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.

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.

I have been working on the the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 and Apple iPad Pro 12.9 for a few weeks now and here's my take on the pros and cons of each when it comes to drawing.

Drawing performance and experience

Both the Galaxy Tab S3 and iPad Pro are powerful tablets. They are both fast and apps run very snappy on them. Both tablets have 4GB of RAM.

The S Pen on the Galaxy Tab S3 is an extremely accurate stylus. I can also same the same for the Apple Pencil. They are both very sensitive. You can just drag the tip along the glass screen without pressure and both will produce the thinnest of lines. Pressure sensitivity works well on both. Palm rejection is also almost flawless on both.

S Pen has a choice of nibs. 5 replacement nibs are included. Out of the 5, 3 are white and 2 are grey. The white ones are the software nibs with more friction and are more suitable for drawing. The grey ones are the hard tips which are more suitable for writing when you don't want friction. Apple Pencil comes with one replacement tip and that's the same hard tip. When drawing on glass, the Apple Pencil can make tapping sounds. Not a big deal though. After a while, regardless of what you use, I'm sure you'll be able to get used to the tip. You can apply a matte screen protector over the iPad Pro but that would affect the image quality.

While the performance of both are, in my opinion, indistinguishable.

When it comes to drawing experience though, I feel that it's more comfortable to draw with the Apple Pencil. The physical design of the Apple Pencil makes is slightly nicer to hold, and I really love the weight and length. The S Pen's physical design is quite good too, but I find myself hitting the side button accidentally too often.

Winner: iPad Pro

Variety and quality of graphic apps

I've always had the impression that there aren't as many quality graphics apps from the Google Play Store. Perhaps that's because I've been entrenched in the iOS ecosystem for too long. When my iPad Pro broke down (battery died), I wanted to wait and see who can create the next ultimate digital sketchpad. Since, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 entered the market earlier than the rumoured iPad Pro 2, I decided to get one to try.

After a few weeks of playing around with the various graphic apps from the Google Play Store, it's really difficult to say which platform has more apps. Anyway, the quality of the apps matter more than the variety. And for the few that I've tried, they are great.

On Android, there's ArtFlow which is a good alternative to Procreate on the iPad.

Apps that are on both Android and iOS platforms are Adobe Draw, Adobe Sketch, Wacom Bamboo Paper, Tayasui Sketches, ArtRage, Autodesk Sketchbook, Medibang Paint. There are certainly some exclusive apps on iOS, such as Paper by FiftyThree, but I'm sure Android also have some exclusive apps.

Anyway, my point is, there's probably an graphics app on either platform that can do what you want. So in terms of variety and quality of apps, both platforms are evenly matched in my opinion.

Winner: None

Screen

Galaxy Tab S3 uses AMOLED technology while the iPad Pro uses LCD.

AMOLED screens are capable of really vibrant colours and intense blacks. If you're watching shows in the dark, you won't be able differentiate the blacked out areas against the black bezel. However, the vibrant colours may appear a bit unreal to some people. Think neon lights. AMOLED screens also can have colour shift when you view from any angle that's not perfectly straight on.

iPad Pro's LCD produces colours that are more natural looking to me. The iPad Pro 9.7-inch also uses ambient sensors to detect lighting conditions to adjust the colour balance of the tablet. They call this feature True Tone. In my opinion, True Tone's not really a big deal.

And of course, the iPad Pro is now available in 10.5 inches with a 2224 x 1668 resolution, and a 12.9-inch model with 2732 x 2048 resolution. The Tab S3's resolution is 2048 x 1536 (same as the 9.7-inch iPad Pro). The increased size and resolution gives you more screen real estate and this means even with the user interface of graphic apps included, you still have more working area to draw on.

The screen in the second generation of iPad Pro features 120Hz refresh rate, that's 120FPS. Animation effects, such as zoom, scroll and pan, look extremely smooth. Animation effect on the Tab S3 is decent and satisfactory but the new iPad Pro is on another level. Do note that the refresh rate look good but it doesn't really improve productivity by make task run faster.

Winner: iPad Pro. The screens are larger and have more resolution. I prefer the way LCD looks over AMOLED. For those who prefer the exuberance of colours, go for the Tab S3.

Winner: iPad Pro

Build quality

Both look sleek and build quality is excellent. Both are evenly matched.

Winner: None

Battery life

Both have battery life upwards of 9hr and more, depending on your screen brightness and what you do.

However, when it comes to charging, the Tab S3 has fast charging. iPad Pro 9.7-inch just charges at normal speed. It's not too bad. iPad Pro 12.9-inch has notorious charging speed to the point that people have to spend extra to buy the 29W charger to replace the included 12W one.

Strange thing is Apple can get fast charging into the Apple Pencil but not the iPad Pro. Hmmm.....

Winner: None, because both tablets have good battery life.

Other features

The Galaxy Tab S3 offers expandable storage via a microSD card slot. That's awesome because you can get 128GB microSD cards for around USD $70. So if you choose to spend that extra $70, you'll have a total of 160GB storage (less in real life because of format & OS installation files). With iPad Pro 9.7-inch, you have to pay and extra $100 to get 128GB of storage.

The really cool thing about the microSD card slot is, should you choose to sell away the Tab S3 in the future, you can keep the microSD card and use it in your next tablet, or even your phone (with microSD card slot of course).

And since the Tab S3 runs on Android, you can connect it to your computer and it would be recognised as an external storage. You can transfer files so easily like that. The file management system on the Android is very similar to desktop OS and I find that to be more productive when it comes to managing files.

Winner: Galaxy Tab S3

Pricing

Here are the current pricing of the two tablets at the time of this review:

• Refurbished iPad Pro 9.7 (32GB Wifi) - USD $469
• Refurbished iPad Pro 12.9 1st Gen (128GB Wifi) - $659
• iPad Pro 10.5 (64GB Wifi) - $649
• iPad Pro 12.9 2nd Gen (64GB Wifi)- $799
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 - $599

If you're looking at current models, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is cheaper, and it includes the S Pen.

The Apple Pencil cost an extra USD $99. Storage size increase is also more pricey with Apple.

If we are compared the refurbished 9.7-inch iPad Pro (32gb) and the Tab S3, it's ~$569 vs $599. The price difference is small and that 1st gen iPad Pro 9.7 is the better deal in my opinion because of the drawing experience.

It's difficult to compare the 2nd generation iPad Pro with the Tab S3 because there are many differentiating factors. Even the smaller iPad Pro now has a larger 10.5-inch screen (with larger resolution too). The iPad Pro 10.5 with Apple Pencil is ~$150 more then Tab S3.

Conclusion

Get the device most appropriate for your work.

Currently, I think the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 offers more bang for the buck.

However, when it comes to drawing experience, I feel that the second generation Apple iPad Pro is unparalleled. Everything feels right when drawing on it.

The Tab S3 is also good device for drawing. The S Pen works great. I feel that the Tab S3 is worth its price, but so does the new iPad Pro. It's good to have choice. You can choose either one depending on your budget and preference.

As usual, check out more reviews on Amazon:
Galaxy Tab S3: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

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

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

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

Another tablet review! This time it's the Gaomon M106K graphics tablet that was sent over by Gaomon (Facebook | Youtube | Twitter). Thanks!

The Gaomon M106K joins the rank of other budget tablets that I've reviewed over the years. Interestingly, when I looked at the Amazon product page, there are two versions, one for Windows only (cheaper), and the other is for Mac and Windows (a few dollars more). If you're a Mac user, don't get the wrong one. The unit that I'm reviewing is the Mac/Windows unit.

This is the simple packaging box that holds the tablet.

The things included are the tablet, pen with cap, pouch with nib remover and 4 replacement nibs, and not shown in the photo are two cables. There's no driver disc included so you have download from Gaomon's website.

The small pouch uses a click-on button for closing. It's made of some fabric canvas.

That's the rechargeable pen and cap. The build quality feel sturdy. It has a nice weight (14g). The grip is a hard matte surface and holds well in hand, and does not attract dust.

Since the pen is battery powered, it needs to be charged and the charging port is right at the back. Battery life is rated at 350 hours, which is like 14 days of non-stop drawing. Charging is quite fast, like half to an hour. If you run out of battery, you can quickly charge for 15 minutes to get some power back. The power saving mode kicks into effect when the pen is inactive for 3 minutes.

The pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. That looks like the standard nowadays. The two buttons on the pen can be customised through the driver. The cap unfortunately cannot be posted on the back.

The USB cable on the left is used to connect the tablet to the computer. The one on the right is for charging the pen.

Build quality of the tablet is decent. It feels solid, doesn't flex much. Quality is quite similar to many other budget drawing tablets I've reviewed. Behind the tablet are 4 large rubber feet to prevent it from sliding around on table. On the side is a clothed loop for holding the pen.

The tablet comes with 12 physical shortcut buttons, all customisable through the driver.

Additionally, there are also 16 customisable soft keys at the top of the 10 x 6.25 inch drawing area. For those who like lots of shortcut buttons, this could be the tablet for you. The only competitor, that I can think of now, that has this many shortcut keys is the New Huion 1060 Plus.

The drawing surface is the smooth non-glossy type, similar to the surface you see on Wacom tablets. Drawing on it with the pen feels good. There's right amount of friction and control.

Driver

This is where you can change the pressure sensitivity of the pen.

You can assign your own keyboard shortcuts to the tablet buttons.

The driver looks suspiciously similar to other drivers I've seen from other brands. In this case, even the non-translated Chinese words and layout of the driver settings are similar to that from the Huion G10T. These tablet manufacturers probably use the same tablet drivers with slight modifications.

You can change the mapping here. The 10 x 6.25 inch working area maps perfecting to a 16:9 monitor. If you're a left handed user, you can change the tablet's orientation here.

Drawing performance

Overall drawing performance is good. Pressure sensitivity works. Strokes transition smoothly. There's little to no lag. I only had issues with Illustrator CS5 (Mac) where the tablet refuses to work. All other Mac software I've tried works well.

I did not manage to test this on a Windows computer because I don't have one at home.

Strokes in Photoshop CS5 (Mac) are smooth and they taper nicely.

With Illustrator CS5 (Mac), I could move the cursor around but when I draw with the pen, nothing comes out. Or when it does, it's usually one dot or stroke out of many that I've tried.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works very well, as usual.

No issues with Mischief (Mac) too.

Tayasui Sketches Pro (Mac) works fine.

Works well with Krita (Mac) too.

Conclusion

Yeah, the Gaomon M106K graphics tablet performs well when it comes to drawing, except when used with Illustrator CS5 (Mac). It could be an issue with the app or the driver but I've no way to find out.

The build quality is fine, no different from other budget graphics tablet. It's solid and looks durable enough.

For those who like physical shortcut buttons, there are 12 here, in addition to 16 soft keys, so that's really convenient.

Overall, the Gaomon M106K is very competitive with other graphics tablet in terms of pricing and features.

Availability

You can check out more reviews and other products from Gaomon on Amazon (US | | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP) and Gaomon on Aliexpress

By the way, there's a promotion running on Amazon (all) until end of September. Just use the coupon code GAOMONMK to get 30% off.

Welcome to another pen display review. Today we look at the Parblo Coast13 that was sent over a few weeks ago by Parblo. Thanks!

The Parblo Coast13 is the latest addition to the pen displays from Parblo. The other pen displays before this were the smaller Coast10 and the larger Coast22.

The Parblo Coast13 sits in between Coast10 and Coast22 in terms of size and pricing. The price listed on Amazon currently is USD 255, USD 449 and USD 569 respectively for the different sizes. If you need something bigger, you have to pay a bit more for a much larger screen with the Coast22. The small size of the Coast13 means that if you want to bring this to your office to work, you can do it easily because it can slip easily into standard or medium size backpacks or messenger bags.

There isn't much included in the box, just the necessary stuff. There are the pen display, the pen and case, a cable, manual and driver disc.

Build quality of the Parblo Coast13 is good. It feels well built, sturdy. On the back are four small rubber feet. There's no stand so you have to use this flat or find some other way to prop this up (I recommend the Artisul stand that retails at USD 50), or you can find a big thick book (free).

The screen is matte and provides a nice texture to draw on. It has the right amount of friction for control. Not too slippery or rough. Just nice.

The TFT screen has decent colour reproduction. I coloured calibrated mine with a and recorded these readings: 95% sRGB, 75% Adobe RGB, 70% NTSC.

One downside to the screen is it's not very bright. I measured only 105 cdm2 at the maximum brightness. I guess you have to use it at 80-90% brightness. But over time it will become dimmer and dimmer. This is something to take note of especially if you plan on using this pen display a lot, and for a long time.

The 1920 by 1080 resolution on a 13.3 inch screen makes everything look sharper than on a larger screen. However that sharpness is somewhat affected by the matte screen. Glossy screens are usually sharper so it's not too surprising here.

There are 8 physical shortcut buttons and a scroll wheel on the side. The buttons have a firm feedback when pressed. The scroll wheel's surface is a bit too smooth so sometimes it's difficult to get enough friction to actually turn it. I guess after you use it often enough, the finger oil will cause the surface to be more glossy and there will be more friction, but not when it's brand new.

This is the only cable provided. On one end there are three heads: 2x USB type-A and full-size HDMI. On the other end there are mini-HDMI and USB type-C.

The USB ports provide the power to tablet and also enables the data connection that allows the computer to recognise the monitor as a tablet to draw on. If your computer's USB port has sufficient power, you just need to use one of the USB type-A head instead of two.

Since the cable only supports HDMI, you will need an adapter if your computer only has use miniDisplay or DVI ports.

After plugging in all the cables, the tablet will be powered and connection detected automatically. AKA plug and play.

The pen case provided is rather sturdy. You can use it to transport and protect the pen.

The pen is also well built. It has a nice weight and feels good to hold in hand. There's no rubber grip but the matte surface is not slippery so it grips well in hand.

The pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.

There are two side buttons but the driver only has the ability to customised the one nearer to the nib. The other button is permanently disabled.

That's the nib. 6 replacement nibs provided.

This pen does not require battery to work. So you don't have to charge it. It's just like those battery-less Wacom pens. At the back of the pen is the eraser. The eraser is not as sensitive as the nib so you have to press harder to get it to work.

Driver

Driver installation is pretty straightforward. On the Mac, after installation, the driver settings is hidden as a small icon at the taskbar at the top.

You can customise your own keyboard shortcuts for the physical shortcut buttons. On the Mac, you need choose the ⌘ Mac key symbol which will allow you to input your own keys.

This is where you can customise the pressure sensitivity and side button.

The pressure curve can only be adjusted with the slider at the bottom. As mentioned earlier, only the side button closest to the nib can be customised. The other button is permanently disabled.

This is where you can calibrate the screen to remove parallax error. The glass is a bit further away from the screen than I like it to be, relatively speaking compared to other pen displays, so there's quite a bit of parallax. But after calibrating, parallax is not a big issue.

Here's the deal breaker for left handed users. The driver does not have the ability to change the orientation of the pen display. Hence this pen display does not support left handed use. I've contacted Parblo and they said they may update the driver in the future. Left handed users might want to check out Artisul D13 instead.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance is fantastic. I like it when devices work without problems and such is the case here.

Parblo Coast13 works well with Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, Medibang Paint Pro, Mischief, Affinity Photo and Tayasui Sketches Pro. Those are the graphics drawing software I use on my Mac.

Drawing on the pen display feels responsive. There's is minimal lag between drawing and the strokes appearing.

This is Photoshop CS5 (Mac). Pressure sensitivity works well. The transition from thin to thick is predictable. Hatching strokes taper well. Strokes are also very smooth.

Pressure works fine with Adobe Illustrator CS5.

Medibang Paint Pro works flawlessly too.

Pressure works in Krita too.

The scroll wheel works as zoom with the two Adobe apps. With Medibang Paint Pro, it scrolls the canvas. With other apps, the scroll wheel does not work at all.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a decent product for the price. It works well. I did not experience any bugs so that's fantastic. The pressure sensitivity works really well. What surprised me was how well it worked with Photoshop, especially with the smooth lines it can create. The build quality is also quite good.

There are some downsides also. This tablet does not support left handed use. That may be the deal breaker for some. The scroll wheel needs more friction on the surface so that the finger has something to grip on to easily turn it. The scroll wheel functionality cannot be customised, and it performs differently in different software. There's also no way to customise the 2nd button on the pen.

The Parblo Coast13 is currently USD 449 on Amazon USA. The Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 is USD 999. The price difference is significant. I'm not sure if you can feel the USD 500+ difference when it comes to drawing functionality. The Wacom may be better built with extra features (e.g. tilt sensitivity, stand, better screen, finger gestures) but if you don't need those features, you can save quite a lot of money. The Coast13 and Artist D13 are comparable in price. There's also the XP Pen Artist 16 which is USD 489 but that has a glossy screen which isn't as nice to draw on as a matte screen.

Pros and Cons

+ Good build quality
+ Matte screen nice to draw on
+ Tactile buttons with good feedback
+ Can be powered by USB 3 port
+ Cheaper than Cintiq 13HD
+ Runs cool, only the bottom middle is slightly warm
+ Wireless and battery-less pen
+ 6 replacement nibs provided
+ Pressure sensitivity works great
+ Strokes are smooth and taper well
+ 1920 x 1080 resolution is sharp on this 13.3 inch screen
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Mac drivers cannot customize the scroll wheel, pen's one side button
- Scroll wheel a bit difficult to turn because the surface does not have friction
- Only HDMI port so you might need an adaptor
- Does not support left handed use
- Matte screen affects the sharpness slightly
- Screen brightness could be an issue in the future

Availability

You can find more reviews and the Parblo Coast13 at these links below. Purchases though the links get me a commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this.
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

I finally found a secondhand Surface Pro 2017 to produce this review. The official retail price of the new Surface Pro is a bit too high for me and this time the Surface Pen is not even included. So I had to wait for a good deal.

This review will cover the specifications, capability of the new Surface Pen, how various graphic apps perform and also compare it with the earlier model, the Surface Pro 4 that I've reviewed last year.

My review will be from the perspective of an artist, graphic designer and also someone who creates a lot of content online. The Surface Pro model I bought has Intel i5, 256GB and 8GB RAM. This review is written for those who are thinking of getting a portable tablet to draw on.

CONFIGURATIONS

Here are the different configurations of the Surface Pro 2017.

Incremental spec bumps given to the processor and graphics aren't particularly exciting. The storage and RAM capacity remains. In short, performance is still snappy when it comes to basic operations like startup and reboot, opening apps, opening and saving big files, switching between apps. Everything appears and feels responsive.

The one that's most value for money in my opinion is the model running Intel i5 with 256GB storage and 8GB of RAM. The next model with Intel i7 cost USD $300 more.

If you want to check out the current price, just visit these Amazon links:

• Intel Core M, 4GB RAM, 128GB
• Intel i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB
• Intel i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB
• Intel i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB
• Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB
• Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB

I would not recommend getting the 4GB RAM model for graphics work. Note that Windows OS uses RAM too. Then there are other apps that use RAM. RGet at least 8GB RAM. AM is needed so that apps can run smoothly.

128GB storage is still not too bad considering that there's a microSD card slot included so you can easily get a 200GB micro SD card under USD $100. But the model with 128GB storage only has 4GB RAM. That's a no-go there.

BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN

This is a good case of don't fix what's not broken.

The new Surface Pro 2017 retains the excellent build quality of SP4. Even the design looks very similar. I love the smooth matte surface to the metallic body. This definitely feels like a premium product.

The thickness of 8.5mm may not be as thin as the Apple iPad Pro 2017 (6.9mm), it is still considered incredibly thin for a tablet that runs the full Windows 10.

The new Intel i5 model has no fans equipped so it runs silent. However, passive cooling isn't as effective as fan cooling, so the tablet can feel quite warm after running more processor intensive tasks. Removing the fans is still a welcome move because the SP4 fan is noisy, irritating and comes on randomly. Drawing on the tablet will make it warm, but not uncomfortably warm like rendering videos. Watching videos, web browsing and typing are not going to make the tablet warm.

Fans are only included in the Intel i7 models where the processors can boost to higher clock speeds.

The sturdy stand can now reach an even lower angle, which is one of the two angles for drawing -- the other is drawing without the stand deployed. I prefer SP4's design where the lowest angle is still steeper. It's too low on the 2017 model.

PORTS

The only ports available are the power port, USB 3, mini-DisplayPort and the micro SD card slot.

Micro SD card slot is located behind the stand.

Many tech websites criticise the SP 2017 for the lack of USB type-C port. Well, I don't because I'm still using a lot of devices that use the USB type-A ports, things like scanner, thumb drive, external drives, and even my phone cable. At the moment, the USB type-A port is still useful. However, for the next Surface Pro model, I hope Microsoft will include USB type-C ports, and just get rid of the power charging port.

Many external monitors still use the DisplayPort. To be able to connect the SP 2017 directly to a monitor is very convenient. I'm using the Accell mini-DisplayPort cable and it works really well.

When connected to an external monitor, you have the option to

• Extend the desktop to the external monitor
• Mirror the desktop to the external monitor
• Use the external screen as main, and black out the Surface Pro's screen (for use as a screen-less graphics tablet)

Surface Pro's resolution of 2736 x 1824 is higher than my 2560 x 1440 monitor. When connected to the monitor, some settings have to be changed to make the user interface look the right size. If not, the 2736 x 1824 will be scaled proportionally to fit into the monitor's resolution, and everything will appear slightly smaller.

Usually when I connect an external monitor, I will black out the tablet screen and use it like a desktop computer.

SURFACE PEN 2017

The new Surface Pen is unfortunately not included with the purchase of the Surface Pro 2017. That Surface Pen cost an extra USD $100. Very pricey.

There are some physical design changes to the pen. The pen clip is gone to allow part of the body's side to be flat so that it can stick magnetically to the Surface Pro's left side. The magnet is quite strong so that prevents the pen from being dislodged accidentally.

The tip is the matte tip so it has more friction and offers more control compared to hard plastic tips. There's no noise when tapping on the glass screen.

The new Surface Pen now supports up to 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Pressure curve can be adjusted in the app called Surface. There are 12 levels of pressure curve to choose from. I find that level 3 or 4 to be the best for me. The initiation activation force required to produce the faintest of lines is now much less. I can now draw very softly to get a really thin line.

Microsoft claims 21 milliseconds of latency, in other words, very responsive. However, the responsiveness or lag depends on the app used. In some apps, strokes may appear bit by bit, in a choppy manner. With other apps, the strokes appear with minimal lag and very close to the pen tip.

The Surface Pen supports tilt. But again, it depends on the app used as well. I tried Photoshop CS6 and the tilt brushes do not work.

This is an active stylus which means as you hover across the screen, you'll see a cursor. You get perfect palm rejection with an active stylus.

Battery life of the pen is rated to be one year. You can replace the AAAA battery easily by pulling the back off.

There's a button on the back that doubles up as an eraser which works only for certain apps.

Here's the thing I don't like about the Surface Pen. The side and back has limited customisation. You can only assign it to a list of functions that's pre-selected. If what you want is not on the list, too bad. And the right click functionality is weird. The contextual menu does not pop up when you press on the side button. You have to press the side button first before you tap the pen on anything.

SCREEN

The 12.3-inch screen allows the Surface Pro to be portable and light (770g). It would be cool if Microsoft could make an even larger Surface Pro, like 13 inches or larger. I would love it.

The resolution is 2736 x 1824 (267ppi) with 3:2 aspect ratio. 16:9 aspect ratio is great at consuming content, watching videos, but 3:2 is an aspect ratio with more vertical space that's more productive for work.

BATTERY LIFE

The most significant improvement to the Surface Pro is the battery life.

SP4's battery life is around 5-6 hours. Oftentimes less.

SP 2017's battery life is now 7-8 hours with typical usage at 60% brightness. That's a significant improvement. Battery life would drop with more usage and charges but at least it will drop from an already long battery life. You can get longer hours if you lower the brightness.

DRAWING EXPERIENCE

The other significant improvement is there is now no more, or barely any, jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly.

Overall responsiveness of the strokes is satisfactory. Accuracy is spot on as this is an active stylus so the cursor is always directly underneath the tip. However, parallax will be present as the pen tip moves to the edges of the screen. If you draw near the edges, yeah, the lines will look like they don't appear directly beneath the tip. The parallax also makes clicking things a bit challenging near the edges. The glass is very close to the IPS panel beneath so parallax isn't a big issue, but it's still there. When drawing mostly in the centre region, parallax is a non-issue.

Here's my experience with various graphics software.

Wintab driver needs to be installed first for pressure sensitivity to work with Photoshop. Wintab driver is not installed by default but you can easily download it from Microsoft (get the 64-bit version).

After installation, pressure sensitivity works well. Stroke transitions and the way they curve are smooth. You don't need any plugin (e.g. Lazy Nezumi) to improve the smoothness of the curves. While the strokes don't taper as gradually compared to graphic tablets, they are still satisfactory.

I'm still using Photoshop CS6 by the way so I can't test out finger gestures like pinch to zoom, or to rotate.

This is where I want to highlight the problem of running old Adobe software on the high resolution screen of Surface Pro. Adobe software like CS6 and older are not designed for high resolution screens. As such, the user interface like menus and buttons are going to be small, so small that they are frustratingly difficult to click. There's a workaround that involves creating manifest files, but the scaled up user interface will make everything look a bit pixelated. For example, when you scale up Adobe Illustrator's user interface, those smooth vector lines are going to appear pixelated. The other workaround is to connect the Surface Pro to an external monitor and work from there.

The problem with user interface not scaling properly depends on the app you use. It is best to research online to confirm that the version of the desktop app you use will scale properly. If not, the tiny user interface can be very frustrating to use.

Adobe Illustrator works but there's this particular quirk where lines do not appear when you're drawing very fast. E.g. when you hatch lines fast, the lines may not start, No problems with drawing at normal speed though. Pressure works.

Medibang Paint Pro (desktop app) usually works well on tablets and that's the case here. Pressure sensitivity works great, perhaps even better than Photoshop. Finger gestures to zoom and rotate are supported but the animation is not as fluid compared to the same app on the iPad.

ArtRage Touch (tablet app) works great. The only finger gesture that works is pinch-to-zoom.

Mischief (desktop app) works well overall. However, the stroke usually starts off tapered even when I want to have it thick. A more conscious effort is needed to make the start of the stroke thick. I think it's an issue with Mischief. Finger gestures work.

This is Sketchable, the tablet app (not ArtRage as I've drawn). Everything works great, even finger gestures.

For taking notes, Wacom Bamboo Paper (tablet app) is my favourite. It's able to capture my handwriting quite well. Pressure sensitivity works well too.

This is Squid (tablet app), another handwriting app. It works quite well for capturing handwriting also.

That's Microsoft OneNote (tablet app) and of course it works well.

Nebo (tablet app) is a note taking app that can convert handwriting to digital text. The app is able to recognise and convert my handwriting quite accurately.

COMPARED TO IPAD PRO

Both tablets are powerful and responsive. Main difference is the OS they run, and hence the apps that can be installed. Each OS has their own advantages and their apps stores have many useful graphics app.

My recommendation has always been this: If you don't already have a computer, a tablet with Windows (actually desktop OS) may be more useful.

Having a desktop file system is something people are already familiar with. You save a file wherever you want and that file can be accessed with any app that can open that file format. The file system in iOS drive me nuts sometimes. In iOS, files created are stored inside the app's file system. Other apps may or may not be able to reach into another app's file system to retrieve the file. Say you want to use App A to open App B's file, you have to use App B to share the file with App A, assuming that's App B can share with App A in the first place. OMG. My head hurts! For example, if I want to upload a video to Facebook, I can only access videos from the Photo app, which may not be where my video is. It's silly. Hopefully with iOS 11, the new Files app will solve my how-do-I-access-this-file-with-this-app misery.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you want to do with your tablet.

For me, a desktop OS is just more productive. Yeah, you can edit photos on the iPad, but you can do it faster with desktop software. Same for video editing. When it comes to drawing, in my opinion, both Windows and iOS tablets are currently evenly matched in terms of productivity and capability.

Apple Pencil vs Surface Pen... I still prefer the Apple Pencil. For some reason, maybe because of the design, the Apple Pencil just feels right. I won't say that Apple Pencil is better. It's just different. In terms of drawing functionality, the Surface Pen has improve a lot. The dreaded jitter when drawing diagonal lines is gone. That was a deal breaker in SP4.

In terms of responsiveness, iPad Pro has an edge with its 120 Hz screen. Animation effects such as the strokes appearing as you draw seem smoother, and hence feels more responsive. Surface Pro 2017 may not have the high refresh rate screen, but responsiveness is not exactly lagging by comparison. It's not as fast or smooth as the iPad Pro, but it's satisfactory and not irritating to use. However, with some apps, the strokes do appear to be more choppy.

WINDOWS OS

Windows OS is at heart a desktop software. Because of that, sometimes the functionality or program design sensibilities would clash with the Windows tablet usability. For example with Photoshop, user menus are designed to be clicked with the small mouse cursor but challenging to click accurately with big fingers. Most desktop apps have menus at the top but tablet apps hide their menus away into icons, and sometimes there's no easy way to find the controls to even save a file or quit the program. So yeah, sometimes the ARGH! moments are with iOS, sometimes they are with Windows.

CONCLUSION

Surface Pro 4 has two potential deal breakers for me. One's the lousy battery life. The other is the jitter problem when drawing diagonal lines. The latter is a possible deal breaker for digital artists and the main reason that prevents the Surface Pro from reaching its true capability.

I'm glad to say that those two major problems have been resolved. Battery life is now much longer and more reasonable for a portable device. The jitter is almost non existent now. This is a huge deal. Imagine drawing a portrait slowly because you need the accuracy, but the lines have jitter. Wouldn't you want to tear your hair out? With the Surface Pro 2017 and the new Surface Pen, the jitter is a thing of the past. Finally!

Overall drawing experience is a positive one. Unpleasant experiences are from the little quirks with each graphic app. E.g. Medibang Paint Pro's finger gestures aren't very responsive. When drawing quickly with Illustrator, lines don't appear. Old desktop software do not scale well on the high resolution screen. With some tablet apps, I can't even find their menus to save a file.

The Surface Pro line has matured and has now fulfilled most of its potential and functionality. For artists who want a digital sketchpad, I can say that the Surface Pro 2017 is worth considering.

The price is a bit high in my opinion and it's likely going to stay that way for a while. You also have to consider that the Surface Pen (USD $100) is no longer included. And if you need a keyboard, the Surface Type Cover is another USD $130. I would personally go for the Logitech K810 wireless keyboard which is more comfortable to use with if you're a heavy user of keyboard shortcuts.

The new Surface Pro 2017 gets a thumbs up from me for drawing functionality and experience. To get two thumbs up, it needs to solve all those little software and OS quirks.

Pros
+ Sturdy build quality
+ Has a USB 3 Type A port
+ Has mini-DisplayPort to extend working space on external monitor
+ Has microSD slot for additional storage expansion
+ Nice weight for its size but too heavy for handheld drawing
+ Built in stand with many positions
+ Surface Pen feels good to draw on the screen
+ Jitter problem with diagonal lines is gone
+ High resolution of 2736 by 1824 on a 12.3-inch screen
+ Screen has good viewing angles and colours
+ Good stereo speakers
+ Able to install desktop and tablet apps
+ Snappy performance
+ Decent battery life of 9-10 hours.
+ Lots of different configurations available

Cons
- Limited number of ports
- Desktop apps not optimized for tablets usually have small menus and user interface
- Surface Pen buttons have limited customization
- Gets warm easily because passive cooling isn't as effective as fan cooling
- Installation of Wintab drivers required for use with Photoshop and Paint Tool Sai
- Surface Pen is included and cost USD $100.

Availability

You can check out more reviews on Amazon. Below are direct product links to various configurations.

• Intel Core M, 4GB RAM, 128GB
• Intel i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB
• Intel i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB
• Intel i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB
• Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB
• Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB

The links above are affiliate links. I earn some commission for each sale. Putting out a review like this incurs a loss for me since I'm not sponsored. When you buy through the affiliate links, it helps reduce my losses and enables me to put out more reviews in the future. Or consider supporting me on Patreon.

Special thanks to GearBest.com for providing the review unit
Just when I thought I have seen all the brands that make pen displays and this comes in.

This is the Acepen AP 2150 pen display. It's basically a monitor you can draw on, a Wacom Cintiq alternative.

Here's the thing about Acepen. I did a search online and could not find any company under that name, nor could I find the parent company that makes this product. Most places that sell this pen display list that it as having a one year warranty. My recommendation is to find out who's providing the warranty before getting one and where to get support when needed.

The price for this pen display is really attractive. At the time of this review, it's priced at USD $369 on Gearbest. That's even lower than on Amazon and also lower compared to other competing models that look alike. I was actually very surprised at the pricing because this pen display works quite well.

Included items

These are the included items

• Pen display
• Pen and pen stand
• 8 replacement tips and a nib remover
• HDMI cable
• VGA cable
• USB cable
• Pen charging USB cable
• Power cable and adapter
• A glove
• A ballpoint pen attached to a feather
• Driver disc

Please note the graphics cables included. If your computer has a miniDisplay port, you will need to buy an adaptor in order to use this display.

Design and build quality

The physical design of the AP 2150 looks very similar to many pen displays that I've reviewed before, namely Ugee 2150, XP Pen 22HD and Huion GT 220.

The build quality is decent, design is functional. Overall, nothing too special or bad to shout about.

The display can be positioned at different angles using the stand. Unfortunately, at the lowest angle, the monitor is actually resting on the cables beneath and this causes the monitor to wobble. The ideal angle to use would be low enough but with the 4 rubber feet still firmly in contact with the table top.

The display comes with the following ports (from left to right), USB, Power, full-size, HDMI, DVI, VGA. Note that while a DVI port is included, a DVI cable is not.

The USB port is for connecting to the computer so that the pen can be recognised. Depending on where you buy the display, it should come with the appropriate power plug, or at least on Gearbest it allows you to choose the power plug. I'm using the UK power plug, the one with three pins.

Screen

The AP 2150 is a 21.5-inch display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution.

This is an IPS panel so colour reproduction is quite good. I colour calibrated it with a Spyder5pro and it measured 98% sRGB and 77% AdobeRGB colour gamut support.

Unlike other pen displays I've mentioned above, the AP 2150 actually ships with a matte screen protector already pasted on it. The matte screen protector provides a nice textured paper-like surface to draw on. The downside is the screen has a slightly hazy look because the sharpness is affected. This could be a deal breaker because it becomes difficult to check the sharpness of your images, such as when you're editing photos and videos. The alternative is to remove the screen protector but you'll have to draw on the glossy glass screen. So that's the compromise you have to work with to draw with the paper-like texture.

Another thing about that screen protector is viewing angles are affected. If you view the display from any angle other than the front, the sharpness suffers again.

Matte screens are usually never as sharp as glossy screens so it's not surprising. The thing is, I also have a matte screen protector on my iPad Pro and the sharpness isn't affected to the extent that I see on the AP 2150.

The brightness of the screen is 250cdm2. I'm using it at 60% brightness so it's bright enough for me.

Pen

The pen supports up to 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. It has 5ms response time and 220pps tracking speed. Basically, it means there's little lag when drawing and strokes appear almost instantly beneath the pen tip.

The pen is battery powered and the charging port is behind. The built-in battery capacity of 200mAh is rated to last for 220 hours, which is like 9 days if you draw non-stop.

The two buttons on the pen can only be configured to basic click functions.

One thing I don't like about the pen is actually the rubber grip which provides a good grip but it's prone to attracting dust.

This is the pen stand that's included. The pen can be put vertically or horizontally on the stand.

8 replacement tips and the nib remover are hidden inside the pen stand that you can twist to open.

There's some issue with my pen
There appears to be some hardware issue with my pen. When in hover mode, I can see the cursor moving around frantically. Sometimes when drawing, it will produce extremely jittery lines. This problem happens randomly and is difficult to reproduce, but it happens often. Since the Acepen AP 2150 looks exactly like the Ugee 2150, I tried using the Ugee pen and it actually works and had none of the problem. So I deduce that it could be a hardware problem with the Acepen stylus.

Driver

As mentioned above, I could not find Acepen company online. So there's no website to download the driver. The only driver provided is on the disc so do not lose that. I've already uploaded the driver to my cloud storage online as a backup. In fact, a few days ago, I had someone asked if I had the driver for the AP 2150 because he had lost his disc.

The driver is said to work on Windows XP / 7 / 8 / 10 and Mac. I'm using the display on a Mac and for the most part, it works well.

And since there's no website to download the driver, I don't suppose there will be any driver updates in the future. Hopefully, the driver will continue to work with future updates to the OS.

I tried installing the Ugee 2150 driver and it actually works. In fact, I think the Ugee driver is slightly better than the Acepen driver. I was able to tap on the screen to get dots easily.

Before installing the driver on Windows, you need all the cables connected, e.g. graphics and USB cable.

The driver does not have many settings. You can change the pressure sensitivity, customise the two side buttons and calibrate the screen to remove parallax. That's about all.

Drawing performance

Overall drawing performance is satisfactory. The matte screen protector is really nice to draw on, even though it affected the sharpness of the image quality. There's no lag whatsoever.

After calibrating for parallax, accuracy is quite good.

After choosing the pressure sensitivity that I prefer, I was able to draw really thin lines with the lightest of touch. The only main issue I had was when drawing lines quickly, e.g. hatching, sometimes the lines only start from the halfway mark. So for cross hatching, I just have to draw a bit slower. It's not a big deal.

Here's my experience with the different apps that I've tried on my Mac.

With Photoshop CS5, pressure sensitivity works well. Strokes taper nicely and are smooth without any angular jitter. The only one issue I faced is the inability to draw dots easily. You can't just tap on the screen and have the dots appear. You have to tap and drag slightly. If your art involves creating a lot of dots, do not get this display. The Ugee 2150 can create dots easily.

Medibang Paint Pro works really well with this pen display.

Pressure sensitivity does not work with Adobe Illustrator CS5. I tried installing Wacom Intuos driver because sometimes it can get the pressure working. But in this case, it made the problem worse and I wasn't even able draw anything any more.

Pressure sensitivity works well with Mischief.

Pressure works well on Krita

Pressure works well on Tayasui Sketches Pro

Conclusion

I've reviewed many pen displays and I can't say that the Acepen AP 2150 stands out among the competition. But that's neither good nor bad. Overall, the drawing performance is quite satisfactory, comparable to other brands. The only main issue I had is with Adobe Illustrator CS5 where the pressure doesn't work. I'm not sure if Illustrator CC will have the same problem.

One thing I like about the AP 2150 is it comes with a nice matte screen protector that feels really good to draw on. However, that same screen protector also affects the sharpness of the display. If you don't mind the display not being tact sharp, then this is a good pen display to consider.

The only area of concern I have is with warranty support. Where would you get support from if there's something wrong with the display? Do you go back to the seller since there's no Acepen company to actually contact? I guess you do have to go back to the seller in this case.

And lastly, I've to mention the insanely attractive pricing again. It's currently selling at USD $369 on Gearbest. That's below the USD $400 - $500 mark that pen displays of these sizes usually sell at. Even when you consider the shortcomings, it's still a very good and tempting deal.

Pros
+ Good build quality
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ 8 spare nibs included
+ No noticeable lag
+ Supports HDMI, DVI-I, and VGA
+ IPS panel with decent colour reproduction
+ Cheaper than Wacom pen displays and even Cintiq alternatives
+ Works well with most Mac apps except Illustrator CS5
+ Matte screen protector provided feels good to draw on
+ Overall good drawing functionality

Cons
- Cables come out from bottom of monitor affects the lowest stand position
- Matte screen protector affects image quality, sharpness
- Limited driver/stylus customizability
- No shortcut buttons on the monitor
- No driver updates expected
- Warranty support is a mystery

Availability

Check out the pricing of the Acepen AP 2150 on Gearbest and compare that the Amazon links below:
Amazon.com | https://www.amazon.ca/Acepen-AP-Graphics-Interactive-Adjustable/dp/B074Z...">Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Hi folks! Jose here with another tablet monitor review, this time from Huion who were kind enough to send me a Huion KAMVAS GT-191. I’ve read seen a lot of positive reviews for this tablet and I was really looking forward to trying it out myself. As with all the other reviews this will be a completely unbiased and honest with the artist’s perspective in mind.

Short review

The Huion KAMVAS GT-191 is a sleek 19.5 full HD IPS display with a 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution. It supports a whooping 8192 levels of pen pressure. That's the same pressure levels the new Cintiq Pros have and is the highest among all the Cintiq alternatives I have tried.

Out of the box, the pen worked great without the need of an external pressure curve editor which was a first for me. It comes with a stand which can also be detached if you’d like to use a monitor arm via VESA mount. It comes pre-attached with a screen protector which has a nice matte paper feel. This device is available at US $499.00 which is not the cheapest among the tablet monitors I have tried but it is one of the better quality ones so far. It's value for money, considering that it is a third of the cost of a top of the line but much smaller Cintiq Pro 16. I personally love this screen size. Its excellent for displaying all my UI elements comfortably in Photoshop, Zbrush and Keyshot.

Long review

Here's what's in the box

They were even nice enough to include a screwdriver! This was perfect because I usually need to remove the stand and attach it to my ergotron arm.

Build quality

Build quality is sleek and sturdy with a smooth plastic finish. It is a minimalist setup with no extra buttons for shortcuts which is fine for me as I am used to using the keyboard.

There is also a rubber pad below the monitor which I assume is for gripping the surface and to provide a cushion when using the provided stand.

The image setting buttons are located at the bottom right with labels in front making it easy to know what you are pressing.

The stand provided works pretty much the same as the ones that come with the larger Ugee, XP-Pen, and Parblo tablets. The stand can lock firmly in many angles (much more versatile than the ones that come with the Cintiq 13HD and the companions).

It weighs about 13lbs (5.9kg) which makes it light enough to mount on an Ergotron arm which works well for me as it frees up my desk space and allows me to keep my keyboard underneath.

The screen

The screen is a 19.5 inch IPS display that comes in a 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution. It comes with a 72% NTSC color gamut, 3000:1 contrast ratio which and can display 16.7 million colors. The screen comes pre-attached with a matte screen protector which reduces glare, and gives the surface a paper feel, allowing you to glide your hands smoothly on the screen when you work. The screen protector is attached with just 4 adhesive tapes so you do sometimes notice the presence of rainbow air pockets which can sometimes be annoying. For long term use I would recommend buying an actual screen protector from an electronics shop and have them attach it on the screen for you so that you won’t see any rainbow artifacting in some areas when you press too hard.

This tablet monitor is compatible with multiple interface types which is great.

Settings

Huion’s tablet settings app is so far the most robust I have seen compared to the other non-Wacom brands which were pretty much just re-skins of each other. I like how Huion has actually spent the time to invest in this area. On top of the usual pressure and screen calibration tools you can also save or load all your settings.

Buttons can be mapped to mouse buttons or a combination of keystrokes (up to 16 keys including modifiers like ctrl, alt, shift, and win). Another great thing is the availability of the “switch display” shortcut to move your cursor from one monitor to the other. It's a common but necessary function if you don’t want to always switch from pen to mouse. So far of all the brands I have tried only Wacom had this. Nice job on this one Huion!!

The pen performance

It is stated that the Huion Kamvas GT 191 pen comes with 8192 levels of pressure, that's the same amount Wacom is promising with their latest Cintiq models. It comes with a 233PPS report rate and 5081LPI resolution, all of which supposedly give faster recognition and less lag. While the IAF (initial activation force) is not as sensitive to light touches as the Wacom Cintiqs but it does match up pretty well with the competitor brands out there.

Huion provides two pens so that one can charge while you work which makes it easy to charge one pen while the other one is being used. I have never had the battery ever run out on me while working before. I usually switch pens and charge the other about 3 days after using one just in case.

The pen comes with two buttons as expected and they have worked well with the shortcuts I have assigned them to (middle and right mouse click) and they have a nice quality feel to them which is better than some of the other pens I have tried. One thing you will notice about the pen is it is slightly longer and thinner at the back and is flat around the centers of both sides. It's not the usual Wacom-like shape so it will take a bit of time to get but this doesn’t really affect me since i am usually just holding the area near the buttons.

I’m not sure if it's due to the 8192 levels of pressure but it did feel like the transition between light to hard strokes were much smoother compared to other non-Wacom tablet monitors I have tried. And so far the initial activation force has matched that of the best performing alternatives that I have tried such as the XP-Pen and Ugee devices. Overall I am very happy with how the Kamvas GT 191 pen has performed.

App tests

Photoshop worked well throughout the test. Not much jittering and smooth transitions from light to hard pressure as well.

There's no jittering in Sketchbook Pro also. There was some heavy tapering in Sketchbook Pro I am not sure if it was a because of the brush or tablet (sorry I don’t use Sketchbook much).

The tablet performed just as well in Medibang as it did in Photoshop. Not much jittering and smooth transitions from light to hard pressure.

The tablet performed great with Krita. Smooth lines and transitions.

There were issues with Paint Tool Sai, the tablet did not seem compatible with it.

Doodle test

This sketch was done in photoshop.

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

Conclusion

I have tried numerous Wacom Cintiqs, Surface Pros, and other tablet monitor brands. And I feel the Kamvas GT 191 holds its own among the top models out there in terms of build quality and pen performance.

While I’m not sure how to verify the 8192 levels of pressure I can confidently say that the pen performs really well allowing me to achieve smooth transitions between various pressure ranges without the need of third party apps Like Lazy Nezumi to tweak the curves manually. While the initial activation force is still not as light as Wacom models, I do think that it performs pretty close. If you have used a Cintiq before you will notice a slight difference, but if you have never used a tablet screen before I’m pretty sure you’re going to love the feeling of drawing directly on the screen (there's no going back from it).

The 19.5” screen is relatively large and allows for a lot of screen real estate to work comfortably in 3D or 2D using apps like Zbrush and Photoshop. Priced at USD $499, its an amazing deal offering you both quality and screen size all without breaking the bank. I’m really happy with what Huion has done with the Kamvas GT 191. I feel they have made very little compromises to give us a great tablet monitor at a great price and I look forward to trying more devices from them in the future.

Here's a summary of the pros and cons:

Pros
+ Nice build quality
+ Really nice and sturdy stand (stays firmly at numerous angles)
+ Plenty of screen real estate (displays all UI elements with minimal clutter)
+ Easy to setup and install drivers
+ Robust settings app (keystroke as well as mouse button mapping)
+ Toggle monitor switch!! (Ugee, Xp-Pen, Parblo, devices do not have it)
+ Stand easily detached if you would like to use a monitor arm
+ Pre-attached matte screen protector for papery feel
+ IPS panel with good viewing angles
+ 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Low initial activation force (not as low as a Cintiq but better than a Surface pro)
+ Pressure curve settings are almost cintiq-like out of the box
+ Jitter is non existent or very little
+ Works well with Photoshop, Zbrush
+ Amazing value (Price is one third the price of a smaller Cintiq Pro 16)

Cons

- Cables connect at the middle bottom which can get away when propping stand at very low angles
- Parallax is quite evident (but still bearable)
- Pre attached matte screen protector is grainier than usual (suggest attaching your own)
- Lack of express keys if you require them

Availability

You can check out more reviews of the Huion KAMVAS GT-191 on Amazon using the direct product links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

The Huion Kamvas GT-190 pen display has been in the market for almost two years already. Together with the Huion GT-220, they were among the earliest Cintiq alternatives around. Back when the GT-190 was released, it wasn't even in the Kamvas series, but now there's a big "KAMVAS" label on the packaging box. Other than the additional Kamvas label, the pen display has essentially the same specs as it did on day 1, and here are the specifications (that matter):

• Screen: 19-inch
• Resolution: 1440 x 900
• Aspect ratio: 16:10
• Panel type: TFT
• Pressure sensitivity: 2048 levels
• Viewing angle 80 degrees horizontal, 60 degrees vertical
• Brightness: 250 cd/m2
• Contrast ratio: 700:1
• Response time: 5ms
• Number of colours: 16.7m
• Video ports: VGA and DVI

Oh, the unit that I have is actually a review unit provided by Gearbest. Should you need more details, visit the product page on Gearbest at: https://www.gearbest.com/graphics-tablets/pp_1167201.html?lkid=12424642

And if you don't know what a pen display is, it's basically a monitor that you can draw on. Since it's a monitor, you need to connect it to a computer to use it.

All the things included

Here's the list of items included in the box:

• Monitor and stand
• 2 pens
• A pen stand with 8 replacement nips
• Cleaning cloth
• Screwdriver and 4 screws (for the stand)
• Power brick and cable
• USB cable for monitor-computer connection
• USB cable for charging the pen
• VGA cable
• Driver disc and manual

The main thing to take note here is the only graphics cable included is a VGA cable. Computers with VGA graphics port nowadays are quite rare. So you may need an adaptor in order to use this pen display.

The stand is not fixed onto the monitor so you have to use the screwdriver and screws provided to fix that yourself. It's easy, just follow the instructions pasted behind. In short, make sure the latch is facing upwards.

This is how the stand when fixed properly.

That's the lowest position possible.

That's the USB port at the back. The USB cable for this will connect to the computer. This allows the pen to be recognised.

These are the two graphic ports: VGA and DVI. Thankfully they have a DVI port as well. I was able to use a DVI-MiniDisplay Port adaptor and get the pen display working. All my computers do not have the VGA ports.

The overall build quality is decent. It feels plasticky but it's solid. The screen is extremely reflective.

And because the screen is so glossy, there could be some movement issues with hand on such surfaces. It might be good to get one of those artist gloves for drawing on the screen. It will provide a smoother and more comfortable drawing experience, and also not smudge the display with oil from the hand.

The 19-inch screen has a resolution of only 1440 by 900. For a screen this size, it should have a higher resolution like 1080P. Things do look a bit pixelated but it's not really a big deal.

These are the buttons for the pen display. They can be used to change the brightness, contrast and other settings. Note that the brightness of this pen display is only 250 cd/m2. That's not very bright. I actually measured only 135cd/m2 with my Spyder5Pro Colour Calibrator. It's definitely not the brightest screen around, but it's usable. The brightness reminds me of those previous generation laptop screens.

The reflection also affects the colours on the screen.

TFT panels have really lousy viewing angles. You only get the most accurate colours when you're viewing the screen straight on. And even so sometimes when you tilt your head up and down, the colours there may differ. For example, in the photo above, the screen is supposed to be white throughout, but there's a gradient instead.

And this is what it looks like when tilted.

If you're using this pen display for creating art for casual purposes, I guess it should be okay. But it's not a display to be depended on if you require colour accuracy. If I use this in my office, I will need another monitor, one with proper colour accuracy, so that I can check the colours of my art. This is particular important when you're painting skin tones because even the slightest shift can make a person look weird.

That's the pen and stand.

The pen comes with a cap which cannot be posted behind.

That's the port at the back of the pen for charging the internal battery. I've no idea how long the battery can last but based on my experience with such pens, they last for a few weeks. You can still use the pen while it's charging. Two pens are included. so you can also use one while the other is charging.

Thankfully the tip doesn't make any squeaky sound on the glass screen.

Eight replacement tips and the nib remover are included inside the pen stand.

There's quite a distance from the surface of the glass and the screen. So there's definitely parallax. But you can correct for the parallax using the calibration provided by the driver. After calibration, when you're looking straight on the screen, it should have minimal parallax. But the parallax will appear depending on the position of your head relative to the screen.

Performance on various graphics software

Photoshop (Mac)

Adobe Illustrator (Mac)

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac)

Mischief (Mac)

Krita (Mac)

Tayasui Sketches Pro (Mac)

I did not have any issues with the graphics software that I've tested on both Mac and Windows OS.

Pressure sensitivity works well. Strokes appear just the way they should and they taper nicely. Everything feels responsive without much lag.

Conclusion

The drawing performance and functionality are great. I was actually expecting some glitches with the graphics software on Windows and Mac but there were none. The tablet is also quite responsive. Basically, it's as fast as your computer can go.

The GT-190 only feels slightly warm after long period of use. So it's no problem to use it for hours comfortably.

The downside is the use of the TFT panel which affects the colour accuracy and viewing angles. Now that you know the limitations, you should know that this is not a pen display suitable for work that requires colour accuracy, such as for use in the print industry, or for photo editing. If you're using it to draw digital, to create digital art, I don't think it's a big deal.

Another downside is the 1440 by 900 resolution. I really wish that it had a higher 1080P resolution which would make everything look sharper.

Here's a summary of the pros and cons:
Pros
+ Decent build quality
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ 8 replacement nibs included
+ Drawing performance is fine and predictable
+ No glitches with all the graphic software I've tested

Cons
- Resolution of 1440 x 900 is low for a screen of this size
- TFT panel colour accuracy and limited viewing angles are not good
- Display is not very bright but useable. This could be a future issue
- Only VGA cable included

Availability

The Huion GT-190 is available at Gearbest. Check it out there, and also other tablets that are selling on there.

For more reviews on other pen displays, visit https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/wacom-cintiq-alternatives

The Artisul D13 was first featured on my blog in March 2016. A few months later in October, we had the smaller Artisul D10 and now, two years later, we have the Artisul D16.

First of all, thanks to Artisul once again for providing a review unit so that I can feature it on the blog.

If you don't know what pen display is, it's a monitor that you can draw on. You need to connect it to a computer to use it.

My review will cover my experience on Windows and Mac.

What's in the box

• The display
• Pen
• Pen pouch
• 10 replacement tips and nib remover
• 2x pen holder
• USB Y-cable for power
• Power brick with different socket head
• USB cable for connecting to computer
• mini-HDMI to HDMI cable
• Stand

No driver disc is included so you have to download the driver from Artisul's website.

Design and build quality

The design looks nice and the build quality feels solid, sturdy. That's the same I've said for the smaller D10 and D13. It's good to see that the good build quality used here as well.

The exterior has a matte surface plastic finishing while the area where the buttons are have a more velvety touch.

The display has 8 shortcut buttons and a scroll wheel on the side. If you're a left handed user, you can change to left handed mode using the driver and turn the display around to have those buttons on the right (the Artisul logo in front will appear upside down). All the buttons are round except one that's a rounded rectangle.

There's a smaller button in the middle of the scroll wheel. All buttons have that velvety touch and a nice tactile click to them.

On the back are 4 large pieces of rubber to prevent the display from slipping.

Screen

The screen measures 15.6-inches. It's a medium sized screen compared to smaller 10 to 13-inch and larger 19 to 22-inch displays. The resolution is 1920 by 1080 and everything appears relatively sharp. The resolution is high enough for a display of this size and is very useable.

The screen uses an IPS panel so the colour reproduction is good. Colours look good out of the box so first time users probably won't have to colour calibrate it.

Since I use many monitors, I always calibrate my monitors to ensure I'm looking at the same colours across different displays. I measured 94% sRGB and 84% Adobe RGB with my Spyder5PRO colour calibrator. Artisul claimed 94% Adobe RGB but 84% is still quite satisfactory for most work purposes, and you can certainly use it for graphic design or creating digital art without having to worry about colour accuracy. By the way, 100% Adobe RGB is more for those people who need to compare printed proofs side by side with the screen.

IPS panels have decent viewing angles. Colours do not change much when this display is viewed from different angles. The contrast ratio is 700:1 and brightness is 300 cd/m2.

Response rate is 19ms which is slow but for drawing purposes I never noticed much lag. Any lag that appears are mostly from the software. Don't use this for gaming. But in terms of responsiveness, it's very similar to other pen displays I've used, including Wacom's products.

The screen has a matte anti-glare coat on it. This is not those glossy reflective screens which I do not like. The matte screen diffuse any reflections from light and makes them less distracting. The matte surface screen also provides a nicer texture to draw on with the pen. For reflective screen, there's always this friction when you run your palm on the surface, e.g. it's like running your palm on glass surface. But here, the palm-on-screen feeling is smoother.

Matte screens usually affects the sharpness of the screen but in this case, the sharpness isn't affected much, which is great.

The stand

A stand is included. It wasn't included with the D10 but it's now back.

I like the functional design. You just put the display on it. There's nothing to latch or click onto the display, nothing to screw on too. This means you can also use the stand with your other tablets, e.g. iPad, Surface Pro or even a laptop.

There are 2 parts to the stand, the feet and the resting plate. You need to attach (click on) the feet to the back of the resting plate.

The stand is capable of different angles, but depending on how the feet is set up, some angles are not suitable for drawing.

The feet can be rotated.

This position is for use when not drawing on the display

This is the lowest angle from the earlier position.

This is the optimal angle for drawing. The feet is rotated, and angled to push against the back plate so that you can draw firmly on the screen.

If the feet is not set up properly, the stand can droop down while you're drawing since you're pressing down. When drawing, you should always position the feet in a way that it does not move when you're pressing down. This may not be clear to first time users, but after you get it, it's quite intuitive.

Pen

The pen supports up to 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. It does not use any battery so it does not require any charging.

The pen feels quite light but build quality is solid. The matte texture of the body feels nice to hold and prevents slip. The two side buttons have a tactile click to them.

10 replacement nibs are included. 5 are hard tips that glide smoothly on the screen. The other 5 have a more texture tip, feels like felt tip surface, and provides more friction on the screen. You can choose either to use depending on your preference. Since the screen is already matte, it provides a nice texture to draw on, I actually prefer using the hard tip rather than the felt tip.

Two pen holders are included. They are designed in such a way that they fit into the slot on the side of the display. So you can keep your pen there when it's not in use.

There's some parallax but you can calibrate using the driver software to minimise the parallax. The distance from the surface to the actual pixels is not a big gap so parallax is not really a big issue.

The design of the pen may present a problem. Because the part that holds the nib is bulbous in design, it makes it difficult to see the nib when draw near some edges. For example, for right handed users, when reaching the left side of the screen, the pen and the nib holder part will block off the nib, making it difficult to see where your cursor will be. It would be better is the nib holder is actually a conical shape that tapers down rather than this bulbous shape. This problem is not as obvious with smaller screens because you won't have to move your hand that far to the edge, and from your position, you're more likely to still see the pen tip.

Connecting to the computer

The USB Y-cable is used to connect the display to the computer. One end goes into the computer, the double ends will go to the power socket and the display. For the end that goes into the display, there's another USB extension cable you've to use.

In the photo above, the left goes to the display, middle to the computer, and the red-coloured USB head will go to the power plug. Setting up is easy, you just connect everything.

If your computer's USB port has sufficient power to power up the display, you may not even need to use the power plug. You are most likely able to use your other existing USB power plugs to power the display also.

Driver

Download the driver first. The drivers I've used in this review are Windows Driver 3.0 and Mac Driver 3.05. Note that there's also a driver for "For Windows 10 Creator 1709 Build" so check your Windows version to download the correct driver for your system.

For Windows users, the driver can only install with the display connected in advance. Mac users can just install straightaway.

Specific functions can be assigned to the shortcut buttons on the display. There are pre-configured functions to choose from, and that includes specific functions configured for Photoshop, Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint and Corel Painter.

If those are not enough, you can input your own keyboard shortcuts.

To configure the 8th button, you have to go to the Scroll Dial tab. You can only choose from the pre-configured functions, no customisable keyboard shortcut feature is available here.

You can assign 5 different functions to that one button in the middle of the scroll wheel. Each time you press that button, it will switch through the different function. For example, if you're in Photoshop, you want the scroll wheel to change the brush sizes, but when you're using the web browser, you want to switch the function to scrolling the webpage instead. Each time you press the button, a text label will appear on screen at the bottom to tell you which function is in use.

You can also change the pressure sensitivity of the pen. The options available for the side of the pen are only different types of mouse clicks.

Lastly, you can use the driver to calibrate the screen to remove parallax. BUT Windows users do not have the calibration option for some reason, so the only option is for the cursor to be directly beneath the tip at all times, and parallax becomes obvious when the pen is near the edge of the display. Hopefully, there will be a new Windows driver to correct this issue.

Drawing performance

Let's start with the Mac first.

There's something strange with Photoshop Mac although most of the time it works fine.

Photoshop Mac. Sometimes there can be jitter/wobble to straight diagonal lines. The example shown above is more obvious but most of the time it's less obvious.

Here it's less obvious. Maybe because the lines are thinner.

Photoshop Mac. Same try but with thicker lines.

Photoshop Mac. When it comes to tests, sure the lines wobble slightly. But when it's actually used for drawing, I don't think I would notice anything amiss. Do you see anything weird with the lines above? If you're very particular, then yes, there is still some wobble.

Photoshop Mac

There is no pressure sensitivity with Illustrator Mac.

This is Tayasui Sketches Pro. The app may have applied some smoothening. I noticed the lines in this app, regardless of what you are drawing with, is always very smooth.

Mischief has some quirks as well. Strokes that go up looks fine. But strokes that come down looks very jittery.

Medibang Paint Pro performs better than Photoshop. No big issues here.

Krita also performs fine.

For some reason, Photoshop on Windows perform better than the Mac version. So this issue with Photoshop could be a driver issue with the OS.

Photoshop (Win). There's definitely no worries of line wobble or jitter with Photoshop on Windows. Everything feels right.

There's pressure sensitivity with Illustrator but these are the quirks I encountered. Basically, it's not usable for drawing.

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) works well.

Mischief (Win) works well.

Sketchable (Win) works well.

Conclusion

The D16 is a welcome addition to the Artisul line of pen displays. A 21.6-inch Artisul D22 will be coming soon.

The overall build quality is good, and it looks good.

Drawing performance and functionality is good as well generally speaking, but there are some issues with certain graphic apps. Those issues may or may not be a deal breaker depending on the type of work you do. But overall, I'm still quite satisfied with the performance.

Pros and cons at a glance:

Pros
+ Good build quality
+ Pen does not require battery
+ Pen is quite sensitive
+ 10 replacement tips included
+ Matte anti-glare screen does not have reflections
+ Nice texture on screen to draw on
+ 1080P resolution on the screen this size is sharp enough
+ Screen has good colour accuracy and viewing angles
+ Does not feel warm after long periods of use
+ Drawing performance generally good but depends on the OS and app that you use
+ Useful stand is included
+ Useful pen holder allows pen to be attached to side of display
+ 8 shortcut buttons and scroll wheel are useful
+ Can be used in left handed mode

Cons
- Some issues with Photoshop on Mac, and other apps.
- Bulbous design of the pen's tip holder may block off the sight of the tip at far corners
- Windows drivers are at different places: Start menu and taskbar
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Windows drivers cannot calibrate the screen to correct for parallax

Availability

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

Over the years, I've featured several XP-PEN products such as the Star 06 wireless tablet, the 10s, 16 and the 22HD. They are all quite good and value for the money. It's good to see companies that keep making new products and improve.

The latest addition to XP-PEN's product line are the Artist 13.3 and Artist 15.6.

My review will cover my experience of using the pen display on both Windows and Mac.

The unit I'm working on is a review unit from XP-Pen so thanks again!

The packaging looks quite nice.

Here are the specifications:

• Product dimensions: 44.3 x 28 x 12.6cm
• Active area: 34.4 x 19.3 cm
• Screen: 15.6 inches with 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Panel type: IPS
• Colors: 16.7 million
• Input ports: HDMI and USB
• Pen does not require battery
• Pressure sensitivity: 8,192 levels

There are some improvements made over the Artist 16.

First, the screen is now matte instead of glossy.

Second, the pen no longer uses battery, and does not require charging.

Third, the pressure sensitivity has increased to 8,192 levels

What's in the box

1. HDMI/Power/USB all-in-one cable
2. USB extension cable
3. HDMI to miniDisplay adapter
4. Pen and stand
5. 8 replacement nibs
6. Wall charger and various international plugs
7. Manual, warranty card, cleaning cloth and glove

The most significant change here is the power brick is no longer needed. The new Artist 15.6 uses less power and can be powered from a powered USB port.

This is the HDMI head that goes to your computer. If your computer does not use a HDMI or miniDisplay port, then you will need to get an appropriate adapter. I'm glad they included the HDMI-miniDisplay adaptor because my Surface Pro uses the miniDisplay port.

These are the three heads from the HDMI cable. The red USB goes to the USB power outlet (you can use any existing ones you have, e.g. phone charger), the black USB goes to the computer so that the pen display can recognise the pen, and the USB type-C goes to the pen display.

Here are the wall charger and different plugs. You just have to slip on the appropriate plug to use.

Design and build quality

This is how the pen display looks like straight out of the box. Note the white label at the top left.

That white label is actually attached to the protective cover of the screen protector. You're supposed to remove the protective cover by pulling the white label, thereby revealing the matte screen protector beneath.

I prefer matte screens over glossy reflective screens anytime. They are just less distracting to look at because of the lack of reflections. Matte screen protectors do affect the sharpness of the actual screen though, but to me it's a worthwhile trade-off.

The matte surface also provides a really nice texture to draw on. When I move my palm across the screen, there's a somewhat a sandy sound. It has a very paper-like feel when drawing with the pen.

This pen display uses an IPS panel so colour reproduction is quite good, and viewing angles are great. You probably won't need to do any colour calibration out of the box. Since I use many displays, I need to calibrate each new one I use to make sure I get consistent colours, e.g. colours should appear exactly the way they should, e.g. white is white and not with any blue or yellow tint. I used a Spyder5pro for calibrating.

With the calibrator, I measured the brightness at 166cd/m2. This is not a particularly bright display but this is very usable brightness. The colour gamut is 78% sRGB, 57% NTSC and 60% Adobe RGB. When I compare it to the Artisul D16 which I reviewed recently, I can tell straightaway that the Artisul has better colour reproduction.

For an IPS panel, the colour gamut displayed here is acceptable although it can certainly do better.

These are the six physical shortcut buttons on the side. The buttons are firm and have audible clicks.

Unfortunately, the drivers do not have the left-handed mode so those buttons are always going to be on the left.

These are the only buttons and ports on the side. There's the power button (which is lit when powered), the brightness control (up and down) and the USB-C port for connecting to the HDMI/Power/Usb cable.

The overall design of the Artist 15.6 is more minimal than the Artist 16. There's also no more build-in stand, making the profile much slimmer, measuring only 1.26cm thick. Without the inclusion of the stand, it means you have to find your own way to prop up the pen display. My suggestion is to get the fantastic Artisul freestyle stand that you can use with any thin profile pen displays or tablets.

I highly recommend getting a stand or at least some sort of laptop stand or just something, e.g. thick books, to prop up the display. This really improves the ergonomics and helps with your posture, especially if you need to work on this for long periods of time.

The two large pieces of rubber beneath are great at preventing the display from slipping on the table.

Pen

The pen is quite light and feels alright to hold. This pen does not require any battery so you don't have to charge it. Great.

The weird thing about the stand is, the hole in the middle is too large and when you put the pen in, it wobbles and then tilts to the side. It's as if the stand was not designed for this specific pen. Yeah, you can have the pen stand straight up, but maybe it's better to just have it rest horizontally.

8 replacement nibs are included. The nib remover is built into the bottom of the pen stand.

Driver

It's best to download the latest driver from Artisul's website.

Remember to uninstall all previous tablet drivers if you have any. After the driver is installed, the driver will detect the pen display.

For the Mac driver...

These are the usual settings you have change for the pen. Pressure sensitivity, the mouse buttons.

This is where you can configure the shortcuts for the buttons. You can also input your own keyboard shortcuts.

The other setting that you need to change is the calibration. The surface of the screen is actually quite close to the actual pixels but there's still parallax. You need to calibrate the screen in order to reduce the parallax.

For the Windows driver...

Window driver settings look different.

One thing that's better here is you can change the pressure curve. With the Mac driver, you can only change the pressure sensitivity using the slider.

Note the Windows Ink checkbox. With certain apps, you will need to checkbox that in order to get pressure working. And if there's something quirky about the graphic app functionality, it could be some Wintab issue but thankfully I've not experience any.

This is where you can set the shortcut buttons. The physical shortcut buttons are useful but too bad there are only six buttons.

And unfortunately, the Windows driver also does not have the option for left-handed users.

Drawing performance

Overall responsive is good, and there is minimal to no lag. The main issue that I face is dealing with the parallax. I mean you can calibrate to compensate for parallax but it's still there (same applies to other brands of pen displays too). When drawing, most apps will have that circular ring cursor and it really doesn't help much. It would have been better if there's some sort of point cursor, such as the the point cursor you get when you engage Capslock key in Photoshop. This is something you'll get used to after a while.

In summary, I have a much smoother and glitch-free experience with Windows compared to Mac apps.

Let's go through the Mac apps first, followed by Windows.

Photoshop (Mac) works well. There's pressure sensitivity and the lines are smooth without jitter or wobble. Sometimes if you feel that you see some jitter, you can zoom in to 200% and draw from there. I can notice slight jitter when drawing at 100% but again that happens to a lot of pen displays too. At 100% zoom, the smoothness is about 9/10. At 200% zoom, it's 10/10 score.

Here's another quick drawing drawn on Photoshop (Mac).

Krita (Mac) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works fine. Oh, by the way, drawing slow diagonal lines have no jitter and when you draw a straight line, you get a straight line, and it does not apply only to this app. I need to mention this because no all pen displays are capable of that.

Unfortunately, Illustrator (Mac) does not support pressure sensitivity.

Clip Studio Paint Pro (Mac ver 1.7.1) has issues. There are blobs at the start of the ink pen brushes. Basically if you use those brushes, they are unusable. The problem is not so noticeable or non-existent with other brushes. But I did not try all the brushes though.

Mischief (Mac) works fine.

Let's talk about Windows apps

Photoshop (Win) works fine.

Illustrator (Win) support pressure sensitivity unlike the Mac version.

Clip Studio Paint Pro (Win) has non of the ink blob issues shown in the Mac version.

Krita (Win) works fine.

Leonard (Win) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) works fine.

Sketchable needs that Windows Ink setting in the driver enabled in order to get the pressure sensitivity working.

I've also tested ArtRage and it supports pressure. But I wasn't able to use any keyboard shortcuts to move, pan and rotate the canvas. I could do that with finger gestures on the Surface Pro. But without the ability to do that with the keyboard, it makes that app unusable.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the performance of the XP-PEN Artist 15.6 considering the price at the time of this review is US $360 (latest price is in that little blurb on the side). I would say the closest competitor is the Artisul D16 which I've reviewed recently, but that's significantly more expensive at US $490 (at time of this review), although it's actually better in some aspect. So depending on what kind of features you're looking for, and the type of work you do, at least there are two different products at different price points to choose from, and it's great to have options.

In terms of drawing performance, most drawing apps on Windows work better than on the Mac. The only problems I have are with Clip Studio Paint Pro (Mac), Adobe Illustrator (Mac) and ArtRage (Windows).

The most important thing is the lines are predictable and come out just the way I want them to be. The pen is quite sensitive. I can get thin and thick lines easily and the transition is smooth.

After working for long period of time, the display will become slightly warm at the bottom middle section. But it's not terribly hot so you can definitely work on this for extended periods of time.

The drawing functionality gets two thumbs up from me.

Some downsides. The IPS panel has decent colour reproduction but it certainly can be better. But at this price point, I guess you cannot expect too much. At least the viewing angles are great and there are no colour shifting so that's a major plus. The other downside is no stand is included so this may affect your posture and comfort when drawing.

Glitch alert!
On the Mac, I've issues with double clicks behaving inconsistently. Inside Finder, when selecting files in the list mode, a single click will become a double click and open the folder. This makes selecting multiple files using Cmd+click impossible because each time you click to select, you're opening the folder instead. And when you click to select a file, you are opening the file. This glitch does not happen when the Finder is in Icon mode for some reason.

The same double click issue happens when I need to upload files. I hit the upload button, and the Finder window opens, I'm faced with the same problem again.

The problem is opposite when I'm using Adobe Lightroom. When I double click a photo to view it large, it does not do anything, as if I'm only using a single click.

None of these glitches above exists in Windows.

Another glitch that's happens on both Mac and Windows is sometimes the cursor can disappear and appear elsewhere on the screen. It happens rarely but when it does it's really irritating. For example. your cursor is near the top at the menu bars, then suddenly, the cursor appears at the bottom of the screen for no reason. So you have to lift the pen up and move down to get the cursor to show at the correct place on the screen. It's a problem that I can't reproduce but I experience it sometimes on both Mac and Windows. I don't usually have this problem surface while I'm drawing so thank goodness.

If you're using the XP-PEN Artist 16 and experiencing the same glitches, I would love to hear from your experience. Let me know in the comments section below. Who knows, maybe I am the only one with this problem.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Good build quality and design
+ Pen does not require battery
+ Pen is quite sensitive
+ 8 replacement tips included
+ 6 shortcut buttons are useful, but more would be great
+ Matte anti-glare screen does not have reflections
+ Nice texture on screen to draw on
+ 1080P resolution on the screen this size is sharp enough
+ Screen has decent colour accuracy and viewing angles
+ Does not heat up significantly. Can be used for long periods of time without discomfort
+ Drawing performance generally good but depends on the OS and app that you use
+ Lines have no wobble and jitter
+ You can power this display from a single powered USB port if you want to
+ HDMI-miniDisplay port adaptor included
+ Price is very competitive for a screen of this size
- This IPS panel has decent colours but not as good as other IPS panels
- Matte screen protecter affects sharpness of the screen but a good tradeoff for the texture it provides
- Some issues with the specific drawing apps mentioned in the review
- No left-handed mode on both Mac and Windows
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Glitches of the cursor disappearing randomly
- Double click issue on the Mac with certain apps (thankfully not drawing apps)
- No stand included for the display

Availability

The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 pen display is available on Amazon via the direct product links below:
| Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

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

Oh, and special thanks to my Patreon supporters for their support which allowed me to have the funds to purchase some of the graphic apps (that I don't normally use) to test out. That's your contribution. You guys rock.

Over the years, I've featured several XP-PEN products such as the Star 06 wireless tablet, the 10s, 16 and the 22HD. They are all quite good and value for the money. It's good to see companies that keep making new products and improve.

The latest addition to XP-PEN's product line are the Artist 13.3 and Artist 15.6.

My review will cover my experience of using the pen display on both Windows and Mac.

The unit I'm working on is a review unit from XP-Pen so thanks again!

The packaging looks quite nice.

Here are the specifications:

• Product dimensions: 44.3 x 28 x 12.6cm
• Active area: 34.4 x 19.3 cm
• Screen: 15.6 inches with 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Panel type: IPS
• Colors: 16.7 million
• Input ports: HDMI and USB
• Pen does not require battery
• Pressure sensitivity: 8,192 levels

There are some improvements made over the Artist 16.

First, the screen is now matte instead of glossy.

Second, the pen no longer uses battery, and does not require charging.

Third, the pressure sensitivity has increased to 8,192 levels

What's in the box

1. HDMI/Power/USB all-in-one cable
2. USB extension cable
3. HDMI to miniDisplay adapter
4. Pen and stand
5. 8 replacement nibs
6. Wall charger and various international plugs
7. Manual, warranty card, cleaning cloth and glove

The most significant change here is the power brick is no longer needed. The new Artist 15.6 uses less power and can be powered from a powered USB port.

This is the HDMI head that goes to your computer. If your computer does not use a HDMI or miniDisplay port, then you will need to get an appropriate adapter. I'm glad they included the HDMI-miniDisplay adaptor because my Surface Pro uses the miniDisplay port.

These are the three heads from the HDMI cable. The red USB goes to the USB power outlet (you can use any existing ones you have, e.g. phone charger), the black USB goes to the computer so that the pen display can recognise the pen, and the USB type-C goes to the pen display.

Here are the wall charger and different plugs. You just have to slip on the appropriate plug to use.

Design and build quality

This is how the pen display looks like straight out of the box. Note the white label at the top left.

That white label is actually attached to the protective cover of the screen protector. You're supposed to remove the protective cover by pulling the white label, thereby revealing the matte screen protector beneath.

I prefer matte screens over glossy reflective screens anytime. They are just less distracting to look at because of the lack of reflections. Matte screen protectors do affect the sharpness of the actual screen though, but to me it's a worthwhile trade-off.

The matte surface also provides a really nice texture to draw on. When I move my palm across the screen, there's a somewhat a sandy sound. It has a very paper-like feel when drawing with the pen.

This pen display uses an IPS panel so colour reproduction is quite good, and viewing angles are great. You probably won't need to do any colour calibration out of the box. Since I use many displays, I need to calibrate each new one I use to make sure I get consistent colours, e.g. colours should appear exactly the way they should, e.g. white is white and not with any blue or yellow tint. I used a Spyder5pro for calibrating.

With the calibrator, I measured the brightness at 166cd/m2. This is not a particularly bright display but this is very usable brightness. The colour gamut is 78% sRGB, 57% NTSC and 60% Adobe RGB. When I compare it to the Artisul D16 which I reviewed recently, I can tell straightaway that the Artisul has better colour reproduction.

For an IPS panel, the colour gamut displayed here is acceptable although it can certainly do better.

These are the six physical shortcut buttons on the side. The buttons are firm and have audible clicks.

These are the only buttons and ports on the side. There's the power button (which is lit when powered), the brightness control (up and down) and the USB-C port for connecting to the HDMI/Power/Usb cable.

The overall design of the Artist 15.6 is more minimal than the Artist 16. There's also no more build-in stand, making the profile much slimmer, measuring only 1.26cm thick. Without the inclusion of the stand, it means you have to find your own way to prop up the pen display. My suggestion is to get the fantastic Artisul freestyle stand that you can use with any thin profile pen displays or tablets.

I highly recommend getting a stand or at least some sort of laptop stand or just something, e.g. thick books, to prop up the display. This really improves the ergonomics and helps with your posture, especially if you need to work on this for long periods of time.

The two large pieces of rubber beneath are great at preventing the display from slipping on the table.

Pen

The pen is quite light and feels alright to hold. This pen does not require any battery so you don't have to charge it. Great.

The weird thing about the stand is, the hole in the middle is too large and when you put the pen in, it wobbles and then tilts to the side. It's as if the stand was not designed for this specific pen. Yeah, you can have the pen stand straight up, but maybe it's better to just have it rest horizontally.

8 replacement nibs are included. The nib remover is built into the bottom of the pen stand.

Driver

It's best to download the latest driver from Artisul's website.

Remember to uninstall all previous tablet drivers if you have any. After the driver is installed, the driver will detect the pen display.

For the Mac driver...

These are the usual settings you have change for the pen. Pressure sensitivity, the mouse buttons.

This is where you can configure the shortcuts for the buttons. You can also input your own keyboard shortcuts.

The other setting that you need to change is the calibration. The surface of the screen is actually quite close to the actual pixels but there's still parallax. You need to calibrate the screen in order to reduce the parallax.

For the Windows driver...

Window driver settings look different.

One thing that's better here is you can change the pressure curve. With the Mac driver, you can only change the pressure sensitivity using the slider.

Note the Windows Ink checkbox. With certain apps, you will need to checkbox that in order to get pressure working. And if there's something quirky about the graphic app functionality, it could be some Wintab issue but thankfully I've not experience any.

This is where you can set the shortcut buttons. The physical shortcut buttons are useful but too bad there are only six buttons.

Update on left-handed mode:
For left-handed users, you can set the pen display for left-hand use too.

With Windows, in the driver settings, you click on Display Settings, and rotate 180 degrees. With Mac, you can rotate it through XP-Pen's driver as well, under the Calibration tab. Or with certain Mac computers, e.g. Mac Mini and Mac Pro, you can rotate using the System Preferences.

Drawing performance

Overall responsive is good, and there is minimal to no lag. The main issue that I face is dealing with the parallax. I mean you can calibrate to compensate for parallax but it's still there (same applies to other brands of pen displays too). When drawing, most apps will have that circular ring cursor and it really doesn't help much. It would have been better if there's some sort of point cursor, such as the the point cursor you get when you engage Capslock key in Photoshop. This is something you'll get used to after a while.

In summary, I have a much smoother and glitch-free experience with Windows compared to Mac apps.

Let's go through the Mac apps first, followed by Windows.

Photoshop (Mac) works well. There's pressure sensitivity and the lines are smooth without jitter or wobble. Sometimes if you feel that you see some jitter, you can zoom in to 200% and draw from there. I can notice slight jitter when drawing at 100% but again that happens to a lot of pen displays too. At 100% zoom, the smoothness is about 9/10. At 200% zoom, it's 10/10 score.

Here's another quick drawing drawn on Photoshop (Mac).

Krita (Mac) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works fine. Oh, by the way, drawing slow diagonal lines have no jitter and when you draw a straight line, you get a straight line, and it does not apply only to this app. I need to mention this because no all pen displays are capable of that.

Illustrator (Mac) does not support pressure sensitivity by default. You have to install Wacom Intuos driver in order to turn on pressure sensitivity.

Clip Studio Paint Pro (Mac ver 1.7.1) has issues. There are blobs at the start of the ink pen brushes. Basically if you use those brushes, they are unusable. The problem is not so noticeable or non-existent with other brushes. But I did not try all the brushes though.

Mischief (Mac) works fine.

Let's talk about Windows apps

Photoshop (Win) works fine.

Illustrator (Win) support pressure sensitivity unlike the Mac version.

Clip Studio Paint Pro (Win) has non of the ink blob issues shown in the Mac version.

Krita (Win) works fine.

Leonard (Win) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) works fine.

Sketchable needs that Windows Ink setting in the driver enabled in order to get the pressure sensitivity working.

I've also tested ArtRage and it supports pressure. But I wasn't able to use any keyboard shortcuts to move, pan and rotate the canvas. I could do that with finger gestures on the Surface Pro. But without the ability to do that with the keyboard, it makes that app unusable.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the performance of the XP-PEN Artist 15.6 considering the price at the time of this review is US $360 (latest price is in that little blurb on the side). I would say the closest competitor is the Artisul D16 which I've reviewed recently, but that's significantly more expensive at US $490 (at time of this review), although it's actually better in some aspect. So depending on what kind of features you're looking for, and the type of work you do, at least there are two different products at different price points to choose from, and it's great to have options.

In terms of drawing performance, most drawing apps on Windows work better than on the Mac. The only problems I have are with Clip Studio Paint Pro (Mac), Adobe Illustrator (Mac) and ArtRage (Windows).

The most important thing is the lines are predictable and come out just the way I want them to be. The pen is quite sensitive. I can get thin and thick lines easily and the transition is smooth.

After working for long period of time, the display will become slightly warm at the bottom middle section. But it's not terribly hot so you can definitely work on this for extended periods of time.

The drawing functionality gets two thumbs up from me.

Some downsides. The IPS panel has decent colour reproduction but it certainly can be better. But at this price point, I guess you cannot expect too much. At least the viewing angles are great and there are no colour shifting so that's a major plus. The other downside is no stand is included so this may affect your posture and comfort when drawing.

Glitch alert!
On the Mac, I've issues with double clicks behaving inconsistently. Inside Finder, when selecting files in the list mode, a single click will become a double click and open the folder. This makes selecting multiple files using Cmd+click impossible because each time you click to select, you're opening the folder instead. And when you click to select a file, you are opening the file. This glitch does not happen when the Finder is in Icon mode for some reason.

The same double click issue happens when I need to upload files. I hit the upload button, and the Finder window opens, I'm faced with the same problem again.

The problem is opposite when I'm using Adobe Lightroom. When I double click a photo to view it large, it does not do anything, as if I'm only using a single click.

None of these glitches above exists in Windows.

Another glitch that's happens on both Mac and Windows is sometimes the cursor can disappear and appear elsewhere on the screen. It happens rarely but when it does it's really irritating. For example. your cursor is near the top at the menu bars, then suddenly, the cursor appears at the bottom of the screen for no reason. So you have to lift the pen up and move down to get the cursor to show at the correct place on the screen. It's a problem that I can't reproduce but I experience it sometimes on both Mac and Windows. I don't usually have this problem surface while I'm drawing so thank goodness.

If you're using the XP-PEN Artist 16 and experiencing the same glitches, I would love to hear from your experience. Let me know in the comments section below. Who knows, maybe I am the only one with this problem.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Good build quality and design
+ Pen does not require battery
+ Pen is quite sensitive
+ 8 replacement tips included
+ 6 shortcut buttons are useful, but more would be great
+ Matte anti-glare screen does not have reflections
+ Nice texture on screen to draw on
+ 1080P resolution on the screen this size is sharp enough
+ Screen has decent colour accuracy and viewing angles
+ Does not heat up significantly. Can be used for long periods of time without discomfort
+ Drawing performance generally good but depends on the OS and app that you use
+ Lines have no wobble and jitter
+ You can power this display from a single powered USB port if you want to
+ HDMI-miniDisplay port adaptor included
+ Price is very competitive for a screen of this size
- This IPS panel has decent colours but not as good as other IPS panels
- Matte screen protecter affects sharpness of the screen but a good tradeoff for the texture it provides
- Some issues with the specific drawing apps mentioned in the review
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Glitches of the cursor disappearing randomly
- Double click issue on the Mac with certain apps (thankfully not drawing apps)
- No stand included for the display

Availability

The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 pen display is available on Amazon via the direct product links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

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

Oh, and special thanks to my Patreon supporters for their support which allowed me to have the funds to purchase some of the graphic apps (that I don't normally use) to test out. That's your contribution. You guys rock.

A company called Simbans contacted me recently and asked if I would be interested to check out a tablet of theirs called the PicassoTab. The highlight of this tablet, I was told, is that it supports pressure sensitivity and palm rejection with the included active pen. That's actually what made me interested to review the tablet.

PicassoTab is currently selling on Amazon at US $200. I consider that to be mid-range pricing because you can get Android tablets at even cheaper prices, and of course there are more expensive Android tablets as well, such as the Samsung Tab S3 which is US $300 more expensive.

Let's take a look at the specs first.

Specificaitons

• Processor: Quad Core MTK8163 1.3GHz/Core
• Screen: 10.1 inch tablet. 16:9 capacitive IPS touch screen
• Resolution: 1280 x 800 pixels
• Storage: 32 GB, can be upgraded with another 32GB of micro-SD card for file storage
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Google Nougat 7
• Camera: 2.0 M Front Camera and 5.0 Back Camera
• Connectivity: WiFi (IEEE802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth and GPS
• Applications Google Apps (Gmail, YouTube etc) and Google PLAY (use it to download FREE Games and apps)
• Ports: Ports: Mini-HDMI, USB Type-C, Audio, Micro-SD Card Slot

Things included

The tablet comes with a case, an active pen, universal power adaptor and screen protector what's already applied.

That's the faux leather case with a surprisingly thick cover front and back to provide ample of protection for the tablet.

The cover uses magnets to snap close. Unfortunately, there's no auto-sleep function when the cover is closed, so you have to remember to power off the tablet before closing to conserve battery life, or set your table to auto-sleep after a few minutes.

The case also doubles as a stand but it only has one position.

On the side of the case is a pen holder.

This is the active pen included. It's said to support 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. More on that later. The pen does not require Bluetooth to work.

The build quality of the pen is surprisingly good. It feels quite premium and has a nice weight.

The tip is those hard plastic tip and is quite slippery while drawing. So it definitely takes a while to get used to controlling it.

The pen is powered by one AAA battery and is always on by default. I'm not sure of the battery life though. If the battery life is something like the Microsoft Surface Pen, then it's going to last for months.

There are no shortcut buttons on the pen.

The overall build quality of the tablet feels solid enough. It's not quite as premium or classy compared to more expensive tablets obviously but it doesn't look too bad either. The bezels are a bit thick but not really a downside.

The tablet is thin enough but once you put it the case on, it's much thicker. At the bottom of the tablet are some connection interface, probably for an external keyboard.

These are the ports located on the sides: Micro SD card reader, 3.5mm headphone jack, mini HDMI and a Type-C power and data port.

If you find the included 32gb storage to be limiting, you can expand it with your own Micro SD card. Interestingly, there's a mini HDMI port so if you want to connect the tablet to a monitor or TV, you can do so. No mini-HDMI to HDMI cable is included though. Since I don't have the necessary cable, I can't tell if the tablet is able to power a screen that has higher resolution than it.

Speakers are located on both sides and the quality isn't that good. They sound like they are placed too far inside the tablet.

Further along the same side, there are the volume buttons and power button.

The back is matte surface and nice to touch, but if you're using the case then it's not going to matter. Oh, there's a camera on the back, and in front.

The screen

The 10.1-inch screen uses an IPS panel and has a resolution of 1280 x 800. The resolution isn't particular high for a screen like this so there's definitely visible pixelation. Even 5-inch smartphones nowadays have 1920 x 1080 resolution. The lower resolution is still usable but it would have been better if it has higher resolution.

The screen protector that's already applied is the glossy reflective type. It feels quite slippery when drawing on it with the pen.

Colour reproduction and viewing angles are quite decent. There's no mention of how bright the screen is. I'm using it at 50% brightness and that's quite satisfactory to me.

Android OS

The Android OS version included is version 7, Nougat. That's quite a recent version of Android. It looks like stock Android to me because there aren't any customized interface other than the ugly looking wallpaper that I replaced quickly.

One good thing I like is Simbans has not loaded the tablet with any bloatware. The only pre-installed app is Autodesk Sketchbook and that's the app that they recommend for use with this tablet.

Performance is generally quite snappy. It doesn't feel as fast compared to more expensive Android tablet, but it definitely does not lag. The 2GB RAM that's included will definitely limited the number of apps you can have in the background without making the system lag though. Having 10 apps in the background is about the maximum it can go before the system starts to show first signs of lag.

I would consider the overall user experience to be satisfactory, something I would expect from a budget tablet at this price range.

And here are the downsides.

For some reason, certain apps can't be installed. For example, I wasn't able to install PayPal. Most of the other drawing apps are fine. I've installed ArtRage, ArtFlow, Adobe Sketch, Adobe Draw, Bamboo Paper, INKredible, Medibang, Painter and OneNote.

There's no auto-brightness feature in this Android version.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance depends on the app you use.

While the tablet is marketed to support palm rejection, it doesn't work that well. That's because the pen has to be really close to the screen (not touching it) for the palm rejection to work. When the pen tip is really close to the screen while using Autodesk Sketchbook, and only that app, a hovering cursor appears. When I'm drawing, sometimes my palm will touch the screen first, sometimes the pen will touch the screen first. As a result, it's unavoidable to have stray strokes caused by my palm which are those dots you see in the drawing above.

Pressure sensitivity works relatively well. But I don't think it's as sensitive as 1024 levels that it claims to support. The initial activation force is minimal. As long as the tip touches the screen, you will get a line.

Unfortunately the pen does suffer from the slow diagonal line jitter. It's a problem that plagues many tablet styluses so I'm not surprised to see it here as well. So to get smooth strokes, you have to draw faster. For quick sketches, it's not going to be much of a problem, just remember to raise your palm from the screen to prevent stray strokes.

Artflow seems to have a slightly better handle on the slow diagonal line jitter issue. The curves even look smoother. It's like the app has programmed to smoothen out lines.

Here's a sketch that I drew on location with ArtFlow. Pressure sensitivity works well with ArtFlow. Because palm rejection does not work that well (with most apps), I had to prevent my palm from touching the screen, which wasn't too difficult because I could rest my palm on the side of the case.

The only tricky part when sketching that picture above is the screen was quite slippery so you have to make a more conscious effort to control the pen. If you're someone who likes to sketch fast and loose, it may not be an issue. The other tricky part was dealing with the slight parallax at certain angles, but again, it's not a major problem because in the end, I was still able to get the lines where I want them to be. I've used other styluses before where the parallax is so bad that it's almost impossible to draw. That's not the situation here thankfully.

Medibang Paint Pro also suffers from the slow diagonal line jitter problem. Compare the diagonal and vertical lines of the cubes I've drawn. But when drawing fast, the lines smoothens out.

The problem seems worse with Wacom Bamboo Paper. So the app you use definitely matters. Some apps are designed to smoothen lines, some don't.

You can take notes with this tablet. It's able to capture my handwriting enough to be legible, but there are some stray strokes.

Another downside to drawing on this tablet is the pen tip feels a bit too slippery. There's also some parallax. The lines will always come out beneath the tip of the pen so that's quite accurate. It's just that when you're drawing from certain angles, the parallax and offset will appear. If you're always drawing while looking straight down on the screen from the front, then parallax and offset is not going to be an issue.

Conclusion

This tablet is probably more suitable for casual drawing purposes. The slow diagonal line jitter issue could be a deal breaker for artists who work slower. Other things like parallax, the slippery surface are things that one can get used to.

Palm rejection unfortunately doesn't work that well. I'm already used to lifting my palm while drawing so it's not a big issue for me. Because of the way the included case is designed, the case actually covers the bezels and that area is higher compared to the screen, so you can actually rest your palm on it and that helps make it more comfortable for drawing.

An affordable tablet like this will definitely have some limitations. It works but not as well as I expect it to be. At the price it's selling at, and considering that they included a case and a surprisingly well built pen, I can't complain much. Ultimately you have to decide on what to compromise.

Anyway, you can can read more reviews about the Simbans PicassoTab on Amazon and see what others have to say.

The Artist 13.3 from XP-PEN was released around the same time as the the Artist 15.6 if I remember correctly. With these two new products, XP-PEN now has a good range of sizes for their pen displays, namely 10s, 13.3, 15.6, 16 and 22HD.

If you haven't read my review for the Artist 15.6, it's alright because the Artist 13.3 performs very similarly to it, except that it's smaller.

Oh, the unit that I'm using was sent over from XP-PEN. Thanks a lot once again!

Specifications

• Product dimensions: 39 x 25 x 1.4cm
• Active area: 29.3 x 16.5cm
• Screen: 13.3 inches with 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Panel type: IPS
• Colors: 16.7 million
• Input: USB-C
• Graphic ports supported: HDMI, miniDisplay
• Pen does not require battery
• Pressure sensitivity: 8,192 levels

The main highlights for me are the matte screen, battery-less pen and pressure sensitivity support at 8,192 levels.

What's in the box

The packaging box features a very simple clean design. With this box, you lift up the cover to reveal the pen display and all the things included.

• HDMI/Power/USB all-in-one cable
• USB extension cable
• HDMI to miniDisplay adapter
• Pen and stand
• 8 replacement nibs
• Wall charger and various international plugs
• Manual, warranty card, cleaning cloth and glove

Instead of a power brick, a wall charger is included with interchangeable power plugs for different socket types.

You can install the driver from the USB storage included. But it's always best to download the latest driver from XP-PEN's website.

I appreciate that a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor has been included. Lots of graphics card and laptops are using the mini-DisplayPort.

This is the HDMI and data cable. The HDMI head is split to three different cables: the data USB, the red coloured power USB and the USB type-C.

The data USB (black) connects to the computer so that the pen can be recognised. The red power USB goes to the power outlet. If your USB port provides sufficient power to the black USB, you may not need to use the red power USB or wall charger. The USB type-C is the only cable that's connected to the pen display. The whole setup is quite clean.

You may not need the USB extension cable if the HDMI and data cable is long enough.

That's the pen and stand included. The pen supports 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity. It does not use battery so it does not need to be charged.

There are two side buttons but no eraser.

The pen stand can be opened up to reveal 8 replacement nibs. The nib remover is that tiny hole at the bottom of the pen stand.

Nib removal instructions are behind. Basically, stick the nib inside, tilt it, pull it out.

You can also put the pen vertically but it's not a tight fit so it's going to wobble when you hit it accidentally.

This 13.3 inch pen display supports a 1920 x 1080 resolution. For a screen this size, which isn't too big, everything appears sharp.

When you first open up the box, the screen has a protector film over it which has to be peel off to reveal the matte screen protector. It's a nice texture to draw on. However the matte screen protector does affect the sharpness slightly but it's not really a big deal when you have a nicer surface to draw more.

I find that after each drawing session, my hand would deposit some grease on the screen protector. It doesn't affect the performance or anything but I wipe it down to make it look good. Based on my experience with matte screen protectors, it's not uncommon to see scratches after a while since they are not as hard as glass.

The Artist 13.3 used an IPS panel so colour reproduction is quite decent. Using a Spyder5PRO colour calibrator, I managed to get a readout of 89% sRGB, 68% NTSC and 70% Adobe RGB. Surprisingly, the colours on this smaller pen display is better than the Artist 15.6. When I first power on the display, I could see instantly that the colours are better.

The maximum brightness is measured at 300 cd/m2 which is a bit too bright for me. I typically work at 200 cd/m2. Over time, like all displays, the brightness will dim, but it's good to know that you can still turn up the brightness when that happens in the future. The Artist 15.6 produced only 166 cd/m2.

Six physical shortcut buttons are located on the side. They do feel a bit cheap but the click feedback is firm.

On the other side, there are the power button, brightness control buttons and the USB type-C input port.

The overall build quality is solid. Edges are all rounded off. It actually looks quite good. Can't compare to the build and looks of the Wacom Cintiq but the price is much more affordable. At the time of this review, it's selling on Amazon at US $330.

Driver

With the driver, you can change the pressure sensitivity, assign functions to the side and physical shortcut buttons, calibrate the screen to compensate for parallax offset and switch to left-handed mode if you want to.

When you're using it for the first time, there's going to be parallax. The glass is close to the screen but there's still a distance. There's parallax so you'll definitely want to calibrate the screen.

There isn't much difference between Windows and Mac drivers except that with the Windows driver, you can change the pressure curve but the Mac driver uses a pressure slider dial.

If you use dual monitors, the driver also allows you to click a button to switch between monitors to use.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance is generally fine except for some minor issues.

Let's look at the drawing apps on the Mac first.

Quick strokes on Photoshop (Mac) works well. When it comes to curves, it seems like there's some wobble and the thickness varies slightly.

To get pressure working with Adobe Illustrator, Wacom Intuos driver need to be installed.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) seems to perform similarly to Photoshop. There's some wobble for curves as well. Quick strokes are fine. When used for drawing, I don't really notice the wobble issues. Same applies to Photoshop (Mac).

Mischief (Mac) works fine.

Krita (Mac) works fine but there's the wobble again.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) performs perfectly. The lines are smooth, taper well and there's none of the wobble issues seen in other apps.

And now on to Windows apps...

Photoshop (Win) seems to have slight wobble with curvy lines. When used with Lazy Nezumi Pro, the lines are smoother. In the picture above, the Lazy Nezumi lines are those on the right side.

Adobe Illustrator (Win) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) performs better than the Mac version. Lines are smoother and able to hold a consistent width, and when the thickness varies, it varies gradually.

Krita works fine.

Clip Studio Paint works fine.

There is an issue with Mischief. You need to turn on Windows Ink for Mischief to work well.

Windows Ink needs to be enabled for Sketchable to work well too. Without Windows Ink, there's no pressure sensitivity.

Conclusion

Overally performance is quite good but I wished that it could even be better. There's this inconsistency or the challenge of maintaining a consistently smooth line when drawing curves. When you're testing for it, it's going to show up, but when actually drawing with it, it's not that big of an issue. Out of all the apps, Clip Studio Paint works perfectly without any of the wobble or stroke issues.

If you're using Windows, the performance of the pen is better than on Mac. You get nicer looking lines.

Artist 13.3 vs 15.6
In terms of performance, it's basically similar to the Artist 15.6.

The Artist 13.3 is better than the 15.6 in two aspects: Colour accuracy is better on the smaller model. I suppose they are using some better quality IPS panel here. And the 13.3 also has better brightness topping out at 300 cd/m2.

The larger size of the Artist 15.6 makes it more comfortable to work on. The sharpness and resolution of the 13.3 inch screen is good but to be able to draw on a larger screen feels more liberating. It's the same feeling as drawing on a small sheet of paper vs a larger sheet.

Glitch alert!
I've just copied the text below from the Artist 15.6 review because both models suffer from the same glitch.

On the Mac, I've issues with double clicks behaving inconsistently. Inside Finder, when selecting files in the list mode, a single click will become a double click and open the folder. This makes selecting multiple files using Cmd+click impossible because each time you click to select, you're opening the folder instead. And when you click to select a file, you are opening the file. This glitch does not happen when the Finder is in Icon mode for some reason.

The same double click issue happens when I need to upload files. I hit the upload button, and the Finder window opens, I'm faced with the same problem again.

The problem is opposite when I'm using Adobe Lightroom. When I double click a photo to view it large, it does not do anything, as if I'm only using a single click.

None of these glitches above exists in Windows.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Good build quality and design
+ Pen does not require battery
+ Pen is quite sensitive
+ 8 replacement tips included
+ 6 shortcut buttons are useful, but more would be great
+ Matte anti-glare screen does not have reflections
+ Nice texture on screen to draw on
+ 1080P resolution on the screen this size is sharp enough
+ Screen has decent colour accuracy and viewing angles. Better than Artist 15.6
+ Does not heat up significantly. Can be used for long periods of time without discomfort
+ Drawing performance generally good but depends on the OS and app that you use
+ Lines have little to no wobble and jitter (mostly on Windows apps)
+ You can power this display from a single powered USB port if you want to
+ HDMI-miniDisplay port adaptor included
+ Price is very competitive for a screen of this size
- Matte screen protecter affects sharpness of the screen but a good tradeoff for the texture it provides
- Some issues with the specific drawing apps mentioned in the review
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Double click issue on the Mac with certain apps (thankfully not drawing apps)
- No stand included for the display

Availability

The XP-Pen Artist 13.3 pen display is available on Amazon via the direct product links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

You can check out more reviews on Amazon too. Purchases through the links get me a commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this.

Oh, and special thanks to my Patreon supporters for their support which allowed me to have the funds to purchase some of the graphic apps (that I don't normally use) to test out. That's your contribution. You guys rock.

I've reviewed so many graphics tablets over the years and they are all starting to become difficult to differentiate. So it's really refreshing to see something different once in a while. The tablet we're going to look at today is the WoodPad.

The WoodPad is a drawing tablet that's made of bamboo instead of the usual black hard plastic. It looks great and there's a nice feeling about it that comes from using wood. I love the texture of wood and really appreciate the natural look and feel of this device.

The WoodPad that I'm reviewing was sent to me by ViewSonic, which is also the company that made it. I received it a few months ago and the drivers weren't working well so I had to delay my review. When this was first sent to me, the tablet was just called WoodPad but now it seems to go by the name WoodPad Palette 7.

This is a rather small drawing tablet. The active area measures 6.4 x 4 inches. The tablets I have are mostly medium-sized tablets (10 x 6 inches) so I felt really constrained by the smaller dimensions. This is especially so because I use a large 27-inch monitor. Each small movement on the tablet translate to a large movement on screen. Those who use smaller monitors should have better drawing experience.

The four corners of the active area are marked by tiny markers. The active area does not go all the way to the edge so the bezels provide some space for your pen to overshoot.

The tablet surface is not made of one single piece of bamboo. It's actually several bamboo pieces glued together, like plywood, and polished. The surface is as smooth as those plastic tip tablets. I'm not sure how well it resist scratches but I'm not one who's particularly annoyed by scratches.

The tablet is quite thin. Beneath the bamboo are the electronics and beneath that is a large piece of foam with 4 rubber feet.

This is the micro-USB cable that's included.

Pen

The pen feels well built, sturdy and has a nice weight to it. This is a battery-less pen and supports up to 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and has 45 degrees tilt sensitivity.

The grip is made of hard rubber and doesn't attract dust.

Three replacement nibs and a nib remover are included.

You can choose between using felt-tip or hard tip nibs. The hard plastic ones are quite smooth and slippery on the tablet. The felt-tip nibs provide more friction and control.

There aren't many options in the driver settings. The only shortcuts are limited to the pen's two side buttons.

Drawing performance

I've tested the tablet on both Windows and Mac. Here are the findings.

Photoshop CS (Mac) has this strange tapering effect. It may not be obvious in the screenshot above but at the end of those hatching lines just below the "Phot" letters, there are very thin lines from the tapered stroke. You can click on the picture above for a larger view.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) also has that extra thin line tapering issue as well but otherwise work fine.

Adobe Illustrator (Mac) has pressure sensitivity.

Mischief (Mac) works fine.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) works exceptionally well and does not have the weird thin line tapering effect.

Krita (Mac) has issues with broken lines.

Photoshop (Win) works fine and does not have any problems with extra thin tapering lines.

Krita (Win) works fine and does not have the broken line issue that the Mac version has.

Clip Studio Paint (Win) works perfectly.

The other Windows app I've tested are ArtRage, Sketchable, Mischief and Adobe Illustrator, and they all work fine.

Conclusion

The overall drawing performance is quite satisfactory except for the thin tapering lines with the Mac versions of Photoshop and Medibang Paint Pro. If you're using those two apps on Mac, that problem could be the deal breaker. I did not experience any issues with Windows drawing software so those are probably driver issues.

The pen is quite sensitive and the lines produced in all the apps I've used are quite smooth. That's a major plus. My only major complaint is the active area is too small. It would be great if they had a larger option available for sale.

Here's a list of pros and cons:
+ Design looks good
+ Drawing functionality is overall satisfactory except with certain Mac apps
+ Well built battery-less pen with good sensitivity
- Active area is a bit small
- Some issues with Mac versions of Photoshop and Medibang Paint Pro
- No shortcut buttons on the tablet

Availability

The WoodPad is currently available for purchase through these links:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077DQ69S8?tag=artprdus-20
https://www.momoshop.com.tw/goods/GoodsDetail.jsp?i_code=5370444
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=560849257646