Review: XP-Pen Artist 16 Pro Tablet
Review: XP-Pen Creative person xvi Pro Tablet
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I'd heard great things well-nigh XP-Pen'south Artist sixteen Pro drawing tablet so imagine my excitement when it arrived at my doorstep.
And later some time with it I was not disappointed!
At a really reasonable price the 16 Pro packs enough dial to compete with much more expensive products on the market. Information technology's definitely a quality tablet for artists with lots of extra goodies to kick.
In this review I'll cover my impressions of the tablet, what yous get with it, and how well it'll work for digital artists of all skill levels. But first let'southward cover the main specs and what you get in the box.
Specs
- Dimensions: 16″ W x 10″ 50 x i.1″ D (without stand up)
- Active area: 13.five″ x 7.half dozen″
- 1920 10 1080 resolution
- eight Express Keys
- Response Fourth dimension: 14ms
What'southward in the Box
- Artist 16 tablet brandish
- Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter
- USB cablevision
- HDMI cable
- 2x Stylus pens
- 2x Pen charging cables
- 8x Replacement nibs
- Stylus penc ase
- Ability brick
- Cleaning material
- XP-Pen drawing glove
- Manual + flash drive with drivers
Initial Impressions
While XP-Pen offers two 15.six" pen displays (the Standard and the Pro), the Creative person 16 Pro has a college quality display with stronger, more vibrant colors.
It also has a custom anti-reflective coating designed to reduce glare. This means you can work easily under bright low-cal or in directly sunlight.
The tablet boasts an HD display of 1920×1080 and comes with an improved, rechargeable pen that supports 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity.
The Artist Pro sixteen ships with an HDMI cable, a reachable pen in a travel case with 8 spare nibs, a USB cable, an creative person's half-glove, dust fabric, and a power brick.
There'due south also a mini display adapter just in case your figurer doesn't have an HDMI port. Very convenient.
The tablet comes mounted on an adjustable stand up so there'southward no need for assembly.
The showtime thing I noticed when I pulled the XP-Pen out of the box was the weight. It'south much lighter than you would expect for a tablet of this size.
It has 8 Limited Keys on the front that can exist easily programmed using a driblet-down menu inside the Tablet software that installs with the drivers.
I found that all the defaults worked well for me, but they are super easy to modify.
I rely heavily on hotkeys for digital painting and having these is a big plus. They actually streamline the workflow and keep me from having to switch back and forth between the tablet and the keyboard.
The Limited Keys are flush with the surface of the tablet and unobtrusive. I was worried that these buttons would feel cheap and exist noisy, but that's but non the example.
They make almost no noise when pressed and experience adept to apply in a regular workflow. The 2 buttons in the middle accept raised nibs so that your fingers can hands navigate without taking your eyes off your work.
Besides the Express Keys, the drawing tablet has a row of buttons along the side merely like a normal monitor.
With these you can adjust the brightness, color, contrast, and other settings. I dearest this because I tend to find a lot of screens are likewise bright for my taste. It was easy to bring the effulgence down to a comfortable level with the press of a few of buttons.
These buttons, still, do experience a trivial clunky. But seeing as you shouldn't demand to use them very often I don't recollect it's an outcome.
The tablet is mounted on a heavy-duty adaptable stand. There'south a minor lever that yous pull to unlock the stand up which allows you to fix the tablet to whatever bending between 15 and 85 degrees.
What's dandy are the condom grips on the feet that proceed it from sliding beyond the desk. I've heard some artists complain that the stand would slide on them as they worked, only I didn't have this trouble.
The stand up is, however, quite bulky and raises the tablet a few inches from the surface of the table.
Depending on your set this may or may not exist comfortable for you.
The skillful news is that the stand up is removable in case you lot desire to lay it completely flat on the table. Information technology'southward held in place by a few easily removable screws.
And because the cables plug into the side of the drawing tablet yous can lay it flat without a problem.
Installation
The setup process was painless.
In the box was a flash drive with instructions for downloading and installing the necessary drivers.
I noticed that XP-Pen had recently updated their drivers for this product. That'south usually skilful sign equally information technology means a well-supported product that's kept up-to-date.
I plugged in the ability cord, the HDMI and USB cables, and connected the tablet to my Windows computer. I should add I'grand running Windows 10.
I downloaded and installed the drivers right from the XP-Pen website.
This installed the PenTablet software that lets y'all calibrate the pen, adjust the sensitivity of the force per unit area, and program the Express Keys.
Quick Notation: if y'all already have another tablet driver installed y'all will need to uninstall those drivers and restart your machine before you install the new ones. It's at least a safety precaution to make sure it all gets installed properly.
The Drawing Pen
Afterward installing the correct drivers I configured the resolution and calibrated the pen. I opened Photoshop to requite it a test run and was pleasantly surprised to observe everything worked perfectly!
The pen is very responsive and the sensitivity is fluid, but it'southward hard to imagine that anyone could actually sense the 8,192 levels of pressure that XP-Pen claims for this product.
The pen has two customizable buttons on the side and is bombardment powered. Don't worry, the pen is quickly rechargeable with the USB cord that ships with the tablet.
There's no indicator for how much energy is left in the pen simply it can go weeks or even months without needing to be re-charged.
I've been using it daily for a week and the pen is still going strong.
My tablet came with 2 pens and ii USB chargers which is super convenient.
Even if one pen does dice I've got a fill-in ready to go then I don't have to miss a beat.
The pen itself is lightweight and has a nice comfort grip. The two buttons on the pen are themselves customizable too.
By default the forepart push is set to right click and the dorsum is fix to toggle between the brush and eraser tools.
The Drawing Experience
Cartoon on the tablet feels skillful. The matte blanket gives a slight texture to the drawing surface which is good news because some tablets can feel too much similar drawing on glass.
That picayune bit of resistance when you slide the pen goes a long mode towards an organic drawing experience.
On the other hand, if y'all're one of those artists who dislikes having the "bite" of texture when you're drawing, don't worry. The matte coating is removable.
It peels off hands and can fifty-fifty be replaced if y'all change your listen.
Information technology'southward easy to get consistent line widths and smooth transitions along the pressure curve with this product.
In some tablets the pressure isn't smooth and the line width volition suddenly jump unexpectedly or experience difficult to control, but the Creative person 16 Pro doesn't have that trouble.
I will say that initially, the calibration was in drastic demand of adjustment. Information technology was easy to ready using the PenTablet software though. Just click "calibrate" so tap the four corners of the drawing surface with your pen.
Also I found that the default sensitivity curve was too heavy for my taste.
I like to utilize a light touch on with very little pressure level and I found myself having to push downwardly a piffling too hard to get pen to activate. Luckily it was an easy problem to fix.
There's a sliding curve that you can adjust to change the sensitivity in the PenTablet software. Pulling that bend down a little gave me the result I was looking for.
Considering the drawing surface lies slightly above the screen, in that location is some distance betwixt the pen tip and the position of the cursor when you lot draw.
This commencement is known as parallax and information technology's a common consequence with budget tablets.
I barely noticed it after a few minutes of work but I could encounter how some artist might accept an event here.
I rely on hotkeys for working digitally and and so having the 8 Express Keys was a big plus to me. I spent some time customizing these to my liking. I prepare them to zoom in & zoom out, increase & decrease brush size, select, eye dropper, and move tools.
I had the castor and eraser tools hot-keyed to the pen itself and this meant I hardly even needed to utilise the keyboard. That's exactly what I was going for.
Now this did produce some bug. Get-go, the tablet is very lightweight and the stand only grips on the back.
When I was pushing the limited keys the tablet would rock on the stand up. I had to grip it from behind and use my thumb to work the express keys to prevent this from happening.
Another trouble with the hotkeys is that they don't seem to register if I printing and hold them.
Significant that, for example, If I wanted to increment my brush size I had to click the button several times instead of just pressing and holding.
This combined with the rocking trouble that I described above got rather annoying. I institute myself nevertheless using the keyboard for certain commands.
I worked with the display at a roughly 45-caste angle which I found very comfortable. It does make a huge difference existence able to piece of work upright. I was able to depict for hours without feeling any discomfort.
I tested the product in Photoshop, Krita, Gimp, and Aseprite. Information technology worked well in every unmarried program.
I as well discovered that the cartoon tablet will function even when the tablet monitor is off so long as the USB cablevision is connected. A big plus.
Pros
The Creative person 16 Pro has a truly cute Hard disk drive display with 92% pct color accuracy.
This is a huge bonus for illustrators and other artists looking to print their work. I was really impressed with the vibrancy and the clarity of the colour.
Installation was piece of cake.
There'southward a lot of options for customization. The display has its own controls for color, contrast, gamma, brightness, etc.
The PenTablet software that installs with the drivers grants command over the sensitivity, Express Keys, and offers quick calibration options. It only took a few adjustments to get the settings I wanted.
XP-Pen offers good back up for their products and updates the drivers often.
Likewise the stylus pen is highly responsive. There's a smooth curve that you typically don't find with budget tablets. The drawing feel is the virtually important aspect of a pen display in my opinion, and the Creative person 16 Pro really shines in this area.
The tablet is lightweight and comes mounted on an easily adjustable stand making it a keen addition to your permanent desktop setup.
This tablet works for both left-handed and right-handed artists too.
Cons
The parallax is not great. I got used to it and able to use menus, only I can meet information technology existence abrasive to some artists who desire more accuracy between the cursor and the pen tip.
The scale gets a little off around the edges of the monitor and this is common with many tablets.
It's not a major trouble but something to scout out for.
And there's going to be some wobble when you lot're working with the tablet on the stand, even when it's laid downwardly flat. This is especially truthful if you're using the Express Keys.
Terminal Thoughts
I found the Artist 16 Pro to be a truly solid product that shines in all the right areas.
The display is vibrant with a high level of colour accuracy. The drawing experience was honestly better than I had expected. The pen is responsive and the pressure bend is smooth.
With a textured drawing surface and the adjustable stand up this tablet is very comfortable to work with. Installation was like shooting fish in a barrel and it'southward exactly what you would expect for a product similar this.
The tablet itself has a very sleek design that looks as good as it feels.
Both the pen and the brandish are highly customizable which is something I look for in a production like this.
There were some problems like pen parallax and a wobbly stand that might be a trouble for some users. But if you tin can get used to that and if this fits inside your upkeep then the XP-Pen Creative person 16 Pro is a strong product and well worth its price tag.
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Writer: Josh Petty
Josh is an artist and game programmer who specializes in sci-fi, fantasy, and abstract art. His work employs vibrant colors and combines elements of glitch art, outrun, retro-gamming, neo-geo, and conceptual art. He trained as an oil painter before picking up 3D modeling, animation, and programming. He now runs Brain Jar, a small game evolution studio that focuses on experimental, narrative-driven content. You can acquire more on the website or on Twitter @brainjargames.
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Source: https://conceptartempire.com/xp-pen-artist16-pro-review/
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