There’s no denying that in the previous few years, we’ve seen a veritable explosion of pen and show tablets from competing corporations. At this stage within the aggressive recreation, the toughest half for creatives has been determining what makes one pill higher or completely different than one other at every funds degree.
Effectively, XPPen might have simply set a brand new bar degree with the launch of their $599 Gen 2 Artist Professional 16 (and 14) inch show tablets by making them the world’s first show pill with 16,384 (16K) ranges of strain sensitivity.
In keeping with the corporate, this new and improved degree of pen strain sensitivity will deal with the technical points discovered when working with different tablets – problems with lag, latency, instability, and disconnections when working with heavier (or extraordinarily gentle) pen strokes. This can enable for a lot finer line captures, smoother brush strokes, and a a lot quicker responsiveness which the corporate claims has been improved by upwards of 20% (for the accuracy) and a 1.5x quicker responsiveness.
XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2): Design and Construct High quality
Out of the field, the XPPen Artist Professional 16 Gen 2 arguably improved the design high quality over their earlier fashions with a glossy and minimalistic design. Included within the field are the pen show itself, the wi-fi shortcut distant, a microfiber cleansing material, a drawing glove, the pen case with stylus and extra equipment (further nibs, USB-A receiver, and so on), fast begin information/guarantee playing cards, and a number of USB-A/C cables and energy adapters.
The pill itself encompasses a easy steel again and the entrance has a fairly giant bezel (appears we preserve shifting backwards and forwards between subsequent to no or manner an excessive amount of on this entrance from technology to technology) however nonetheless presents a workable and totally laminated display screen floor space of 13.57 inches (344.68 millimeters) x 8.48 inches (215.42 millimeters). Close to the underside of the pill customers will discover a small wrist-rest sloped space for just a little extra consolation do you have to use the pill on a customized stand or mendacity flat. Additionally, since we’re speaking about hand-to-tablet info, it’s price noting that the XPPen Artist Professional 16 (gen 2) does not characteristic any contact controls.
On the highest fringe of the pill customers will discover two buttons alongside the left-hand facet. One for powering the pill on and off, and the opposite for adjusting the brightness. Close to the center of this edge are the 2 recessed USB-C connections. The brand new pill can function off of a single USB-C cable offered it’s a correct connection, however older units that want to make use of a USB-C adapter must use the second port to hook up with the offered energy provide.
On the bottom of the machine, customers will discover a set of rubber toes to grip onto no matter desk/desk floor they could discover themselves engaged on, and as an added bonus, the rubber-coated strip alongside the highest additionally unfolds from the left and proper to supply customers with a built-in kick-stand/toes to show the pill at a significantly better angle for drawing on. Ideally, I’d like this to be just a little extra adjustable but it surely’s significantly better than not having a stand in any respect. The excellent news is you’ll be able to choose up quite a lot of adjustable stands from the XPPen web store do you have to desire a distinct angle for viewing and dealing with the show pill
The pill itself is simply 0.796 inches thick (20.23 millimeters) on its thickest (high) facet and weighs just a little over 3 kilos making it heavier than I used to be anticipating, however nonetheless comparatively light-weight for its dimension. Nonetheless although, given its bigger bezel dimension, as soon as positioned on a floor you’ll be able to fairly simply hand-hold the pill to work on do you have to desire that methodology.
XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2): The Pen
The pen for the Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2) comes with a reasonably sleek-looking steel enclosure to maintain all of the little equipment like spare nibs and the USB dongle for the keypad secure whereas touring. Out of the field, the pen has a plastic nib included so the drawing expertise feels very easy and just like most different tablets in the marketplace. If you need a extra tactile pen-to-paper really feel, customers can swap out for the felt fashion nibs.
The case has a spring-loaded really feel to get entry to the within of the case with the nib instrument constructed proper into the inner compartment, principally letting customers deal with the instrument like a pen stand to take away and insert new nibs.
Whereas the pen is snug and correct, I’ve to say that this is applicable after you’ve run the calibration. And it is best to do that each time you join and disconnect the machine. I don’t know if it was simply my M1 Mac appearing up as I do a lot of product testing which may trigger some driver complications between contemporary resets, however every time I’d reconnect the pill after placing it away, the pen would typically be a bit out of alignment with the place my curse was on the display screen. The excellent news is the calibration instrument (constructed into the XPPen Utility) is a really quick and easy-to-run checkup that merely locations crosshairs within the 4 corners and useless middle of the display screen so that you can click on. As soon as that is executed your pen is insanely correct proper as much as the very edges of the display screen.
As I discussed above, the brand new pen with this pill options 16,384 ranges of strain sensitivity making it rather more correct for creatives. I believe this characteristic is certainly extra necessary for illustrators and animators than a retoucher, however even for me with picture retouching, the standard of the strain sensitivity was undoubtedly noticeable, permitting me to do rather more precision edits with out having to depend on manually adjusting my pen/brush dimension and opacity/stream ranges each few seconds. Extra importantly, this stylus options an eraser on the again! Making it a lot simpler for creatives to shortly undo parts of a earlier edit/brush stroke.
In keeping with the corporate, the brand new pens have a response time of 90ms with an preliminary activation drive of simply 3g and a 0.6mm retraction distance (how a lot the nibs transfer within the pen housing). This was one thing I by no means actually gave a lot consideration to beforehand, however after studying about this characteristic I dug out my completely different tablets and their respective pens to seek out that the brand new XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2) pen does certainly have a greater/tighter feeling pen nib. That means, when precision issues, this may undoubtedly do the job higher than many of the others.
XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2): The Shortcut Distant
Transferring away from built-in buttons and hooked up pen holders, the Gen 2 pill provides a brand new (optionally) wi-fi shortcut remote that provides customers 10 programmable buttons and a rotating jog dial the place customers can program a customized format of their most steadily used keyboard instructions to assist customers keep targeted as a substitute of reaching for the keyboard when they’re of their artistic zones.
The software program permits for 4 “modes” per software do you have to select to customise your most used functions and settings your self, all of that are simply navigated utilizing the Pen-Pill software from XPPen. Initially, you’ll have to attach (and cost) the shortcut keypad utilizing a USB-C cable, however as soon as that is executed it is best to get upwards of 300 hours of life out of it between recharging.
Along with the button customization, the software program permits customers to set their most well-liked rotation of the keypad as nicely, giving them a smoother enhancing expertise no matter being left or right-handed.
XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2): The Show/Pill
The show of the pill offers customers a pleasant 16:10 facet ratio, 2560×1980 most decision, and a 60Hz refresh fee with a working display screen space of 13.57 inches x 8.48 inches making it a really snug working dimension for creatives to retouch or draw/illustrate on. The anti-glare floor was a pleasant contact as nicely preserving reflections and glare to a minimal when working in brighter environments (like with my overhead lamps).
The matte end on the glass additionally helps preserve any smudging and scuffs to a minimal (which is a giant concern for individuals who’ve labored with tablets over prolonged intervals of time). However, as soon as once more, XPPen has deliberate forward and likewise constructed optional screen protectors for his or her varied show tablets, giving customers the liberty to make use of the tablets loads rougher than they in any other case would whereas nonetheless preserving the lifetime of the display screen prolonged. They aren’t costly, however I do want they might have not less than included a single pattern when buying the show pill to show its price.
Whereas on the subject of the matte-finished display screen, whereas the impression is subsequent to nothing, it’s price noting that there’s a little little bit of what I’d name a “movie grain” impact on the decision of your picture. It’s not likely noticeable when working up shut, however in case you’re sitting again from the display screen and say, simply utilizing it as a second monitor for watching movies or net shopping, you’ll undoubtedly discover the “graininess”.
The corporate studies the pill has a 178-degree viewing angle and check out as I would, there was solely minimal coloration shifting even when mendacity down virtually consistent with the display screen. Utilizing the newest colorimeter from Datacolor to calibrate the screens, I discovered that the corporate’s claims of a 99% sRGB protection had been certainly correct, nevertheless, the Adobe RGB and P3 claims had been considerably off with my checks reporting only a 75% protection. Not essentially a dealbreaker for many, however for working professionals who demand one of the best coloration accuracy in the whole lot they do, this will not be the pill for them. Since there’s no hole between the glass and the LCD, there’s completely no parallax and no breaks between the pen tip and the road on the display screen.
Lastly, the show itself at max brightness solely presents about 200-206 nits which isn’t dangerous particularly contemplating its inexpensive value level. It’s undoubtedly ample for working in a vivid room.
XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2): Utilization and Efficiency
The XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2) helps Home windows 7 or later, macOS 10.10 or later, Android (USB3.1 DP1.2), Chrome OS 88 (or later), and reportedly even Linux. On the time of this overview, I haven’t formally examined it on Linux (utilizing my Steam Deck) however I’ll strive it quickly and may replace it if requested within the feedback). When you’ve put in the drivers, utilizing the pill is fairly simple with the settings being fairly acquainted to anybody who’s used a pen or show pill previously. Customers can modify the mapped space of the display screen in addition to reposition the show in an order of their desire. That is additionally the place you’ll discover the above-mentioned calibration instrument for the pen, in addition to the place all the opposite settings for adjusting the pen and keypad controls are discovered.
Placing the mixture of the wi-fi keypad, the extra delicate pen, and the pill to work left me with a reasonably satisfying expertise. I liked the truth that the pill had built-in legs giving me the liberty to work with it as a conventional pill mendacity flat on my desk, or elevated utilizing the legs on the again (and even hand-held). I retouched a number of marriage ceremony photographs utilizing the pill in addition to some high-fashion work with some spectacular and speedy outcomes. Since I’m no illustrator/painter, I can’t actually attest to how significantly better the 16k strain is than all the opposite 8k fashion pens, however I can say truthfully that the distinction was not less than noticeable and appreciated throughout my dodge and burn work, and even with instruments corresponding to liquify. I’m undecided why however I felt just like the response and accuracy had been significantly better utilizing this pill over some others I’ve not too long ago examined. As you’ll be able to see from the scribbles under, it truly is loads simpler to attract easy and intensely skinny traces/sections with very minimal strain (simply gravity), and it’s wildly responsive with every further degree of strain you apply.
I think about somebody who’s a significantly better artist than myself would profit tremendously from the pill’s means to transition from thick to skinny traces and tapered brush strokes. Both manner, whilst only a lowly picture retoucher, the additional sensitivity was noticeable and helpful and I skilled no jitter or wobbling apart from from my very own shaky fingers. Additionally, as an added worth to the pill, in case you’re utilizing a contemporary laptop that helps energy over the USB-C cable, you need to use this pill whereas on location. It’s precisely moveable like another smaller tablets just like the Wacom One, however you’ll be able to very simply carry this with you to a espresso store to work on, powered simply by the USB-C connection out of your laptop computer making it a much better and simpler expertise than earlier generations of show tablets that require a show port/HDMI connection together with the USB-A/USB-C cables.
An Extremely Correct Drawing Expertise At An Reasonably priced Value
Truthfully, apart from the colour accuracy, I’ve been having a tough time discovering faults in most of the tablets which have come my manner this previous yr. The XPPen Artist Professional 16 (Gen 2) appears to be a really modern and purposeful improve over its predecessor that gives customers one of the vital correct pen-to-screen performances in the marketplace. The one draw back (apart from the Adobe RGB and P3 coloration accuracy) is truthfully the very fact it doesn’t embrace a display screen protector, journey case, and/or extra adjustable stand. That being stated, the pill is fairly inexpensive, as are the non-compulsory equipment, so it’s not a dealbreaker. I simply want there was an all-in-one type of bundle to make the expertise (particularly for brand new customers) a a lot simpler one.
Both manner, the customizable wi-fi keydial and premium and wildly correct pen expertise make this inexpensive pill really feel on the premium facet, not less than till you’re able to spend the massive bucks.
Are There Options?
There are loads of choices for creatives on the lookout for various pen show tablets. Beginning with the basic Wacom model, we’ve the $399 Wacom One 12 Display Tablet, the $299 Wacom One 13.3″ Inventive Show (with out contact), and the $599.95 Wacom One 13 Touch Display. Leaping as much as $799 for the Wacom Cintiq 16 Full HD pill if you wish to go into the marginally extra skilled degree Wacom tablets.
With the choice manufacturers, customers might need to contemplate the XPPen Artist 10 Gen 2 for $152, the Innovator 16 for $299, and the Artist Pro 16TP for $629. Moreover, Huion has the Kamvas 12 for $164, the Kamvas Pro 12 for $219, and the Kanvas Pro 13 for $369.
Then leaping as much as the extraordinarily skilled degree, there may be the $3,500 Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 and the $1,899 Xence Labs Pen Display 24 which supply a a lot bigger display screen and coloration correct show for the actually discerning creatives.
Ought to You Purchase It?
Except you’re a working skilled that calls for absolute coloration and distinction perfection throughout every working house, the XPPen Artist Professional 16 is definitely well worth the funding at solely $599. The pill does cowl 99% of the sRGB coloration house, which is greater than sufficient for most customers.
