Here's another review of the Huion Kamvas GT-191 pen display, this time from a Mac user perspective. My friend had already reviewed it a few months ago so you can read his review for a second opinion -- he uses Windows.

The unit I have is actually review unit sent over by Gearbest, an e-commerce site that sells lots of gadgets, gear and electronics. They happen to sell some Huion tablets and pen displays as well.

Specifications

• Screen size: 19.5 inch
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080
• Panel type: IPS
• Pressure sensitivity: 8192 levels
• Viewing angle: 89 degrees vertically and horizontally
• Brightness: 250cd/m2
• Contrast ratio: 3000:1
• Colour support: 16.7m
• Report rate: 233PPS
• Response time: 25ms
• Video ports: DVI, HDMI, VGA

The Kamvas GT-191 is a significantly better pen display than its smaller brother, the Kamvas GT-190 that I reviewed recently.

The Kamvas GT-191 has higher resolution (1080P vs 1440x900), better colour support (99% sRGB vs TFT screen), more levels of pressure sensitivity (8192 vs 2048), better viewing angles and better design overall (even though they look pretty similar).

At the time of this review, the GT-191 is selling at US $500 and the GT-190 is US $400. If you have the budget, I recommend the GT-191 because it's better in many ways, and more worth the money.

Here's the packaging box.

These are all the items included:

• Display
• Display stand
• 2 pens
• Pen holder
• 8 replacement tips
• USB charging cable for pen
• USB data cable
• Power brick and cable
• Driver disc and manual
• Screwdriver and four screws
• VGA cable
• HDMI cable
• Cleaning cloth
• Matte screen protector

The screen

When you first take out the pen display, you'll notice it's protected by a piece of plastic pasted over it. You have to remove that to reveal the screen.

A matte screen protector is included should you want to use it.

Application of the screen protector is incredibly difficult. I spent a considerable amount of time to make sure there wasn't any dust on the screen be even so, after application, I could see lots of air pockets, some created by dust. In the end, I gave up, removed the screen protector and threw it away.

While the matte screen protector feels good to draw on, but it looks too ugly with those air pockets. Thankfully, the pen does not produce squeaky sounds when drawing. The matte screen protector also looks quite grainy. Drawing on screen should not produce scratches.

The screen is the glossy reflective type. Colours out of the box looks great. Since I use a lot of monitors, I have to calibrate each one to make sure I'm seeing consistent colours on all of them.

With the Spyder5Pro calibrator, I measured 99% sRGB and 77% AdobeRGB support. Colour accuracy is quite good. To get the best colours, be sure to go into the monitor menu to choose USER setting from the colour temperature option.

Brightness isn't that good though. I measured a maxium of 155 cd/m2, far from the stated 250cd/m2. That's laptop screen brightness territory. If you're working in a brightly lit room, that brightness may be found lacking. But if you're away from the windows, or working with average lighting, the brightness is acceptable. It's not a deal breaker though. I've seen even dimmer screens.

The resolution of 1920 x 1080 is sufficient and suitable for a 19.5-inch screen. The user interface elements are all comfortably large to see.

The VESA mount is the 10cm type.

These are the HDMI, DVI and VGA ports

This is the very typical stand used by a lot of pen displays.

You have to fix the stand yourself using the screwdriver and four screws provided.

At the upright position, the pen display is almost vertical.

One thing I like about this pen display is Huion has added an additional piece of rubber beneath the front of the display. This rubber provides a good grip on the table. While most pen displays may look the same (as if they came from the same factory but pasted with different brands), that additional piece of rubber helps differentiates the GT-191 slightly from other models. That rubber also prevents the base of the display from dragging all over the table.

At the lowest position, the front rubber feet lifts up and the display will rest on the metal part of the stand. If it rests on the graphic cables, you've got to move them to the side.

Menu buttons are at the bottom right side, facing downwards. You can change the brightness, contrast, colour temperature and other basic settings through the menu. Most important setting is to make sure the colour temperature is set to USER.

The overall build quality is quite good. It feels sturdy and well build. It may not look as cool or polished compared to Wacom Cintiqs but it's good enough, and functional, and is more affordable than Wacom Cintiqs.

Pen

The pen and the pen holder.

The pen is battery powered so it needs to be charged with the USB cable provided. It's good that two pens are included so you can charge one while working with the other. Not sure about the battery life but with such pens, it's usually about a few weeks. But it really depends on how often you use the pen.

You can configure to two side buttons with keyboard shortcuts, mouse buttons, or the ability to switch between displays if you're using dual monitors.

The replacement tips and nib remove is hidden inside the pen holder.

Driver

I'm using the pen display on the Mac and this is how the driver looks like.

This is where you can change the pressure sensitivity. The slider will adjust the pressure curve.

If you're a left handed user, this is where you rotate the screen. But since there aren't any physical shortcut buttons on the side of the pen display, it doesn't really matter whether you're left or right handed.

You can also calibrate the screen to remove parallax with the driver.

Drawing performance

I'm using this only on the Mac. If you are using Windows, read my friend's review.

In short, drawing performance is excellent but some apps don't work well.

Photoshop CC (Mac) works fine, The strokes are smooth, tapers well and has no wobble while drawing slowly. Pen is very sensitive and lines come out predictably. Photoshop CS5 produces only dots. I wasn't able to draw lines with CS5.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) works fine.

Illustrator CC (Mac) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works fine.

Mischief (Mac) works fine.

Tayasui Sketches Pro (Mac) works fine.

Krita (Mac) does not support pressure sensitivity but the Windows version has no problem. I read Krita's pen display support documentation and found that GT-191 is not supported.

Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer both work fine too.

Conclusion

The Huion Kamvas GT-191 works well with many of the apps that I have except for Krita and Photoshop CS5.

The overall drawing experience is good. The strokes are really smooth.The GT-191 has none of the jitter, wobble, stroke tapering issues that I've seen in some of the pen displays I've tested. The drawing performance gets two thumbs up from me.

There really isn't many downsides to talk about. I don't like the glossy reflective screen but at least the colours are good. What could have made this pen display even better is the addition of some physical shortcut buttons on the side.

And lastly, the price point. The retail price is US $500. This is significantly cheaper compared to Cintiq Pro 13 (US $999) and Cintiq Pro 16. For those who find drawing on screens more intuitive, thanks to competition, we can now have pretty decent alternatives as well, ones that don't break the budget and are affordable to more people.

So that's it. If you're looking for a functional pen display that works well, consider the Huion Kamvas GT-191.

Here's a summary of the pros and cons:
Pros
+ Good build quality
+ 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Two pens included
+ 1920 x 1080 resolution is decent for a screen this size
+ Good colour accuracy, 99% sRGB support
+ Good viewing angles
+ 8 replacement nibs included
+ Drawing performance is excellent
+ Works well with most apps
+ Display does not feel warm after long period of use

Cons
- Matte screen protector is very difficult to apply
- Matte screen protector is quite grainy and affects sharpness of the screen
- Gloss screen is very reflective
- Display is not very bright but very usable
- No physical shortcut buttons

Availability

Check out more reviews of the Huion KAMVAS GT-191 at Gearbest

Special thanks to Parblo for making this review possible by sending over a review unit.

The Parblo Coast16 is the latest addition to the Coast family of pen displays which so far consists of Coast10, Coast13 and Coast22. With this addition, Parblo now has a range of pen displays at different sizes from small to large.

Parblo Coast16 will be available for sale in April 2018 at the retail price of US $429. By the way, the larger Coast22 is priced at US $459. For an extra $30 and get a significantly larger screen but what's missing are the shortcut buttons on the side. To me, the main difference is really the shortcut buttons because they affect productivity. If you're someone who prefers keyboard shortcuts, then you may not miss those side buttons.

These are the freebies included: stickers and a canvas tote bag which is big enough to carry the pen display in it.

This pen display uses 15.6-inch IPS panel that supports a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

If you don't know what a pen display is, it's basically a monitor that you can draw on. And just like a monitor, it needs to be connected it to a computer, and therefore it will have access to all your computer software.The Parblo Coast16 is not a tablet even though it has the thin tablet form.

The screen is matte and has a nice texture to draw on. Usually, matte screens can affect the sharpness but on this pen display, the sharpness is still quite good.

There are eight physical shortcut buttons and a dial ring on the side. The buttons have a firm feedback and click to them. You can customise them to your preference keyboard shortcuts.

The dial ring allows you to change brush sizes, zoom and scroll depending on the mode. You can switch between different modes by pressing the button in the middle. I wished that the dial ring has more protrusion to allow for easy turning. It's a bit too stiff for my liking.

Unfortunately on the Mac, I was only able to get the dial ring to zoom. I wasn't able to change the function (to brush size change) using the driver provided (Mac driver Dec 2017).

On the other side are the small buttons for display menus. You can change the brightness, contrast, colour temperate and other display settings with these buttons. Beside those buttons are two ports for the cable.

This multi-port cable is the only cable provided. Unlike other brands, there's no power brick, power cable and USB charging cable for the pen provided. Having one cable reduces cable clutter and I like that.

The cable has several ports on each side. At the end that connects to the pen display, there are USB-C and mini-HDMI ports. On the other side that connects to the computer, there are two USB type A ports and a full size HDMI port.

The Parblo Coast16 does not use a lot of power. If your USB port is powered, you need to connect just one of the two USB type A (the one with thicker cable) to the computer. That single USB port should be able to power the pen display. If your USB port is not powered, then you'll need to connect the second USB port to a powered USB outlet, e.g. phone charger.

And because the display does not use a lot of power, it also doesn't generate much heat even after hours of usage.

On the back, there are several rubber feet strategically placed.

Coast16 comes with a built in stand that allows you to prop up the display to 30 degrees.

The stand is useful and stable, and doesn't add to the thickness of the display.

These are the other things included: a cleaning cloth, artist glove, installation disc and the quick start manual. Note that the driver installation disc is those small format CD. You can also download the latest driver from Parblo's website.

The pen case included feels tough and has a nice weight to it.

The pen case houses the pen, a nib remove and six replacement nibs.

The pen is well build. The body is matte surface and it has a nice feel and weight to it.

This pen supports up to 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. On the packaging, it says that it supports tilt sensitivity BUT the driver included in the disc does not have the tilt support yet. Parblo has told me that tilt support will come in later versions of the driver. If you need tilt, my advice is to wait until the eventual driver release.

As mentioned earlier, it feels good to draw on the screen because of the matte surface. It has that additional friction that provides additional control.

That's the eraser on the back.

This pen is not battery powered and does not need charging.

Colours

I calibrated the screen with the Spyder5Pro calibrator and got a readout of 75% sRGB and 57% AdobeRGB.

The colours on this screen may not compare to 99% sRGB but it's still very good. How good is it really? Well, let's just say that when I saw the 75% sRGB reading, I thought my calibrator had malfunctioned and I had to calibrate the display again just to double check. The colours are definitely good enough for creating art.

If you do need the screen to be as colour accurate as possible, check out the Artisul D16 (84% Adobe RGB), XP-PEN Artist16 Pro (92% Adobe RGB) or the Wacom Cintiq Pro (94% Adobe RGB).

Anyway, for the price of this pen display, the colours are considered satisfactory.

Driver

Depending on which OS you're using, the driver may be lacking some features.

Windows driver seems to have all the features while the Mac driver is missing some.

This is where you can change the pressure sensitivity on the Windows driver. See that circular thing I marked out? You have to click inside to adjust the pressure sensitivity curve. I'm not sure why they don't use the no-brainer slider dial instead, or even best, let use adjust the curve directly.

This is where you can customise the keyboard shortcuts to the side buttons and the dial ring.

The settings for the dial ring is strange. You have disable the switch in order for the dial ring to change brush size.

The way you customise keyboard shortcuts is by choosing the buttons from this virtual keyboard. It works fine on Windows.

On the Mac, the virtual keyboard does not come with all the keys shown above. I wasn't able to set the buttons to [ and ] to change brushes sizes because those keys are missing from the Mac driver virtual keyboard. Argh! And you can't set the keyboard shortcuts by typing on your keyboard. -_-"

If you're a left handed user, you can set the display to rotate 180 degrees using the Windows driver. On the Mac, rotating the display involves using the Mac's System Preferences, and that only works (if I'm not wrong) when you're not using the dual screen mode. So if you're using dual screen mode on the Mac, you can't rotate both screens.

These are the other driver settings on the Mac.

For Mac users, it doesn't seem like there's a way to rotate the display for left-handed use.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance on both Windows and Mac is generally quite good. There are some quirks with certain apps though.

Photoshop (Win) works fine. Pressure sensitivity works well. Strokes are smooth, curve well and tapers nicely. There's no jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly.

Clip Studio Paint (Win) works well too.

Adobe Illustrator (Win) works well.

Krita (Win) works well.

Mischief (Win) works well.

Sketchable (Win) is the odd one out of the apps I've tested. Pressure sensitivity did not work. This is very strange because Sketchable is usually the app that will work well with such pen displays. This is the first time I've experienced this.

Photoshop CC (Mac) works well. The lines are smooth and they taper nicely. Pressure works great.

Photoshop CS5 (Mac) has no problem too.

Pressure works on both Mac versions of Illustrator CC (top) and CS5 (bottom).

For some reason, lines on Krita (Mac) are a bit jittery.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) works really well. Pressure works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) is another great app to use on this pen display.

Mischief (Mac) supports pressure too.

Tayasui Sketches (Mac) works but it's not the best app for use because the brushes apply their own styles.

Glitches

When the pen is held close (about 1cm away) from the screen but not touching, the cursor has that jittery movement that can be irritating. When the tip is moved much closer, the jittery cursor is less obvious. This does not affect the drawing performance though.

And when the pen is held further away but at a distance where it's barely detected by the display, the cursor will appear much lower than the position of the tip. Sometimes, when you flick the pen without touching the screen, it can create strokes! Obviously this is going to affect your work. It happens rarely but it does happen though. This can be a real problem because sometimes when you're drawing and an unwanted stroke happens (usually much lower on the screen), you may not notice it until much later. And when you notice that unwanted stroke and want to undo it, you have to undo all the work you've done since that stroke was created. That's the irritating part.

All these issues go away when the tip is much closer to the screen.

Conclusion

The overall drawing functionality quite satisfactory. My only complaint is the glitch or strange behaviour that's mentioned above.

The 15.6-inch is a good size to draw on, and with the matte surface it is comfortable to work with. The 1080P resolution for a screen this size makes everything appear sharp enough and the colours are decent.

Build quality is good. The finishing and design are nice.

For the price that Parblo is charging, it's quite competitive compared to other brands, and certainly more affordable compared to the Cintiq.

Pros and Cons
+ Good build quality
+ Matte screen nice to draw on
+ Tactile buttons with good feedback
+ Can be powered by USB 3 port
+ Runs cool
+ 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 15.6 inch screen
+ Colours look good even though it's only 75% sRGB support
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration
- Mac drivers has problems assigning keyboard shortcuts
- 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 on Mac
- Matte screen affects the sharpness slightly
- Cursor can jump around when pen is held close at 1cm.

Availability

The Parblo Coast16 is currently available for pre-order at https://www.parblo.com/products/pre-order-coast16-1

Check out more details on that page.

It should be available on Amazon at a later date.

It was inevitable that Apple would release a normal iPad, an iPad non-Pro, with Apple Pencil support eventually. So here we have it, the 6th generation iPad that was released in March 2018.

Before I go on, I've to thank my patrons on Patreon for making this review possible. I bought the iPad with money from Patreon to make some reviews. After this, I'm going to sell the iPad away, at a loss again, since I already have the iPad Pro.

This review is for artists and designers who want to know if this new iPad can fit in their workflow, and if it's any good when compared to the iPad Pro.

Selling point

The main selling point of this iPad is the Apple Pencil support. If you're not going to use the Apple Pencil, maybe you can find earlier models and see if they are selling at cheaper prices. The performance difference between the previous A9 processor and the new A10 is not going to be significant. If you're thinking of upgrading, ask yourself if you need the Apple Pencil support.

Having Apple Pencil support in the iPad 6 is exciting for artists and designers because this iPad is more affordable than the iPad Pro. For those without a big budget, it's now worth taking another look at the iPad. Let's take a look at the pricing of various iPads with Apple Pencil support:

• iPad (2018) 32GB - US $329 wifi / $459 cellular
• iPad (2018) 128GB - US $429 wifi / $559 cellular
• iPad Pro 9.7 (2016) 32GB - $469 (refurbished)
• iPad Pro 9.7 (2016) 128GB - $529 (refurbished)
• iPad Pro 9.7 (2016) 256GB - $589 (refurbished)
• iPad Pro 10.5 (2017) 64GB - $649 new / $549 refurbished
• iPad Pro 10.5 (2017) 256GB - $799 new / $679 refurbished
• iPad Pro 10.5 (2017) 512GB - $999 new / $849 refurbished
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2015) 32GB - $589 (refurbished)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2015) 32GB - $659 refurbished
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) 64GB - $799 new / $679 refurbished
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) 256GB - $949 new / $809 refurbished
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) 512GB - $1149 new / $979 refurbished

All the iPad Pros listed above are wifi models. Wifi+cellular models usually cost $100 or more.

There are so many price tiers for the various iPads and iPad Pros. The main thing to note is, iPad Pros, even refurbished ones, are still significantly more expensive compared to iPad 6. For example, the iPad 32GB is priced at US $329 while the refurbished iPad Pro 9.7 (2015) 32GB is $469. That's a $140 difference. With the new iPad Pros from 2017, the price difference is even more significant. And remember to add another US $99 because Apple Pencil is sold separately.

Design and build quality

Design and build quality of the iPad 6 is excellent. It's also similar to the iPad 5 (2017) so all the previous cases can still be used.

The screen is still an IPS panel which I prefer over the unnaturally over-saturated look of OLEDs. Colours on IPS panels more pleasing to me.

The screen is extremely reflective. I've already applied a matte screen protector on mine. Having a screen protector on removes the reflection and also provides a much nicer tactile drawing experience when using Apple Pencil on it. It feels real good drawing on a matte surface. But the downside of the matte screen protector is it affects the sharpness slightly, which to me is a minor compromise.

Having a non-reflective screen when drawing outdoors makes it much more enjoyable experience. If the screen is reflective, the reflection can block off what you see.

The IPS display uses 2,048 × 1,536 resolution which makes everything look sharp. You can even see the details of small icons inside the icon folders. The screen brightness is adequate for drawing outdoors.

iPad 6 uses the 1st generation TouchID technology. It's slightly slower compared to iPad Pro when unlocking but it's not sluggish by any means.

iPad 6 only has speakers on the bottom side while the iPad Pro has speakers at the top and bottom. If you're someone who consumes a lot of audio or video content, the 4 speakers from the iPad Pro just sounds fuller because the audio is coming from both sides.

The charging port is the same port used to charge the Apple Pencil. When the Apple Pencil is inserted, the bottom part of the iPad lifts off slightly because the Apple Pencil is thicker than the iPad. If you have a case on, it may be the Apple Pencil that lifts off the table.

Apple Pencil

This is still the same Apple Pencil that was released with the first iPad Pro. It still works great and is the best stylus for the iPad Pro. The tapered point allows one to see the lines beneath the tip while you're drawing.

Apple Pencil takes 15 minutes for a full charge. And you can charge it with the iPad so you don't have to bring any other charging accessories.

Apple Pencil has a nice weight and feels good in hand.

iPad 6 vs iPad Pro

Here are the main differences between the iPad 6 and iPad Pro.

Size
iPad Pro is available in larger sizes 10.5 and 12.9 inches. Drawing on iPad 6's 9.7-inch feels like drawing on an A5 sketchbook (5.8 x 8.3 in).

The 10.5-inch is not only larger but has more resolution: 2224×1668 vs 2048×1536. The 0.6 inch diagonal difference isn't really large. The extra resolution of the 10.5-inch is very useful though because it allows more space for user interface such as tool bars and palettes. That in effect makes the 10.5-inch feels more spacious to draw on, even though the physical drawing area isn't that much larger.

The 12.9-inch is significantly larger in size compared to the 9.7-inch. The 12.9-inch drawing area is two times that of the 9.7-inch. The downside of the 12.9-inch is it's not as portable compared to the 9.7-inch and 10.5-inch.

Some people prefer portability, some the size.

True Tone display

iPad Pros come with True Tone technology which measures ambient light and colour correct the display so that it displays accurate colour. The iPad 6 does not come with True Tone. It's not really a deal breaker for me. True Tone is nice to have, but it's not critical.

True Tone is helpful when you're working in environments with unpredictable lighting or coloured lights. For example, if you have a warm light bulb casting warm light on the iPad Pro, True Tone will adjust and make the display's colour temperature cooler so that the white will appear white instead of slight yellowish.

The photo above was taken in a room with tinted blue windows. You can click on the picture get view it larger and see if you can notice any difference.

Colour accuracy
iPad Pro supports wide colour display (P3). iPad 6's colours look great too.

Laminated display
The iPad Pro's glass surface is extremely close to the actual screen. There's a bit more gap between the glass and screen with the iPad 6.

When drawing on the iPad Pro, it really feels like the lines are on the surface of the glass. The experience of drawing on the iPad 6 is not too bad either and is something I consider satisfactory.

When there's that gap, there's usually parallax. But parallax affects larger screens more than smaller screen so it's not really a problem here. On iPad 6, the lines still look like they appear directly beneath the tip while drawing.

The iPad 6's gap, which is an air gap, produces a hollow sound when the surface is being tapped on. iPad Pro produces a more dampened sound.

iPad Pro's display is good, but iPad 6 display is quite good too.

ProMotion display with 120 Hz
The 120Hz frame rates makes animation effects look really smooth and sleek on the iPad Pro. Scrolling, fade ins and outs are all so smooth. Note that this is only noticeable if you compare the iPad Pro and iPad 6 side by side. If you have nothing to compare against, then you may not even know the difference because a lot of displays we use are running at 60Hz, e.g. monitors, phones.

When it comes to drawing, the difference isn't that noticeable. When drawing, the lines still appear very responsive.

RAM and storage

iPad 6 only has 2GB of RAM.

While it's great to have the 4GB RAM on the iPad Pro, the difference can only be felt when you use a lot of layers for your work, and I mean A LOT of layers. When I tried to create the same custom size canvas on Procreate using iPad Pro and iPad 6, the limit to number of layers is the same.

As for storage, iPad 6 tops out at 128GB while with the iPad Pro you can go up to 512GB.

32GB storage is enough if you're only creating art and graphic files. If you want to download the occasional video, store huge files, then storage on the 32GB model will run out very quickly. iOS also takes up storage space too. And if you install a lot of apps, those can take up space quickly too. If you use cloud services, then having 32GB may not be too bad. But if you have the budget, I do recommend getting the 128GB model. Who knows, maybe you have to store some videos to watch on a long commute or travel.

Other things
iPad Pro has 4 speakers, two on each side. iPad 6 only has 2 speaks at the bottom.

iPad Pro has Smart Connector where you can connect smart keyboard cases.

Battery life for both are 10 hours.

Drawing performance

I'm extremely satisfied with drawing on the iPad 6 with the Apple Pencil.

Because of the price and lack of features with the iPad 6, I had in mind that this is going to be an inferior product compared to the iPad Pro. I was so wrong.

When I first drew on the iPad 6, I was thinking of the missing features but after a while I was completely absorbed by what I was drawing. Other than the hollow tapping sound which is easy to get used to, the drawing experience is similar to that of drawing on the iPad Pro. The drawing process was enjoyable and felt natural.

Pressure sensitivity works really well

Palm rejection is almost flawless. And this is where the Apple Pencil support really shines.

Apple Pencil has tilt sensitivity and that's a joy to work with too. And the tilt responds well to pressure also. The app above is Paper by FiftyThree. Click for a larger view.

Apple Pencil was able to capture my handwriting very accurately. Apple wants this to be an educational tool where students can take notes and I think the implementation is really good.

This was drawn with Procreate. Click for a larger view.

The larger areas were coloured by tilting Apple Pencil. I guess you can colour large areas by changing the brush size but with the Apple Pencil, you have the option of choosing thin by not tilting and choosing wide by tilting -- no changes in settings required. This little detail is what separates Apple Pencil with other styluses.

Conclusion

Here's the bottom line. iPad 6 is the best portable digital drawing tablet at the current price point. iPad Pro is better, sure, but more expensive. Wacom MobileStudio Pro is better, but more expensive. It's even cheaper than the Samsung Tab S3 which is not as good although the S Pen is included.

If you're looking for a wonderful digital sketchpad at an affordable price (relatively speaking), the iPad 6 gets my recommendation.

The main advantage the iPad Pro has over the iPad 6 is really the size. The drawing experience is so similar despite the lack of so many features that it may not be wise to spend the extra hundreds of dollars to get the Pro, unless you need a larger area to draw on.

Availability

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

Make sure to read the reviews properly to find out if it's the 2018 iPad.

Special thanks to XP-PEN for providing the Deco 03 for this review.

XP-PEN has two series of graphics tablets and they are the Star and Deco series. Star series currently has more than 10 tablets and the Deco series only has two: Deco 01 and Deco 03.

I'm not really sure what's the difference between the two series though. I've previously reviewed the XP-PEN Star 06 which is a tablet that I recommend quite often when people ask for my recommendation. In terms of functionality, the Deco 03 is not too different from the Star 06. They perform quite similarly, just that the design and some features are different.

Here are the specifications for the XP-PEN Deco 03:

• Active area: 10 by 5.62 inches
• Resolution: 5080 lines per inch
• Expresskeys: 6 and a dial
• Report rate: 266 RPS
• Pressure levels: 8192
• Hover distance: 1cm
• Connection port: USB C
• Wireless: Yes
• Pen: Passive, does not require battery

These are the things included:

• Manual and warranty card
• Pen case
• 8 replacement tips
• Wireless USB receiver
• USB type C charging cable for tablet
• USB thumb drive with drivers on it
• Artist glove

The drivers are found on this 4GB USB thumb drive. It's best to download and install the latest driver from XP-PEN website though. My review uses the Mac driver from 12 March 2018.

The tablet is wireless and battery powered, and that's the USB charging cable for it. I'm not sure of the battery life. Anyway, even if it runs out of battery life, you can connect the cable and use the tablet while it's charging.

To conserve battery, it will power off after a period of inactivity.

I like the velcro strap that comes with the cable. This is useful when keeping the cable.

The pen case included is a solid matte surface cylindrical case. Both ends have rubber so it sits really firmly on table when placed vertically. If you lay the case on the side, it may roll around.

The case opens on both ends. On one side with the larger cap, it reveals the pen.

At the other end, it reveals 8 replacement tips, the nib remover and USB receiver.

This case protects the pen and USB receiver if you need to bring them elsewhere.

The pen is well built, sturdy and has a nice weight. The surface is smooth matte and the grip section has a matte rubberised texture to it (not the kind that attracts dust).

The pen has two side buttons.

The design of Deco 03 looks sleek and minimalist. The working area is 10 by 5.6 inches and it comes with large bezels that you can rest your hands on.

Drawing surface is matte and has a nice texture to draw on.

Corners are nicely rounded off. The overall construction and build quality is good, and feels premium despite its plastic build. This is one good looking tablet.

The top left corner has the dial and six physical shortcut buttons. You can choose different functions for the dial using the driver, or customise your own keyboard shortcuts to each of the six buttons.

The dial is designed and placed in such a way that allows you to turn it from the side with your thumb or index finger. Both the dial and buttons have nice feedback when turned or pressed.

The indicator lights on the side of the dial are for the active mode (when the pen is near or dial is turned), wireless indicator, and battery charging status.

On the back of the tablet are 4 rubber feet and the power switch.

Driver

I'm using a Mac so the screenshots and apps below are all from Mac.

This is where you can change the pressure sensitivity, choose left or right handed use or the coordinate mode.

If you're left handed, the dial and six buttons will go to the bottom right instead of at the top.

As for the coordinate mode. Absolute means the pen is mapped onto the active area and will appear on screen where you place the pen on the tablet. Relative mode means you're using the pen like a mouse or a trackpad.

This is where you can map the active area to your monitor. You can choose the aspect ratio or map a portion of the tablet to your screen.

This is where you can customise the shortcuts for the physical shortcut buttons and dial.

With the buttons, you can choose from a list of pre-determined functions, or set your own keyboard shortcuts.

These are the available functions you can choose for the dial.

You can also limit the available functions. What you want to do that is because sometimes you may want to use the dial to change brush sizes, and sometimes to zoom in and out. You can set one of the Expresskeys to switch between the functions that you choose. And when you press the Expresskeys, the mode will appear on screen for a second telling you which mode you're in.

Drawing performance

It works really well on Photoshop (Mac). The pen is very sensitive, the lines are smooth and tapers nicely. There's very little activation force require to draw a thin line. You can use the lightest of pressure on the drawing surface and it will produce the thinnest of lines.

I wasn't able to get pressure working on Adobe Illustrator (Mac) by default though. Wacom driver needs to be installed together with XP-PEN's driver if you want pressure to work with Adobe Illustrator.

Drawing performance on Medibang (Mac) is fantastic too, similar to Photoshop (Mac).

I've some problems with Krita though. There's pressure but the lines aren't smooth.

Both Affinity Photo and Designer can recognise the tablet's pressure sensitivity too.

Conclusion

There isn't any major downside to this tablet. It works predictably and the lines come out just the way I expect.

The Expresskeys and the dial are really useful.

The overall drawing performance is great unless you're using Krita. The lines are very smooth and tapers very nicely. Drawing performance is no different from more expensive Wacom tablets. I love that the competition is catching up and the quality of such tablets are improving at such a fast pace that you can now get something as good at more affordable prices.

I haven't used many other XP-PEN tablets so I can't really compared exhaustively. I did use the XP-PEN Star 06 before and that was a good tablet too. The Deco 03 is slightly more expensive at USD $99 compared to Star 06's official retail of USD $89. I guess you can justify the difference in price when you consider the nicer design of Deco 03 (in my opinion) and the pen case included.

Anyway, if you want to check out other XP-Pen products I've reviewed, visit https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/xp-pen

Availability

You can find the XP-PEN Deco 03 on Amazon at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

Thanks to Gearbest for providing this tablet for review.

Veikk is a China company that makes tablets. Their website does not have much information and the only products they are selling currently are the Veikk S640 and A30 graphics tablets, and a VK1560 pen display. There aren't many reviews for their tablets I guess mine might be one of the first few.

The packaging is rather small since this is a small tablet that measures 6 by 4 inches only.

The included items besides the tablet are replacement nibs, nib remover, the pen and pen holder.

Eight replacement nibs are included with a metal nib remover.

The pen is light weight but solid. There are two side buttons that you can configure to pre-defined functions.

The pen body has a slight matte surface. I actually prefer hard surfaces like this rather than rubber grips because this is easier to wipe clean.

The pen case included is made of thick felt and provides very good protection for the pen.

The cable is permanently attached to the tablet at the thicker side. There are not shortcut buttons.

Driver

No driver disc is included so you have to download the driver from their website. Both Windows and Mac drivers are available. Installation is pretty straightforward.

This is where you can change the pen settings. The pen supports up to 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity.

This is where you can map the drawing area to the monitor, or monitors if you are using multiple. If you map the drawing area to multiple monitors, the cursor can go across from one screen to the other. Using two monitors with such a small tablet is a bit awkward. Even little movement on the drawing area will translate to a large movement on the screen.

The other tab on the driver shows a blank screen.

Quirks

Sometimes when there are Windows dialogue boxes appearing, the cursor will freeze.

Here's an example of typical dialogue box that can cause the cursor to freeze. You can still move the pen obviously but the cursor will not move. In this case you have to use the mouse to get rid of the dialogue box because everything goes back to normal.

Use with various graphic apps

For some reason in Photoshop CC (Windows), whenever I draw, the lines are straight and come from the top left.

With Krita 4.1 (Windows), when I draw, the stroke will continue even though I have lifted the pen.

Medibang 16 (Win) works fine. Pressure works really well.

Adobe Illustrator CC (Win) also works fine with pressure.

Conclusion

This is the first time I'm using such a small tablet with a 27-inch monitor. The size mis-match is quite awkward. For a 27-inch monitor, I would recommend getting a tablet that's at least 10 by 6 inches. For such a small tablet, it's probably better to match it with a screen smaller, maybe 20 inches and smaller. For laptop screens, it should work better.

There are several glitches with various drawing apps on Windows. So that could be the deal breaker if you are using any of them as your primary app for creating art.

Generally speaking, I would probably recommend this not for graphic designers or artist. The small size of this tablet makes drawing for long periods of time uncomfortable. A tablet like this may be suitable for signing documents, handwriting, or create casual art.

Availability

You can find the Veikk S640 tablet and more reviews at Gearbest.com.

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 | Gearbest.com

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.

The review unit was provided by Gearbest.

The Acepen AP1060 is a 10 by 6 inch wired graphics tablet that comes with a battery-less stylus. This is one of many drawing tablets that I've reviewed over the years. Graphic tablets like this are becoming so common and affordable. This tablet is currently selling for less than US $55 on Gearbest, at that includes free shipping to Singapore.

These are the items included. The tablet, disc with driver, pen, 8 replacement nibs, nib remover and USB cable.

The design is simple. Build quality is sturdy.

The drawing surface is matte and has a nice tactile feel when drawing.

On the side are 8 physical shortcut keys that you can customise with your own keyboard shortcuts.

The shortcut keys are firm, maybe even a bit too firm, and silent when clicked.

On the other side is a clothed pen holder.

The pen is plasticky but feels solid enough, and feels nice in hand. There's no rubber grip but the matte texture on it is slip-proof even for sweaty hands.

These are the 8 replacement nibs and the nib remover.

I reviewed the Acepen AP 2150 in September last year and back then I wrote that they did not have any website. They still don't have any website. First thing that comes to my mind is how do you contact support if there's any problem? Or what about warranty service? Gearbest does provide a 1 year hardware warranty, but I'm not sure who you can contact if you have issues with drivers, or some other software-related problems.

Driver

The Mac and Windows drivers are on the disc provided. If you don't have a disc reader, well, you'll need to get one because Acepen doesn't have any website where you can download the driver from.

Unfortunately for me, my disc reader is spoiled so I wasn't able to install the Acepen driver. I remembered from my review of the Acepen AP 2150 that drivers from other brands might work so I downloaded the driver from Ugee. I downloaded the driver for Ugee HK1060 Pro, installed it, and found out that it did work.

On Mac, driver installation is straightforward. In the end, I did manage to install the Acepen driver as well and from what I can see, it's exactly the same as the Ugee driver.

On Windows, driver installation wasn't as smooth for me. I had one computer that already has some graphic tablet driver installed so I wasn't able to install the Acepen driver because there's a you-must-uninstall-that-other-driver dialogue box that keeps appearing. I wasn't able to find that other graphic tablet driver though. Eventually, I succeeded in install the Windows driver, but only because I have another Windows system at home.

This is where you can map the drawing area to your computer's desktop.

The tablet supports up to 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. Unfortunately with the Ugee driver that I installed, I wasn't able to change the pressure. Changing the settings to light or heavy made no difference. The default pressure setting is too sensitive for me. I keep getting thick lines even though I drew with light pressure and want thin lines.

This is where you can customise keyboard shortcuts for the physical shortcut buttons. I accidentally discovered that I wasn't able to set the button ] as a keyboard shortcut. Ctrl+] works but ] doesn't work. Anyway, I am not able to test if I can set all the different shortcuts.

If you don't want to set your own keyboard shortcuts, you can choose from the list of pre-defined functions available.

This is where you can change the settings for left handed mode.

Drawing performance

The drawing performance below are based on the Ugee driver, which is similar to Acepen driver.

Pressure works with Photoshop (Mac). The default pressure setting was too sensitive to me and in Photoshop, I keep getting thick lines.

Krita (Mac) works well.

Pressure is supported in Affinity Photo too.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works well.

The last Mac app I tested was Adobe Illustrator and pressure sensitivity did not work. I tried installing the Wacom driver as a workaround but pressure still did not work.

On Windows, the Ugee driver had more problems.

Photoshop (Win) pressure sensitivity does not work.

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) has tendency to produce angular lines when you want them to be smooth.

Krita (Win) works well.

Sketchable (Win) does not have pressure sensitivity.

Autodesk Sketchbook works well.

Conclusion

On the Mac, I had less issue. On Windows, there were so many problems. I went online to do some research and many of the reviews on Amazon were quite positive. So I'm not sure if it's a problem with my Windows hardware.

Anyway, another issue I have is with the pressure sensitivity, more specifically, the inability to change the pressure sensitivity.

Buying relatively unknown brands can be a hit or miss so I recommend you do more research. The graphic tablet market is huge and extremely competitive, so you have a lot of other options to choose from. I've also reviewed many on my blog. You can check out more reviews on the product page on Gearbest at https://www.gearbest.com/graphics-tablets/pp_697614.html?lkid=14740660

Big thanks to Lenovo Singapore for providing the Miix 520 for this review. I've been wanting to check out the new model and compare it with the Miix 510 which I've reviewed before.

The biggest changes over the Miix 510 are the change of processors from dual cores to quad-core Intel Core i5-8250U (1.6 - 3.4Ghz), and inclusion of Lenovo Active Pen 2 which uses Wacom technology and supports up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

As usual, my review is from the perspective of a visual content creator. The work I do for my blog and Youtube involves writing, graphic design, photo and video editing.

Here's the specification of the review unit:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-8250U (1.6 - 3.4Ghz)
• OS: Windows 10
• Screen: 12.2-inch
• Resolution: 1920 x 1200
• Storage: Up to 1TB SSD
• RAM: 8GB
• Graphics: Intel HD Integrated Graphics 520/620
• Ports: USB Type C, USB 3 Type A, audio Jack, microSD
• Dimension: 30 x 20.5 x 0.99 cm (or 1.59 cm thick with keyboard)
• Weight: 900 g or 1.25kg with keyboard
• Active Stylus: Lenovo Active Pen 2
• Battery: 38 Wh Lithium-Polymer

Design and build quality

The design looks alright, actually it's similar to the Miix 510. Body is solid and slim. Air vents for the fans run across the top. Be prepare for slight fan noise because the fans are on almost all the time even when not doing anything that stresses the processor.

The glossy 12.2-inch screen has 1920 x 1200 resolution. I've no complaints about the pixel density even though it may not be as high compare to Microsoft Surface Pro 2017. There's slight pixelation in the user interface but it's no big deal to me. I can still get lots of work done on it.

With the Spyder5Pro colour calibrator, I measured 89% sRGB support. Colours look good enough for graphic design work. If you need extreme colour accuracy, you'll need to connect to an external monitor. And to do that, you'll need a USB-C to a graphics port adapter.

Keyboard is included and detachable. Typing experience is alright. Keys have good travel. Since the keyboard is thin, the whole thing shakes slightly while typing. Keyboard size is excellent but the compromise is a rather small trackpad. It's a back-lit keyboard with only one brightness setting.

As someone who uses a lot of keyboard shortcuts, the inclusion of the Ctrl button on the right side is crucial to my workflow and productivity. When I'm using a mouse, pen or right finger, keyboard shortcuts on the right side are still accessible at all times. This is incredibly convenient. Note that Microsoft Surface Pro's keyboard does not have the right Ctrl button.

Closing the keyboard makes the tablet go to sleep. However, opening the keyboard doesn't wake it up. You'll have to press the power button or press the keys. Not sure why they programmed it that way. It should wake up just like typical laptops when their lids are opened.

This is a rather good keyboard overall and the best thing is it's included so you don't have to pay additional money for it.

That's the multi-positional stand behind.

The hinge may be tight but when you're drawing on it with the stand deployed, it will still go down to the lowest position.

It's easy to deploy the stand because the area near the bottom is recessed. Those three holes there are for the speaker.

The three ports on the left are USB type C gen 1, USB 3.0 and power. It would have been great if Lenovo could just do away with the power port and have another USB type C that's capable of charging.

Lenovo has provided a plastic pen holder that can be inserted into the USB 3 port. Unfortunately when it's inserted, it blocks off the charging and USB type C port. So you might want to store the pen on the carrying sleeve instead.

On the right side are the power and volume buttons.

Lenovo Active Pen 2

Lenovo Active Pen 2 uses Wacom technology and supports pressure sensitivity up to 4,096 levels.

Pen 2 is slightly longer than the 1st gen pen. Be careful of it rolling around on the table because it does not have a clip.

Battery life from the AAAA battery should last for months. The Pen 2 is always on and ready to use. No pairing required, although if you want to pair it via Bluetooth, it gives you extra options for customising the back button.

There are two side buttons and a back button. You can customise the buttons for different shortcuts, e.g. launch apps, mouse clicks or assign specific keyboard shortcuts.

Customising the button shortcuts is done through the Wacom pen settings app included. With that app, you can also adjust the pressure sensitivity. If you want to, you can also calibrate the pen to the screen to remove parallax. Calibration is not really necessary parallax is minimal due to the small size of the screen and the glass surface is real close to the screen.

The pen tip has more friction compared to the 1st gen pen. The extra friction provides more control so it's more pleasant to draw with.

Performance

The quad-core processor is huge step up in performance compared to the dual-core processors in the Miix 510.

Here are the timings for exporting 100 RAW files with different systems that I've tested, from fastest to slowest:

• Mac Pro 2013 Xeon quad 3.7Ghz - 3 min 17s
• Macbook Pro 2015 quad 2.5Ghz - 3 min 19s
• Surface Book 2 quad core i7-8650U (1.9 to 4.2 GHz) - 3 min 49s
• Lenovo Miix 520 quad core i5-8250U (1.6 to 3.4Ghz) - 4 min 19s
• Surface Laptop dual core i5-7200U (2.5-3.1Ghz) - 8 min 26s
• Surface Book 2 dual core i5-7300U (2.6 to 3.5 GHz) - 8min 57s
• Surface Pro 2017 dual core i5-7300U (2.6 to 3.5 GHz) - 9 min 33s

Photo export times are almost two times that of dual-core processors so it goes without saying that this is faster than the Surface Pro 2017 for processor intensive tasks. That's significant time savings. The performance is not far from the much more expensive Surface Book 2 with the i7-8650U (1.9 to 4.2 GHz). So this is really respectable performance.

You can edit video but be prepared for the fans to go full speed and it's going to be too hot for drawing with your palm on the screen. 1080P video editing is an alright experience. Editing and exporting 4K video requires lots of patience.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is more than satisfactory with the graphic apps I've tested.

Pressure sensitivity and palm rejection work well without any driver installation. Strokes come out just the way I want them to be. After you have adjusted the pressure settings, you can apply really light pressure to get thin lines. The initiation activation force is minimal. As long as the tip touches the surface, no matter how light the pressure, it can draw. It's that sensitive.

Lenovo Active Pen 2 is very accurate. There's none of the slow diagonal line jitter.

Below are examples of strokes in various apps

Affinity Photo 1.6.4

Krita 4.1

Medibang Paint Pro 16

Sketchable

Squid
It's also great at taking notes. It's able to capture my handwriting very accurately.

All the problems I have with Miix 510 and its pen have been resolved. This is now a much better product for drawing and creating digital art.

Conclusion

Lenovo Miix 520 is a nice improvement over the Miix 510. Performance is significantly better because of the jump from dual to quad core processors. Power users who require processing power should find significant time savings.

Another nice improvement is the Lenovo Active Pen 2. The pen is now more sensitive, and with the new tip that provides more friction, it's also more satisfying to draw with on the glass surface.

One area I think Lenovo should improve next is the battery life. My other quibble is the fans are almost always on. Fans are not loud but they are definitely still audible.

Compared to the Microsoft Surface Pro
At the time of this review, the Miix 520 (8GB RAM 256GB storage) is currently priced around US $900 while the Surface Pro 2017 of rather similar specs is around US $1050.

For the price you're paying, you get much better performance because of the quad-core processors, and not only that, you also get the stylus and keyboard included. Overall, the Miix 520 is clearly the better deal.

I can't say whether the Surface Pen or Lenovo Active Pen 2 provide better drawing experience. The drawing experience is different, one is not necessarily better than the other.

The advantages Surface Pro 2 has over the Miix would be longer battery life and design. The Surface Pro looks sleeker to me, but it's not hundreds of dollars more sleeker though.

So to conclude, if you're looking for a 2-in-1, the Lenovo Miix 520 is a solid and good performer you can consider if you have the budget for it.

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

Cons
- Fans are almost always on and audible
- Battery life could be better
- No display port included
- Goes to sleep when keyboard covers the screen, but doesn't wake automatically when screen is uncovered
- USB Type C port cannot be used for charging
- 900g tablet weight is heavier than Surface Pro

Availability

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

Finally gotten my hands on Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, the most expensive Android tablet ever. This review is not sponsored. I bought this with my own money (S$1098), just like I bought the Galaxy Tab S3 that I've reviewed before.

I was really reluctant to pay so much money to buy this tablet. If I'm not doing the Youtube thing, I won't be buying this tablet at all. I'm only buying this because there might be artists out there thinking of getting one and wondering if it's good enough for creating digital art. So this review is for people who want to draw on a tablet, but for some reason don't want to get the iPad or iPad Pro.

My review will be from the perspective of an artist. I won't talk about the Samsung Dex. Seriously, get the Microsoft Surface Go (128gb please) for productivity.

The Tab S4 is priced exactly the same as the iPad Pro 10.5.

I guess part of the reason why I was reluctant to pay the high price is because I don't expect Android tablets to be priced so high. But this is Samsung, so hey.

The other reason is, I don't really see significant upgrades from the Tab S3. There are a couple of good upgrades but when it comes to the drawing experience, it's essentially the same. If the Tab S4 had been priced US $100 lower, that would have been perfect.

I bought the mine here in Singapore and they are running a promotion where you get the 256GB model for the price of the 64GB model. Go figure.

Let's take a look at the specifications compared to the competition, the iPad 2017 and Microsoft Surface Go.

Design and build quality

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 looks fantastic. The new design sports a larger 10.5-inch Super AMOLED screen over the 9.7-inch of its predecessor. The colours are vibrant and the screen is just a pleasure to look at. I'm actually a fan of IPS panels but the more I use such AMOLED screens, the more I can see their attractiveness.

The aspect ratio has changed from 4:3 to a wider 16:10. It's now closer to typical 16:9 monitor aspect ratio. The large screen and wider aspect ratio allows videos to be played at a larger size. Videos are now almost 1cm more on the top and bottom, and the video fills up most of the screen, leaving smaller black bars.

The resolution is 2560 x 1600, pixel density is 287 ppi. This screen is incredibly sharp. I was watching some 4K gameplay footage (down-sampled to 1440P) on Youtube and was blow away by the details and just how sharp everything is.

The iPad Pro 10.5 has a resolution of 2224×1668 and 264ppi density. It's high resolution but because its long side is smaller than 2560, it's unable to play 1440P videos at full resolution. As a result, videos are sharper on the Tab S4 than on the iPad 10.5.

This picture above is a screenshot from Tab S4 at its original 2560 x 1600 resolution. You can right-click download it to see how much pixels is packed into a 10.5-inch screen.

On the whole, the Tab S4 is slightly longer on the long side, and shorter on the short side.

When drawing on horizontal canvas, it does feel more spacious. When drawing vertically, the working area does feel stretched vertically, like the working space is being cropped off, but of course you know the working area is still the same. The new aspect ratio should be easy to get used to quickly.

Initially I though with the high resolution screen, the user interface (eg toolbars, menus, buttons) of the graphic apps would be smaller, but they are actually of similar size to the Tab S3. This means you're not actually getting more working space (resolution) for your drawing. But you're definitely getting more physical space on the sides since the tablet is wider.

The full glass back is really slippery. And since it's glass, it's going to get fingerprint smudges easily. I'll definitely be getting a case to protect the tablet as well as keep fingerprints away.

Speaking of fingerprints, the fingerprint sensor button on the front is gone. That has been replaced by face and iris scanner which works pretty well. Fingerprint sensor is definitely faster but that has to make way for making the bezels even smaller. The screen-to-body ratio has increased from 72.7% to 78.6%. The bezel is now uniform throughout and I'm glad there's still bezel because you'll still want to hold it without your fingers accidentally activating anything on the screen.

They have finally moved the USB-C charging port to the centre of the tablet. Battery life is around 10 hours or so. Battery has increased in capacity from 6,000 to 7,300mAh. That's a substantial increase, but that's to power the larger and higher resolution screen.

See those speaker grills there. There are four on each four corners. They do sound louder but I feel that Tab S3 still sounds better. To get the best sound, you'll need to adjust the sound settings, more specifically the treble and bass settings. The default setting has audio that sounds like they are coming from the centre of the tablet and not from the corners of the tablet where the speakers are.

Oh yeah, they still have the microSD card slot for expandable storage. This is what I love about Android. You can store your all your files on external storage, and when it comes time to upgrade to a new tablet, you just put the microSD card into the new tablet. And external storage is more affordable than the storage upgrade options offered by companies. Samsung charge US $100 for the upgrade from 64GB to 256GB. Sandisk Ultra microSD 200GB is only US $48 and Sandisk Ultra microSD 400GB is US $150.

Pen

The new S Pen now has a glossy surface and no longer has a clip. I actually prefer the matte surface and the pen clip. Even though the new pen is cylindrical, it won't roll off the table because there's a tiny piece of metal that extrudes out from the side.

The S Pen is not powered by battery so no charging required.

The previous S Pen design was good. I don't see how the new one is better.

5 replacement nibs are provided. The white ones are slightly softer and has more friction. The grey nibs are the hard tips and glide on the surface more smoothly.

The overall feeling of drawing with the pen on the screen feels good. There's a right amount of friction with the white tip. If you're someone who writes a lot, the smoother gray tip is more suitable.

The S Pen supports pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. I'm not sure how many levels of pressure sensitivity there are but I can tell that this pen is very sensitive. You can glide lightly without any pressure, as long as the tip is touching the screen, you can get a line.

The S Pen is very accurate. Cursor is always beneath the tip of the pen. And there's no parallax because there is minimal gap between the glass surface and the screen.

Drawing performance

Overall drawing experience is great, very satisfactory. Actually, the drawing experience is the same as drawing on the Tab S3. So if you're wondering if this more expensive tablet will provide a better drawing experience, well, it's the same. I've tested all the same apps as I did on the Tab S3 and they perform with the same responsiveness on the Tab S4.

10.5-inch is larger than 9.7-inch that's for sure, but it's not significantly larger. It still feels like drawing on an area that's roughly the same size. The good thing is now the Tab S4 has higher resolution, so there's more space for the user interface, panels, so the leftover working space is larger.

Note that not all drawing apps turn on pressure sensitivity by default so you may have to turn that on manually.

Palm rejection works all the time, but some apps allow you to turn on strict palm rejection so that only the pen can be detected. I always turn on strict palm rejection whenever that feature is available.

Medibang Paint Pro works really well. It's very responsive. Pressure sensitivity works. There's also no jitter or wobble when drawing diagonal lines slowly. Actually, there's no diagonal line jitter problem for all the apps. The S Pen is very accurate.

Adobe Draw has some lag, just like it did on Tab S3. When drawing, the stroke will always trail behind the pen tip by quite a distance. Now, stroke trailing behind the pen is always there even on the iPad Pro with its 120Hz refresh rate. It's just that the distance here is larger than other drawing apps. Adobe Sketch is more responsive.

Artflow is responsive and pressure sensitivity works fine.

Artrage works fine overall but there's lag with certain brushes, just like it did on the Tab S3.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro is responsive and pressure sensitivity works fine.

Note taking experience is great, similar to Tab S3, It was able to capture my handwriting accurately.

Throughout testing, palm rejection wasn't a problem.

Conclusion

The Galaxy Tab S4 certainly has many improvements over the Tab S3, the most visible being the wider 16:10 aspect ratio, larger screen, higher resolution, and uniform smaller bezels all around.

Under the hood, the performance is very responsive, actually very similar to Tab S3 despite the faster processor Snapdragon 835 (4x2.35 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo) vs the previous Snapdragon 820 (2x2.15 GHz Kryo & 2x1.6 GHz Kryo). Geekbench puts the new processor at 1769 over the previous processor's 1532 score. Of course if you play games, then it may make a difference. But for creating digital art, using it as a media device for watching movies, you're not going to see any difference.

I didn't mention Samsung DeX because I feel that it's kinda useless. It basically changes tablet mode into desktop mode by rearranging your home icons into desktop icons, in other words does nothing useful. DeX mode allows you to use apps in floating windows mode, like you can overlap them, maximum or minimise them, and there's a taskbar at the bottom with all the open apps that you can switch to easily. Not all apps support the window mode, meaning they cannot maximise to fullscreen. There are certain tasks that you can do faster for sure, like copy and paste, doing document writing and research. But for creating digital art, DeX is useless.

The Tab S3 was launched at US $599 but the price has since dropped to US $449. That's a more reasonable price now and you can add an additional 200GB for US $50 with the Sandisk microSD. If you just want a good Android device for drawing, the Tab S3 is more worth the money because for drawing, you won't see any difference compared to Tab S4. Yes, the Tab S4 has a larger screen, but just for that 0.8-inch increase, it's not worth the US $200 increase, and that's just for the 64GB storage model.

If you're no preference for Apple iOS or Android, the iPad 6 (review) is properly the one I'll recommend because it's just US $329 for the 32GB model and US $429 for the 128GB one. You do have to spend another US $99 for the Apple Pencil though.

As for Tab S4 vs iPad Pro 10.5, it's difficult for me to say which is better. Hardware-wise, they are both quite evenly matched. So the main difference really comes down to the OS, iOS vs Android. Both platforms have good drawing apps. Some say that with Android, you won't be getting many OS updates, but with iOS, you can get regular updates. Well, I've upgraded the Tab S3 from Android 7 to 8. The only issue I have with lack of OS updates is some apps may not run on older versions of OS. I see this a lot with iOS. Whenever there's a new iOS update, some apps will tell you to update to the new iOS or you won't be able to run the updated apps. Same situation as Android actually.

There are pros and cons to each OS platform. File management for me is the biggest advantage of Android. You can connect the device via USB cable and transfer files like an external storage, and that's a feature I use often with my Android phone. It's also difficult for me to compare the iPad 10.5 to Tab S4 now because the new iPad Pros are supposed to be launching in one or two months' time. That's when I will compare them again.

So my overall recommendation for drawing purposes...

Tab S4 vs Tab S3
Get Tab S3 because you're getting the same performance, and you still have that beautiful Super AMOLED screen, just that the size, aspect ratio and resolution are different. But you save US $200.

Tab S4 vs iPad 6
Tab S4 is significantly more expensive so this comparison is quite similar to Tab S4 vs Tab S3, in which case, get the cheaper iPad 6.

Tab S4 vs iPad Pro 10.5
Wait for the new iPad Pro 10.5 to arrive and decide. Right now, I don't think it's worth it to buy the iPad Pro 10.5 because the new models are coming. If the new models aren't coming, both the Tab S4 and iPad Pro 10.5 are quite evenly match. You get the S Pen included and there's expandable storage. If you have no preference for either iOS or Android, it's really a 50-50 toss up. People will say that iPad Pro is the better for digital artists. Well, let me just say that you're not missing out even if you're not using iPad Pro because the Tab S4 is equally as capable.

Pros
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Lightweight at 482g
+ 4 speakers
+ Very vibrant and bright screen
+ 2560 x 1600 resolution is very sharp
+ 16:10 wider aspect ratio better for watching videos
+ Snappy performance
+ Android 8.1 Oreo
+ S Pen is included
+ 5 replacement nibs are included
+ Excellent pressure sensitivity
+ Palm rejection works almost flawlessly
+ No jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly
+ S Pen is very accurate
+ MicroSD card slot available
+ Good battery life
+ Lots of decent drawing apps on Android

Cons
- Slight colour shift occurs when viewing angle changes (typical AMOLED issue)
- Screen colours are too vibrant, almost unnatural. Take a while to get use to
- No way to change button function on S Pen
- Even more expensive than Tab S3's original retail price of US $599

Availability

Check out more reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

Links above are affiliate links and purchases though them earns me commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this. This is not a sponsored review.

After I published my Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 review (video | text), there were a few requests asking me to check out the Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro (HMM5P) because these two tablets are almost similar in size and support pressure sensitive styluses.

So I went out and bought a secondhand HMM5P to write this review for guys. I'll be selling the tablet away after the review of course, at a loss, as usual.

These are the various models of the MediaPad M5, accessories and respective current prices:

• 8.4-inch MediaPad M5, 4GB RAM 32GB storage - US $319 (Amazon | Gearbest)
• 10.8-inch MediaPad M5, 4GB RAM 32GB storage - US $359 (Amazon | Gearbest)
• 10.8-inch MediaPad M5 Pro with M-Pen included, 4GB RAM 64GB storage - US $449 (Amazon | Gearbest)

Only the Pro version comes with the M-Pen, which cost US $150 (crazy price) on Gearbest, or £61 on Amazon UK. I wasn't able to find it on Amazon USA.

Note that the M-Pen is only supported on the MediaPad M5 Pro and not the non-Pro.

The official Huawei Mediapad M5 10.8-inch Keyboard Case cost US $120. You can get third-party cases at significantly cheaper prices.

Just for comparison purposes, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 is priced at US $649 and includes the S Pen. So the HMM5P is US $200 cheaper.

Specifications

• Colours: Space gray, Champagne Gold
• Weight: 316g / 498g
• Screen: 2560 x 1440 IPS panel
• CPU: Kirin 960 Series Chipset
• Memory: 4GB RAM with 32 or 64GB storage
• Battery: 5100mAh / 7500mAh
• OS: EMUI 8.0 on Android 8

The 8.4-inch and 10.8-inch have almost identical specifications except for the weight and battery capacity.

The HMM5P comes with 64GB storage. There's a microSD card slot so you can expand memory if you need more. The Sandisk Ultra 200GB microSD card cost less than US $50 currently.

Design and build quality

HMM5P has fantastic design and build quality. It can definitely match the Samsung Tab S4 in terms of the premium look and feel.

The colours on the 10.8-inch IPS screen looks good, as good compared to the iPad 2018 (review), but colours are definitely not as vibrant compared to the OLED screen of the Tab S4. If you're just looking for a large screen tablet to for media consumption, the MediaPad M5 non-Pro is more than sufficient for those needs as it's significantly cheaper. I personally won't pay a few hundreds more just for the OLED screen.

Both the 8.4 and 10.8-inch MediaPad M5 screen resolution is 2560 x 1600. It's a 16:10 wide aspect ratio high resolution screen that unfortunately cannot play Youtube videos at 1440P unlike the Tab S4. For some reason, the option to play 1440P videos is not available in the Youtube app. I've checked online at there are people with similar problem. Their workaround is to use other apps that play Youtube videos.

I played a 4K 25FPS video that I've transferred to the tablet and it was able to play it (scaled down to 1440P) without any issues.

Note that the 9.7-inch iPad 2018 and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro 2017 both can't play 1440P videos at its native resolution. So all these tablets are playing scaled up 1080P videos. Obviously, 1440P videos on the Tab S4 is going to look sharper. In short, Youtube videos still look good, but Tab S4 is sharper.

Other than Youtube videos, everything on the HMM5P looks incredibly sharp. The bezels are small so the screen to body ratio is high, and makes the screen look immersive, especially when you're watching videos. The wide aspect ratio allows you to play the wide format videos with minimal black bars at the top and bottom. What you get is essentially a video that's playing at around 10-inches+ diagonal, compared to 8-inches diagonal on a 9.7-inch 4:3 aspect ratio tablet. That's a significant size difference.

The HMM5P is thin and lightweight. The only strange thing about the design is, it's designed primarily for landscape use. You can tell from the placement of the Huawei logo on the long side. In landscape mode, the power and volume buttons are on the right side. In portrait mode, those buttons are at the bottom! And there's no 3.5mm headphone jack so you'll have to make do with the built-in speakers or get wireless earphones. Not sure why they want to remove the headphone jack when space is not a problem on a tablet.

Good thing is the audio quality from the speakers is phenomenal. In landscape mode, the speakers run alongside the top and bottom. The sound is clear and loud. When watching videos in landscape, your hands won't be blocking the speakers, hence you'll get better sound. If you're holding the tablet on a table surface, the sound will bounce off the table and back to you, again producing a better audio experience.

If you have the keyboard case on, the volume and power buttons are difficult to press because they face slightly downwards, not exactly to the side. Not a smart design.

Location of the USB-C charging port is at the bottom right side in landscape mode. Weird location.

Keyboard case

The expensive keyboard case is sold separately. You can adjust the back to any angle. Unfortunately, the hinge extrudes out from the back. When you place the case down, it's best to place it down with the hinge facing up or else it's the hinge on the table, and metal on table may produce scratches.

The keyboard is quite comfortable to type on. The keys have good travel and spaced apart nicely. It doesn't feel cramp when typing. Trackpad also performs quite well.

Since this is Android OS, not all apps support keyboard shortcuts.

M-Pen stylus

The M-Pen supports up to 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. There's no mention of the technology behind the pressure sensitivity though. The hovering cursor only appears with certain graphic apps. S Pen hover mode has the cursor out all the time.

Compared to the Samsung S Pen, the M-Pen feels more premium because of the metal body, sleek design, and pen clip. There are two side buttons I don't know if there's anyway to configure them. Anyway, I don't use the side buttons, so not an issue for me.

The tip is slippery on the glass screen. It's more slippery compared to the S Pen tip which has more resistance because of the rubber-like surface on the tip. The M-Pen just glides along the screen effortlessly. This presents a problem when drawing because sometimes you want to have more control and draw slower. I would highly recommend getting a matte screen protector if you intend to draw on this screen. If you're just going to take notes, the M-Pen is great because it allows you to write fast.

I drew this sketch on the train the slipperiness of the pen tip caused my lines to be more wobbly than usual. With a tip that has more resistance, less slippery, you can have the tip at a particular point stationary and it won't glide off (even on a shaky train).

There are no replacement tips provided, and I wasn't able to find any replacement tips being sold online. So if your pen tip gets worn out, well, you're out of luck. Companies should always included spare pen tips because they don't cost much anyway. I did find a mention on some forum that the Wacom ACK22211 pen tip may be used, but I can't confirm that. The measurement of the M-Pen tip is 1.1cm.

Drawing performance

Here are the different apps that I've tested.

Autodesk Sketchbook works well. When drawing diagonal lines slowly, I wasn't able to maintain consistent pressure so the lines look a bit jittery. App is quite responsive.

Artflow is responsive and pressure sensitivity works well.

Adobe Draw has lag, as usual.

Adobe Sketchbook is responsive and pressure sensitivity works well.

Wacom Bamboo Paper is responsive and pressure sensitivity works well.

ArtRage is generally responsive except when using the watercolour brush. And the watercolour brush can't draw perfect circles for some reason. Another issue is when drawing quick strokes, sometimes the lines may start with the stray dot. Pressure sensitivity works well.

Medibang Paint Pro is responsive and pressure sensitivity works well.

Another drawing on Medibang Paint Pro. I noticed when zooming in and out, I see some big pixelation blocks as the screen redraws the image. This does not happen on the Tab S4. This screen redraw pixelation doesn't affect the smoothness of the pan and zoom though.

Generally speaking, drawing performance with the M-Pen is fine, except for the fact that the M-Pen is a bit too slippery.

Pressure sensitivity works quite well. However, I find that the Samsung S Pen is a tad more sensitive, especially when drawing thinner lines. I was able to get thinner lines more easily on the S Pen. With the M Pen, the lines are often a bit thicker, even when I draw very lightly.

Since the M-Pen is an active stylus, there's perfect palm rejection. With certain apps, you can even turn on strict palm rejection were you can't draw with your finger, but you can still use finger gestures. Works well.

Conclusion

When it comes to drawing performance, it's quite similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. The only thing that affect drawing experience is the slippery pen tip so you will most likely need to get a matte screen protector with that. One downside that I have to mention again is the lack of replacement tips and the difficulty of finding them. Pen tips do wear out so this is a reasonable concern.

If you're thinking of getting an Android tablet for drawing, I would recommend the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 instead. Main reason is the S Pen is less slippery. But if you're willing to use a matte screen protector, HMM5P will give you a larger screen to draw on.

If you're not buying the tablet with the intent to draw, the MediaPad M5 non-Pro selling at US $359 is kinda worth the money. Sure you have find 10-inch tablets at cheaper prices, but the resolution and colours on the MediaPad M5 is going to be better. The MediaPad M5 running on Android 8.0 is also very responsive and I experience no lag at all, except with certain apps (due to the apps). It is a good tablet for media consumption. The iPad 2018 is priced quite similarly but I recommend the MediaPad M5 strongly because the speakers sound much better, has better surround, and when watching movies, you're getting a much larger view because of the wider aspect ratio, and there's the microSD card slot for additional storage. That's if you want to buy a media consumption device.

Battery life is around 5hrs+ at maximum brightness. It will last longer at lower brightness obviously.

Pros
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Lightweight at 498g
+ 2560 x 1600 resolution is very sharp
+ 16:10 wider aspect ratio better for watching videos
+ Snappy performance
+ Android 8
+ M-Pen is included with the MediaPad M5 Pro
+ Pen has pressure sensitivity
+ Palm rejection works almost flawlessly
+ No jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly
+ M-Pen is very accurate
+ MicroSD card slot available
+ Good battery life
+ Lots of decent drawing apps on Android

Cons
- No colour shift with the screen
- No way to change button function on M-Pen
- M-Pen seems to produce thicker than usual lines when drawing lightly
- Slippery pen tip on the glass surface
- No replacement tips included, and difficult to find where to buy online
- Weird position of the logo, power and volume buttons
- Power and volume buttons are difficult to press if you have the keyboard case on
- Can't play 1440P videos on Youtube even though the resolution can support it

Availability

If you do intend to buy the Huawei MediaPad M5, you can help me out by making your purchase through the affiliate links below. I bought this tablet for review and is going to sell it at a loss so any support is appreciated to help me continue to create these reviews.

Remember, only the Pro comes with the M-Pen, and keyboard case is sold separately.

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

For more drawing tablet reviews, check out https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/drawing-tablet-reviews

Thanks again to Gearbest for sending over another tablet for review.

The Veikk A50 is the third product I've featured that's made by Veikk. The earlier two were the VK 1560 pen display and the small S640 signature tablet.

This is a 10 by 6 inch graphics tablet that comes with 8 shortcut buttons and a touchpad for additional shortcuts.

Direct product link:
https://www.gearbest.com/graphics-tablets/pp_009826316913.html?lkid=1682...

These are the items included: the tablet, battery-less pen, pen case, USB-C connection cable, welcome card and instruction manual.

The design looks good. It's thin. Corners are rounded off. The matte drawing surface is a single piece that extends to the button area. 10 by 6 inch drawing area is a good size to work with.

The 8 shortcut keys and touchpad are customisable. Buttons have firm feedback when clicked. The touchpad also works properly.

On the back there are 4 rubber feet to prevent the tablet from sliding around on the table. The back is designed with patterned dots which looks good too.

The connection for the cable is located at the top left. There's also an on-off switch for the touchpad just beside.

This is how it looks with the L-shape USB-C head.

If you're left handed, the port is at the bottom right of the tablet.

The pen comes with a slot-in type fabric case (or pouch). The fabric is thick so it provides good protection for the pen. It's good to use it since the cylindrical pen may roll around on the table.

The pen feels solid but rather lightweight. The hard plastic matte texture is nice to grip and easy to clean.

The pen does not use battery so it doesn't need to be charged. It supports up to 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity.

8 replacement nibs and a nib remover are included. The pen tip feels nice to draw on the surface. Has just the right amount of friction.

The box does not come with a driver disc so you have to download the driver from Veikk's website. There are Mac and Windows driver. The driver version I've used for this review is Version 1.0.0.0. And the OS I've tested on are Mac OS 10.12.6 and Windows 10 Pro.

This card has the email address of the support as well, and the claim to reply within 24 hours. I did contact them via the messaging bot on their website and they got back to me within an hour.

Driver

Before installing the driver, you should uninstall all previous tablet drivers, if any, on your computer.

After installing, the driver can be found on Mac's System Preferences or on Windows' desktop or System Tray as an icon. The driver features are exactly the same on Mac and Windows.

Pressure sensitivity can be changed by adjusting the pressure curves. The two side buttons are also customisable.

When you click on the drop down menu, these will appear:

• Click - different mouse click options
• Keyboard - Customise your own keyboard shortcuts
• Tablet - Get into Accurate Mode, Eraser Toggle, Monitor Switch, Dial Function Switch
• Navigation - Back, Forward, Zoom In, Zoom Out
• Application - Choose an application to run
• Invalid - No action
• Default - Reset to default

These are the mapping options. If you're left handed, you can change to left handed mode here. And if you want to move the pen like a mouse, there's the Mouse mode available.

Here's where you can customise all the 8 physical shortcut buttons. The drop down menu has the same options as previously mentioned.

Note also that you can create different sets of shortcuts. Let's say you use Photoshop and Illustrator a lot, you can create a set of shortcuts specifically for Photoshop, and one set for Illustrator.

The touchpad allows you to customise 4 directional shortcuts. I've customised swipe up and down to zoom in and out, swipe left and right to change brush sizes. It works really well in action. Each swipe will give you several increments. So if you just need a one-step increment, you just swipe in small movement.

Drawing performance

In short, it works really well on Mac with all the drawing apps that I've tested. But on Windows, I was only able to get pressure sensitivity working with Medibang Paint Pro and Clip Studio.

I've emailed Veikk support and they told me to delete "wintab32.dll", reinstall the tablet driver but that did not solve my Windows problem.

Drawing performance is fantastic with Photoshop CC 2019. Lines taper well, curves, transition from thin to thick are smooth. Lines come out just the way I want them to. Pressure sensitivity works great. There's no lag and lines always appear instantly below the pen tip.

This fantastic performance is similar with other drawing apps on the Mac.

Mediang Paint Pro (Mac) version 19.

Clip Studio (Mac)

Krita (Mac)

Clip Studio (Windows)

Medibang Paint Pro (Windows).

The Windows apps that I've tested that do not work with pressure sensitivity are Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Sketchable, ArtRage Touch, Wacom Bamboo Paper and Krita.

Conclusion

Overall fantastic performance on Mac OS. If you're using Mac, you can go ahead and purchase. The tablet gets 5 out of 5 stars rating from me. Button and touchpad shortcuts work well. Pen is nice to draw with. Overall build quality is solid and design looks good.

If you're using Windows, well, I can't recommend it based on my personal experience. I have reviewed many graphic tablets and this is the first time I'm experiencing so many Windows app that do not work with pressure. I just cannot figure out what's wrong.

If you have a Veikk A50, let me know if you have the same problems on Windows. Maybe it's just me.

Availability
You can check out more reviews of Veikk A50 on Gearbest at https://www.gearbest.com/graphics-tablets/pp_009826316913.html?lkid=1682...

It's priced around US $50 and includes free shipping from Gearbest. For a 10 by 6 inch tablet, that's a good price. Just for comparison, the 7.9 by 6.3 wired Wacom Intuos is selling at US $70 and the 10.4 x 7.8 wireless Wacom Intuos is US $170.

If you want to check out more drawing tablet reviews, visit https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/drawing-tablet-reviews

This is the new WoodPad 10 graphics tablet which is the larger model of the original WoodPad 7 that I reviewed a few months ago.

In my review of the WoodPad 7, the downsides are the rather small active area to work with, and the lack of stroke tapering with Photoshop (Mac) and Medibang Paint Pro (Mac). The WoodPad 10 has obviously addressed the small drawing area. As for the drawing performance, well, read on.

The packaging box is simple and nice. The box has a magnetic latch that opens easily to reveal the items inside.

What's included are the tablet, pen, USB cable, three replacement nibs and a nib remover.

The size of WoodPad 10 is almost two times the size of WoodPad 7. The diagonal measurement is 10 inches. Actual width is around 9 by 6 inches. This is a much more comfortable size to work with.

This tablet connects to the computer via a microUSB to USB Type A port. As you can see, the tablet is very thin. It's also lightweight because of the bamboo material that's used to make the surface, but it's definitely very solid. If you need to bring the tablet around, such as to and fro office, you probably won't feel the extra weight.

The back has a large piece of black foam and four rubber feet are located at the corners.

The logo is etched on the left side of the tablet and looks really nice. The look definitely feels very organic because of the bamboo.

The pen supports tilt sensitivity and up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. It is battery-free so it doesn't require charging.

The pen has a large rubber grip that's nice to hold. Overall, it feels lightweight, just the way I like it, but it has a very solid build quality to it. The white colour matches well with the colour of bamboo.

There are two side buttons on the pen but no eraser on the back. The default nib on the pen is the soft tip with additional friction for better control.

You can swap out the nibs very easily with the nib remover. If you need a smoother nib, you can use the hard surface nibs included.

Driver

No driver disc is included so you'll have to download the latest driver from the WoodPad website. The version that I've tested for this review is version 1.03. The driver supports both Mac and Windows.

The Mac driver I've used is version 1.03, and the Windows driver is version 1.14.

This is where to change the pen settings. You can customise the side buttons with various mouse clicks, to run applications and keyboard shortcuts.

The driver's second tab has mapping options. You can choose to let the tablet work like a mouse if you want to. The most obvious feature that's missing is the lack of left-handed mode.

Drawing Performance

When drawing fast in Photoshop (Mac), such as when hatching, the lines will taper abruptly with a trailing thin line.

This is the same problem when I tested WoodPad 7. If you're just drawing normally, you won't see the problem though.

Other than the line taper issue, the tablet works fine with Photoshop (Mac).

Photoshop has tilt brushes and those work well too. The brush strokes will change depending on the angle of the pen.

Krita (Mac) works fine. The broken line problem that I saw with WoodPad 7 has been solved.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) works well.

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) works well.

Photoshop (Win) also has some line tapering issues. Other than that, the pressure and tilt sensitivity works well. Strokes are also smooth.

Other drawing apps that I've tested on Windows work fine. The apps I've tested are Adobe Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint and Medibang Paint Pro.

Conclusion

Design is the main selling point of WoodPad. Overall performance is good except for the tapering issue with Photoshop. Other drawing apps that I've tested on Mac and Windows work fine. Pressure and tilt sensitivity work great.

The larger working area is now larger and more comfortable to work with compared to WoodPad 7 which feels rather restricted. The drawing area here is almost twice the size of WoodPad 7.

The price of WoodPad 10 is US $99 which is actually on the high side especially when there are cheaper alternatives from Huion, XP-Pen, Parblo and Veikk. What the WoodPad has that others don't is the beautiful organic look of bamboo. It's the design that makes it look very different from all other, usually black, tablets.

Whether or not it's worth the will depend on whether you appreciate the design.

Here's a list of pros and cons:
+ Design looks good
+ Build quality is solid
+ Drawing functionality is overall satisfactory except for the tapering issue with Photoshop
+ Pen has good pressure and tilt sensitivity
- Some issues with Mac versions of Photoshop
- No shortcut buttons on the tablet
- No left-handed mode

Availability

You can find WoodPad 7 and WoodPad 10 on Amazon at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J2482PR?tag=artprdus-20

Special thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit

The Huion DWH69 is one of several wireless graphic tablets from Huion. Some of the other wireless tablets that I've reviewed before are the Huion G10T (2nd gen), Huion Q11K and the gigantic Huion Giano WH1409.

Main highlights of the Huion DWH69 are the support for 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, eight expresskeys and wireless capability.

Build quality feels sturdy and solid. The drawing area measures 9 by 6 inches.

On the left side is a 1.8-inch TFT LCD info screen that shows you the battery life left and indictors when the expresskeys are press or the pen is hovering. The battery life indicator is kinda useful but the button or pen indictors are not that useful. The LCD screen is nice to have but if it means increasing the price of the tablet, then it's not worth the money. Even if the tablet has no battery life left, you can still use it while it's charging.

The eight expresskeys included are touch sensitive. These are not buttons where you press and there's a click. You can customise them to your preferred keyboard shortcuts. Personally I prefer the more tactile feel of buttons clicking but touch-sensitive ones are equally as usable.

This tablet is quite slim and lightweight. It's portable so you you can bring it to your office and back home easily.

The top part of the tablet is raised at a slight angle that makes drawing more comfortable than using the tablet flat. On the left side is the microUSB charging port for charging the tablet.

However, because the tablet is raised at an angle, this makes it unsuitable for left handed use. When you turn the tablet 180 degrees, the raised part will be at the bottom. This is the deal breaker for left handed users.

The wireless USB receiver is hidden behind a latch door in the thick part of the tablet.

It goes without saying that you need a USB Port (Type A) in order to use the tablet. It's interesting how there aren't any Bluetooth tablets in the market yet.

The battery is removable but I doubt you'll ever need to replace it. A full charge that takes 4 hours will give you 24 hours of non-stop use.

These are all the accessories included.

That's the pen and stand included.

The stand can be opened up to reveal 4 replacement tips.

The pen is lightweight but has a solid build. The grip section has a matte surface which is nice to hold, and easy to clean.

There are two side buttons, no back button, that you can customise to various mouse clicks or your preferred keyboard shortcut.

Unfortunately, the pen is powered by battery so you'll need to charge it with the cable provided. A 2 hour charge should give you up to 800 hours of non-stop use.

Driver

The driver can be downloaded from Huion's website.

The driver functionality is the same for both Windows and Mac.

You can customise the two side buttons, pressure sensitivity, and the expresskeys (click on Advanced Setting).

You'll have to checkbox the relevant command keys to go with the button keys to get your shortcut.

This is the full list of keys you can choose from the drop-down menu.

After you click on the Advance Setting button, the dialogue box will let you customise the expresskeys.

All the keyboard shortcuts work fine.

The Softkey Enable and Softkey Disable buttons are useless. When you turn them on, you'll get a row of virtual expresskeys that appear at the top of the working area. BUT they don't with the physical tablet.

The left handed mode is useless too because the tablet is inclined at an angle. When you flip the tablet around for left handed use, the raised part is near you.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance, in short, is excellent. I did not have any problems with any of the drawing apps that I've tested. All the apps, on both Mac and Windows, perform well. The lines and curves are smooth, line tapers are gradual and pressure sensitivity works great.

Here are some sample strokes from the graphic apps I've tested on Mac.

Photoshop (Mac)

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac)

Krita (Mac)

Clip Studio Pro (Mac)

I've also tested Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator. All work fine with pressure sensitivity.

The Windows version graphic apps perform the same so I did not include them here.

Conclusion

The Huion DWH69 is a wireless graphics tablet that performs predictably without any surprises. Lines come out just the way I want them to.

The only downside since the tablet is raised, it's not suitable for left handed use.

Availability

You can get the tablet at Gearbest via this direct link:
https://www.gearbest.com/graphics-tablets/pp_009200773861.html?lkid=1861...

COUPON CODE
Use "HuionDWH69" code to get the tablet at US $62.99.
LIMITED to 6 pieces.

After months of waiting, I've finally got the Microsoft Surface Pro 6. The launch date of Surface Pro 6 here in Singapore is much later than USA hence the delay. I had to sell off my Surface Pro 2017 to offset the cost of this new tablet. So is it worth the upgrade? It depends on what you're using it for.

As usual, my review will be from the perspective of a visual content creator, more specifically someone who creates digital art, graphic design, edits photos and videos.

The main selling point of the Microsoft Surface Pro is the portability, and the ability to draw on it. It's not a workstation so you can't really push it as hard as a desktop. The second selling point is despite it being a tablet, it's running Windows 10 desktop OS which means it's made for productivity. There are things a Windows 10 tablet can do more effectively compared to Android and iOS devices.

Specification and pricing

These are the specifications and pricing for the new models.

Few things to note.

Models with Intel Core m3 and 4GB memory are no longer being sold.

The dual core Intel i5-7300U (2.6 to 3.5Ghz) and Intel i7-7660U (2.5 to 4.0Ghz) has been replaced by the 8th generation quad core i5-8250U (1.6 to 3.4Ghz) and Intel i7 8650U (1.9Ghz to 4.2Ghz).

The integrated graphics card has been upgraded from Intel HD 620 to Intel UHD 620 which represents marginally better performance.

Lastly, the base pricing has increased from US $799 to $899 because the low end models are gone, BUT the top end models are now cheaper. E.g. The previous 16GB 1TB SSD model was US $2699 and the current one cost US $2299.

I felt that the Surface Pro 2017 was overpriced when it first came out so I chose to buy a secondhand unit instead. The Surface Pro 6 seems to be more worth the money now because of the upgrade from dual to quad core processors. Tasks that require processing power are now significantly faster to complete but there are some limitations that I will talk more about below.

BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN

The physical design is pretty much unchanged since Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Pro (5) 2017 that I've reviewed previously.

While the design is functional, it's feeling a bit dated. Microsoft should have added an option for a larger screen, such as the 13.5-inch from their Surface Book 2. A 12.3-inch screen is usable but for work and productivity purposes, a large screen would be welcome. Right now for work, I always connect the Surface Pro to an external screen.

The only new design addition is the matte black version which unfortunately is not available here in Singapore.

Overall, build quality is still excellent and that makes it feels very much like a premium product.

SCREEN

The 12.3 inch screen supports a resolution of 2736 x 1824 which makes the user interface and everything look really sharp. The 3:2 aspect ratio is great for productivity.

Thickness is 8.5mm and weight is 770g (i5 model). It's still incredibly compact and portable.

Those are fan grills but the Intel i5 model has no fans so it runs silent. Passive cooling unfortunately is not as effective as fan cooling. When running processor intensive tasks, the tablet will become hot and processor speed will be throttled. I don't have any temperature readings for you except to say that it's about as warm as a typical LCD monitor after it has been turned on for an hour. It's not warmer compared to the previous generation Surface Pro though. The Intel i7 models are the ones with fans.

Battery life is around 5 to 6 hours for normal usage at 75% screen brightness. If you export photos or videos, expect lower battery life.

The kickstand is still adjustable to different angles. The tension in the stand is stiff but not enough to prevent it from going to the lowest angle while drawing.

The connection ports on the sides are surprisingly still the USB type A and mini-DisplayPort. Even the Surface Go has a USB type C port so the Surface Pro connectivity really feels a bit outdated now. I still use USB type A and mini-DisplayPort daily so I can't complain much.

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)

The Surface Pro 6 can drive a 4K screen. No problem.

The microSD card slot is still there which is fantastic. A 400GB Sandisk microSD card nowadays just cost less than US $90. This is the cheapest way to expand storage, rather than paying for more internal SSD storage, but of course you're not going to get SSD speeds for reads and writes for files on the microSD. Opening and saving large files, booting the system, launching apps are still much faster with the SSD

SURFACE PEN

Once again, the US $99 Surface Pen is not included and this is an essential buy if you want to draw on the Surface Pro. I have tested other Surface Pen alternatives but none comes close to the performance and accuracy of the actual Surface Pen.

The main thing going with the Surface Pen is the matte tip which provides more friction when drawing on the glass surface, and hence gives you better control.

The Surface Pen 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 is low so you draw a really thin line with the faintest of pressure.

Surface Pen is suppose to have tilt sensitivity but it only works with compatible apps.

Processing power

In theory, the upgrade from dual core to quad core processes should bring about dramatic increase in performance, BUT in real life, the scenario plays out a bit differently.

Photo editing

To test the processors, I exported 100 photos in RAW format (17MB each) using Adobe Lightroom and below are the results. When there are multiple readings, it meant I repeated the tests.

Lightroom 5.6

• SP2017 - 8min 44s
• SP2017 hot - 12min 18s, 13min 20s
• SP6 - 5min 5s
• SP6 hot - 6min 38s, 6min 56s

Lightroom CC

• SP2017 - 4min 56s
• SP2017 hot - 12min 1s
• SP6 - 4min 18s
• SP6 hot - 6min 9s, 8min 18s, 8min 44s

Surface Pro 6 (Intel i5) started exporting the videos with the processors overclocking up to 2.8GHz on average. When it started to get hot, the speed dropped to 1.8GHz (the base advertised speed). And when it got even hotter, speed dropped to average 0.8GHz and stayed there for most of the time. Sometimes I even see 0.4GHz.

When the Surface Pro 6 start to heat up, the amount of time it requires to export the same number of photos can vary a lot. We are talking about a 4min+ export time jumping to 6+ or even 8+ minutes. That is a huge difference!

Surface Pro 2017 may only have dual cores but it was able to maintain close its base clock speed of 2.71Ghz most of the time.

With Lightroom 5.6, using Surface Pro 6, it was actually able to maintain close to the 1.8GHz base clock speed. And surprise! When heated up, Lightroom 5.6 was able to export photos faster than Lightroom CC.

Video editing
These are the results from exporting a 5-minute long 4K clip into a 1080P video using Adobe Premiere CC.

• SP 2017 - 44min 40s, 41min 24s
• SP6 - 16min 6s, 14min 4s, 11min 35s, 13min 16s, 17min 39s, 11min 45sa

Minutes into exporting the videos, processors on both SP2017 and SP6 got hot and speed dropped to an average 0.8GHz for most of the time.

It's clear from the results that the quad core processors cut down video export time by more than half, sometimes even three times faster.

Looking at SP6 alone, export times can vary quite significantly.

When exporting photos or videos, the whole system will slow down. Even activities like web browsing will slow down. Web pages will take longer to load, as if the download speed had been throttled as well.

When I used the SP6 in an air-conditioned room, the processor was able to run at a higher speed for a longer period of time. Cooling does matter. The unit that I have is the Intel i5 model without fans. The Intel i7 model with the fan may perform better.

Drawing performance

Pressure sensitivity in Photoshop CC works well. No Wintab drivers required. Curves are smooth. Strokes don't taper as gradually compared to real graphic tablets but to me it's still acceptable.

The main issue I have with Photoshop is there's noticeable lag when drawing. Not the irritating type of lag. It's more like the low-screen-refresh-rate kind of lag, or maybe input lag. The other drawing software mentioned below are more responsive and more satisfying to draw with.

Surface Pen is supposed to have tilt sensitivity but unfortunately it doesn't work for the relevant brushes in Photoshop CC. I searched online for workarounds and found out that it's a common problem with no real solution.

If you're editing huge graphic files, such as those x00 MB file sizes, expect some lag when panning or zooming around the canvas. When editing using adjustment layers (e.g. changing hue, saturation, levels), the speed depends on the size of the file. Visual updates will appear choppy if the file is huge, and more instantaneous with smaller files, of course. This performance is similar to what I've experienced with SP 2017 so the extra processors don't help in this area.

This is what happens with Photoshop CS6 without Wintab driver, which is not installed by default.

Wintab driver needs to be installed first for pressure sensitivity to work with Photoshop CS6. You can easily download it from Microsoft (get the 64-bit version).

After Wintab installation, strokes in Photoshop CS6 will behave just like in Photoshop CC. Pressure sensitivity will well. Curves will be smooth. You don't need any plugin (e.g. Lazy Nezumi) to improve the smoothness of the curves.

If you're still using Adobe CS6 and older software, perhaps it's time to move to using other software. For editing, you can check out the one-time purchase Affinity Photo, and for graphic design Affinity Designer. For drawing, there are Medibang Paint Pro, Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter and other apps that don't use subscription-based payment models.

Photo above is from the Surface Pro 2017 review.

Old Adobe software also has scaling problems with high resolution screens. User interface like menus and buttons are 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 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.

Adobe CC software are scaled properly on the Surface Pro 6. Menus and icons are larger and easier to click.

Pressure sensitivity works fine with Adobe Illustrator CC.

Pressure sensitivity works well with Medibang Paint Pro version 22.0.

Pressure sensitivity works fine with Sketchable.

Pressure sensitivity works great with Clip Studio Pro.

ArtRage works fine.

Affinity Photo works surprising well, actually better than I expected. This is definitely a very capable app for creating line art.

Pressure sensitivity does not work by default but you can just click a button to activate it. The brushes that I use don't taper well though and I've read online on ways you can change the settings to have pressure taper the strokes but I just can't get them to work. Other than that, pressure sensitivity works well.

Pressure sensitivity does not work by default but activating it is just a button press. Pressure works but it's not easy to consistently create the same thickness. Look at the example with the hatching lines above and you can see the lines of varying thickness even though I drew them quick and at the same pressure for each line.

Both pressure and tilt sensitivity works well with Krita.

With Autodesk Sketchbook, there's more noticeable jitter when drawing diagonal lines. Pressure works fine.

The best apps to use on the Surface Pro 6 for drawing are Medibang Paint Pro, Krita and Clip Studio Paint.

Conclusion

The upgrade from dual to quad core processors is the biggest change from Surface Pro 2017 to Surface Pro 6. That really sped up processor intensive task but unfortunately the processors would throttle quickly and oftentimes unable to maintain even the base clock speed for majority of the time. Having said that, for certain task, quad core processors really help A LOT, such as when exporting videos.

Drawing performance and the overall performance in other areas remain largely similar compared to Surface Pro 2017. So if you are not doing a lot of processor intensive tasks, there's not much reason to upgrade.

For heavy content creators, using a proper desktop workstation is the better choice obviously. The Surface Pro is for those who really need the portability and still need Windows 10.

If you're in the market for a Windows 10 tablet, the Microsoft Surface Pro is a good one to consider. This new model is now more worth the money after the upgrades. So is it worth upgrading to? It depends on how much you value time and if this is going to be your only computer.

As with any tablet device, there are going to be limitations. You have to understand your work and workflow before you can decide if such a device is suitable for you.

Pros
+ Sturdy build quality
+ Significantly improved processing power because of the quad core processors
+ Has a USB 3 Type A port (see con)
+ 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
+ Decent battery life of 9-10 hours.
+ Lots of different configurations available

Cons
- Quad core processors throttles easily because they get hot fast.
- Can be quite warm if you're doing things other than web browsing, watching videos
- Would be great to have a larger screen option
- No USB type C port
- 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
- Surface Pen is not included and cost USD $100.

Availability

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

Before the iPad Air 3 came out, digital artist who might want to draw on the iPad could only choose between the affordable iPad 6 (2018) and the pricey iPad Pro (2018). The iPad 6 is nice for drawing but the drawing experience isn't the best with its non-laminated display.

To see how the new iPad Air 3 compares with the iPad Pro 10.5 (2017), I bought a unit for this review. I wanted to find out if you can have a pro drawing experience without the iPad Pro price tag

The iPad Air 3 has very similar form factor compared to the iPad Pro 10.5 (2017) which has been discontinued on the same day the Air 3 went on sale. The main differences is the A10X Fusion chip and four way speakers in the iPad Pro 10.5 vs the A12 processor and two way speakers in the Air 3. There are other differences but these are the two that stand out to me. Depending on what you do, the processor upgrade may be difficult to notice, but the audio quality and experience with the four way speakers is significantly better. If you're someone who uses your iPad for media consumption heavily, you will thank yourself everyday for getting the four way speakers.

The physical dimension and weight (456g) of the iPad Air 3 is quite similar to the iPad 6, except it's noticeably thinner at just 6.1mm. Despite how thin it is, the build quality feels solid.

In fact, it's thinner than the Apple Pencil. When you charge the Apple Pencil using the lighting port at the back, the tablet would lift off the table.

The 10.5-inch screen supports a resolution of 2224x1668 resolution at 264 pixels per inch. It's a high resolution screen that makes everything looks sharp. Colours look great out of the box with a wide colour gamut support of Wide colour display (P3). There's also true tone.

Brightness can go up to 500 nits which makes it bright enough for outdoor use. But when using at that brightness, you can expect the tablet to get hot and battery life to drop fast.

Battery life depends on what you do. If you're just watching videos, surfing the web and typing documents, you can expect 8 or more hours. If you're outdoors drawing under sunny conditions, expect 5 hours or so. But seriously, the battery life really varies so I can't give you just one number. All I can say is the battery life is above average and at no time with normal usage did I have to worry about it running out of battery power.

There's anti-reflective coating on the glass but don't expect it to work miracles. It just makes the reflection appear more muted. If you're considering a matte screen protector, note that instead of the hard edge reflections, the anti-glare will produce a white haze instead which will affect the colour saturation and contrast levels.

This is the first time Apple Pencil is supported on the iPad Air and it's such a fantastic move. The laminated display has very minimal or no gap between the glass surface and the actual LCD screen, which means when you're drawing, the lines would appear as if they are directly beneath the pen tip, without any gap.

This is how it looks like on the iPad 6's screen. Notice the gap? Because there's a gap, there's also a hollow sound when you tap on the screen with the Apple Pencil or your finger. It's not a big deal but the on the laminated screen, it feels dense when you're tapping on it.

The iPad Air 3 only supports Apple Pencil first generation which charges from the port at the bottom of the tablet. It's an extra US $99 by the way. The Apple Pencil is still the best stylus for drawing on the iPad ever since it was released with the iPad Pro 9.7 inch years ago. It has fantastic palm rejection, pressure and tilt sensitivity.

The overall drawing experience is fantastic. The lines come out just the way I want. The thin and thick transitions are smooth and lines taper nicely. The Apple Pencil is incredibly sensitive so you can draw with the lightest of pressure, and as long as the pen tip is on the screen, you can get a really thin line.

While the iPad Air 3 doesn't have the 120 Hz ProMotion the iPad Pro has, you probably won't notice any difference in screen refresh rate because I doubt you'll be drawing that fast. There will still be a gap that trails behind the pen tip while you draw, that's input lag, but overall the tablet and Apple Pencil combo is very responsive and feels responsive.

Because 10.5 inch is larger than the 9.7 inch screen, you will be able to see your art larger. And because the resolution is higher, you will be able to see more of your art.

The 9.7 inch screen is around the size of an A5 sketchbook. The 10.5 inch feels like a larger A5 sketchbook and that increase in screen size really does makes it a more enjoyable drawing experience, at least to me since I prefer larger screens.

The model that I bought has 64GD of storage which I feel is sufficient for creating digital art. Should you need more storage, you can always get extra iCloud storage later on. That's the cheaper option. If you need constant access to many files, then I suggest you upgrade to the 256GB model which is US $150 more. By comparison, a 200GB iCloud storage for a month is just US $36.

All iPad Air 3 comes with 3GB of RAM. When I created an A4 300DPI canvas with Procreate, I was only able to get 19 layers. The iPad Pro (2018) with 4GB of RAM gets you three times more layers at 57.

The strange thing is, the iPad 6 (2018) with 2GB of RAM also gives you 19 layers.

Pressure and tilt sensitivity work well together. You can vary the thickness of a single stroke just by changing the angle of the Apple Pencil, or vary how dark the line is using pressure. The Apple Pencil is intuitive to work with.

Large textured brushes can be used without lag. And it goes without saying that note taking and handwriting performance is excellent. Apple Pencil is as accurate as it can be.

Navigating with finger gestures such as zoom, pan and rotate are all smooth even if the file is a 5m by 2m 300DPI canvas.

Video review

Conclusion

With the iPad Air 3, you can definitely get a Pro drawing experience without the Pro price tag of the iPad Pro.

Compared to the cheaper iPad 6, you're getting a better drawing experience with the Air 3 mainly because of the laminated screen. That might be worth it to get the US $499 iPad Air 3 instead of the $329 iPad 6 (but usually sells for less on Amazon). The iPad 6 is actually the one I would still recommend for those who are not sure about getting into digital art. It's a more affordable less risky way to find out if you're really into drawing. But if you have the budget, want a larger screen and more satisfying drawing experience, get the iPad Air 3.

Apple is no longer selling the iPad Pro 10.5 inch but you can still find refurbished models (with one year warranty) selling on Apple's website. Those refurbished models are cheaper that the iPad Air 3 and at those pricing I recommend them instead. The A12 vs A10X processor speed difference is not going to be noticeable when it comes to drawing, but the better immersion and stereo of the four way speakers (I know it's not related to drawing) is something you will notice straightaway.

When compared to the iPad Pro (2018) 11 or 12.9 inches, well, of course they are better but they are significantly more expensive and even though I own one, I still don't feel like they are worth that high price tag. The iPad Pro is still an iPad and does iPad things.

So to conclude, yes, the iPad Air 3 is a fantastic portable drawing tablet.

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With the release of the iPad Air 3 and Mac Mini 5, all the tablets from Apple now supports Apple Pencil. That's great news for digital artists because we now have more options to choose from.

The iPad 6 was cheap but the drawing experience wasn't quite like the pricey iPad Pro which is to be expected. Now there's the iPad Air 3 for those who want a better drawing experience without the pro price tag. Additionally, there's also the iPad Mini 5 for those who value portability above all other things.

To test the practicality of sketching on a small tablet like the iPad Mini, I bought myself one to have a go at it. The model I bought is the wifi model that comes with 64GB of storage.

This is my first time using the iPad Mini and my first impression is it's really compact. The screen size is 7.9 inches and the resolution it supports is 2048 by 1536. Because it has the same resolution as the iPad 6 (2018) but in a smaller screen, everything looks slightly sharper.

The size of the iPad Mini is about the size of the 9.7-inch screen of the iPad.

At 6.1mm thick, it's even thicker than the Apple Pencil. So when charging the Apple Pencil using the lightning port at the bottom of the iPad Mini, it even pushes up the tablet. The weight of 300g feels so light. The build quality is solid but because it's so light, it also feels fragile.

This is an iPad that can be comfortable held in one hand, with fingers on the left and right side. It might be better to hold it this way because it's more secure and the brush metal back is kinda smooth.

There are still the thick bezels the top and bottom but those actually make the iPad Mini more comfortable to hold horizontally because you can rest your thumb in that area. Because the screen is small, if you want to rest your hand on the screen while drawing, it's going to block off a significant portion of the screen. The alternative is to raise your palm off the screen and away so that you can see more of the screen but without resting your palm on something, you lose some control.

Since the iPad Mini is so compact, I brought it out to sketch on the public train. I didn't even notice the weight of it in my bag.

While on the train, I held the iPad Mini vertically with a full grip because that's the safest way to hold it with no chance of it slipping. Having a flip case on would certainly make it easier to hold. When the iPad Mini is vertical, I didn't have much space on the right to rest my palm, as such, I had to lift up my palm while drawing. Instead, I rested my palm on my fingers but even so I didn't have the control I wanted.

The Apple Pencil on the glass screen is still considered slippery so you can expect to draw looser, especially when the train is moving. Drawing on a moving platform is never going to be as accurate as setting the iPad down on a table of course.

With the iPad 6 (2018) and case, i was able to feel the weight and case while standing and drawing. I had to relax my holding hand occasionally. With the iPad Mini, it's was almost effortless holding it.

The screen supports DCI P3 colour gamut. Colours and contrast look great. Brightness is good and can go up to 500 nits. Working outdoors under sunny conditions with this tablet is not a problem.

This is a glossy screen so there will still be reflections despite the anti-reflection coating.

Battery life is excellent. 8 hours for the usual internet stuff. Battery life depends on what you do. Drawing and having the brightness too high will draw the battery faster.

Apple Pencil is supported on the iPad Mini now. The laminated display has very minimal or no gap between the glass surface and the actual LCD screen, which means when you're drawing, the lines would appear as if they are directly beneath the pen tip, without any gap.

This is how it looks like on the iPad 6's screen. Notice the gap? Because there's a gap, there's also a hollow sound when you tap on the screen with the Apple Pencil or your finger. It's not a big deal but the on the laminated screen, it feels dense when you're tapping on it.

Apple Pencil is accurate, supports pressure and tilt sensitivity. You can have pressure and tilt sensitivity working at the same time. Palm rejection works great too.

You can draw diagonal lines slowly and there won't be the dreaded jitter issue that affects so many other tablets.

Large textured brushes work great without lag. Navigating huge canvas with zoom, pan and rotate is also very responsive.,/b>

The iPad Mini 5 has 3GB RAM just like the iPad Air 3. In Procreate, you can only get 19 layers with an A4 300DPI canvas. That's the same number of layers you'll get with the iPad 6 (2018) with 2GB RAM. The iPad Pro (2018) with 4GB RAM has three times the layers at 57 layers.

Conclusion

The selling point of the iPad Mini 5 is the portability. Drawing performance on it with the Apple Pencil is fantastic. The only thing I don't like is the 7.9-inch screen feels limiting to me. I'm not able to draw as freely as I can on larger screens. Because the screen is small, you would have to constantly zoom in to draw the details and out to get the context and see where you are. it's part of the process and you do that with other tablets too. On the iPad Mini, you have to deal with your drawing hand blocking a larger portion of the screen too, unless you set this on a table.

This is a very solid product no doubt. This is probably one of the best tablets at this size you can find in the market now. If you love the size, you will love the iPad Mini 5.

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I've been getting many requests to review the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite so here it is.

As usual, my review is from the perspective of an artist. So let's see if this Android tablet is any good for drawing.

This secondhand unit that I bought comes with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM. Retail price is around US $300 at the time of this review. There's a higher spec model with 64GB storage and 4GB of RAM at a, well, higher price.

The and no different from the MediaPad M5 Pro that I've reviewed many months ago.

This tablet comes with a 10.1-inch screen. The 1920 by 1200 resolution for this screen size is adequate and makes everything look sharp enough. Colours look great out of the box.

Depending on where you buy it, it may or may not come bundled with the M-Pen Lite and/or the official Huawei casing.

The screen is incredibly reflective though. There's no gap between the glass and the LCD beneath so there's no parallax. And when you're drawing, the strokes would appear directly beneath the pen tip.

All corners and edges are rounded off. The glass curves into the smooth aluminium metal. The weight is 475g which is reasonable for a tablet this size.

The ports included at the USB-C for charging and data transfer and 3.5mm audio jack. There's a SIM card and MicroSD card slot. It's great that Huawei has included LTE connectivity. Apple charges at least US $100 more for their LTE iPads.

Should you need to expand storage, you can use a MicroSD card. At the time of this review, a 400GB Sandisk MicroSD card is just under US $70. I don't think there's a need to choose the 64GB MediaPad unless you want the 4GB RAM. The 3GB RAM is not a bottleneck.

Oh, the audio quality of the four-way speakers is excellent, significantly better than the two way speakers found in many tablets.

The Huawei MediaPad is designed as a media consumption device that's meant to be used horizontally. When you're looking at the tablet horizontally, the power and volume buttons are at the right side. The fingerprint sensor is at the bottom, and 3.5mm audio jack is at the bottom left.

I find the button placement incredibly awkward to use when the tablet is in vertical format. When the tablet is upright, the power and volume buttons are at the top, and fingerprint on the right. OR the power and volume buttons can be at the bottom -- gasps! -- and fingerprint sensor on the left.

I don't think I'll ever get used to the button placement. In order not to get confused, it's best to use this tablet horizontally.

The MediaPad M5 Lite only supports the M-Pen Lite. This pen cannot be used with the M5 Pro tablet. And the M-Pen Pro cannot be used with the M5 Lite tablet. In short, the styluses are made specifically for the model they are to be used with, and are not interchangeable.

The M-Pen Lite has the same solid build quality as the tablet. The body has a smooth matte surface and it has a hefty weight (probably made of metal).

The M-Pen Lite (left) has a tapered tip like a wooden pencil. The M-Pen Pro (right) has an extended pointed tip. The tapered tip can be replaced but I'm not sure where you can buy replacement tips.

The pen is an active stylus that supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. It's powered by an AAAA battery which, if it's like the Surface Pen, should have a battery life of around 6 months to a year.

Since it's an active stylus, with certain apps, you may see the cursor appear when the pen tip hovers close to the screen, but you have to hover really close to the screen.

Performance

The processor used in this tablet is the Kirin 659 which is Octa-core (4 x 2.36 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4 x 1.7 GHz Cortex-A53). The MediaPad M5 Pro used Kirin 960 (4 x 2.36GHz Cortex-A73, 4 x 1.84GHz Cortex-A53).

According to benchmarks, the processor on the M5 Lite is two times slower than the one on M5 Pro. The slower processor definitely has noticeable impact on the performance and user experience.

The M5 Lite does not feel sluggish but it definitely is not ultra responsive. There's often that split micro-second delay to actions happening. When the tablet is being rotated, there's a noticeable pause before the interface changes orientation. When tapping certain buttons, sometimes there's no response and when I proceed to tap again, the action happens before the second tap.

The lag is not nice obviously but it's not the irritating type of lag. Ultimately, for the price of the tablet and the type of screen that comes with this tablet, many of the flaws can be forgiven. The thing is, when you're watching videos, you aren't going to be tapping around, or navigating much so the lag isn't a big issue.

Battery life is excellent. You can definitely get a minimum of 8 hours usage with its 7500 mAh battery.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance varies significantly depending on the app used.

ArtFlow works best. Pressure sensitivity and palm rejection works well. Lines are smooth without any jaggies. It's responsive too.

ArtRage has noticeable input lag. The line would trail the pen tip by a distance before it catches up. And it seems to have some issues with the pen registering strokes. Sometimes I would draw and nothing comes out.

Medibang Paint Pro has input lag as well. It also has navigation lag. Pinch, zoom and rotate seem to have some stutter, as if the frame rate is low.

Infinite Painter has some input lag as well but otherwise works fine for drawing.

Adobe Sketch works fine and is quite responsive.

With Sketchbook it's difficult to get truly smooth lines. There are wobbles and jaggies with all the strokes.

Note that all tablets with pens will have input lag. It's just that with the MediaPad M5 Lite, the gap between the line and the pen tip is larger than other tablets I've seen. But that input lag does not seem to affect all apps. ArtFlow and Adobe Sketch are quite responsive and have similar input lag I've seen in other tablets, e.g. iPads.

Unless otherwise mentioned, navigation such as zoom, pinch and zoom mostly work smoothly with except in Medibang Paint Pro for some reason.

Pressure sensitivity works well with all the apps. Palm rejection is good but not flawless so do expect some stray strokes when you draw while resting your palm on the screen. It would be good to check your drawing once in a while for stray strokes because you don't want to have a completed drawing only to find stray strokes which are difficult to remove later on.

The hard plastic pen tip is incredibly slippery on the glass surface and that really affects control. It's like sketching on ice. Once you glide, it's not easy to come to an instant stop. This will take some time to get used to. Those who draw fast may find this to affect them more.

Conclusion

This tablet is designed to be a media consumption device. Huawei already gave you a few hints at that with the button placements, 4 ways speakers and the name of the product itself. As a media consumption device, I can rate this 5 out of 5 stars at the price it's selling. If you're just going to be watching videos, checking email, surfing the internet, I don't have much hesitation recommending this over the 9.7-inch iPad.

Yes, there's going to be slight lag occasionally. To make and sell a tablet at this price point, there is bound to be compromises. Here we have excellent build quality, beautiful screen, SIM and MicroSD card slot, wonderful speakers but an average processor. When you know there are going to be compromises, suddenly the lag is not as frustrating because that's something you expected. The only concern is whether this tablet would get slower in the future. If you really want to future-proof the tablet, it's best to get the MediaPad M5 Pro instead.

As a tablet for drawing, performance varies significantly with the apps you use. Of all the apps I've tested, only ArtFlow and Adobe Sketch have the least input lag and are most responsive. My favourite app Medibang Paint Pro even has navigation lag. But it's not like it's slow to zoom, pan or rotate, it's just that the navigation animation appears choppy, like it's updating with slow frame rates. Drawing apps on the iPad definitely have more consistent performance, but the iPad is also more expensive and you also have to consider spending another US $99 for the Apple Pencil.

Ultimately, if you're thinking of getting tablet for drawing, you have to know what you're getting into. If it's just for occasionally sketching or note taking, this may still be a good option mainly because of the low entry price. If you're a beginner, it can help you discover whether or not you like to draw digital without having to invest too much money. But if you already know you're someone who draws often, then this tablet may not be as suitable, unless the main apps you use are Adobe Sketch and ArtFlow. So as a tablet for drawing, I would probably rate this a 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5.

Pros
+ Beautiful design and premium feel
+ Beautiful screen with good colour reproduction
+ Solid build quality
+ 1920 x 1200 resolution is sharp for a 10.1-inch screen
+ Android 8
+ Pen has pressure sensitivity
+ No jitter when drawing diagonal lines slowly
+ M-Pen Lite is relatively accurate
+ SIM and MicroSD card slot available
+ Good battery life
+ Lots of decent drawing apps on Android
+ 4-way speakers have excellent audio quality
+ Good price for the screen and features included

Cons
- There's occasional lag
- Slippery pen tip on the glass surface
- No replacement tips included, and difficult to find where to buy online
- Weird position of the logo, power and volume buttons

Availability

Check out the Amazon affiliate links below for more reviews.

If you buy through those links, I earn a little commission at no extra cost to you.

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Check out my other tech reviews too, at https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/tech-reviews

If you find this review useful, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Big thanks to Veikk for providing the Veikk A15 tablet for this review.

Veikk A15 is a 10x6 inch budget friendly tablet that supports up to 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and comes with a battery-less pen.

The price at the time of this review is around US $50 which is quite affordable for any beginner looking for a graphics tablet. This tablet is sold on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, eBay, Aliexpress and Gearbest. Links are below.

The items included:

• Tablet
• Pen holder
• Pen
• Spare nibs and nib remover
• USB-C to USB-A data cable

A

• rtist glove
• Manual
• Welcome card with driver download link

The design is clean and simple. It's a thin tablet with rounded corners and 12 physical shortcut buttons. The drawing area is a portion of the single surface area that covers the whole tablet.

This ring is actually just for decoration. It's not a dial. And this ring comes in different colours, namely Red, Grey, Gold and Blue. The light indicators are just beside that ring.

The 12 physical shortcut buttons have a firm click to them and work well. They can be configured to any keyboard shortcut, mouse and pre-configured functions (more on that later).

On the back are four rubber feet to prevent the tablet from slipping.

Left handed mode can be selected with the tablet driver. When you turn the tablet upside down, the shortcut button goes to the right. The cable is a reversible USB C so you have have the cable go up or down.

The pen works well, is solid enough but feels plasticky and lightweight.

Two side buttons on the pen can also be configured to any keyboard shortcut, mouse and pre-configured functions.

Veikk is extremely generous with the number of spare nibs supplied. There are so many I didn't even bother to count. That metal piece is the nib remover.

No pen stand is included but there is a pen sleeve.

Driver

The driver must be downloaded from Veikk's website as there's no driver disc included. Functionality for both Mac and Windows drivers are quite similar except Windows Ink functionality on Windows.

On Mac, you can find the tablet driver inside System Preferences. On Windows, you can find it from the Windows menu or desktop.

Pen pressure can be adjusted with a pressure curve. Default pressure works fine for me. The initial activation force is minimal. As long as the tip is on the drawing surface, it would be able to make a really thin line. This is where you can configure the pen's side buttons too.

By default the whole drawing area is mapped to the whole screen. You can also choose to have the pen behave like a mouse. In pen mode, where you click on the tablet will be exactly where it is on your screen. In mouse mode, you're using the pen as if you're using a trackpad.

Left-handed mode can be selected here.

These are the different functionality you can choose for the shortcut buttons. They are quite self explanatory.

Under the Tablet functionality, you can choose these four options:

• Accurate Mode: Allows the cursor to move much slower to give you more precision
• Pen/Erase: Toggle between the pen and eraser in most graphic drawing apps
• Monitor Switch: Allows the mouse cursor to jump from one screen to another screen in dual monitor mode
• Dial Function Switch: No applicable here as there's no dial

Drawing performance

The performance depends on the OS and software used. The drivers I've used here are Mac driver ver 2.0 and Windows driver ver 1.0

Performance in Photoshop CC (Mac) is fine but the line quality really depends on how much smoothing you apply. It can be difficult to maintain a stroke with consistent thickness.

WIth Smoothing at 0%, the stroke can have some jitter to its edges as the pressure varies.

With Smoothing at 25%, the stroke is now smoother. However, sometimes the transition can be a bit abrupt when pressure changes. You could certain increase Smoothing, but there may be input lag – there may be a split second delay before the stroke appears.

Pressure sensitivity doesn't work by default with Adobe Illustrator CC (Mac). You've got to install Wacom Intuos driver to get pressure sensitivity working but that can sometimes cause conflicts with other software.

Affinity Photo (Mac) works well.

Performance with Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) is good. The lines here are smoother compared to Photoshop. The transition from thin to thick is gradual and doesn't have the abrupt transition.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac) works well.

Krita (Mac) works fine.

At the time of review, Photoshop CC (Win) doesn't work with Win tablet driver version 1.0. I managed to get a pre-release driver version 2.0 for testing and it's only then that Photoshop CC works, as in the pen can move the cursor.

Line quality with Photoshop CC (Win) depends on Smoothing. The performance here is quite similar to that on Mac. With 0% Smoothing, it's difficult to maintain consistent line thickness.

With Smoothing increased, there's still the abrupt changes to line thickness as pressure changes. It could be due to Photoshop as other drawing software don't display such issues so easily. But I've got to say that I've used tablets that don't have this problem with Photoshop.

Affinity Photo (Win) works well.

Adobe Illustrator (Win) works well, and pressure sensitivity works without having to install any Wacom driver.

Krita (Win) works fine.

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) works fine.

Pressure sensitivity doesn't work by default with Clip Studio Paint (Win). But the workaround is simple.

You just have to go into CSP preferences to switch on Wintab and pressure will work.

Other drawing software that I've tested on Windows are Sketchbook Pro, Sketchable and Wacom Bamboo Paper. Pressure sensitivity did not work with these three software, even after I toggled Windows Ink on and off. This was tested on the Microsoft Surface Pro 6. When I switched to using the Surface Pen, pressure sensitivity works fine. So it's most likely those three drawing software are not compatible with the tablet driver.

Conclusion

The tablet performs well for drawing with most graphic drawing apps I've tested except Photoshop. So that's the main thing to take note of if the main software you draw with is Photoshop. Hopefully, future drivers will be able to address all the issues with Photoshop in the future.

Overall, it's a decent budget tablet. Design is nice and it works relatively well.

Availability

The Veikk A15 graphics tablet can be found on Amazon and Gearbest. Direct links to the product and more reviews below:

Gearbest | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | eBay | Aliexpress | Lazada Philippines | Lazada Malaysia | Shopee Malaysia | Shopee Philippines

This review unit was provided by Huion for review purposes

I've been featured so many graphics drawing tablets on this blog and my Youtube channel that it's becoming difficult to differentiate them.

The Huion HS610 is a bit different from other drawing tablets I've reviewed so far. This tablet actually works with Android. You can connect this to your Android phone or tablet and draw straightaway. No driver installation needed. This is something new. More on that later.

These are the things included in the box

• Tablet
• Manual
• Battery-less pen and stand
• 8 replacement tip
• USB data cable
• Micro-USB to USB type A adapter
• Micro-USB to USB type C adapter

No driver disc is included so you have to download that yourself.

The inclusion of USB adapter allows you to use it with any phone or tablet that has a Micro-USB or USB C port, which is basically everything out there.

The design looks good and the build quality is solid. It feels like a well made tablet.

The active drawing area is 254 x 158.8mm (10 x 6.25in) when using this with a computer. With a phone, the active area is just a smaller portion of 158.8 x 99.2mm. This portion is a vertical rectangle on the left side closer to the physical buttons.

12 physical shortcut keys are included. You can customise these to specific keyboard shortcuts, mouse action, launch programs or switch display to let the cursor jump to another screen when you're using two monitors.

The physical buttons cannot be held down like the keyboard button to change brush size continuously. To increase a brush size by 10 points for example would require you to press the shortcut button 10 times, unlike just holding down the keyboard button.

There's a touch wheel that has been pre-configured to three functions, zoom, scroll and changing brush sizes. You can toggle between the functions using the button in the centre of the wheel. Unfortunately with the current Windows driver version 14.7.139.536 and Mac driver version 14.3.11, there's little to no customisation to change those function.

If you need even more shortcuts, there are 16 soft keys that you can access with the pen.

The L shape USB cable comes out from the left, slightly towards the top. If you're a left handed user, the cable will be at the bottom right, pointing downwards. In left handed mode, the row of soft keys will be at the bottom.

The pen included does not run on battery and hence does not require charging. This pen supports up to 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity and it supports tilt as well.

The pen is lightweight but solid. There's a huge rubber grip that's nice to hold. The whole pen feels pretty balanced in hand. The two side buttons are also customisable with the driver.

The pen stand included allows the pen to lay down horizontally or held vertically.

Eight replacement tips are hidden inside the pen stand. To access them, just twist and the pen stand would open up.

Drawing on Android

Being able to connect to an Android system (needs version 6 or newer) is an interesting feature.

I'm not sure of the exact use case of such a scenario, but if you do want to draw on an Android device with a tablet, now you can. No driver installation is required. It's plug and play. When the pen hovers over the active area, a cursor will appear on the screen.

Because there is no driver for Android, there's also no customisation for any of the shortcut buttons and pressure sensitivity. By default, thankfully the pressure sensitivity works well so the lack of customisation is not too bad.

Drawing tests

The line quality from the drawing apps on Windows and Mac are the same, so I've only included screenshots for Mac.

This is Photoshop. Pressure sensitivity works well. Lines can transition from thin to thick and back smoothly. Curves don't appear angular when turning and lines taper nicely. Tilt brushes work too.

Photoshop CC (Mac) is responsive but Photoshop CS5 (Mac) has slight lag, as in the line would come out bit by bit as if there's some input lag or the refresh rate lag. Photoshop CC (Windows) has lag

Pressure works fine with Clip Studio Paint.

Medibang Paint Pro also has no issues with the lines.

Conclusion

As a drawing tablet, it performs really well. I did not experience any glitches so this review was really easy to write.

Availability

You can find the Huion HS610 tablet via these affiliate links:

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

This review unit was sponsored by XP-Pen

XP-Pen is a company from Japan that sells lots of drawing tablets and pen displays, many of which I have reviewed on my blog in the past.

The latest drawing tablet from them is the XP-Pen Deco Pro, a professional looking tablet with some pretty cool features. This tablet supports 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, 60 degrees of tilt, has 8 Expresskeys, a physical and virtual wheel, and it is supported by Android (version 6 or newer).

Things included

• Tablet
• USB data cable
• Pen case
• 8 replacement nibs
• Artist glove
• 2 USB adapters
• Manual

The USB data cable has the USB C side that goes to the tablet. The USB A that goes to the computer.

This tablet is actually supported on Android version 6 or newer. XP-Pen has included two USB adapters, one with USB C and the other with microUSB in case you want to draw with your smartphone.

No disc is included with the driver so the driver has to be downloaded from XP-Pen's website.

The cylindrical pen case included is extremely solid. Be careful not to let it roll off the table though.

The pen case can be opened on one end to reveal the nib remover and 8 replacement nibs.

The other end houses the pen. This pen supports up to 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity and has tilt sensitivity up to 60 degrees. This pen is not powered by battery so it doesn't need charging.

The pen looks good and the build quality is solid. The weight is just right. The two side buttons on the pen are customisable.

You can actually use the cap of the pen case as a pen stand if you want to.

Deco Pro comes in two sizes, the medium 11 by 6 inches and 9 by 5 inches. The unit I have is Medium (US $129) and it's quite big. If you want to save money, you can actually just go for the Small model which is US $89. The Small size should still be a rather comfortable size to work with.

The design of the tablet looks sleek with rounded off edges. Build quality is good. The silver parts are metal and the drawing area has a nice matte texture for drawing.

On the full metal back, there are two long strips of rubber to prevent the tablet from moving on the table.

The tablet is quite thin and transitions to slightly thicker to where the buttons are.

The 8 Expresskeys or physical shortcut buttons have firm clicks and feedback.

Right in the middle is a silver coloured wheel which is really smooth to turn. The black part in the middle is the so called virtual wheel which can be customised to make it function like a trackpad that controls the mouse, or as a wheel where you can turn clockwise or anti-clockwise to change settings. Tapping on the virtual wheel registers as a mouse click.

Not sure if you can see clearly but the wheel lights up in blue. The other lights on the tablet are the four markers that mark the drawing boundary. The brightness of the lights can be adjusted.

The USB-C is reversible so you can have the cable go up or down. If you're left handed, you can turn the tablet 180 degrees and have the cable go in whatever direction you want.

Driver

This tablet is supported by Windows and Mac OS.

If you're using Mac OS 10.14 Mojave, there are special installation instructions provided on XP-Pen's website. If you can't find the instructions, there's also a button on the driver which will show you the instructions. Basically, you need to give permission to the driver in Mac OS System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Privacy.

Windows installation is straightforward.

The driver functionality on Mac and Windows is quite similar. On Windows, there's the additional Windows Ink functionality which you may have to use or turn off when pressure sensitivity does not work as expected.

The pressure sensitivity curve can be adjusted with a slider. The two side buttons can be customised with various mouse clicks, pre-defined functions and keyboard shortcuts.

This is where you can customise the physical shortcut buttons and the wheels. If you use certain software often, you can create specific sets of keyboard shortcuts for those software.

These are the pre-defined functions you can choose from.

Nothing much can be done here under the monitor tab.

This is where you can choose mapping area, change the orientation if you're left handed, and adjust the brightness of the lights.

These are the pre-defined functions you can choose for the wheels.

The Windows driver looks like this, with all the options on one page.

Drawing performance

The driver I've used are the Windows and Mac drivers from 25 June 2019. The overall drawing performance is quite good with most of the drawing software I've tested, namely Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Affinity Photo. Illustrator, Medibang Paint Pro and Krita. The only issue was with Krita (Win) where there wasn't any pressure sensitivity but the problem was fixed by using the driver from 12 June 2019 instead.

Photoshop (Mac) works really well with the tablet. Line quality is excellent and this is the same line quality you can expect with all other drawing apps. Thin and thick transition is smooth, lines taper gradually, curves can turn smoothly without looking angular.

Initial activation force is low but you do need to put in a bit of pressure to get a faint line.

Pressure sensitivity works great with Clip Studio Paint (Mac).

Pressure works with Affinity Photo (Mac) too.

Pressure sensitivity works by default on Illustrator (Mac).

Medibang Paint Pro (Mac) performs well with the tablet.

Pressure and tilt sensitivity work fine with Krita (Mac).

Photoshop (Win) performs well.

Pressure works by default with Illustrator (Win).

Medibang Paint Pro (Win) works well.

Clip Studio Paint (Win) works great. If pressure sensitivity doesn't work by default. You may need to go into CSP preferences to toggle the Wintab or Tablet PC option.

Affinity Photo (Win) works fine.

The only software I found an issue with is Krita (Win). Pressure sensitivity just doesn't work with driver version 25 June 2019. When I tried the 12 June 2019 driver, pressure sensitivity works fine.

Conclusion

The XP-Pen Deco Pro is a nice looking tablet with solid build quality that also performs really well at drawing. Performance is consistent, predictable and lines always come out the way I expect them to. The only issue I had was with Krita (Win) but that was easily resolved with a different driver version.

The shortcut buttons and two wheels provide much convenience after customisation.

This tablet is more expensive compared to other budget tablets. However, if you want a more professional tablet, the XP-Pen Deco Pro is a good one to consider.

Availability

You can find XP-Pen Deco Pro via these direct affiliate links:

10% off code: MYHR10MY, valid til July 31, 2019

XP-PEN online store 1 | XP-Pen North America store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp