800 with a 75 percent Adobe RGB color gamut. It has a pretty good viewing angle which allows you to work on the tablet at an angle while it lays flat on the table. While the resolution might seem small at first it is actually more than sufficient for a screen of this size. There is minimal pixelation in text unless you look really closely. The tablet comes with a pre-installed matte screen protector which is Ideal for me. The matte screen reduces the amount of glare in direct light and allows your hand to glide smoothly on the screen as you draw, paint, or sculpt. Each time I receive or buy a tablet monitor that isn’t a Wacom I always have to go to the electronics shop to attach a screen protector to enhance the drawing experience, I’m glad I didn’t have to do that with this device.

One con I’d like to point out is the parallax. When using the book stand or the ergotron arm I work at an almost vertical orientation, which has minimal parallax, if you were to work at a lower angle or completely flat the parallax would be more obvious as you can see on the image on the right. While evident, it's actually not too obvious unless you are working with very small lines and zoomed out quite a bit. This is a common issue with other tablet monitors because the glass surface will have a little bit of thickness to it, Cintiqs also have it although not as much, but I have gotten used to it after a few minutes of drawing. It's not really a big deal.

The Pen Performance

I was pleasantly surprised by how the pen performed. Pressure sensitivity feels great at 2048 levels and while we were not able to adjust the pressure curve with the inbuilt driver setup, I was able to do so using an app called Lazy Nezumi This is what I use to adjust pressure curves on Ugee, XP-Pen, and Huion tablet monitors, it works just as well with the Parblo device.

To me what matters more than pressure levels (anything above 1028 levels is usually fine for me) is the “initial activation force”. That is the force required to register a mark on a tablet. Wacom Cintiq’s are the best in this area and are able to respond to the slightest of touches. Even with a top brand like Microsoft’s surface Pro or the older Samsung Galaxy Tabs you need to press slightly harder to register a stroke. I found that the Parblo Mast10 performed well and had a better activation force than a microsoft surface pro and a samsung galaxy tab, but was not as sensitive as a wacom cintiq. This is not exactly a bad point as even the top brands have these issues but I thought it would be good to keep the readers aware. The pen comes with two buttons which I mapped to middle and right click. It responded pretty well and had no issues. It has a nice tactile clicky feel to it which I like.
One cool feature I found was that if I wanted to draw on a larger monitor I could map the tablet to my second larger monitor and use it as if it was a normal non monitor graphics tablet. This could be useful if you would like to move the cursor to the other screen while multitasking or if you’d like to just sketch loosely before bringing it back to the tablet monitor to touch up the details. Wacom had a shortcut key for this “toggle monitor” which I would map the the express keys to switch from one screen to the next quickly. Parblo doesn’t have yet but I have contacted them and hope that they can try to implement it in the next driver update.

Now for the cons. One thing I did notice was when trying to draw very small circles (like 1-2mm big) it wouldn’t register, it is not a big matter as I don’t see people doing that often but I thought it was worth mentioning. Tapping to draw dots were fine though. Another thing to keep in mind is when you are starting up Windows 10, you might find that the pen isn’t working. Don’t worry this is just because the driver hasn’t loaded yet, just wait a few seconds or a minute for all the startup programs to load up and the pen should start working.

While the pen has its quirks, I think these are things we can get used to over time, I still feel it has more pro’s than cons.

App Tests

Here are some line tests in different apps.

Photoshop worked well throughout the test, I was able to get a good range of pressure after using Lazy Nezumi. Not much jittering as well. The tablet performed fine with with Sketchbook Pro

The tablet performed just as well in Medibang as it did in Photoshop, except when trying to just tap to draw dots. Perhaps it is a brush setting but I am unfamiliar with the program. The tablet performed fine with Krita as with the previous apps tested.

The tablet had some issues working with Sai at the start. There was a huge cursor offset, so I googled the issue and it seems to be a common thing with Sai and UC logic devices.

Here is the solution:
Exit out of sai, and right click the program, go to properties. Then you go to Compatibility, and check "display scaling in high dpi settings". Start sai and see if it works.

If that doesn’t solve the problem follow the next steps:
Exit Sai. Open the misc.ini file via notepad. Make sure TabletCursorMode = 1 and TabletMouseSimulation= 0 Save the file. Restart your Computer.

Everything worked fine inside of Sai after applying this solution.

These sketches were done in Photoshop.

Here’s a quick test with Zbrush and Keyshot. No issues with the tablet working with those programs.

Conclusions

Overall I am happy with the tablet. I felt it performed well in the tests. It had nice sensitivity and initial activation force compared to the other non wacom tablets I have tried over time. Although it is quite small, it comes at a great price point which makes it easy to consider for those just getting into digital art and want to buy a device that they can draw directly on, or for those who want a tablet screen they can bring around.

Here are a summary of the pros and cons

Pros
+ Nice Build Quality
+ Size (for those who want something compact and mobile)
+ Light and compact (Smaller than an Intuos Pro Medium)
+ Minimal Cables, No need for Power Supply
+ Easy to set up and install Drivers
+ Pre attached Matte screen protector for papery feel
+ IPS panel with good viewing angles
+ Mappable Express Keys
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Fairly low initial activation force (almost cintiq-like)
+ Jitter is non existent or very little
+ Reasonably Priced
+ Works well with Photoshop, Zbrush
+ Comes with lots of freebies (pouch, glove, converters, nibs)

Cons
- Size (for those who prefer large screen)
- Parallax is quite evident on a small screen which can affect accuracy when not zoomed in
- Very small 1-2mm movements are hard to detect (only if you draw that small)
- Limited driver/stylus customizability (pressure curve controls in next driver update I hope)
- Lack of mappable toggle screen switch function (next driver update I hope!)
- Would be nicer if it had a stand (but will work on stable book stands)

Availability

You can find Parblo Mast10 on Amazon at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

XP-PEN has provided me with another tablet to try out. This time it's the XP-Pen Star 06 Wireless Graphics Tablet.

The Star series graphic tablets are the budget tablets from XP Pen. They can be wired or wireless. These are the tablets without screens. XP-Pen also sells pen displays, monitors that you can draw on, such as Artist 10S, Artist 16 and Artist 22HD all of which have been featured on my blog before.

That's the packaging. Mine was pretty smashed up but thankfully the interior was padded so there was no damage to any items.

Inside this bag there are the stylus, manual and gloves.

If you want an extra one month warranty, you can follow XP Pen on their social media sites.

These are all the accessories included, namely the stylus, pen stand, charging cable for the tablet and a USB thumb drive that includes Mac and Windows driver.

The stylus supports 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. It does not require any battery just like Wacom styluses.

You can put the pen horizontally or vertically on the pen stand.

Hidden within the pen stand are 8 replacement tips. You have to turn the back cover to open up the pen stand. The opening process is not as easy as I expect but it's minor issue since the tips won't be replaced that often.

The build quality is decent for a tablet in this price range -- currently USD 89 on Amazon USA. It feels solid enough.

The design looks good, very streamline. There's no unnecessary space wasted. Corners are rounded off nicely. Overall look and feel is great.

The XP-Pen Star 06 has a 10x6 inch working area. The drawing surface is a smooth matte surface, similar to Wacom Intuos, feels good when drawn with the stylus.

Physical shortcut buttons have audible clicks but feels a bit hollow, which is not really a big deal.

The scroll wheel has steps and audible clicking sounds during scrolling. It has the right amount of friction and control. Works well. This is great when it comes to changing brush sizes. For tablets without the scroll wheel, when you need to change brush sizes, you have to click on the physical shortcut key numerous times, as opposed to press and hold on a keyboard. Having the scroll wheel speeds up the changing of brush sizes.

There's a clothed pen holder attached to the side of the tablet.

That's the 1050mAh lithium battery that powers this wireless tablet. A full charge will provide an estimated 16 hours of use. You can also use the tablet while it is charging.

There's a little USB wireless receiver that's included in the back compartment beside that battery. That's the receiver you need to plug into your computer for it to recognise the tablet.

Driver installation

I tested the tablet on Mac only so I can't say anything about the performance on Windows.

The latest driver that I tested was 1.0.0.8 which was downloaded from their website. The driver on the USB thumb drive provided was 1.0.0.6.

These are some of the features you get with the driver:

• Change the pressure sensitivity
• Choose left/right handed mode
• Map the tablet to selected area of the monitor
• Customise the 6 physical buttons and scroll wheel

You can assign specific keyboard shortcuts to the six Express Keys on the tablet. However, the process is not that intuitive the first time. You have to click Express Keys tab -> Reset Customer Defined -> Hot Key and type in your keyboard shortcut.

Drawing performance

In short, drawing performance is excellent except for a glitch with Photoshop that I've found. But overall, the tablet is very responsive, accurate. Pressure sensitivity works great. The smooth matte surface feels good to draw on.

Strokes are smooth, transition well from thin to thick. One advantage that XP Pen has over other Wacom Intuos alternative is the strokes taper very nicely and gradually.

Sometimes when I draw with Photoshop, I will get dots instead of strokes. The workaround is to pick a brush from the brush palette first before drawing. Other than that, it works fine.

Pressure sensitivity does not work by default on Illustrator. You have to install Wacom Intuos driver for the pressure to work. Having two drivers on the system does not seem to cause any conflict though.

Medibang Paint Pro works great, as usual.

Other Mac graphic software that I've tested are Tayasui Sketches Pro (above), Krita, Affinity Photo and Mischief. All work fine.

Conclusion

There are only two minor glitches that I found but thankfully the workaround is simple so they are not deal breakers.

Overall, the tablet performs quite well. Drawing experience is very satisfactory. The build quality is great, buttons have nice tactile feel. Pen does not need to be charged. Wireless feature works well and you can keep the small wireless receiver on the tablet itself, making the tablet easy to transport. Even the clothed pen holder on the side is thick and feels durable.

In short, if you're looking for a budget wireless graphics tablet, this should be in the top three options you should look at.

Availability

Check out more reviews of the XP Pen Star 06 on Amazon (direct links below)
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Apple announced their most powerful Mac at the 2017 WWDC yesterday. It's an iMac. It's the iMac Pro.

Let's look at the specs first before we talk about who this Mac is for.

• 5120 x 2880 resolution 27-inch screen
• 500 nits brightness, Wide colour (P3)
• 8, 10 to 18-cores Xeon processor
• 32GB to 128GB RAM
• 1TB to 4TB SSD
• 4x USB 3 ports (USB Type A)
• 4x Thunderbolt 3 ports (USB Type C)
• Ethernet port
• 3.5mm audio jack
• SD card slot for UHS‑II

The specs are incredible, befitting that of the Mac Pro except it's housed in an iMac.

Make no mistake, this Mac is for a very niche target group of creative professionals. It's not for digital artists, graphic designers or photographers. It's for professionals who are always starved for time. More specifically, I think it's for people who are into serious 4K video editing or 3D rendering or animation.

What's the difference between serious vs the occasional 4K editing? Take my workflow for example, I produce around twenty 4K videos for my Youtube channel. Videos are around 10 minutes long. Each 4K video takes around 1 hour or more to export with the 2013 trashcan Mac Pro quad 3.7Ghz. While the video is exporting, I can do other tasks, like writing. So it's not a big deal if it takes 1 hour to render a video. I consider myself a casual video editor who puts out video content everyday, but I'm not the target market for the iMac Pro

For creators who need to put out 4K content ASAP on a daily basis, I think the iMac Pro can save them a lot of time. If I make eighty 4K videos a month, I would have no hesitation getting that iMac. If you're someone who can leave your video to render overnight, then this is perhaps not the Mac for you. Because if you sleep 6 hours, you can export 60 minutes of video (depending on the settings of course).

For those in 3D animation or modeling, it can really save a lot of time if your workflow involves repetitive rendering and checking.

One concern I have is how are the processors utilized. I can't confirm but when I export videos with Final Cut Pro, my internet connection would often slow down to a crawl for some reason. When the export is done, or when I cancel the export, the internet connect goes back to normal.

Other concern is the heat. Be prepared for the iMac Pro to get really hot. How hot? Hot-until-it's-a-bit-unbearable-to-put-your-hands-on-it kind of hot. My Mac Pro is already unbearably hot when exporting videos, I'm pretty sure the iMac Pro will be as hot. I'm just not sure how the heat is going to affect the components in the iMac. Regardless of how Apple is marketing their ventilation system, when you're exporting videos, it's gonna get very hot. When I'm concerned about is how it would affect the lifespan of the screen.

Talking about the screen, I've never been a big fan of built-in all-in-one systems. I've seen a lot of designers use iMac. They are powerful and save a lot of space, but you have to take into account of what's going to happen when your system breaks down.

I have the 2010 Mac Pro and the 2013 Mac Pro. I've them breaking down before. When my 2010 Mac Pro broke down, I had days of downtime. When my 2013 Mac Pro broke down I had zero downtime because I had a backup Mac (a 2.6Ghz quad-core Mac Mini 2012).

If you're a creative professional who needs to put out work daily, would you place your bet on a Mac that when it's not working, will cost you days of downtime? I guess if you can spend USD $5,000 on the entry level iMac Pro, you may have extra money to spend on backup systems as well. I'm not a serious video editor and I have a backup system to ensure zero downtime. If you're a serious video editor, you need to have a workflow that can guarantee zero downtime too.

You see, the beauty having the screen and computer separate is, when the screen is down, you can go down straight to the electronics store and pick up a monitor straightaway. When the computer is down, you can connect your backup to the monitor and get back to work straightaway. If this iMac is down, there's no way to get back to work straightaway unless you have another spare iMac, or a computer with screen. Can you imagine how many days it will take to repair the iMac Pro? Can you afford the downtime?

By the way, I've sent in my 2013 Mac Pro for servicing for quite a few times. It's a Mac OS problem that keeps crashing the system. During all those times when the Mac Pro was at the service centre, I was still able to work because I had a backup system.

So yeah, the iMac Pro may be powerful, but it's really a niche product targeted at the most demanding creative professionals. The most significant downside is what would happen when the iMac Pro breaks down --- because we all know bad things can happen anytime.

The iMac is also a good indication of where the Mac Pro is going. I'm confident that the Mac Pro entry level will feature almost similar specs, and will probably be sold at the same price, except without the screen.

I've seen some reviews saying that this is a stop gap for creators who are waiting for the Mac Pro. If you have waited so long, why not wait a bit longer for 2018 when the new Mac Pros are out?

If you happen to get the iMac Pro, I would love to hear about your workflow and what you think.

Hello readers, my name is Jose Cua, a concept artist working in the games industry. I’m always on the lookout for new art tech and gadgets. I recently had an opportunity to test and review the XP-Pen Artist 16. It is a low cost Wacom Cintiq alternative created by Japanese company XP-Pen, and is currently available through their website and on Amazon for a bargain price of less than $500!

Specs

It comes with a 15.6-inch screen, a high resolution 1920x1080 IPS display, and 2048 levels of pressure. The build quality feels good, and has solid programmable keys on the left side (I prefer this compared to touch ones that are so easily activated accidentally). XP-Pen provides 2 rechargeable pens (so you that have a spare while you charge the other), the pens have two programmable buttons just like the Wacom ones, they do feel much lighter than the Cintiq pens, but in terms of grip and feel, its quite comparable.

An adjustable stand is provided which is able to lock at any angle you desire and hold its position even with a significant amount of pressure.

This is much sturdier and, works more efficiently than the ones included with the Cintiq Companion which were limited to 3 angles. The stand connects to the back of the monitor using a Vesa connector which works out great for me because it meant that it was compatible with my ergotron arm!

After testing it a few sessions with the stand I was able to easily remove the stand and attach it to my Ergotron arm (my prefered setup, since I like to draw with the tablet raised and more vertically angled)

XP-Pen is quite generous with the amount of accessories they provide. The box contains an artist glove, spare nibs, multiple display connection options, and a screen protector. Without the screen protector the screen will leave marks and fingerprints as you rest your arm around it, and on top of that you get a rough screechy feeling when using the stylus on the glass. This does not mean it is a low quality glass, in fact, it feels very similar to an iPad Pro without a screen protector. Drawing on the XP-Pen felt much better with the provided screen protector but after a minute of applying pressure to the screen air bubbles just appear all over the place, making it difficult to sketch in. I decided to get a purchase a matte screen protector and have it attached by a professional and its been working out great since then. Feels very comparable to the Cintiq Companion's texture.

Set Up

I tested the device on a Windows 10 desktop. There were no issues getting things up and running. Driver installation went smoothly (I uninstalled existing Wacom drivers beforehand to avoid any conflicts).

The XP-Pen's configuration app comes with the basic set of options, screen calibration, express keys, and a pressure level slider. It doesn't come with the fancy bells and whistles the Cintiq's come with such as radial menu's and more versatile keystroke shortcuts. Those would have been nice but they are features I can live without anyways. Screen and pen calibration was straightforward enough (just like a Cintiq), and parallax was a at minimum.

Performance

Overall, the pen works really great except for one minor nitpick of mine which would be the pressure sensitivity. In the tablet setting app, the initial pressure settings were at the lowest (meaning it would detect your lightest strokes) there is a small box where you can test the pressure which seem fine but what you see in the test box doesn’t really reflect how the brush behaves in Photoshop.

When drawing and painting in Photoshop the initial activation point is slightly similar but in my opinion better than that of the Surface Pro 4. But what I noticed is that the pressure curve is not as gradual as the default settings on a Wacom tablet. It feels like a very steep curve compared to a linear light to hard pressure graduation. A simple analogy would be like comparing the differences between a 2H pencil (XP-Pen) with a 2B pencil (Cintiq). Very lights strokes are really easy to do (which is great) but middle and hard strokes take a little more strength than usual.

Here’s a clip showing me applying the same kind of pressure that I usually use on a Cintiq device (very light strokes were detected, which felt much better than what most non-Cintiq devices can achieve). But I noticed I was not able to hit the maximum pressure (unless I press harder than what I am used to on my Cintiq). Have a look at how big the maximum size of the stroke is compared to the actual Brush size I am using.

It is a noticeable difference to what I am used to, but this is not a knock on the quality of the device, it's just that after using a Cintiq for more than half a decade I am used to a certain pressure setting. I do however, feel that people who haven’t been using Cintiq’s for so long will not notice the difference. Anyway, this was easily resolved in a program like Manga studio which has a pen pressure curve editor (for all their individual brushes).

Here are the corrections to the pressure curve. I found that changing the curve in this manner, has made the pressure sensitivity almost identical to that of the Cintiq I use at work.

This video below shows how I was now easily able to achieve maximum pressure using the same strength that I use when drawing on a Cintiq.

This shows that it isn’t a hardware issue at all. Unfortunately programs like Photoshop or Zbrush do not have a pressure slider. XP-Pen just needs to create something that allows its users to adjust the pressure curve universally (similar to what Wacom has), this will make Cintiq users adapt even easier to their devices. I hope the developers of XP-Pen are reading this, and include this in the next update.

These are some doodles in Photoshop. Lines came out very smoothly. I loved that very light strokes were detected much better than that of a Surface Pro 4 although it still didn’t match that of a Wacom Cintiq (the difference is very little though). Despite having to press harder for the full pressure level, it didn’t stop me from sketching things after getting used to it.

Below is test session in ZBrush (Sensitivity works the same as in Photoshop). Feels a bit different from the Cintiq but nothing major that really stopped me from creating things.

Overall, I feel the XP-Pen’s performance is pretty good. But long time Wacom Cintiq users will most definitely notice the difference in the pressure curve settings, XP-Pen just needs to allow its users to edit the pressure curve, to make the the transition to their devices even easier.

More Comparisons with Wacom

The 15-6-inch screen feels great! I feel like there was just the right amount of screen space, without being too bulky to move it around if I have to. In comparison, I felt the 13 inch tablets overall were a bit too small and the 27-inch way too big. There are two Wacom Cintiq devices that are the closest to the XP-Pen Artist 16 in terms of specs, and those are the Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16.

For the Cintiq Pro 13 you are getting the same resolution, but a smaller screen, yet you are paying double the price. And for the Cintiq Pro 16, you are getting the same screen size but with double the resolution, and for triple the price.

The main differences between the Wacom and XP-Pen specs are the levels of pressure, and resolution.

Both Wacom Cintiq Pros offer 4096 levels of pressure (that's 2x what the Artist 16 has), but the thing is, can we really notice the difference? I’ve been using Wacom devices for over a decade now and so far, I honestly feel that past 512 levels of pressure we really can't tell anymore. When using a pencil how many levels of pressure do we even have control of? The pressure sensitivity has felt the same to me since my very first Wacom device, a Wacom graphire 2 which came out 16 years ago. What has changed is the level of control we have of the pressure curve, which is editable in our Wacom devices settings (allowing us to adjust very accurately how light and how hard we’d like to press the pen). In the end everyone has their own preferences and the ability to edit that very accurately is what makes the biggest difference to me.

Another main difference between the XP-Pen 16 and its Cintiq counterparts is the resolution. The Cintiq Pro 13 has a smaller screen but the same resolution and the Cintiq 16 Pro has same screen size but with double the resolution. Keep in mind that the XP-Pen’s resolution is no slouch. It comes at a full HD 1920x1080, which is comparable with a lot of higher end 15 inch laptops. The Cintiq Pro 16 however, comes with a 4K 3840 pixels × 2160 display. Certain things might seem clearer but what also happens when you increase the resolution is that your icons are smaller, buttons in Photoshop are smaller, and a lot of things will seem harder to click. Maybe there is a workaround, but to me such a high resolution on such a small screen might not be worth the extra investment. Keep in mind that things already look pretty decent in much larger screens and half of that resolution. And also that you aren’t just paying a couple hundred bucks extra, you are paying triple the price.

Overall I feel the the XP-Pen 16 holds its own very well among the growing number of tablet monitors available. I’ve been a Cintiq user for many years and all in all, aside from my main gripe of not having an adjustable pressure graph curve like Wacom (which I do hope they fix after reading this review), I feel the XP-Pen Artist 16 has performed excellently from the time I first started using it. It has a quality build, and it comes comes in a size that I feel is the new sweet spot between screen space and portability. All at an amazing price that is just so impossible to ignore. I feel the Wacom Cintiq's are still the best in their class, and if money is not an issue I would still recommend them over other devices. But I do believe that with the release of more tablets like the XP-Pen Artist 16, that gap between quality and affordability is getting closer. And it will continue to do so in the following years to come.

Availability

For more reviews, visit the following direct product links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es

Purchases though the links earns the website some commission at no extra cost to you. This helps the website put out more reviews like this.

Pendorra sent me a free stylus again. This time it's the Pendorra Gen 2. I've reviewed the first model way back in Dec 2016 and the company said that the new stylus has some improvements and I should check it out.

More specifically, the following issues have been resolved:

• Line deviation
• Line intermittent
• Cannot write while charging
• No way to switch off the power manually
• No low battery life warning

I'll still need to do my testing so this review's going to compare the 1st gen with this new stylus.

The new stylus has included additional goodies this time. There's a microUSB to USB adaptor, microUSB male to female cable, pen case and a thumb ring.

The pen case is pretty nice. It's not real leather but it feels nice to touch. Sewing is done well too. Not sure how durable it will be though.

That's the thumb ring that you can attach to your tablet or phone. It uses double side tape to stick to the surface.

The only change to the design of the stylus is the inclusion of the Pendorra logo printed on the side of the body. Other than that, the 1st and 2nd gen Pendorra looks similar.

The stylus is battery powered. To switch the stylus on, you just have to press the button on the back and it switched on instantly (with flashes of blue light). To switch it off, click the same button and it's off. Both the 1st and 2nd gen will switch off automatically after 2 minutes of inactivity. However, only the 2nd gen has the ability to be switched off manually by clicking the back of the button.

I'm actually not sure how long the battery can last because I don't keep track of that. Battery life really depends on how often you use the stylus so everyone is going to have different experience. The indicator light at the back will blick red when battery is running low.

The stylus has a male connector at the end of the body, so you will need to connect the adapter provided in other to connect the stylus to the normal USB Type A port. If you have problems accessing the USB port, there's now the additional USB cable. One of the improvements say that you can now use the stylus while charging, but while you are charging, there's no way to switch on the stylus because the power switch is on the back of the body's cap. Anyway, that cable is too short for you to use the pen while charging anyway.

The small tip allows you to see the lines beneath. This is a good feature compared to those big rubber tip. However...

Just like other digital capacitive styluses, how well this stylus will work will depend on which tablet you're using, the orientation of the tablet and your hand position. All those will affect the parallax.

Here's how handwriting looks on the iPad Mini (I'm not sure which version I have) with Wacom Bamboo Paper app. I guess handwriting is alright.

Handwriting on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is better (but that tablet already comes with the fantastic S Pen). That's Wacom Bamboo Paper app too.

This is One Note app on Tab S3. Handwriting is not captured as accurately as on Wacom Bamboo Paper. So how well the handwriting is capture depends on the app too.

On the iPad Mini and Tab S3, this is how the diagonal lines look like when drawn slowly. The usual jitter effect is there.

On the iPad Pro and my LG V20 (Android 7) phone though, the jitter effect is not very obvious. The 2nd generation stylus comes very close to producing a straight diagonal line. So there is definitely some improvement in this area when it comes to line deviation, but that improvement is only noticeable on the iPad Pro and the LG V20 that I've tested.

This is handwriting on the iPad Pro.

I've tested the 2nd gen Pendorra with several tablets and the results are inconsistent. I've tested for the accuracy of the stylus, more specifically, the stylus was tested for parallax error and diagonal line jitter.

Note that when I say parallax is bad, it's relative and depends a lot on how you hold the stylus and the tablet orientation. If you hold the stylus vertically like a Chinese brush, there's not going to be any parallax.

Conclusion

There is some improvement to the 2nd gen Pendorra but they aren't significant improvements. The observable improvement to me is the strokes having less diagonal jitter on the iPad Pro.

As you can see in the comparison table above, stylus performs quite different with different tablet. So there's no sure way to determine how it's going to perform with your tablet. If you want to buy it, be sure to research other reviews to see if there are other customers using the same stylus as you.

For iPad Pro users, if you're not getting the Apple Pencil, then the Pendorra might be an alternative, just that it doesn't have pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. Speaking of palm rejection, when taking notes, it wasn't natural because I had to lift my palm from the screen to prevent stray strokes. For drawing purposes I think using this stylus is still fine, but for writing it's relatively more awkward.

So these are my findings. I hope you find this review helpful.

Availability

The stylus retails for USD 40 on https://www.pendorra.com/

Check out more reviews from Amazon.com.

I did not plan on getting the new iPad Pro 12.9 but here I am with the new one. There was some battery problem with my previous iPad Pro 12.9 and it won't charge anymore. Hence I've been without an iPad Pro for months, until now.

The content in the video review below is exactly the same as my text review.

Just to do things a bit differently, I'll be presenting this review as a Q and A. Here goes.

What do you think of the new features?

The 10.5-inch iPad Pro screen is 20% larger than the 9.7-inch model. Not just that, the resolution has increased from 2048 x 1536 to 2224 x 1668. I've always felt that the 9.7-inch model is a bit cramp for drawing with all the user interface. So the extra size and resolution is extremely welcome. The 10.5-inch is still very compact because of the size and weight (469g Wifi, 477g LTE). The 2732 x 2048 resolution 12.9-inch has 2 times the size of 9.7-inch and is just a joy to draw on, but it's much heavier to bring around of course.

The improved refresh rate of 60Hz to 120Hz is a nice. Animation effects are much smoother now. Things like scrolling, swiping, panning and zooming are now smoother, relatively speaking. Apple says that the latency (delay) of the pencil is down to 20 milliseconds. With the previous generation iPad Pro, I'm already quite satisfied with the latency and usually see little to no lag. So the new refresh rate and improved latency are both welcome but they are, in my opinion, marginal improvements.

I've seen a few reviews with slow motion demos showing how the lines can catch up with the tip of Apple Pencil. Here's the thing, how much lag or latency there is depends on the app you are using. With Procreate, if you draw fast, the strokes will still have to catch up with the Apple Pencil, but that gap is tiny. With the 120Hz, the catching up is smoother, not faster. It's a none issue, just technicality. With Sketches Pro, that gap is bigger. So it really depends on the app.

True Tone? This feature take into account ambient lighting conditions to adjust the colour temperature of the screen. You have to understand that this "colour setting" is relative. Compared to the previous iPad Pro, I found True Tone to mostly take on a warmer temperature. The white on a True Tone screen actually comes very close to actual paper white in real life. That's really impressive. You can turn on/off True Tone to see the difference. Is True Tone better? I'm not sure how to answer that. Better than what? Do you compare it with a colour calibrated 100% Adobe RGB monitor? Whether you can appreciate the subtle True Tone really depends on the type of work you do.

The new iPad Pros now have 600 nits brightness. Good to have but since you don't really use that level of brightness, it's just a marketing number.

1.8% reflectivity is still reflective. I got myself a matte screen protector. If you want one, check out iCarez or Photodon.

A10X chip. I've seen benchmark that compares the speed of this new 2.38 GHz six-core CPU to laptops and it has some really impressive numbers. But again, it's just that, numbers. It comes down to the type of work you use and whether you can utilize all that power. But overall, for the price that Apple is charging, it is a powerful processor and I won't expect anything less.

How's the drawing experience like?

Excellent.

Drawing on most apps feel really snappy. The 120Hz refresh rate does make everything feel smoother. However, the speed of drawing is the same. What I mean is, when drawing really quick on Procreate, there's still that tiny game where the line will catch up with the Apple Pencil. It's the same gap on the previous iPad Pro model. However, the effect of the catching up is smoother because of the increased frame rate.

Lag and latency really depends on the app you use. For example, Tayasui Sketches Pro has a larger gap between the line and the Apple Pencil.

Accuracy with Apple Pencil is excellent. Pressure sensitivity works great. There's tilt sensitivity and pressure works there too. There's no parallax error and no slow diagonal line jitter issues.

Palm rejection works almost flawlessly.

The drawing experience on the iPad Pro is excellent. The only worthy competitor would probably be the Wacom MobileStudio Pro which is much more expensive.

What are some physical differences between the old and new?

Positions for the microphones has moved to the top and top middle. I'm still using my old case from the 1st gen and the case covers the two microphones. It's not a big deal since I don't use the camera to record any videos.

Should you get the iPad Pro?

My buying philosophy has always been these two. 1. Get the device for the type of work you do. 2. Is this new technology going to help me save time and money?

Understand that the selling point of the iPad Pro is the tablet form factor and the accuracy you can get with drawing with the Apple Pencil.

Photo and video editing aer still faster on laptops because the desktop apps just have more features.

If you're a digital artist looking for a digital sketchpad, one that can rival Wacom Cintiqs, the iPad Pro is a very worthy alternative. The experience of drawing on the screen is excellent. The Apple Pencil is accurate and there's little to no lag with most graphics apps. The ability to draw on the screen, in my opinion, is the main selling point. Digital artists and designers are the people who are going to get their money's worth.

Apple claims 10 hour battery life. I see 8-9 hours easily. One thing that I like about Apple is the battery life of their products is generally quite good, well, expect debacle for the Macbook Pro 2016.

Should you upgrade from the iPad non-Pro, or from previous generation iPad Pro?

From the iPad non-Pro? Yeah, but only because you want to use Apple Pencil with the tablet.

From the previous generation iPad Pro? There are some improvements but I don't think they are significant improvements for an upgrade. The previous iPad Pro is already a very powerful tablet. The new 2017 model is marginally better.

Should you get 10.5 or 12.9?

If you plan on holding the iPad Pro while drawing, then get the 10.5 inch. At 469g, even after adding a case, it should still be comfortable enough to be handheld for note taking or drawing.

The selling point of the 12.9-inch is the size of the screen. It's a fantastic screen that makes everything look and feel big. There are also lots of space to work with while drawing. The analogy of drawing on A5 vs A4-sized paper is what comes to my mind. But with their size comes the weight. It's a tablet that's best used laid on a table. Holding it in one hand while drawing with the other tires my hand in a minute. Not to mention the size makes it slightly unwieldy to be held in one hand.

Can this replace the laptop?

As mentioned above, the advantage of the laptop is the ability to use desktop apps, which in my opinion enhances productivity by a lot.

If you're just using your tablet to check email, watch videos, do social media updates, or occasionally edit a few photos, then yeah sure, it can replace the laptop.

The coming iOS 11 will be interesting though. The one new feature that can improve productivity is the Files app. This is something that Android devices have on day 1. I hope I can also plug the iPad into a computer and have it recognise it instantly as an external hard drive but I guess that's too much to ask for?

Which model should I get?

The two sizes are sold in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB, and in Wifi or LTE configurations.

If you create lots of content, download lots of stuff, get the 256GB model. With the previous iPad Pro, you only get 128GB for the same price so it's a better deal now. The price jump from 64GB to 256GB is USD 100, and the jump from 64GB to 512GB is USD 300.

Mine's the 256GB Wifi model. This time round, I bought AppleCare. Unfortunately, unlike laptops, AppleCare only extends an additional 1 year instead of 2 years for laptops.

For some reason, the Wifi+Cellular model is more expensive significantly. Like a USD 130 difference.

If I can find the previous older iPad Pro 12.9 at a good discount, should I get it?

I see no reason why not if you can get it at a good discount because the new one is out. If the difference is USD 200 or more, that's nice.

I suggest getting a brand new model instead so that you are still covered by the 1 year warranty. You can use the savings to get AppleCare.

What are some things you don't like?

The lightning cable included is now the short one, not the extra long one.

The power adapter included is still the 12W one which charges the iPad Pro really slowly. There are customers who buy and use the 29W USB-C charger (USD 49) instead. And that charger isn't even sold with a USB-C to lightning cable which is sold at a ridiculous USD $25.

My overall opinion

The iPad Pro is definitely a pricey device. Is it worth the money? I would say yes if you have the need to use one for work.

When I bought the first iPad Pro, I was really impressed with everything about it, except when the battery broke down outside the warranty period. If you're a digital artist or graphic designer, I'm confident you will be impressed by the quality.

This new iPad Pro may be an improvement, but to me it's marginally better than the first generation so there's no need to upgrade from iPad Pro to iPad Pro. There are many reviewers who marvel at the 120Hz refresh rate, but let's not forget that the previous iPad Pro is already very impressive. If you're upgrading from something else, then it's worth serious consideration.

If you are hoping to replace your laptop with this, I say wait for reviews for iOS 11 before you make the jump.

Parblo sent me another graphics tablet to check out. This time, it's the Parblo A610.

The main difference between the A610 and the A609 that I reviewed earlier is the A609 has support for tilt sensitivity. And A610 has 8 physical shortcut buttons while A609 has only 4.

Before I start, let me say that I've tested this tablet on Mac and Windows. Unfortunately, it did not work well on Windows so all the user experience below are from the Mac perspective.

Here's a quick look at the specifications that matter:

• Active area: 10 by 6 inches
• Resolution: 5080 LPI (Lines Per Inch)
• Response rate: 230 RPS
• Pressure levels: 2048
• Hover distance: 1cm

If you have no idea what those numbers mean, it doesn't matter. Just know that nowadays, most graphic tablets have already reach the point where specifications are more than enough to satisfy any beginner digital artist.

Build quality

The build quality is sturdy enough. The plastic finishing does feel a bit cheap but it doesn't affect drawing performance.

There are 8 physical shortcut buttons on the side. If you're left handed, you can change the settings for left handed use in the driver. The buttons have limited customisability. You can only choose the pre-defined shortcuts. You cannot create your own keyboard shortcuts.

The buttons are shiny and located just beside a long vertical strip that's as shiny. Looks like they can be scratched easily so be careful.

That's the stylus and stand included.

The stylus feel sturdy but light. The rubber grip covers the bulk of the body. Don't know if you can see it but it can attract lots of dust.

The stylus is powered by battery and needs to be charge with the cable provided. When it runs out of power, it can still be used while charging.

Inside the pen stand, there are eight replacement tips and a nib remover. The stand can hold the stylus horizontally as well as vertically.

On the left is the USB cable used to charge the stylus. On the right is the 1.5m long cable to connect to the tablet.

Drivers

On the Mac, the drivers installed fine.

On Windows, I had problems with the installation and the driver. I tried installing the latest driver from Parblo's website and my installation process freeze halfway. I'm using Windows 7 Pro with Service Pack 1. Then I tried installing from the CD provided and it installed fine.

After rebooting Windows, it takes a long time for the tablet driver to be recognised so that it can be used. After using it for a while, the driver would stop working and the stylus would not be able to move the cursor anymore. Needless to say, it's very frustrating. It's almost the same problem I have with the Artisul Pencil tablet.

I did a quick check on Amazon and noticed that there were several other reviews complaining about the driver setup and functionality with Windows. So driver compatibility is something to take note of. I experienced it myself too.

On the Mac though...

You can adjust the pressure sensitivity here but there's no pressure curve.

Left handed users can change the settings here.

This is the full list of shortcuts that can be assigned to the physical buttons. Note that there's no way to create your own keyboard shortcuts, so you can only use those available.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is satisfactory. For a tablet under USD $60, it's good enough.

The drawing surface is matte and has a nice texture with the stylus tip.

The pressure sensitivity worked quite well with the various graphic apps that I've used with the exception of Adobe Illustrator (I'm using CS5 on the Mac). I've tested Photoshop CS5, Mischief, Medibang Paint Pro, Krita, Affinity Photo and Tayasui Sketches.

Illustrator CS5 (Mac) doesn't have pressure sensitivity.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac)

Mischief (Mac)

Photoshop CS5 (Mac)

Conclusion

Build quality is fine. The tablet feels a bit cheap but since it's so affordable, it's not really a surprise.

The tablet performed reasonably well when there are no driver issues. Having read the few reviews on Amazon taking about driver issues on Windows, I would be a bit wary. The A609 by comparison has less issues with driver functionality from my experience, as well as from the other users who have left reviews on Amazon. The price difference between A609 and A610 isn't that great either, so my suggestion is actually to get the A609 instead.

If you do get the A610, do share your opinions on Amazon with a review. It would help other artists.

Availability

You can find the Parblo A610 through the following links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

And Parblo Island A609 here:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Parblo.com

Purchases though the links get me a commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this.

Special thanks to GearBest.com for providing the review unit

The Ugee 2150 Pen Display was actually released in 2015 if I am not wrong. I had actually invited a guest artist to write a review back then when the product was just released. Should you need a second opinion, you can check out that earlier review. Two years later, the Ugee 2150 is still selling. So is it still good by today's standards?

Included items

Other than the monitor, these are the included items

• 2x stylus
• 2x stylus charging cable
• Stylus stand
• 8x replacement nibs
• USB cable
• VGA cable
• HDMI cable
• Power adapter and cable

Build quality

The design of Ugee 2150 is quite similar to many other pen displays I've featured on the blog over the years, such as the XP Pen Artist 22HD and Huion GT220.

The build quality is good enough. It feels sturdy.

The stand is detachable should you want to use a VESA mount. You can adjust the angle of the stand by releasing the latch at the top.

The 21.5-inch screen supports 1920 by 1080 resolution with a 250cd/m2 brightness. The glass surface is really glossy and reflective. When you rest your palm on the screen, it's going to hinder your palm moving around easily because of the surface texture it might be better to use the gloves provided.

The IPS panel has relatively good colour reproduction. I've calibrated the screen with a Spyder 5 Pro and was able to get a reading of 99% sRGB and 76% AdobeRGB which is good enough for a monitor in this price range. Viewing angles are decent too.

These are the buttons on the monitor.

The graphic ports supported are VGA, DVI and HDMI. Note that the DVI cable is not included. There's a USB port to connect to the computer so that the stylus can be recognised.

One of the downsides to the design is the cables come out from beneath the monitor, and when you adjust the stand to the lowest (flat) angle, the monitor is most likely going to rest on the cable, and it would wobble. At the lowest angle, you can adjust the cables in such a way that the rubber feet can get contact with the table, but this means you have to manually adjust the cables each time you lay the monitor flat. It's an inconvenience if you like to draw at such a low angle, but if you don't, then it's not really a big issue.

That's the pen and stand provided.

The pens are battery powered so you have to charge them when battery life is low. But since there are two pens provided, you would always have one to use while you charge the other. Charging port is at the back of the pen so there's no eraser.

The pen is quite lightweight. The huge rubber grip is good to hold but attracts dust easily.

8 replacement tips are provided and can be found inside the pen stand.

The pen is incredibly sensitive. Very little pressure is require to produce the thinnest of lines. If you want to create dots by tapping on the screen, you have to move the tip slightly because just by tapping, the dots won't come out.

There's some parallax error but it's not really a big problem after calibrating the screen for parallax. The pen and cursor is generally very accurate.

Driver installation

The driver supports XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 and Mac OS.

Driver installation is straightforward. I've only tested this on Mac OS. If you need a Windows point of view, check out the guest artist review.

You can adjust the pressure sensitivity of the pen, assign shortcuts to the side buttons, calibrate the screen for parallax with the driver.

Drawing experience

The monitor and pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and they work really well.

Photoshop CS5 on Mac works with pressure. Lines are smooth and can transition easily from thin to thick depending on pressure. The lines do not taper as gradually compared to Wacom tablets though.

Pressure sensitivity does not work with Adobe Illustrator CS5 on the Mac.

Pressure works with Affinity Photo.

Pressure works with Krita.

Pressure works with Mischief.

Pressure works with Medibang Paint Pro. The hatching lines also taper gradually.

Tayasui Sketches Pro does not support pressure for its drawing tools.

Video review

Conclusion

Generally speaking, the Ugee 2150 works quite well. Pressure sensitivity works with all the apps I've tried except Adobe Illustrator CS5. Maybe Adobe CC would support it but I can't confirm since I'm still using the old Adobe software.

Accuracy is good. There's no lag but this depends on your system and the apps you use. I did not face with any strange glitches so that's a major pro.

As for downsides... Since the screen is glossy, it prevents the palm from sliding around easily so you have to wear the glove. The feeling of the pen tip on plastic is not as good compared to Wacom Cintiqs because those screens have matte surface. It will take a while to get used to drawing on glossy glass screen. You may want to consider getting a matte screen protector but that would affect the image quality -- making the image look slightly more grainy.

Pros
+ Good build quality
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ 2 pens included
+ Spare nibs included
+ No noticeable lag
+ Supports HDMI, DVI-I, and VGA
+ IPS panel with decent colour reproduction and viewing angles
+ Cheaper than Wacom pen displays
+ Works well with most Mac apps except Illustrator CS5

Cons
- Cables come out from bottom of monitor affects the lowest stand position
- Glossy, reflective screen
- Parallax that's compensated by software settings
- Limited driver/stylus customizability
- No shortcut buttons on the monitor

Availability

Since this review unit is provided by GearBest, you can Find the Ugee 2150 on their website.

You can compare prices on Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon ES | Amazon IT | Amazon JP

Purchases though the links get me a commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this.

Guest review by Jose Cua

Hi folks, Jose Cua here and this is a review for another tablet monitor, the Ugee 1910B. Ugee has been in the tablet game since 2003 and have a wide range of tablets under their belt. Their products have received generally good reviews from artist around the globe and I have been fortunate enough to review one of their monitor tablets, the 1910b.

Specs

It has a pretty decent build quality, has a resolution of 1440 x 900, 5080 lpi, and 2048 levels of pressure.

Unlike other competing models out there, HDMI is not available so it connects only through a VGA or DVI cable. If you are using other slots on your PC or Laptop you will have to buy an adapter which should be easily available on any electronics store. It’s very similar to the XP-Pen 16 and the XP-Pen 22HD in terms of accessories. It comes with similar cable accessories and 2 chargeable pens. I had a hunch that it was probably the same technology under the hood and found out that the pens on the Ugee work with the Xp-Pen and vice versa. The stands that come with the Ugee and Xp-Pen are also pretty much identical.

The stand locks firmly in any angle and while I feel this is superior to something you would find on a Cintiq 13hd or a Cintiq Companion, my preferred setup is still using a monitor arm.

Thankfully the stand is detachable and the monitor is VESA compatible so setting it up with my Ergotron was just as straightforward as my Cintiq or XP-Pen.

I was also never a fan of the glassy feel of the tablets so I had a matte screen protector attached on it as I have with all my other devices. It will set you back around 30USD but its a preference of mine and I feel the price is worth the end result. With it, it is much smoother to glide my hand around the screen while drawing.

Setting up the tablet was pretty straight forward, when installing the drivers, it automatically detects existing tablet drivers and uninstalls them for you.

How does the tablet perform?

The 1910b’s display is only 1440 x 900 compared most of the competitions 1920 x 1080 or even (4K for the Cintiq Pro 16). This is the tablet monitors main disadvantage. Text can seem pixelated or blurry when browsing, but when painting or sculpting its something that I eventually ignored. Cursor parallax is present but it wasn't as drastic compared to the XP-Pen when shifting the cursor towards corners. There was no need for me to the run calibration which was a pleasant surprise.

The Pen

While the resolution was a bit of a letdown, I was pleasantly surprised by how the pen performed! It felt very comparable to Cintiq I was using at work. The Ugee 1910b’s pen worked flawlessly! The lightest touch registered, and I felt I didn’t need to press too hard to get my middle and high pressure ranges (Compared to the XP-Pen monitors I had tested, with which I had to resort to adjusting the pressure curves using a third party app). Despite the lower resolution the tablet felt great when drawing or sculpting, and I was very satisfied with the overall experience.

Here are some line tests in photoshop. There was some very minor shakiness but that was also present in my Cintiq 24hd.

And heres a quick test in Zbrush. The tablet works with no issues in the program.

Conclusion

Being a long time Wacom user I would say they make great products, but there are many things to gripe about. The prices are very high compared to the competition out there, and the customer service has been known to be far from pleasurable. It's no doubt that they are still the leader of the pack in terms of quality and specs, but having competing products out there levels the playing field for those who don’t wish to pay an exorbitant price for a tablet monitor. And having already tried 3 tablet monitor brands, I feel that things are looking good for us artists looking for alternative. We can now have a comparable experience for half or in some cases even a third of the cost.

Overall I’d say the Ugee 1910B is a really good product! It delivers great performance at a fraction of a price for what you would usually pay for a high end Wacom device. And while it does come with some minor flaws, I feel the positive traits outweigh the negative ones. It performs comparably with the other Cintiq alternatives out there, and the pen’s initial activation and pressure curve is the best compared to the other alternatives I have tried so far. When looking for a tablet monitor, its important for me that the pen should feel almost exactly like what I am used to with a Cintiq 24hd and the Ugee 1910B passes with flying colors in that aspect. For those on a budget I highly recommend this product, the price has been slashed from 699.99USD to 409.99USD making it an absolute steal!

There are no huge issues that deter me from using it. My drawing speed actually got a little faster from being more precise. You will need enough table space for it, as I can't see myself using it without space for keyboard and a 2nd monitor.

Pros:
1. Pen pressure feels responsive and has a good level of pressure.
2. Screen doesn't get hot. (Usage in an air conditioned room)
3. 19" Screen size is very comfortable to draw on.

Cons:
1. Screen is not full HD. Personally I can overlook it because the benefit of drawing where you see outweighs this.
2. Colour isn't accurate. But I check the colours using a secondary monitor.
3. Screen glare and surface glossiness. Overcome by using a matte screen protector.

Availability

Check out more reviews at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

Purchases though the links earns the website some commission at no extra cost to you. This helps the website put out more reviews like this.

It has been less than a year and Huion has updated their Inspiroy G10T to the 2nd generation. In this update, Huion have increased the pen's pressure sensitivity from 2048 to 8192 levels, and improved the functionality of the trackpad.

In my review for the 1st generation Inspiroy G10T, I mentioned there were bugs that affected the functionality to the point that made the tablet frustrating to use. I'm glad to say that the bugs from the 1st generation G10T are gone. This 2nd gen model performs surprisingly well now.

For those are reading the G10T review for the first time, I'll go through all the points again. I've used this tablet on both Mac and Windows.

This is how the new packaging looks like. Other than the box and the labeled 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, there's no way to differentiate the new and old G10T. Physical design of the tablet and basically everything else remains similar. The active working area remains at 10 by 6.25 inches which is considered a medium size, a comfortable working size.

This is how you know that you've received the updated model.

The packaging is quite neat.

A sturdy pen case is included instead of a pen stand.

This is convenient for transporting and protecting the pen.

Inside the case are 8 replacement nibs, the nib remover, the pen and the wireless USB receiver.

The wireless receiver is small so don't lose it.

The 2-button pen has a nice weight to it. Not too heavy or light. The body is smooth, matte and does not come with the dust-attracting rubber grip like some other pens.

The end of the pen is tapered and there's a charging port there. I'm not sure about the pen's exact battery life but you can still draw with the pen while it's plugged in and charging so it should not be a problem when it runs out of battery. However, drawing with the charging cable plugged into the pen feels a bit awkward because of the cable hanging behind.

These are the two charging cables. The other cable is for charging the 2500mAh battery in the wireless tablet. For some reason, that tablet cannot be used while it's charging. Somehow the tablet can detect the pen but the cursor will not move while the tablet is charging.

To switch on the tablet, you just press the power button. To switch off, just press and hold the same button for a while.

When the tablet is charged, the indicator light will turn from red to white.

Build quality of the tablet is very good. This is one of the best build quality of all the tablets I've featured.

The drawing surface is matte and has a nice texture. It feels good when drawing with the pen with just the right amount of friction for good control.

The smooth brushed metal back contributes to the premium look and feel. This tablet is does not feel like some cheap hollow plastic. So this tablet is definitely has a more premium feel compared to Huion's other wireless tablets, e.g. Q11K and the WH1409, or even the entry level Wacom Intuos.

That's the trackpad with the six physical shortcut keys.

Driver

The trackpad functionality has already been programmed with many finger gestures. For example, there's pinch to zoom which works well with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Pinch-zoom did not work well with Medibang Paint Pro (Win) -- I could zoom out but not in. Downside is there's no way to customise your own finger gestures with the driver so you can only use their gestures.

There's no way to rotate the canvas with the trackpad. In the 1st gen G10T, rotate only works with Medibang Paint Pro, and even that is really buggy. It's actually a good thing they removed the canvas rotate feature in this case.

I don't usually use the trackpad because my keyboard is always by the side of the tablet. I find it inconvenient to switch to and fro from trackpad to keyboard. Depending on where your left hand is, it may touch the trackpad accidentally and move the mouse cursor. You can switch off the trackpad if you don't want to use it.

Trackpad functionality has improved over the G10T first gen. There's only this pinch-zoom bug with Medibang Paint Pro (Win) I experienced.

Pressure sensitivity works well. I personally cannot differentiate 2000 and 8000 levels of pressure sensitivity. The default level of pressure sensitivity works well. You can't adjust the pressure curve, you can only change the dial that affects it.

Left handed users can rotate the tablet orientation settings here.

There are some Chinese words on the buttons here (only on Mac driver). Looks like the programmers left out some translation by mistake.

For the physical shortcut buttons, you can enter your own keyboard shortcuts.

Drawing performance

Drawing experience is fantastic. I did not experience any bugs.

With Photoshop CS5 (Mac), the lines are smooth and taper nicely. Some other tablets may have lines that are not smooth so I'm happy to see that the lines here are really smooth.

Pressure sensitivity works well with Illustrator CS5 (Mac) and also with all other Mac software that I've tested. With some other tablets, sometimes pressure does not work with Illustrator.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac v11) works flawlessly. The random splotch issue has been resolved.

Pressure works with Krita too.

I've also tested Affinity Photo, Mischief, Tayasui Sketches Pro and they all perform well with the G10T.

On Windows, I've tested Adobe Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and Medibang Paint Pro and they all work well. Strokes are smooth. Pressure works.

Conclusion

Most of the bugs from the 1st generation have been resolved except for the pinch-zoom with Medibang Paint Pro (Win). Overall, the trackpad works well. The tablet now performs predictably and consistently, just the way it should be.

The only downsides would be the inability to customise your own finger gestures. I'm just nitpicking because I use the keyboard more than the trackpad.

So to conclude, the Huion Inspiroy G10T looks good and performs well. I was hesitate to recommend the 1st generation G10T but the 2nd generation is easy for me to recommend.

Pros and cons

+ Good build quality
+ Good drawing functionality
+ 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Trackpad works well
+ Sturdy pen case provided
+ 8 replacement nibs provided
- Tablet can't be used while it's charging
- Pinch-zoom bug with Medibang Paint Pro (Win)

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