Not a sponsored review

The Apple iPad mini 7 was released October 2024 and is an update to the iPad mini 6 from late 2021. Price starts from USD 499 with 128GB storage and does not include the USD 129 Apple Pencil Pro.

Here are the upgrades:

• Apple 17 Pro chip - variant from the one used in the iPhone 15 (2023)
• RAM increased from 4GB to 8GB
• Starting internal storage from 64GB to 128GB
• Support for Apple Pencil Pro with hover, haptic, barrel roll, squeeze features
• USB-C transfer speed increased from 5Gbps to 10Gbps
• Support for Apple Intelligence

Things that remained the same are the price at USD 499. Jelly scroll is still as obvious as the previous model. Display still runs at 60Hz. The tablet does not support Stage Manager so you can't connect this to an external display and use it as a desktop.

Bottom line

The main selling point of the iPad mini is it's the only small format tablet with great pen support.

The pen performance for drawing and writing is fantastic. For drawing experience, it really depends on whether you see the smaller display as a pro or con. The pro is this can be the most portable and capable digital sketchpad. The con is the screen is small and may not be satisfying to draw on due to the size.

As someone who sketches outdoors, I always bring my 11-inch iPad Pro around in a bag, so it doesn't really matter whether it's 8.4 or 11-inches. 8.4-inch can be held in one hand comfortably, but I don't find the 11-inch overly unwieldy by comparison. 293g vs 444g weight difference isn't too significant to me.

If you're thinking of upgrading, it will come down to whether you need or want the Apple Pencil Pro features. This new iPad mini no longer works with Apple Pencil 2.

Specifications

• Display: 8.3 inches, Liquid Retina, 2266 x 1488 pixels, 326 ppi
• Refresh rate60Hz
• Brightness500 nits
• Processor: A17 Pro chip with 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU
• RAM: 8GB
• Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• Operating System: iPadOS 18
• Camera: 12MP Wide rear camera, 12MP Ultra Wide front camera
• Selfie Camera: 12MP Ultra Wide
• Battery: Up to 10 hours of web browsing or video playback
• Charging: 20W USB-C Power Adapter
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, optional 5G, Bluetooth 5.3
• Port: USB-C 10Gbps
• Weight: 293 grams (Wi-Fi) / 297 grams (Wi-Fi + Cellular)
• Colors: Blue, Purple, Starlight, Space Grey
• Price: Starting at $499 for the Wi-Fi model

Design

Design of the iPad mini looks similar to the previous model, and still looks good today. This tablet weighs 293g and can be held in one hand easily. This design is the main selling point for people who prefer a compact lightweight device that's easy to bring around and handle.

I'm currently using another 8.4-inch tablet, the Alldocube iPlay 60 Mini Turbo (video review) and I actually pick that up at home more often compared to the 11-inch iPad Pro unless I really need to use the iPad Pro for specific work.

There's something about a small form factor tablet that makes it so convenient to just pick up for reading, web browsing, social media and watching videos.

Oh, an 12MP f2/4 front camera is still on the portrait orientation.

The iPad mini still uses Touch ID for fingerprint unlock. At the top you'll also find the volume buttons.

Camera on the back is 12MP f/1.8. These are the same cameras from the previous gen. The Starlight colour shown above is gorgeous.

USB-C port transfer speed has increased from 5Gbps to 10Gbps. This tablet can output video but you'll only get mirror mode since there's no Stage Manager external desktop feature.

Display

The iPad mini 7 display is still LCD and refresh rate is still 60Hz. The display does feel dated considering the expensive price point of this tablet. Advertised brightness is 500 nits.

M4 iPad Pro with OLED vs iPad mini 7

When using the M4 iPad Pro and the iPad mini 7 indoors, the visual difference between the displays is not that significant, but I do notice the extra contrast from the OLED display. When used outdoors under direct sunlight, the LCD is difficult to see.

Since I use my tablets outdoors under bright conditions often, I need the 1000 nits brightness from the M4 iPad Pro. The extra brightness it the only reason why I upgraded from the M2 to M4 iPad Pro.

The anti-reflective coating works well, but brightness won't be high enough to go through the bright reflections.

Jelly scroll

Jelly scroll issue/effect still exists when tablet is in portrait orientation. If you look at the photo above, you can see the right side of the display refreshed earlier than then left side. If there's no jelly scroll, I won't be able to tell you which side of the display refreshes faster.

This jelly scroll issue/effect is more noticeable when you scroll at normal speed rather than with high speed scrolling.

There are many reviews out there saying that jelly scroll has been fixed or minimised. I can only say jelly scroll still exists but I cannot say whether it has improved because I no longer have the iPad mini 6 by the side to compare.

By the way, all tablets will have jelly scroll. The only reason why it's such a big issue with the iPad mini is because it's more noticeable compared to other tablets.

Would you be affected by jelly scroll? It's best to see the tablet in person yourself to know the answer.

Apple Pencil Pro

iPad mini 7 supports Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil USB-C (no pressure sensitivity).

Apple Pencil Pro is sold separately for USD 129.

Apple Pencil Pro supports cursor hover, double tap shortcuts, magnetic pairing and charging, haptic feedback, squeeze to show shortcuts, barrel roll and lost location finder with Find My app.

Cursor hover is new to the iPad mini because Apple Pencil 2 does not support with iPad mini 6. There's also the barrel roll feature where you can rotate the cursor by rotating the pen.

If you already have intention to get the Apple Pencil Pro, that's great because this new iPad mini now supports that pen. If you already have the iPad mini 6 and is thinking of upgrading, I'm just not sure the Apple Pencil Pro new features are worth upgrading for, but that of course will depend on how you use the pen.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and the pen tip. Latency performance is good but there's still the 60Hz fresh rate animation which isn't as smooth compared to 120Hz.

I've already gotten used to drawing on glass display so I no longer use matte screen protectors. The pen is smooth on the glass but not slippery. If you prefer a more tactile drawing experience and don't mind sacrificing some display quality, you can certainly still go with a matte screen protector (I recommend SuperShieldz because it's cheap and good).

Apple Pencil Pro will attach to the side of the tablet magnetically for charging. I don't know how long the battery is for the pen but as long as you keep the pen attached when not using it, you don't really have to worry about the battery life. I do recommend getting case that can prevent the pen from dislodging by the side.

Creative and visual apps

iPads have a huge selection of feature-rich drawing, graphic design and video editing apps.

Below are non-exhaustive lists for some of the popular creative apps:

Drawing

• Procreate
• Medibang Paint
• Medibang Pro
• Clip Studio Paint
• Sketchbook Pro
• Tayasui Sketches Pro
• Concepts
• PaintStorm
• Infinite Painter
• Affinity Photo
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Fresco
• ArtStudio Pro

Graphic design

• Affinity Photo
• Affinity Designer
• Vectornator
• Amadine
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Affinity Publisher

As mentioned, apps that have minimal UI elements will work better on the smaller display.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience with Apple Pencil Pro is great, and has always been great since the first gen Apple Pencil.

The pen has support for tilt, pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. I actually do not use many of the new features, such as barrel roll, squeeze and tap shortcuts. I do use haptic which lets me know when I've activated a certain shortcut (by mistake).

The 11-inch iPad Pro's drawing area is almost 2 times of the iPad mini's. One advantage of the larger display is you can rest your palm comfortably on the glass while drawing, and palm rejection works great. Resting your palm on the iPad mini while drawing or writing means covering the already small display.

This small display does not work well with drawing apps that have many UI elements, such as Krita, Medibang Paint, PaintStorm, Clip Studio Paint (but there's a new tablet mode).

These are sketches that I've drawn while commuting on the train. This was drawn while I was seated

And these sketches were drawn while I was standing. While it's more convenient to hold an 8.4 vs 11.-inch tablet for drawing while standing, I certainly do not have any problems holding the 11-inch M4 iPad Pro (444g) while standing and sketching.

Below are the number of layers you can get for an A4 sized 300 DPI canvas in Procreate.

Looking at the layer count, it seems the iPad mini 7 has 8GB RAM.

Conclusion

Spending USD 499 for a tablet with 128GB storage and USD 129 for Apple Pencil Pro is expensive.

The iPad mini is a good tablet. If you don't already have a tablet and want something compact, the iPad mini is a good choice.

For the high price, I wish there are more substantial upgrades but this is what it is. The iPad mini is basically on the same tier as the iPad Air, both below the iPad Pro.

If you already have an older iPad mini that's still working, I don't think it's worth upgrading to unless you really need the new features from Apple Pencil Pro. I personally do not use the new features from Apple Pencil Pro. Upgrading from an iPad mini 5 or 6 is basically spending money to buy a tablet to do something your old tablet already can do.

If you don't actually need the pen support, you can actually go with the Alldocube iPlay 60 Mini Turbo with 128GB storage for just USD 180. It's crazy how affordable Android tablets are.

If you have more budget, the Lenovo Y700 (2024) has more features than the iPad mini but again there's no pen support, but more importantly there may be no Global ROM for Google Play Store.

I find it sad that Samsung does not have Galaxy tablet of this size that compete with the iPad mini. Can you imagine a 8.4-inch tablet from Samsung that has 120Hz OLED display, an included pen, and Samsung Dex desktop mode for external displays? Instead, we have the iPad mini without competition simply because it has awesome pen support.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Compact and portable
+ Lightweight
+ Build quality
+ Beautiful design
+ Anti-reflective coating
+ Good brightness
+ 6hr 30min battery life at max brightness
+ Touch ID
+ Apple Pencil Pro support
+ Tilt and pressure sensitivity works well
+ Palm rejection works well
+ USB-C 10Gbps file transfer
+ Good audio quality
- Jelly effect when scrolling in portrait orientation
- Keyboard covers good portion in landscape orientation
- Hand will cover a larger proportion of the display while drawing
- No Stage Manager

Availability

You can get the iPad mini 7 from Apple online store, Amazon (US | CA

The monthly newsletters weren't sent for the last few months because I was crazy busy. I had to handle my home renovation, and had to deal with my web hosting company which messed up my website migration so badly I could not write anything for more than a month.

I hope I can get back into the habit of (remembering and) sending out these monthly roundup newsletter now.

If you're reading this and have not subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so here.

Books

• James Jean's Eternal Spiral
• The World of Tim Burton (exhibition companion artbook)
• Workmanship of Risk: Sculpture by Michael Cooper
• The Art of Diablo: Volume II
• Sketch Your World: A Guide to Sketch Journaling
• Sea of Stars: The Concept Art of Bryce Kho

Art product reviews

• Baohong Academy Watercolour Sketchbook (100% cotton)

Tech reviews

• Microsoft Surface Laptop 7
• Ugee UT3: 14-inch android tablet with pen support
• ASUS ProArt PA27JCV 5K 27-inch display
• Ugee UT2 Android drawing tablet
• Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (2024)
• Parblo Intangbo SW pen tablet
• Veikk Studio 16 pen display
• Huion Kamvas 13 gen 3 pen display (2024)
• ASUS ProArt PA279CRV 4K 27-inch display
• ASUS ProArt P16 (H7606) 2024 laptop
• GAOMON PD1561 pen display
• OnePlus Pad 2 with OnePlus Stylo 2
• Kuxiu X53 rotating laptop stand with hub
• Huion Inspiroy Frego
• Apple iPad mini 7 (2024)
• XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) pen display
• ASUS ProArt PA279CRV 4K 27-inch display
• ASUS ProArt P16 (H7606) 2024 laptop

Youtube videos

• Stylised line and flat colour style with Concepts app (tutorial)
• Weekend sketchwalk at Amoy St: What a crowd!
• Ohuhu 150 Marker Pad review: Totally Bleedproof
• Sketching at Somerset Youth Park (Oct 2023)
• Ashley Wood Investigations artbooks (review)
• Arrtx OROS Alcohol Markers review: Cheap and Good
• Line art urban sketch at East Coast Joo Chiat Rd (tutorial)
• Custom design watercolour palettes from Neena Studios
• Baohong Academy Watercolour Sketchbook FULL review (and Penang sketchbook tour)
• Urban Sketching vs Urban Sewing (Kampong Glam sketchwalk with Korean friends)
• 2 days before AsiaLink Sketchwalk 2024 Penang
• 1 day before ALSW 2024 Penang
• Day 1 at ALSW 2024 Penang
• Day 2 at ALSW 2024 Penang
• Day 3 at ALSW 2024 Penang
• Day 4 at ALSW 2024 Penang

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You're supporting the art community, publishers, artists directly too, because that's what this blog is about.

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Review unit provided by Onyx

The Onyx Boox Note Air4 C is a 10.3-inch e-Ink e-reader tablet released in October 2024. This is a minor update over the Onyx Boox Note Air3 C (reviewed in 2023). The user experience with this new model is mostly similar to the previous model.

As this new e-reader is quite similar to the previous model, I've repeated portions of the review from the previous model below.

Shown below are the key differences between the two models.

The upgrades include an increase in CPU performance (company claims 50% better), more RAM from 4GB to 6GB, better refresh rate, and an "improved Kaleido 3 screen" with "lighter background color".

From what I see online, the company did not list the processor for the previous Note Air3 C (CPU-Z shows SD 665), and there were actually reports of different processors and even battery capacity (3700 vs 4300 mAh).

For this tablet, Geekbench 6 listed 6x 1.71Ghz and 2x 2.07Ghz. CPU-Z listed Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G. DevCheck listed Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 (SM6350).

Bottom line

The Onyx Boox Note Air4 C is a beautiful e-Ink tablet with solid build quality. This tablet is quite responsive by e-Ink tablet standards and web browsing is actually usable. The 10.3-inch display is suitable for reading PDFs, comics and magazines compared to 8-inch tablets. Google Play Store is available so you can install your own e-book store apps. Battery life is decent.

Colours look muted which is not surprisingly for an e-reader. I no longer have the previous model to compare so I can't say for sure if there's any improvement to the colour vibrancy, or if the e-ink gray background is indeed lighter.

Having said that, the colours and gray background look alright to me. From what I can remember, the visual quality looks identical to the previous model.

Downsides. An e-ink display will not have instant responsiveness which is to be expected. Performance is smooth enough though. Main downside is the apps stored in memory has a tendency to quit after some time. Five apps can be opened but when you swipe up to switch to another, some apps would be gone. Interestingly, the increase in RAM wasn't able to store more apps in memory.

Things included

• Tablet
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• SIM ejection tool
• BOOX Pen Plus, with cap
• User guide
• Warranty guide

The magnetic flip case protects the front and back of the tablet, but not the sides. There's auto-wake and sleep function.

The flip case is quite thin but well made. There's a magnetic flap that prevents the pen from falling off from the side, and can attach to the back of the cover. The flip case does add some weight to the tablet but you can always remove it to use the tablet alone.

The case can deploy the e-reader horizontally and vertically (shown above).

Design

6.7-inch phone beside the 10.3-inch e-Ink display

The tablet is quite thin at 5.8mm and weighs 420g. The power button has a fingerprint sensor which works fast and effectively.

On the side with the thicker bezels, there's the USB-C charging port, microSD card slot and two stereo speakers with low volume and hollow sound. There's no 3.5mm audio jack so to listen to audio books, it's best to use wireless earphones for best audio quality.

Due to where the USB-C port is, the flip case has to be opened for charging. USB-C port has transfer speed of 230 MB/s (measured).

The bezels are thin except for the one thicker side for your hand to hold. There are no physical page flip buttons so you'll have to rely on the touchscreen to flip pages.

The Onyx Boox Note Air4 C uses a 10.3-inch display with Kaleido 3 technology which supports 16 levels of grayscale (300PPI) and 4096 colours (150PPI).

The company claims this is an improved display with lighter background, faster refresh rate and is able to show off muted colours better.

The 10.3-inch display is a good size for reading PDFs, comics and magazines because text can be presented larger. If you don't read PDFs, comics or magazines often, there's no compelling reason to get a larger display, and you consider an 8-inch e-reader which is smaller and lighter.

One advantage of the larger display is there's space to put the Android navigation bar below with 5 shortcuts instead of using the swipe gestures.

The display has BW resolution of 1860 x 2480 with 300 PPI and 150 PPI for colour resolution.

An 8-inch display is actually more than big enough for just reading text. A 10.3-inch display can show larger text and is good for those with poor eyesight.

Contrast of the text against the gray e-ink background looks good when your room is bright. If you're reading with curtains closed, increasing the brightness to 50-75% would improve contrast greatly. Using higher brightness will drain battery faster, but battery life is good even with the extra brightness.

I don't really have any major issues with the gray of the e-ink background.

This display is so big you can hold it horizontally (there's auto rotate) and display 2 columns of text.

300 PPI text is sharp and looks great. Reading experience is very satisfying.

You can install dictionaries as well.

Shown above is the e-Ink Kaleido 3 display against LCD (Ugee UT2. Obviously e-Ink cannot reproduce colours like LCD displays. The selling point of e-Ink displays is they are more comfortable to eyes for reading, especially for long periods of time. Reading on e-Ink canvas is not very different from reading on paper.

When using a web browser, the scrolling animation is quite smooth and responsive despite the latency. Even Amazon Kindle app's annoying page flip animation looks alright.

Web pages can load fast so I actually don't mind browsing the web (for reading purposes) with this tablet. The larger 10.3-inch screen is about to display webpages quite well, and the text is big. The experience will be still better with reading text than viewing images due to the limited colour support and contrast. Gray coloured checkboxes and radio buttons will not show. Tabs will reload often due to lack of RAM or how RAM is allocated. UI scaling cannot be changed.

To access the e-Ink settings, you can set a shortcut to swipe up from the bottom, or swipe from the top right to show the control panel. I prefer to have the 5-button Android navigation bar at the bottom instead.

The refresh modes available are:

• HD - Good display effect, suitable for general text reading
• Balanced - With slightly heavier ghosting, suitable for thumbing through documents
• Fast - With slight detail loss, suitable for browsing websites
• Ultrafast - With heavy detail loss, suitable for playing videos
• Regal - Minimal ghosting, slightly flickering on dark backgrounds, suitable for light-coloured backgrounds

Reach refresh mode is a compromise between page refresh speed vs amount of ghosting.

The best refresh mode in my opinion is Balanced with slight ghosting and reasonably fast page refresh speed.

There are actually more settings hidden on secondary page of the e-ink settings:

• System Refresh - Automatic full-refresh after dragging and releasing
• Drag to refresh: 1s to 5s
• Page scrolling speed: HD, fast
• Full-refresh by tap count: Specific to the active app. Global setting for this (for all apps) is located Settings -> System Display
• Animation Filter Time: 0 - 3000
• Display Enhancement
• Anti-flicker: 0 - 32

This is how a coloured comic page would look with default settings.

Here's a look how coloured comics look at default settings: 30% dark colour enhancement, 0% vividness enhancement, 0% colour brightness.

This is with 30% dark colour enhancement, 100% vividness enhancement, 0% colour brightness.

This is with 30% dark colour enhancement, 100% vividness enhancement, 100% colour brightness.

The visual difference when increasing both vividness and colour brightness to 100% isn't that noticeable unless you have two tablets side by side to compare.

This is with 100% dark colour enhancement, 100% vividness enhancement, 100% colour brightness.

Increasing dark colour enhancement produces a visible difference but it's not for the better.

The best way to make the colours look better is keep the default settings and increase the front light brightness.

Obviously having colours is better than having no colours. So despite the limited colour support, the addition of colours does improve the satisfaction of reading colour comics or magazines. Hopefully the colour technology can improve soon.

If you don't read comics or magazines, then you won't benefit much from a colour display.

Front light

The front light is quite even. To adjust the front light, you can swipe down from the top right for the slider controls. Or you can go into the settings to set invisible virtual sliders on screen on the sides if you change the lights often.

This is how the warm light looks.

General performance

This tablet runs on Android 13 and has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Most of my e-books are accessed from the cloud so I'm not too worried about storage capacity, but you can always add a microSD card for more storage.

There's some discrepancies as to what the processor is. Geekbench 6 listed 6x 1.71Ghz and 2x 2.07Ghz. CPU-Z listed Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G. DevCheck listed Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 (SM6350).

Overall performance is smooth enough for an e-ink tablet but can't compete with normal tablets obviously. Apps are able to open fast, multi-tasking is smooth, and even web browsing is usable.

Software and OS

Onyx is running their own UI on top of Android 13 and it's a minimalist UI without many features. It's also good to see there isn't much isn't any bloatware.

The homescreen UI now looks like a typical Android tablet home screen instead of having a section tab bar by the left, and there's no option in the settings to change the home screen.

Like most Android tablets, you can swipe down from the top right to access the control panel. Here you can access the E Ink Centre to adjust colour and page settings, and adjust brightness among other settings.

The Nav Ball feature is very useful, You can move the Nav Ball anywhere on the screen, press it and 9 customisable shortcuts will appear. I use this all the time. I use to go to the home screen instead of swiping up from the bottom of the display.

Having Google Play Store makes this tablet so versatile.

With Google Play Store, you can install your own e-book stores and access your existing e-books. You can install cloud storage apps to access your e-books from the cloud. You can install your own web browsers, note taking and drawing apps.

The default reader app NeoReader v3 is quite capable but if there are e-book formats you cannot open, you can install other e-book readers.

Note taking performance

The included pen has a nice matte surface, grooves on the body, and a good grip. The pen uses EMR technology and is not powered by battery and does not require pairing to work with the tablet. There is no side button and no eraser on the back.

The pen is almost cylindrical except for a flat side that attaches magnetically to the side of the tablet.

The pen uses Wacom EMR technology so this tablet can be used with other pens that use Wacom EMR tech too, e.g. Samsung S Pen.

The pen supports tilt, pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. Pen tip is quite firm and has minimal to no movement.

Extra pen tip are not included, but you can buy them from BOOX online store.

The Boox pen is great. However, the pen nibs are textured and may wear down faster on the textured display. To replace pen nibs, I recommend you research how much the replacement pen nibs are vs getting another Wacom EMR pen with more durable pen nibs.

Writing performance is satisfying. The display is laminated with almost no gap between the line and the pen tip. The display is matte textured so there's extra tactile experience when writing with the textured pen tip. Palm rejection works well for apps that support palm rejection. You can rest your palm on the display to write without fear of introducing stray strokes.

If you use the default note taking app, there's almost no latency which is quite incredible.

How colour swatches look with Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote also has similar latency performance, BUT the experience is different. When writing, the lines will be thin first and the line style will only update after a period of in activity.

For example, if you choose a thick pen, you can write fast and see what you're writing (thin line), the actual thick line will appear later.

Microsoft OneNote is the only third party note taking app that has improved latency. The other apps I've tested with lousy latency are Squid, Bamboo Paper, Inkredible and GoodNotes. That's even if you have enabled ultrafast page refresh.

Drawing performance

Latency with drawing apps is bad. This tablet is not suitable for drawing unless you use the default note taking app for that.

Cursor tracking is accurate. There are no gaps and no overshooting when joining lines.

There's tilt support, and the pencil texture from the default note taking app looks good.

The default note taking app actually has pretty good drawing performance and support for pressure sensitivity.

The anti-glare on the matte textured display is excellent when used under direct sunlight. Unlike other matte textured surface, this anti-glare does not diffuse reflections to make the whole display glaring and blindingly bright.

Conclusion

The Onyx Boox Note Air4 C is an e-ink tablet that looks good, has solid build quality, and rather responsive performance. Reading experience is satisfying on the 10.3-inch display. Page refresh is quite fast and ghosting isn't much of an issue.

This e-ink e-reader is ideal for those who often read PDFs, comics and magazines because the larger display can display text at larger sizes. The addition of colour also make reading coloured pages more enjoyable.

Google Play Store is a huge selling point.

The downsides or limitations would be the less than ideal audio quality from speakers, and the apps kept in memory often quit.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean and simple design
+ Solid build quality
+ Larger 10.3-inch display is better for reading PDFs , magazines, comics
+ Matte textured surface for tactile writing experience
+ Anti-glare is excellent under direct sunlight
+ Visuals are sharp with 300 PPI for BW and 150 PPI for colour
+ MicroSD card slot
+ Power button with fingerprint unlock
+ Pen included
+ Pen is not battery powered
+ Pen supports tilt, pressure and palm rejection
+ Overall performance quite responsive
+ Page flips are quite fast
+ Minimal ghosting
+ Good writing experience
+ Google Play Store included
+ Navigation ball and shortcuts are very useful
+ No bloatware included
+ Rather even front light
+ 8 to 10 hours battery life
- e-ink canvas gray is kinda dark
- Colours could be more vibrant
- No physical shortcut buttons, no volume buttons
- Pen has no side button, no eraser
- Speaker has low volume and sounds hollow
- No 3.5mm audio jack
- Flip case has to be opened to charge the tablet

Availability

You can buy the Boox Note Air3 C from Boox online store.

From Singapore? You can buy it on Shopee SG.

Huion will be having their 2024 Black Friday sales from November 11th to December 2nd. The main sales page is here.

Check out the list of discounted products below, and also my recommendations since I've actually reviewed many of them. The links will be to Huion's online store, and to my full reviews if available. As my details are long, you may save time my just comparing the list of pros and cons.

Products prices highlighted in red are those with the most discount.

Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section regarding these products.

Pen displays

In case you don't know, a pen display is a monitor that you can draw on, and it has to be connected to a computer. A pen display will let you use your desktop software.

The latest Huion Kamvas Pro 19 (above) released this year will also be on discount, at 20% off actually. It provides a wonderful drawing experience because the pen is really sensitive and accurate, and one of the main selling point is it also features a touchscreen. There aren't many pen displays with touchscreen so this is one of those rare ones.

If you want something more affordable, consider the Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (2.5K) selling at USD 479 during the sale. It's a decent size and the display is reasonable sharp with 2560 x 1440 resolution.

If you want higher resolution, there are the Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (4K) and Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus (4K) selling at USD 599 and USD 719 respectively.

Huion sells pen displays at various sizes from 12-inch to 27-inch, and with various resolution, so there's a huge variety to choose from depending on your budget and maybe table space.

If you want something even more affordable, consider the Huion Kamvas 22 Plus which I recommend quite often because this pen display provides amazing visual quality.

Pen Computers

Huion Kamvas Slate is an affordable 10.1-inch portable Android tablet targeted at beginners.

For more advanced digital artists, there's the Huion Kamvas Studio 16 which is a portable 15.8-inch tablet running Windows 11. And yes it supports a touchscreen. This is one of the rare Windows tablets that has good drawing performance.

Pen Tablets

For those with limited budget, you can always get a pen tablet (without screens).

I will highly recommend you get the Frego M instead of the S because the larger size pairs well with more monitor sizes, and the S's pen does not support tilt sensitivity.

While not listed in the list above, Huion actually sells a lot more pen tablets that you can find from their online store. So to see more options, just check out their online store or this list of Huion products I've reviewed over the years.

Review unit on loan from Wacom Singapore

The Wacom Movink (model DTH135K0A) is a 13.3-inch OLED touchscreen pen display released in mid 2024. The price is USD 749 (SGD 1099).

Bottom line

The Wacom Movink looks good and works great. Pen performance is really good, as expected from Wacom. OLED display is bright, vibrant and has excellent contrast.

How well the touchscreen works (including palm rejection) will depend on which OS you use. The touchscreen works better on Windows, but has inconsistent performance with MacOS.

The Wacom driver has more features than expected.

Downsides would probably be the lack of hotkeys? The price may seem high but there aren't many OLED touchscreen pen displays out there in the market, and this is one that works really well.

This is Wacom's first pen display with an OLED display and it's impressive. I can't wait for larger Wacom Movink pen displays.

Specifications

• Display: 13.3-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels
• Weight: 420g (0.93 lbs)
• Thickness: 4mm to 6.6mm
• Color Accuracy: Pantone Validated and Pantone SkinTone Validated
• Contrast Ratio: 100,000:1
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz
• Response time: 0.2ms
• Display surface: AG (Anti-glare) glass + AF (Anti-fingerprint) coating
• Pen: Wacom Pro Pen 3 with tilt detection and pressure sensitivity
• Pressure Levels: 8,192 levels
• Pen Tilt Recognition:± 60 levels
• Pen Resolution: 5080 LPI
• Pen Technology: Wacom EMR (Electro-Magnetic Resonance)
• Touch Technology: Advanced touch technology with customizable touch keys
• Ports:Two USB-C video ports
• Compatibility: Works with Mac, PC, Android, ChromeOS
• Anti-Glare Screen: Reduces glare and provides a smooth drawing experience

Things included

• Wacom Movink 13
• Wacom Pro Pen 3 with Nib holder
• USB-C to C cable (1m)
• Nib holder with 3 replacement Nibs (1 standard, 2 Felt) and Nib remover
• Quick Start Guide (digital guide)

Accessories

These are the optional accessories sent to me for review purposes:

• Wacom Movink Tablet Sleeve - USD 44.95 (SGD 69)
• Wacom Foldable Stand for Movink - USD 79.95 (SGD 119)
• Wacom Converter (HDMI to USB-C) - USD 79.95 (SGD 119)
• Wacom Rollup Case - SGD 55

The Wacom Rollup Case can hold the convertor and two pens. The material is leather-like texture but probably not real leather.

The foldable stand pairs well with the pen display because the bottom "latch" does not protrude much and won't make your resting wrist uncomfortable.

Design

The Wacom Movink is surprisingly thin at 4mm to 6.6mm (thickest). Weight is just 420g.

Wacom markets this pen display as portable and it is certainly easy to bring around, but this is a pen display so it will have to connect to a computer to work.

The back is matte textured metal with two long stripes of rubber for grip. The back is quite susceptible to fingerprints.

There's one USB-C video port on the left, and below that is the power and OSD button.

The right has also has one USB-C video port, and the power and OSD button. There's also a LED status light at the corner.

Settings from the OSD menu can be adjusted with the pen.

Display

Visual quality of the OLED display made by Samsung is stunning.

Colours look great out of the box. Advertised colour support is 100% DCI-P3, 95% AdobeRGB, brightness is 350 nits. Contrast level is 1,000,000:1.

This is an OLED display so there will be PWM. People with sensitive eyes may be affected by PWM. If you're unsure whether you will be affected by PWM, it's best to find an OLED display (may not have to be the Wacom Movink) to see for yourself.

1080P resolution on a 13.3-inch display is still sharp enough but pixelation will still be noticeable. Refresh rate is 60Hz.

The display surface is matte but is still slightly glossy. Anti-glare works well enough and there's anti-fingerprint coating.

This review unit has some scratches so just know that this matte glass surface can be scratched. The pen tip is unlikely to scratch the display but be careful with other sharp or hard objects.

Pen draws and writes very smoothly on the matte surface. It's definitely smoother than surfaces of typical matte screen protectors. It's smooth but not slippery so I don't have much issue.

All matte surfaces will introduce some grain and colour noise and on this pen display those are kept to a minimum so visual quality still looks good.

Touchscreen works better with Windows than on MacOS. Palm rejection on MacOS isn't as good, and sometimes finger gestures won't activate.

Driver

Mac and Windows drivers are available.

While the Wacom Movink can be used with other pens that support Wacom EMR, the driver can only customise the Wacom pens. Shown above is a Wacom pen with two side buttons and an eraser.

Shown above are the customisation options available for included Wacom Pro Pen 3. I've set one button to Display Toggle (Display Switch) and it works fine.

Pressure sensitivity is adjusted by a slider, not a pressure curve.

There's one touch hotkey on each side that can be customised.

The touchscreen can be disabled if you don't want to use touch. Since touch does not work well with MacOS, that's when you may want to disable touch.

Display settings can be accessed from the power button.

Display Toggle or Display Switch is an essential feature for dual display setup. It works well.

To make up for the lack of hotkeys, Wacom has included virtual hotkeys called Radial Menus and Grid Panels.

Shortcuts are customisable and you can set the virtual keys to appear where the pen tip is.

This is quite useful.

Various Grid Panels can be created for different apps you use.

Pen

This is the included Wacom Pro Pen 3 that supports tilt and 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. This pen uses Wacom EMR and hence has no battery and does not require charging, and does not use Bluetooth for connection.

The pen is quite slim and comfortable to hold. Those who prefer a thicker pen may have to buy thicker pens, e.g. Wacom One, but you would be missing extra side buttons.

The pen has three customisable side buttons. Pen tip is firm and has no movement. Pen tip is slightly textured.

Back of the pen can be unscrewed to review three replacement pen tips and the nib remover.

The worn out pen tip is supposed to go all the way into the nib remover, and you can tilt and pull the pen tip out.

Line tests

These are line tests created with Medibang Paint Pro on Windows.

I find the pressure performance to vary quite noticeably depending on which OS and app you use. Generally speaking, drawing apps on Windows have better pressure performance, as in I was able to create thin and thick line variations more easily.

1. After adjusting the pressure curve, I was able to draw thin lines easily with a thick brush. There's no or no noticeable diagonal line wobble or jitter.

2. Lines are able to taper quite smoothly, but it could be smoother.

3. Line transition from thin to thick is smooth. Thin lines can be drawn easily after drawing the thick lines.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently by applying consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test. Separate lines can be joined without gaps or lines overshooting.

Cursor is always directly beneath the pen tip, even if the pen is tilted at a low angle.

Pen performance is good, quite predictable and consistent.

Drawing experience

This was drawn with Medibang Paint (Windows).

Pressure works great. Drawing experience is good. I was drawing with minimal pressure to get the thin lines and could get the thicker lines when pressing the pen harder.

For this app, zoom gesture will zoom in opposite direction. Pan and rotate works fine.

Drawn with Medibang Paint Pro (Mac). Pressure works well.

There's no palm rejection with the Mac version of this app. Placing my palm on the right side might activate tools from palettes from the right which rarely happens on Windows. Drawing experience is not ideal without palm rejection. Panning the canvas moves in opposite direction.

This was a quick sketch drawn with Sketchbook Pro (Mac).

Sketchbook Pro does not have pressure curve adjustment. Pressure sensitivity with this app is not as good as others. It was difficult for me to create thin and thick line variation with the drawing above when drawing normally.

Since MacOS does not support touch gestures, sometimes touch would not work even with the correct gestures. Erasing with the pen shortcut button may introduce stray stroke unless you release the button away from the display.

Sketchbook Pro on Windows has better pressure performance. Touch gestures work fine. There is still the problem with creating stray strokes with the eraser button unless you release the button away from the display.

Clip Studio Paint for Windows work fine. Pressure, touch gestures and palm rejection work well.

Since the pen draws well, it also writes well.

Conclusion

I am very impressed by the Wacom Movink.

The OLED display looks gorgeous because it's an OLED display, of course.

What really surprised me was the touchscreen works really well with Windows, which usually has some issues with touchscreens. Downside is the touchscreen does not work consistently with MacOS.

Drawing performance is good of course. While pen performance isn't as good as the pens from Wacom Cintiqs, pen performance is still pretty good. The pen performance would be on par with Apple Pencil and Samsung S Pen.

One area of concern is whether there will be any burn-in with OLED with long term usage. When drawing, the UI will be static for hours so that could be problematic. As I only have this review unit for such a short period of time, I can't comment any further regarding the durability.

The Wacom Movink is a good product for all the reasons listed above. With OLED pen displays in the market, digital artists have more options to choose from and that's good as well.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Surprisingly thin
+ Bright and vibrant OLED display
+ Single cable connection with USB-C
+ Wacom Pro Pen 3 has three buttons
+ Good pen performance
+ Driver has many features
+ The virtual hotkeys make up for the lack of physical hotkeys
+ Touchscreen works better with Windows than with MacOS
+ The Wacom folding stand is good, but not included
- HDMI connection requires an adapter that's sold separately
- Screen can be scratched
- More hotkeys would be useful
- Pricey
? Potential burn-in from long term usage

Availability

The Wacom Movink pen display can be purchased from Wacom online store, and Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP)

If you have intention to buy this pen display, considering using the Amazon affiliate links above to support my blog and the work I do here.

XPPen will be having their 2024 Black Friday sales from Nov 11 to Dec 9.

Listed below are the discounted items from the USA and Canada online stores. And further below are my personal recommendations as I have reviewed many of their products.

Links are direct to the online stores.

Products prices highlighted in red are those with the most discount.

My recommendations

If you're new to pen displays, just know that these are monitors that have to connect to computers. And XPPen is one of the more popular sellers of pen displays.

Currently the best pen displays from XPPen are from the gen 2 series (links below to my full reviews), namely

• XPPen Artist Pro 14 (gen 2)
• XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2)
• XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2)
• XPPen Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 4K
• Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 165Hz

Which to get really comes down to which size you're looking for, your budget and perhaps your table space.

If you have limited budget, I recommend the XPPen Artist Pro 14 (gen 2) which is selling at USD 335 or CA $471 during this sale. You'll also get a shortcut remote with the pen display. One huge selling point for me is the display aspect ratio is 16:10.

If you have more budget, then consider the XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2) which also has a 16:10 aspect ratio display. The resolution is higher at 2560 x 1600 vs 1920 x 1200 that you get from the 14-inch model. I measured colour support for 98% AdobeRGB which is very impressive. Price is USD 509 or CA $593 during the sale. Yes it's significantly more expensive but it is noticeably better than the 14-inch thanks to the extra sharpness and better colour accuracy.

And if you have even more budget, you can consider the recently released Artist Pro 19 (gen 2), Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 4K or Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 165Hz.

Advantages of a larger pen display is you get more space for drawing and for the UI elements from the drawing apps. You'll also get 4K resolution from these three pen displays so visuals are real sharp.

Needless to say, the drawing performance from all these pen displays is good.

In terms of value for money, I would recommend Artist Pro 16 (gen 2) because it's a good size to draw on, colour accuracy is fantastic, and visuals are sharp, and the 16:10 aspect ratio.

If you want something portable, consider the 12.1-inch XPPen Magic Drawing Pad which has pretty good drawing performance. This is a versatile Android tablet with Google Play Store. Price during the sale is USD 424 or CA $586.

Oh, all the products I've mentioned above come with a nice matte glass surface so the tactile drawing experience is wonderful.

I've reviewed almost all the products except for the new 24-inch gen 2s. If you have questions, feel free to ask me in the comment section.

Review sample provided by Etchr Lab

In addition to watercolour sketchbooks, Etchr Lab also sells watercolour paper blocks and the company has sent me some to test.

Disclaimer: I've also reviewed several of their sketchbooks before and they are quite good.

Etch Lab sells wood pulp, 50% cotton and 100% cotton watercolour paper blocks in various sizes. Make sure you don't buy the wrong paper. This review is for the 100% cotton watercolour paper. Since I've not tested their wood pulp and 50% cotton watercolour paper, I can't say anything about their quality.

The watercolour blocks are available in coldpress and hotpress. Each pad has 20 sheets and the paper is 350gsm 100% cotton, acid-free, vegan friendly. There's no mention of the company that actually makes the paper.

Price at the time of review is SGD 117 (USD 88) for a set of two and this includes global delivery. You can choose a set with two coldpress, two hotpress, or have one each.

Interestingly, the company also provides two years warranty that warrant their products "to be free from manufacturing defects in materials, workmanship, and failure or breakage of parts/full products that render them non-functional".

The block is glued on four sides to prevent the paper from buckling too much. The top side is not glued to the cover.

A little card with a QR code is included to give you access to free tutorials on their website.

These are some tests I've created.

Both hotpress and coldpress texture are not ideal for coloured pencil work. There's more texture on the hotpress surface that I expected. Filling colours into the tooth of the paper is difficult.

The above tests were created with 25% cotton watercolour paper from Fabriano 1264. The first test has three horizontal lines painted on a wet surface to see if the lines can blend and disappear. Second test is a colour blending test. Third test is a gradation test.

Performance of the coldpress and hotpress paper is almost identical. The horizontal line is able to blend and almost disappear and this is a good result. Colour blending is smooth as long as you use enough water. There are no issues with creating colour gradation.

The paper white is considered traditional white and colours appear vibrant on the paper.

The 100% cotton watercolour paper from Etchr Lab performs well with wet on wet techniques. With good quality watercolour paper, the water will do most of the work for you when it comes to blending colours. On lousy watercolour paper, the paint will not move much, as you can see with the Fabriano 1264 (test #1).

The 350gsm can handle lots of water and multiple layers of washes, but there will still be slight buckling which isn't too much of an issue since the paper is glued on the four sides.

The coldpress paper does not have noticeable grain paper. It terms of texture, it's more of fine grain, certainly less "sandy" compared to Arches.

Whether pen will work well will depend on what pen you use. I've tested the Uniball Signo Gelstick with roller ball and it created rough lines too easily while I prefer solid lines. The Uniball Air which is also a roller ball pen is able to draw solid lines more easily. Fountain pens should work fine depending on ink flow.

The coldpress texture has no discernible artificial looking pattern. Paint can be lifted easily as long as it's not a staining paint, e.g. Phthalo or Quinacridone.

This was painted with hotpress.

Hotpress paper is more suited for details, and the smoother surface works better for pen and ink.

Texture and granulation is less obvious compared to coldpress. If you like textures, definitely go with coldpress.

The main thing about this hotpress paper is, it seems to have slightly more texture compared to other hotpress paper that I've tested. But it may be subjective.

The paper works great with mixed media.

The 100% cotton Etchr Lab watercolour paper block is certainly worth trying. Overall, the paper quality is good and wet on wet techniques work great. I wish the coldpress has slightly more texture, and wish the hotpress is slightly smoother. I'll update this review in the future as I use the paper more.

Watercolour paper market is a tough market because there are so many brands out there that make good paper. There's Arches, Fabriano, Lanaquarelle, and even Baohong and more.

In terms of pricing, this paper is as expensive as Arches. Is it as good as Arches? That's a difficult question to answer. Paper choice is quite subjective and you really have to test the paper to get a good feel whether it's suitable for you and the type of art you create.

When compared to Fabriano Artistico, the other popular brand, Fabriano is noticeably less expensive and hence provides more value for money. I personally prefer Fabriano Artistico over Arches and it's not because of the price.

Availability

This paper is available from Etchr Lab online store.

Review sample provided by the publisher

This is one of those book series where if you get one book, you kinda have to get all the other books.

365 Squares is a daily art challenge France-based artist Moon has created for himself. I've already reviewed volume 1 and volume 2 and they are amazing artbooks. This third volume is great too.

This book was actually listed on Kickstarter in April 2024 and was funded successfully within an hour by 645 backers.

The book is now available for sale at €40 to the general public through publisher Editions Caurette's online store.

Print format of the book is the same as the earlier too. It's still a thick 376-page squarish hardcover. The original artworks were created on 15 x 15cm paper and this artbook has them reproduced at actual size. The paper is low gloss and colours look great.

The artworks were created with a sketching style using mixed media. You can see coloured line art, watercolour paint, coloured pencils and more. Moon has his own unique blend of surrealism for the fantasy characters and environments that he creates. This personal project of his is an incredible exercise of creativity, and for us who have the book it's a source of inspiration.

This is a fantastic and beautiful artbook that I can recommend easily. This will go to my list of favourites from 2024. Those who love sketchbooks will love this book.

You can see more art from Moon through these links:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Website
• Youtube

Clip Studio Paint is now 60% off until Nov 26, 2024.

This is the best time to get that one-time purchase.

Here's the updated listed of recommended pen displays for 2024.

The recommendations below are based on experience of having reviewed so many pen displays over the years. I've personally tested many of the pen displays listed below so whenever possible I will link to my full review.

What's a pen display?

A pen display is essentially a monitor that you can draw on. And since it's a monitor, you'll have to connect it to a computer.

A pen display is not a portable tablet even though some are really thin. There's no built-in battery and there's no OS.

USD 100 - 200

UGEE UE16

The UGEE UE16 was released in 2024 and can be thought of as the successor to the UGEE U1600 (review), a no-frills pen display that's frequently selling at just USD 160 on Amazon, but it has been discontinued.

The UGEE UE16 is a 15.4-inch pen display with hotkeys. Pen performance is good and the pricing of USD 180 is extremely competitive because pen displays of such size are usually USD 200 or more.

This pen display gets an easy recommendation from me because with a budget of USD 180, you can only get 12 to 13-inch pen displays from other companies.

USD 200 - 300

In this price category, we are looking at mid-range 12 to 16-inch pen displays.

Options to consider are

• Veikk Studio 16 - USD 269
• Huion Kamvas 13 (gen 3) - USD 224
• XPPen Artist 13 (gen 2) - USD 224
• XPPen Artist 16 (gen 2) - USD 299
• Wacom One - USD 299

The clear winner here is the Huion Kamvas 13 (gen 3) because it has great pen performance, display is brighter than the other and has good colour accuracy, and there are hotkeys and even two dials.

If you want something bigger, consider the XPPen Artist 16 (gen 2).

USD 300 - 400

Options are

• Huion Kamvas 13 (2.5K) - USD 319
• XPPen Artist Pro 14 (gen 2) - USD 335
• XPPen Artist 22 (gen 2) - USD 349

The clear winner here is XPPen Artist Pro 14 (gen 2) because it's larger than the Huion and it also comes with a shortcut remote. I like the design better too.

If you want the biggest that your budget can get you, then consider the XPPen Artist 22 (gen 2).

USD 400 - 600

• XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2) - USD 509
• Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (2.5K) - USD 479
• Huion Kamvas 22 Plus - USD 499
• Gaomon PD1621 - USD 599

In this price category, I prefer the XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2) simply because of its 16:10 aspect ratio, and my table isn't that big. If you want a big pen display, go with the Huion Kamvas 22 Plus because the visual quality of its display is one of the best among all pen displays I've tested. Resolution is 1080P though.

If you want a touchscreen, there's the Gaomon PD1621. I've not reviewed that before so I can't say how it performs.

USD 600 - 800

• Wacom Movink - USD 749
• Huion Kamvas 24 Plus - USD 719

The Wacom Movink is a 13.3-inch touchscreen OLED pen display that looks amazing and performs well. Downside of course is the size but 13.3-inch isn't that small. If you want something big, then you can't go wrong with the Huion Kamvas 24 Plus.

USD 800 - 1000

• Xencelabs Pen Display 16 - USD 999 (on Amazon)
• XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) - USD 809
• Huion Kamvas Pro 19 - USD 809
• XPPen Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 165Hz - USD 935

The Huion Kamvas Pro 19 is a 4K touchscreen pen display so if you need touchscreen this is one to consider. However the visual quality of the matte glass surface is slightly softer compared to other options. If you don't need the touchscreen, go with the XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) 4K pen display because it's a good one.

The XPPen Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 165Hz is worth considering if you want something big.

The Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is interesting because it has a beautiful OLED display. However to achieve maximum brightness, you have to buy an adapter which will bring the price over USD 1000.

USD 1000 - 1500

• XPPen Artist Pro 24 (gen 2) 4K - USD 1109
• Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) - USD 1104
• Xencelabs Pen Display 16 - USD 1249 (on Amazon)

I'll probably recommend the XPPen Artist Pro (gen 2) 4K. It's new, beautiful, sharp, has great colours and good pen performance.

1500 - 2000

In this price category, you will find the Wacom Cintiq Pros in various sizes.

I've not reviewed many Wacom Cintiqs or Cintiq Pros so I can't say if they are worth the money. I'm certain the pen performance is fantastic coming from Wacom, but their products are significantly more expensive compared to other brands. So in terms of value for money, you'll probably get more value from other brands.

Overall recommendation

If I were to buy a pen display today, I will probably go with the XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2) because my table isn't that big and I love the 16:10.

If I want a big pen display, it would be either the XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) or the XPPen Artist Pro 24 (gen 2).

Why all XPPen products? Well, their Gen 2 series pen displays this year are really good.

Having said that, Huion pen displays still have slightly better pen performance, e.g. better accuracy.

Review unit provided by Ugee

The Ugee UE16 is the new 15.4-inch 1080P pen display released by Ugee in 2024. This is the bigger version of the Ugee UE12 I reviewed last year.

Price is USD 180 and it comes with one year warranty. This price is incredibly attractive because pen displays of similar size from other companies are usually USD 200 or higher.

Bottom line

The Ugee UE16 provides immense value for money. This is a decent looking pen display with excellent drawing performance. That's pretty much all you need to know to make the purchase.

I think of this as the successor to the Ugee U1600 which is the previous budget no-frills pen display I recommend often because of the USD 160 pricing. UE16 has more hotkeys, but price has increased by USD 20.

I have no idea how Ugee is able to keep their prices so low but they are doing the art community a huge favour with the insanely competitive pricing. Going forward, this will be the pen display I'll recommend to people with a USD 200 budget.

Specifications

• Display: 15.4-inch (1920 x 1080) display
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Dimensions: 437.6 x 259.2 x 13 mm
• Active Area: 341.0 x 191.8 mm
• Color Gamut: 143% sRGB
• Resolution: 5080 LPI
• Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
• Pen: U-Pencil with 16,384 pressure levels and ±60° tilt recognition
• Pen Reading Height: 10 mm
• Shortcut Keys: 10 virtual shortcut keys, 8 physical shortcut keys with a scroll wheel
• Weight: 1.28 kg (2.82 lbs)
• Ports: USB-C
• Compatibility: Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, Linux, Android, HarmonyOS
• Anti-Glare Screen: Yes
• Full-Laminated Screen: Yes

Things included

• 1 x Ugee UE16
• 1 x Battery-free Stylus
• 1 x Nib Extractor
• 20 x Replacement Nibs
• 1 x USB-C to C Cable
• 1 x USB-C to A Cable
• 1 x 3-in-1 Cable
• 1 x Adjustable Stand
• 1 x Cleaning Cloth
• 1 x Quick Guide
• 1 x Warranty Card

The pen display comes with a matte screen protector already applied. When peeling off the protective film (below the red label), make sure you do not peel off the matte screen protector.

The included folding stand can deploy the pen display at different angles.

Design

This is a clean, simple and straightforward design. Build quality feels plasticky and solid enough, but there will be squeaky sound if you flex the pen display.

The back is matte textured and there are four rubber feet. Both the front and back are quite susceptible to fingerprints and smudges.

Anti-glare of the matte screen protector is quite aggressive so diffused reflections can be glaring.

A matte screen protector may scratch with usage. Since I can't test this review unit for extended period of time, I can't tell you how easy or resistant the matte screen protector is to scratches.

All matte surfaces will introduce some grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle. This pen display does have visible anti-glare sparkle. I don't think it's an issue or too distracting, but this is subjective to different people.

The matte screen protector does not affect the sharpness of the display. Anyway, the display resolution is 1080P so there will be visible pixelation on a 15.4-inch display. That's just the compromise for a budget pen display.

Display is laminated but there's some thickness to the glass so there is a gap between the pen tip and line. However when looking from the front, there is no gap between the pen tip and line after calibration.

The pen is quite smooth on the drawing surface. The tactile drawing experience is quite subtle.

There are customisable hotkeys and a dial by the left side. The hotkeys have firm feedback when pressed.

The power and brightness control buttons are by the left. To access the OSD, you have to press the two brightness buttons at the same time. OSD will present the following display mode options: sRGB, AdobeRGB, P3, Custom (best for colour calibration).

The included cables will fit with the recessed USB-C ports perfectly. If you want to use your own USB-C cable, you'll need one where the connector is small enough to go into the recessed area.

Connection
It is possible to use one USB-C cable to power the pen display and drive it to maximum brightness.

If you want to use HDMI, the included 3-to-1 cable is needed. And you'll need to connect one USB-A connector to power source, which can be any phone charger.

I measured colour support for 99% sRGB, 97% P3, 92% AdobeRGB, 90% NTSC and a maximum brightness of 191 nits. Colour accuracy is acceptable and colours look alright. Interestingly, the previous model Ugee U1600 actually has noticeably better colour accuracy.

I typically use my displays at around 150 - 200 nits so 191 nits of brightness is sufficient for me. The brightness is not high enough to go through the diffused reflections though.

Refresh rate of the display is 60 Hz

This pen display does not support finger gestures because it's not a touchscreen.

Pen

The pen is slim and has a matte textured surface that provides good grip. Build quality is plasticky but solid enough.

There are two customisable side buttons and an eraser.

The pen supports tilt sensitivity and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. It's not powered by battery so no charging is required.

Pen tip has slight movement when in contact with the drawing surface. Seems like Ugee only provides plastic pen tips and there are no felt tip options.

Cursor tracking is accurate up to the extreme left and right edges. Cursor also does not stray away from the pen tip regardless of the pen's angle.

Driver

Mac and Windows drivers are available.

This is where the two side buttons and eraser button can be customised.

These are the customisation options available to the pen buttons and hotkeys. I usually side one pen button to Switch Display and that works fine.

Pen pressure curve can be adjusted by moving three control points.

Here's where you can customise the 8 hotkeys and the roller (with up to four shortcuts). It is possible to create shortcut groups for specific apps, and those shortcuts will load automatically depending on the active app.

You can also create 16 virtual hotkeys that will appear on screen at the top middle area. You can then use the pen to access the shortcuts.

Mapping of the working area can be left as default most of the time. If there is cursor misalignment, you can click "Advanced Settings" to calibrate the pen. It is also possible to change the orientation of the pen display so that the hotkeys are on the right side instead of left.

Driver settings can be saved and backed up.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro on the Mac. Pen performance is quite consistent with other drawing apps.

1. Initial activation force is low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. Slow diagonal lines have slight wobble which will not show up when actually drawing.

2. Thick brushes will taper more abruptly. Thinner lines will taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back to thin is smooth. This is also a diagonal line and there's no noticeable diagonal line wobble.

4. Consistent line width can be created by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. Dots may not appear with this app so you'll have to tap and drag for the dots to appear. This problem does not happen with Clip Studio Paint, and hence this problem will depend on the drawing app used.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test. Separate lines can be joined without leaving gaps or overshooting. There's also thin and thick line variation due to pressure that creates more expressive lines.

The pen performs well. Pen performance is consistent and predictable.

Drawing experience

15.4-inch is a good size for drawing. It's slightly shorter than A4 paper but wider. There's space for palettes on the left and right and enough canvas space left over for drawing.

Hand is able to glide on the matte surface quite easily. As mentioned earlier, the matte surface is quite susceptible to fingerprint and smudges so cleaning the surface after each drawing session is recommended.

The matte surface is quite smooth and tactile experience is subtle. Those who prefer a more tactile drawing experience will have to take time to get used to this.

The display does not get that warm even at maximum brightness because the display does not use that much power (from the USB port from your computer).

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro. I didn't have any issues with drawing. Workflow was smooth.

Since the pen performance is great, overall drawing experience is satisfactory. The pen is really sensitive and a joy to work with. The pen performance is definitely good enough for creating professional art.

There are no issues with hatching or cross hatching lines. The amount of latency is quite similar to other pen displays. Latency is not something I think about when drawing at my usual speed.

Conclusion

The Ugee UE16 is probably the best deal for a pen display with a limited budget of USD 180.

For USD 180, pen display are usually 13-inches or smaller. The only other 15-inch pen display I know that's USD 180 is the Artisul D16 from 2018.

For USD 180, you get all the cables and even a table stand. This is just an incredible deal and I'm saying this as someone who has reviewed too many pen displays.

For a budget pen display, there will be compromises. The downsides and compromises are the use of a matte screen protector instead of matte glass, less than ideal colour support and plasticky build quality. The pros are the amazing pen performance, colours do look alright and the pricing is crazy attractive.

Since Ugee has phased out the budget king Ugee U1600, this Ugee UE16 will be the next budget king that I can recommend easily to people with a limited budget. If you are thinking of buying a 13-inch pen display, I say stretch your budget slightly to get this because you will not regret it.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean and simple design
+ Big pen display for the price
+ Matte screen protector already applied
+ All cables and even a tablet stand are included
+ Fantastic pen performance
+ Decent colour support and brightness
+ 8 hotkeys and a dial
+ 16 virtual keys
+ Extremely attractive price
- Matte screen protector has anti-glare sparkle
- Front and back are susceptible to fingerprint and smudges
- Plasticky build quality
- Anti-glare is quite aggressive

Availability

The Ugee UE16 is available from the Ugee online store. Use coupon code TeohonTech for 10% off.

It's also available on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES)

You may even find this at USD 160 on Amazon US occasionally. Unfortunately the price is much higher for those in European countries.

Review samples provided by Arrtx

Arrtx has just released their biggest marker set, the 90-colour acrylic brush marker set and it's just selling for USD 65.99. That's less than a dollar for each colour. The pricing is just amazing. The 48-colour set is USD 39.99.

This is a big box and can be used as a marker stand too.

The caps have extrusions to prevent the markers from rolling off the table.

Individual replacement markers are also available for sale at just USD 1.50.

From what I can see, colours on the cap are able to match the actual colours quite well, but not for all the colours of course.

The only missing information I don't have is the pigments that are used to create the colours, so we won't actually know how lightfast the colours are unless they are tested.

Brush tips are versatile. You can draw thin lines with them...

And you can use the broad side to colour big areas. Ink flow is quite good.

The markers don't require shaking, but it's best to store the markers with the tip facing down, just like they are originally in the box.

The colours are bold and opaque. These are very striking colours.

These are paint markers and should work on most surfaces. The paint is non-toxic and safe for kids, and adults of course.

There are so many colours to use so it can be quite positively overwhelming.

My main use of acrylic markers is to add details or overlapping elements to my sketches. Even opaque watercolour isn't as opaque as these markers. Having overlapping elements in your sketches really make the scene look more 3D.

The paint dries totally matte, and they look great with watercolour.

These Arrtx acrylic markers are certainly worth the money. They are not expensive and definitely worth trying. These markers are available for purchase from Arrtx online store.

Try coupon code NEW03 for $3 off.

Check AliExpress and Amazon (US | UK | DE | FR | ES) too to compare prices.

The master at vehicle design

John A. Frye is a concept designer who has been designing vehicles for more than 25 years. Clients he has worked for includes Hasbro, Teague, Activision, Boeing and John Deere.

fryewerk 2.0 is a 192-page paperback that collects his personal vehicle designs. This is incredibly impressive considering there's no client work included and these personal works are just what he does as creative outlet. By the way, there's no fryewerk 1.0.

These are the chapters in the book:

• Cars
• Spaceships and flying craft
• Autonomous racing
• Trucks and big rigs
• Other extraordinary vehicles

The pages are filled with beautiful hand-drawn art, either coloured or sketches. There are hundreds of designs and each one comes with commentary on the design and thought process. There's a lot of insight from the book for those who want to learn more about vehicle design, and there are some tutorials too.

What I like most about the art besides they look awesome is some of the designs are used as packaging art for his own model-kit line Spruemeister. Goes without saying that he's very much inspired by those model-kit racing cars.

The back of the book has a 10-page interview with him and Scott Robertson. They talk about client vs personal work, storytelling, inspiration and motivation, fan art, problem solving with design, sketching and the future of design. There's a lot to read.

This is a fantastic artbook for vehicle or concept designers.

To see more art from John A. Frye, visit
https://www.fryewerk.com
https://www.instagram.com/fryewerk

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.com.au | Amazon.co.jp

Oops, just two book reviews this month, but many more lined up waiting to be published.

Books

• fryewerk 2.0: Concept Vehicle Illustrations by John A. Frye
• 365 Squares Vol 3: One Year of Daily Drawing by Moon

Art product reviews

• Etchr 100% Cotton Watercolour Paper Block
• Arrtx 90-colour Acrylic Brush Marker Set

Tech reviews

• Pen display recommenations for 2024
• Ugee UE16 - ultimate budget 15.4-inch pen display
• Wacom Movink 13.3-inch OLED touchscreen pen display
• Boox Note Air4 C e-Ink tablet (2024)

Youtube videos

• iPad mini for urban sketching? Perfect digital sketchbook?
• Etchr 100% cotton 350gsm watercolour paper block (review)
• Sketching at Starbucks (timelapse tutorial)

How to support Parka Blogs

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You're supporting the art community, publishers, artists directly too, because that's what this blog is about.

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Review unit on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt PA329CV is a 32-inch 4K display released in late 2021. Price currently on Amazon is USD 559. Here in Singapore from ASUS Singapore online store, it's SGD 1099. Shopee SG and Lazada SG may have it at lower price.

At the time of writing this review, there's actually an update to this model called the PA329CRV which features more USB-C ports and DisplayPort daisy-chaining. Price is SGD 1149 so it almost doesn't make sense to get this older model.

Bottom line

This is a big display that's bright, vibrant and sharp. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 75% NTSC, 78% AdobeRGB, 84% P3 and a maximum brightness of 350 nits.

For downsides, I find the anti-glare to be quite aggressive so diffused reflections can affect image quality. The plastic build quality would make squeaky sound when monitor is adjusted.

The main selling point here probably is the huge size which makes watching movies or playing games feel more immersive. For visual content creation, personally for me 27-inch is more than big enough.

Specifications

• Panel Size: 32 inches
• Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD)
• Panel Type: IPS
• Viewing Angle: 178° (H/V)
• Pixel Density: 138 PPI
• Color Gamut: 100% sRGB
• Brightness (Typical): 350 cd/m²
• Brightness (HDR Peak): 400 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
• Response Time: 5ms (GTG)
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz
• Backlight Type: LED
• Ports: USB-C with 90W charging, DisplayPort v1.2, 2x HDMI v2, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
• Adjustability: Tilt, Swivel, Pivot, Height
• Weight: 8.3 kg without stand
• Power Consumption: 32.29 W
• Audio: Built-in 2W x 2 Speakers
• Warranty: 3 Years

Things included

• Color pre-calibration report
• HDMI cable
• Power cord
• Quick start guide
• USB-C cable
• Warranty Card
• Welcome Card

Design

This is a good looking display with thin bezels at the top and sides, thicker at the bottom. The monitor is massive and you'll definitely need a big table for it.

The display supports USB-C charging so it's really convenient to connect laptops to it.

The stand is also massive. Stand has a hole for cable management.

Back of the display is made with plastic.

OSD menu buttons and directional toggle are located in front, at the bottom right. OSD menu is easy to navigate and use.

Note that when switching between colour models, certain display settings may be locked, e.g. brightness, contrast.

This display is quite thick. All the ports are located beneath, namely

• 2x HDMI v2.0
• DisplayPort v1.4
• USB-C video with 90W charging
• 2x USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-A

One downside is the anti-glare of the matte surface is quite aggressive. Diffused reflections of strong light sources will become this white haze that affects image quality.

This display does not come with a shading hood nor can it be installed with one. So to get the best visual quality, it's best to use the display in a room where you can control the lighting.

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 75% NTSC, 78% AdobeRGB, 84% P3 and a maximum brightness of 350 nits.

The 100% sRGB display does look good out of the box and after calibration. Colour accuracy is good but if you need even better colour accuracy, I don't think 78% AdobeRGB and 84% P3 is sufficient.

ASUS listed this as a 10-bit display but looking at the colour measurements, it's most likely 8-bit + FRC.

4K resolution is sharp and I can't notice pixelation from one arm's distance away, but if I look close I can see pixelation. The ideal resolution for 32-inch is actually 6K.

Using such a big display for visual content work is very satisfying.

Do note that all the low resolution artworks, graphics, photos, videos, scans and even wallpapers that you have in the past are not going to look good on such a high resolution display anymore. I'm glad I started scanning my artworks at 600 DPI the moment I reviewed my first 4K monitor years ago.

FYI, 4K has 4 times more resolution than 1080P. Scaling that 1080P video (above) to fullscreen really shows how soft the video can look.

Biggest selling point of such a big display is how immersive it is when watching movies or playing games.

The other advantage is you can scale the UI to provide more canvas space and still have your tools, palettes and menus look big and sharp.

Conclusion

With 100% sRGB colour support, this monitor actually looks good and would be good enough for creating web content.

If you work with print, you'll need 100% AdobeRGB unless you're not that strict about colour accuracy. For video creators, you'll want 100% DCI P3.

For the price, I opt to look around for smaller displays with even better colour accuracy.

Anyway, with the newer model PA329CRV out and available already, there is much reason to get this older model unless it's selling at a very good discount.

Availability

You can find the ASUS ProArt PA329CV on Amazon, ASUS Singapore online store, Shopee SG and Lazada SG.

Here's another volume of big, bold, striking paintings by Ashley Wood.

This is a large 28.5 x 28.5cm hardcover and it's the same format as the previous books from the Ashley Wood Investigation series. The paper used is low gloss matte paper. Publisher is Editions Caurette.

The art looks great and the art speaks for itself because I'm not sure what else I have not said in the previous three reviews. There are more girls, robots, Astroboy(?) and vampires(?). Oh, there's some sexual images too.

The price of each book is €35 and is available from the publisher's website. That may or may not include free shipping depending on the amount you spend and location.

https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/ashley-wood-investigation-series

Digital review copy provided by the publisher

Brian Blomerth is back again with another graphic novel, this time looking at the life and career of infamous ketamine researcher John Cunningham Lilly.

The book's a 220-page paperback published by Anthology Editions and can be purchased from mexicansummer.com and Amazon (more links below).

The artworks are illustrated the usual psychedelic art style, if an art style can be described as psychedelic. The artworks are wildly imaginative which definitely suits the subject matter.

FYI, John C. Lilly is the guy who invented the isolation tank and there's part of the story in this book.

This is also the guy who established a facility devoted to fostering human–dolphin communication in the 1950s.

There's a lot to read about John C. Lilly from his Wikipedia page, or you can opt for a more visually stimulating experience with Brian Blomerth's graphic novel.

Here are direct links to the book:
Mexican Summer | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.com.au | Amazon.co.jp

This is not a sponsored review

The most important deciding factor that affects buying decision comes down to the software experience, so just scroll down to the section to read that first, then come back here again.

I had several viewers on my Youtube channel who requested that I review the Huawei MatePad PaperMatte edition and I thought why not. Afterall, I’m quite familiar with the MatePad tablets as I have reviewed many over the years:

• Huawei MatePad T10 (2021) - SGD 228
• Huawei MatePad SE (2022) - SGD 298 - review - Product page
• Huawei MatePad 10.4 (2022) - from SGD 328 - Review - Product page
• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021) - SGD 698 Review - Product page
• Huawei MatePad 11 (2023) - SGD 598 with keyboard case included - Product page
• Huawei MatePad 11.5 (2023) - SGD 598 with keyboard case and M Pencil 2 included - Review - Product page
• Huawei MatePad Pro 10.8 (2021) - SGD 998 - Review - Product page
• Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 (2021) - Product page

Huawei’s MatePad lineup is getting more confusing.

At the time of writing this review, there are two MatePad 11.5 PaperMatte models, one from mid 2023 and one from mid 2024.

I had bought the 2023 model by mistake. Thankfully, I bought it at secondhand pricing but even so I will still make a loss when I sell the tablet after this review.

So make sure you don’t buy the wrong model.

Here are some key differences between the two models:

M Pencil 3 is more convenient because you can just attach it magnetically by the side of the tablet for charging and pairing.

I’ve tested the M Pencil 2 drawing performance and it’s really good. Since I've not tested M Pencil 3, I can't say how good that pen is compared the the 2nd generation.

Specifications

Things included

• Tablet (built-in battery)
• Polishing Cloth
• Charger
• Type-C Cable
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty Card

M Pencil 2 and the charging pad are sold separately unless they are sold as a bundle together with the tablet.

An optional keyboard case can also be purchased. The keyboard use Bluetooth and can be detached from the cover. So it's possible to put the tablet on a stand and use the keyboard away from the tablet.

Design

Design of the tablet looks beautiful. Mid and high-end tablets from Huawei always have good hardware and solid build quality.

Camera is located in landscape orientation and supports face unlock.

The 4-way speakers don’t have much sound definition or separation compared to the MatePad Pro speakers which definitely sounds richer and more detailed. Audio is loud though.

USB-C charging port only has USB 2 transfer speeds, and hence cannot output video. The 2024 model supports USB 3 transfer speeds.

It’s good to see matte glass being used on more tablets nowadays. The matte surface diffuses light so that you won’t get those bright glossy reflections. The anti-glare works well.

Brightness is up to 500 nits which is great for indoor use. When used outdoors under direct sunlight, 500 nits is not quite enough to go through the diffused reflections, but as long as you are under shade, 500 nits is sufficient.

All matte surfaces will add some grain, colour noise, anti-glare sparkle to affect the visual quality. I'm happy to say that visual quality of the display still looks good despite that.

The MatePad 11.5 PaperMatte (2023) supports the Huawei M-Pencil 2 which has been around since 2021.

Unfortunately to pair and charge the pen, you will need to use a cable with charging pad. There is no way to attach the pen magnetically to the tablet for charging and pairing, which is what you can go with the 2024 model and M-Pencil 3.

What this means is you will have to remember to charge the pen fully before you bring the pen outdoors so that battery life is less likely to run out, or you have to bring the charging accessories out with you.

HarmonyOS

This tablet runs on HarmonyOS 3.1. At time of this review, HarmonyOS 4 is already out this tablet is not listed as one that can be updated yet even though there are older MatePad models that are listed.

The app store on HarmonyOS is called AppGallery. And within AppGallery, most apps are Chinese apps and many popular apps from the Google Play Store are not available.

There is no Google Play Store on HarmonyOS.

While it is possible to install Google Play Store, you may not be able to get all Google services and features to work. To get Google Play Store, you can install GSpace or Gbox which can be found within AppGallery, or install Aurora Store APK.

Even if you can get Google Play Store, there may be issues with payment or restore past purchases.

Here are a list of issues I encountered:

• Infinite Painter, Nebo cannot restore past purchases
• Infinite Painter cannot run in landscape orientation
• Infinite Painter, Krita are not available in Google Play Store
• Concepts, Clip Studio Paint can restore past purchases

Since the buy or restore option does not work for some apps, there is no way to tell in advance if the app you need can have past purchases restored.

Medibang installed from Huawei AppGallery could not restore past purchases, but Medibang installed from Google Play Store can

Other things I don’t like about HarmonyOS is there are ads even in some of Huawei’s own apps. E.g. There’s non-skippable ad when you open AppGallery and even the web browser.

There are also many pre-installed bookmarks to games and utility apps. These are not installed apps but just bookmarks, and there are several folders with such bookmarks in them.

If you rely on Google services, I probably won’t recommend getting a Huawei tablet. And also the situation with the ads is just not nice.

At this price point, you can also get the Xiaomi Pad 6, OnePlus Pad or Samsung Tab S9 FE (pen included). So is the matte glass a huge selling point for having to deal with ads and the lack of Google Play Store?

Line tests

Below are line tests created with M-Pencil 2 using the app Medibang Paint. I do not have M-Pencil 3 so I can’t show you the line tests for that, and I also cannot confirm whether M-Pencil 3 can work on the 2023 model.

1. Initial activation force is quite low. Slow diagonal lines are quite straight.

2. Lines are able to taper quite smoothly, but not as sharp as I expect. You can use smaller brush sizes to get sharper tapers.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. Thin lines can be drawn after drawing thick lines.

4. Consistent line width can be created by maintaining consistent line width.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. No issues with cursor misalignment, not that I was expecting any.

Even though the tablet has 120Hz refresh rate, there's still noticeable latency when drawing, and it's the usual amount of latency.

When drawing at my normal speed, I don't really find latency to be an issue.

Tilt sensitivity works fine.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is pretty good since pen performance is good. And drawing on the matte surface feels great, and you don't need a matte screen protector.

One advantage of the Bluetooth keyboard is you can place it by the side while drawing. This allows you to work more productively with apps that support keyboard shortcuts.

Conclusion

The Huawei MatePad 11.5 PaperMatte edition (2023) has great hardware and a beautiful matte glass display that feels great to draw on. Pen performance is good.

Only main issue you need to be concerned with is whether you need Google Play Store or now for the many reasons mentioned above.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design with solid build quality
+ Has face unlock
+ Bright, sharp, vibrant display
+ Matte glass surface feels great to draw on
+ Good battery life
+ Optional keyboard case has detachable keyboard
+ Good pen performance
- M Pencil 2 requires a cable for charging
- 4-way speakers lack the clarity and definition of the premium MatePad Pro tablets
- No Google Play Store which can be installed but features may be lacking
- Too many ads with Huawei apps

Availability

Here in Singapore, you can find the tablet on Shopee SG and Lazada SG.

Make sure you get the 2024 model and not the 2023 model.

Review united provided by Xencelabs

Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is the industry's first 15.6-inch 4K OLED pen display released in May 2024, just one year after the release of the huge Xencelabs Pen Display 24. I did not have the chance to review the 24-inch pen display so I'm thrilled to be able to review this smaller model and share my findings with your guys.

Official price listed on their website is USD 1199 for the Essentials set, and USD 1299 for the Bundle set with extra accessories. On Amazon, it's USD 999 and USD 1249 respectively.

Bottom line

Design of the pen display looks beautiful and built quality is top notch. The OLED display is vibrant, bright and sharp. Drawing surface is matte glass and laminated so drawing experience is satisfying. Pen is very sensitive. Driver works well.

It is difficult to find negative things to say. Lack of a touchscreen at this price point is probably a downside I guess. There are no buttons for brightness and OSD menu.

Yes the pen display is pricey, but you do get what you pay for and there's a lot going on.

Specifications

• Display: 15.6-inch OLED display with 3840 x 2160 resolution
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Brightness: 300 nits with power connected, 170 nits with one cable
• Color Depth: 10-bit, delivering 1.07 billion colors
• Color Gamut Coverage Ratio: 98% Adobe RGB, 99% sRGB, 98% P3-D65, 99% REC 709, 82% REC 2020
• Contrast Ratio: 100,000:1
• Dimensions: 410 x 259.4 x 12mm (16.1 x 10.2 x 0.47 in)
• Active Area: 13.5 x 7.75 inches
• Weight: 2.67 lbs (1.21 kg)
• Pen: Xencelabs 3 Button Pen v2 + eraser (PH35-A) and Xencelabs Thin Pen v2 + eraser (PH36-A), both with 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and ±60° tilt recognition
• Shortcut Keys: 8 buttons with 5 sets for up to 40 shortcuts per application
• Connectivity: USB-C with Alt mode enabled, compatible with USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort via included hub
• Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux
• Anti-Glare Screen: Edge-to-edge tempered glass with Super-AG etching

Things included

The things included will vary depending on which set you purchase.

All items included are also listed on the box's packaging.

The Essentials set will have all the necessary items needed for drawing.

The Bundle set will get you the video adapter that supports HDMI, DisplayPort and extra power. You also get the Quick Keys shortcut remote, a stand and all the extra cables to work with the video adapter. The price difference is just USD 100 on Xencelab's website so the bundle set is kinda worth getting.

The unboxing experience is multi-layered as there are so many things to take out. And the cover is so heavy because there's a carrying case hidden behind.

You can tell that the designers of this product has spent a lot of effort in the product design and how they want to present the product.

The Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote uses the included USB-A receiver (not Bluetooth) for wireless connection. This shortcut remote can be configured with up to 40 shortcuts. Check out the full review I wrote in 2021. The shortcut remote is sold separately for USD 109, lower on Amazon.

The well made matte textured pen case contains one slim pen (PH36-A) and one thicker pen (PH35-A). There are extra six plastic pen tips and four felt pen tips.

The slim pen has two side buttons and an eraser. The plastic grip is textured and comfortable to hold.

The thicker pen has three side buttons and an eraser. The silicone grip is comfortable to hold.

Both pens support tilt and 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. The pen tips have slight movement when in contact with drawing surface.

The stand is also very well made. You can get two angles with this stand. The stand is sized perfectly so you can move the pen display and stand together with two hands.

Connection

The pen display supports a single USB-C cable connection and I measured maximum brightness of 216 nits, higher than the advertised 170 nits for a single cable connection. I'm extremely impressed because most pen displays have real world brightness that's 10-20% less than advertised brightness.

If you need HDMI or DisplayPort connection, you will need the video adapter which is not sold separately, which means you'll have to buy the bundle set. With the video adapter connected to extra power, I measured maximum brightness of 277 nits out of the advertised 300 nits.

I usually use my pen displays at 150-200 nits at home so anything higher than 200 nits is sufficient for me.

Design

The pen display features a clean and simple design. Bezels are big but you can rest your palm on them comfortably. Corners are rounded off but not the OLED though. Build quality is solid and feels premium.

Weight is 1.21kg and the marketing says this is portable. It is portable in a sense but note that a pen display is still a monitor that has to be connected to a computer. Most people are just gonna leave this either at home or at the office and won't be bringing this to and fro that much. For me, I like the 16-inch form factor because after drawing, I can store it away with my laptop on my bookshelf. That's the type of portability I like.

There's only one USB-C video port at the top, and a power button on the other end.

There are no brightness buttons or OSD buttons. The driver is needed to adjust brightness, contrast and colour settings.

The back matte textured is quite susceptible to fingerprints. Those extra lines (grooves) are for installation of the two pen holders.

Installing the pen holders involves putting them at the back and pushing forward. You can have the pen holder at the top or side. Having the pen holder on the pen display is so convenient.

OLED display

Colour accuracy is good. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 95% AdobeRGB, 91% P3, 80% NTSC. Contrast ratio is 100,000:1 and contrast looks amazing. Blacks are deep.

The resolution of 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) makes everything looks sharp. Refresh rate is 60Hz. This is not a touchscreen.

Anti-glare on the matte glass surface is not that aggressive. Even with diffused reflections, I can still see what's on the screen, and the brightness is high enough to go through the display. This is OLED so there's no IPS glow.

The matte surface provides a subtle tactile drawing experience. Pen tip glides smoothly on it, and so does my palm, and pen can be controlled easily. If you have sweaty palms, you can wear the included artist glove.

All matte surfaces will introduce some grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle to affect image quality or sharpness. There is slight colour noise from this matte surface but it's not really an issue. Overall image quality still looks great.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and the pen tip.

Viewing angles are great. There's no noticeable colour shift or drop in brightness from extreme angles.

This is a terrific looking quality display.

Downsides? Since this is an OLED display, there will be pulse wave modulation (PWM). People with sensitive eyes may be affected by the flickering. If you're not sure whether you're affected by PWM, I recommend you go to an electronics store and look at OLED displays, laptops or TVs to find out how you feel after staring at the screens for minutes.

Another thing to note about OLED is there may be burn-in issues. Unfortunately this is not something I am able to test with my short duration with the review unit.

Driver

Drivers are available for Mac, Windows, Windows ARM64 and Linux.

The driver has many features and works well.

There are no mapping function and instead you're recommended to use the "Virtual Tablet" for mapping.

Virtual Tablet is basically Switch Display that allows you to move the cursor from one display to the other. Xencelabs has provided a very clear UI that lets you know whether you can move the cursor on another screen, or across both screens.

Virtual Tablet (Switch Display) works well and is essential for artists who have a dual display setup.

All the pen buttons, including the eraser, can be customised.

The two pens can be customised individually.

Pen and shortcut remote buttons can be customised with

• Mouse clicks
• Keystroke
• Modifier
• Tablet/display: Switch Display, Virtual Tablet, Pressure Hold, Launch Settings, Adjust Pressure, Mouse/Pen Toggle, Rotate Display 90 degrees
• Navigation: Back, Forward, Scroll Up/Down, Zoom In/Out, Tumble, Switch Application, Show Desktop,
• LaunchPad, Undo, Redo
• Application: Open/Run, Finder
• Eraser
• Disable

Pressure curve can be adjusted with a slider or manually by moving three control points. Eraser's pressure sensitivity can also be adjusted.

This is where the brightness, contrast, colour settings can be adjusted. If there's cursor misalignment, you can calibrate the pen under Display Controls.

Once the Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote is connected, you can customise the buttons with the same driver. For a more detailed review of the shortcut remote, please read this review. The summary is this shortcut remote can be configured with up to 40 shortcuts, and 4 functions for the wheel. And you can create shortcut groups for specific apps that will automatically load depending on the active app. There's a lot you can do with this shortcut remote.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro on Mac.

1. Pen has very low initial activation force. A thin line can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. There is slight diagonal line wobble or jitter with slow diagonal lines. You can see this in the test but it's not really visible when actually drawing (at normal speed).

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. Medibang Paint (Mac) has this split second lag when drawing a long line and affects the line's direction. This problem does not happen with Medibang Paint on Windows, and does not happen with other apps.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure. Tests #3 and #4 are also diagonal lines and I don't see noticeable line wobble or jitter.

5. Dots sometimes do not appear so the workaround is to tap and drag the pen tip. This problem does not happen with other apps.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test where I join separate lines by looking at the pen tip instead of the cursor. I was able to join the lines without overshooting or gaps. There's no cursor misalignment.

There's also no cursor misalignment when the pen is held at different angles. The cursor tracking is also quite accurate up to the edges of the display.

Tilt sensitivity works fine. Tilt and pressure can work together.

Even though there's slight wobble or jitter with the slow diagonal line tests, I would still consider this pen to be accurate because when drawing (as you shall see later), I don't notice the wobble or jitter. Pen performance is consistent and predictable. This pen performance is definitely good enough for professional art.

Drawing experience

Having a stand is a must to prop up the pen display to a more comfortable or ergonomic drawing angle. The stand can only be deployed at two heights which means the company did not design the pen display to be used as a main display, e.g. watching a movie would be better with a vertical display.

If you want to deploy the pen display almost vertically, get the Parblo PR100 stand.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro on Mac. Workflow is smooth without issues. Lines are able to come out the way I expect them to.

Having a sensitive pen means you can use a thick brush for the whole drawing. Thin lines can be used for details and you can press down hard to use broad strokes for quick filling of large areas.

I actually do not use shortcut remote as my other hand is always on the keyboard which gives me access to all keyboard shortcuts.

Working on the matte glass surface and looking at such a beautiful display is a wonderful experience.

Conclusion

After using the Xencelabs Pen Display 16, I finally understand why it's priced the way it is, high. This is an extremely well made product with thought that went into the design and packaging to create an experience for the artist. The OLED display is obviously the biggest selling point. Colour accuracy is another. The matte glass surface feels satisfying to work on. Pen performance is fantastic.

Say what you want about the high price but the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is an exquisite tool. There are artists who value the intangible aspects of a tool and Xencelabs has made this product for them. And of course this pen display is very technically capable.

There are many 16-inch pen displays in the market, but if you want a truly high end one, the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is definitely one you should consider.

Pros and cons at glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Multi-layered unboxing experience
+ OLED display is vibrant, bright and sharp
+ Matte glass feels great to draw on
+ Laminated display
+ Two pens included
+ Driver has many features
+ Single USB-C cable
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Fantastic pen performance
- Essentials set does not include the stand
- OLED burn-in possibility is unknown
- OLED has PWM
- Not a touchscreen
- No buttons for brightness or OSD
- Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote does not use Bluetooth
- More expensive compared to other similar sized pen displays

Availability

The Xencelabs Pen Display 16 can be purchased from Xencelabs online store and Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP)

If you have intention to buy the pen display, consider using the affiliate links above to support my blog. I get to earn some commission but at no extra cost to you.

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