XP-Pen’s new Artist Professional 16 is among the most compelling entry-level graphics shows available on the market. It’s light-weight, well-built, extremely customizable, color-accurate, and all for a value that can make Wacom house owners blush. It’s not an ideal product, however no different Full HD pen show available on the market presents this sort of expertise and construct high quality for simply $450. Trendy pen shows from corporations like Wacom, Huion, and XP-Pen are available a number of totally different tiers. The best option to inform them aside is normally decision and measurement: entry-level shows usually include Full HD screens in both 13- or 16-inch varieties, mid-range shows include 2 or 2.5K shows in 16- and 24-inch varieties, and the top-tier fashions just about all sport 4K shows it doesn’t matter what measurement you select. That places the new-and-improved XP-Pen Artist Professional 16 squarely within the entry-level class. However the place different Full HD pen shows just like the entry-level Wacom One have a tendency to chop corners on construct high quality, stylus high quality, and coloration accuracy, the Artist Professional 16 gives a premium expertise in all the above. Let me put it this fashion: as of this writing, the XP-Pen Artist Professional 16 is my favourite pen show to make use of for day-to-day picture enhancing, and that features the $1,500 Cintiq Professional 16. That’s excessive reward. Design and Construct High quality The brand new Artist Professional 16 is mainly a rebranded Innovator 16: the “slim, swift, and glossy” 16-inch pen show that XP-Pen launched in June of 2020. Clearly, the ultra-slim Innovator 16 struck a chord with consumers, and we’re glad that XP-Pen has determined to undertake the identical strategy with the Artist Professional sequence — each the design and constructed high quality of the Innovator 16 are an enormous step up from most entry-level pen shows.
The housing is stable steel with a “house grey” end and measures simply 1/4-inch thick. It’s stable, not like so a lot of its entry-level opponents, which makes it that rather more transportable. I most likely wouldn’t hesitate to throw this show in my backpack and take it on location. The one factor that may maintain me again from doing so is the clunky three-way cable that it’s a must to use to really join and energy the factor. A single USB-C connection on the show forks into an HDMI cable for show enter, a USB Kind-A cable for pen enter, and one other USB Kind-A cable for energy. The truth that there isn’t any USB-C to USB-C single-cable resolution is baffling to me, and one of many solely main cons that maintain this show again. Customizability is superb for a show this measurement. On the left-hand facet of the display is a row of eight programmable operate keys and a mechanical dial, which itself surrounds a touch-sensitive floor that acts as a secondary dial. I actually like this design. The buttons really feel nice and the mechanical dial is my favourite option to modify brush measurement, zoom out and in, or rotate the canvas, however I may have performed with out the contact dial. As a result of the mechanical dial is comparatively small, my fats fingers by chance activated the contact dial on a regular basis, which finally pressured me to show it off within the settings. I suppose it’s higher to have the choice, however at this small measurement, I discovered it extra cumbersome than helpful. My solely different criticism is that the mechanical dial has no “click on” mechanism. It’s a clean rotation, and I’d want some tactile suggestions for the reason that dial mainly simply presses “CTRL + +” or “CTRL + ]” while you’re zooming or adjusting brush measurement. With none suggestions, I usually overshoot and have to regulate backward, since there’s a slight delay between the mechanical enter and the digital output.
These are, after all, nitpicks. The actual fact that it has a bodily dial and eight programmable specific keys already places the Artist Professional 16 on the prime of the heap. Its predominant competitors both doesn’t have a dial or, within the case of Wacom’s present lineup of pen shows, no buttons in any way. General, I used to be delighted by each the construct high quality and design of the brand new Artist Professional 16. Its stable steel building and polished aesthetic put it proper up there with rather more costly, high-end 16-inch and 24-inch pen shows that I’ve reviewed, and make it one the one pen shows I’d really feel comfy touring with. I genuinely hope that the complete Artist Professional lineup advantages from an analogous shift in design and construct high quality shifting ahead. Display screen High quality The display on the Artist Professional 16 advantages from two large professionals: it’s totally laminated, and it boasts a surprisingly broad coloration gamut for an entry-level choice that prices simply $450. “Full lamination” signifies that the contact layer of the pill has been bonded on to the LCD display beneath, minimizing the gap between the floor that detects your pen enter and the show itself. This helps to reduce parallax, which makes an enormous distinction while you’re attempting to do one thing exact like reducing out a variety utilizing the Pen Software. As for the gamut, the Artist Professional 16 advantages from a really slight improve over the Innovator 16. The place the Innovator 16 claimed 125% sRGB, the Artist Professional 16 allegedly covers 133% sRGB. However these numbers want some explaining.
With out entering into the weeds, simply know that XP-Pen and all of its opponents like to interact within the doubtful follow of sharing gamut quantity as an alternative of gamut protection as a result of it makes their merchandise sound higher. Gamut protection maxes out at 100%: it actually signifies what proportion of a selected coloration gamut your monitor can really produce. If any a part of the sRGB coloration house falls outdoors of the show’s native panel, then gamut protection is lower than 100% sRGB. Gamut quantity, however, takes under consideration what number of colours the show can produce above and past the borders of a given coloration house, and it’s expressed as a proportion that features these extra colours. That signifies that a show can have lower than 100% sRGB protection whereas reaching properly over 100% sRGB quantity. That’s precisely what we have now right here. In our testing, the Artist Professional 16 was in a position to cowl 93.3% sRGB, 91.3% Adobe RGB, and 81.1% DCI-P3 with a most Delta E of two.93 and a median of simply 0.13. That’s an excellent outcome, particularly at such a low value, however you possibly can see why XP-Pen determined to report gamut quantity as an alternative of gamut protection. While you have a look at the panel’s native gamut, you possibly can see that the show’s blue major isn’t saturated sufficient to point out essentially the most vibrant blues within the sRGB coloration house, regardless that it covers far more than sRGB elsewhere. That’s why it may’t fairly hit 100% sRGB, probably not:
The XP-Pen Artist Professional 16’s native panel gamut (coloured define) can’t fairly cowl all of sRGB (dotted line) within the blue area. The opposite draw back of this panel is the dearth of management. You possibly can solely modify brightness, so what you see is what you get relating to each coloration temperature and white level. For our unit, the colour temperature hovered round 6,675K and the white level was a bit off-balance in the direction of the inexperienced. That stability will get higher and higher the decrease we put the brightness, however I discovered something lower than 50 on the brightness scale was simply too dim to comfortably use in a well-lit room. For skilled customers, we might advocate selecting one brightness setting, calibrating the show at that stage, after which by no means touching this setting once more. This provides you with the most effective general outcomes. The show is greater than correct sufficient for web-based color-critical work by way of Delta E, simply concentrate on its limitations within the blue area. Stylus High quality Along with the marginally improved display, the opposite new characteristic that units the Artist Professional 16 aside from the Innovator 16 is XP-Pen’s new X3 “smartchip” stylus. I’ll be sincere with you, this improve alone is motive sufficient for me to go together with the Artist Professional 16 over a few of XP-Pen’s different choices. XP-Pen’s different stylus is okay, however identical to Wacom and Huion’s EMR pens, it’s form of fats and uncomfortable for me to make use of. In distinction, the brand new X3 stylus is far thinner, sleeker, and feels much more like an Apple Pencil or the skinny pen that comes with the Xencelabs pen pill.
I discover this manner issue rather more comfy to make use of for lengthy enhancing periods, and XP-Pen claims that the X3 chip inside presents different advantages apart from. Apparently, it produces a 10-fold lower in preliminary activation power, bringing the IAF of this pen down to simply 3 grams, and XP-Pen claims the chip can be extra immune to electromagnetic interference. That second bit is definitely fascinating to me, as my standing desk mechanism has often despatched the cursor flying whereas I’ve been utilizing some cheaper pen tablets. It’s a distinct segment downside to make sure, however something that makes the pen extra dependable is a bonus in my ebook. By way of real-world use, I actually didn’t discover an enormous distinction between this pen and some other pen show I’ve used. I’m positive if I had them side-by-side I’d discover some minor enchancment in IAF, however for me, the most important motive to reward the X3 smartchip pen is solely the advance in kind issue and reliability. That, alone, makes the Artist Professional 16 a worthwhile purchase over the marginally cheaper Innovator 16. Every little thing else is simply spec sheet fodder. A Transportable, Inexpensive Pen Show General, I discovered the brand new Artist Professional 16 to be a near-perfect mixture of portability and options at an irresistible value. I can actually discover issues to gripe about, however the reality stays: for simply $450, XP-Pen is promoting a pen show that’s extra handy and fulfilling to make use of than some $1,000 or $1,500 shows that I’ve obtainable to me.
Execs Skinny, gentle and durable Respectable gamut protection with wonderful Delta E Improved “X3 smartchip” stylus Consists of operate keys, bodily dial, and contact dial Nice value Cons Solely 1080p decision No management over RGB features or coloration temperature Three-way cable is cumbersome and awkward HDMI-only show connection No included ft or stand The extra pen shows and pen tablets I take advantage of, the extra I are inclined to worth portability and customizability over measurement or decision. Perhaps that’s why I loved the Artist Professional 16 a lot. Regardless of the case, it delivers construct high quality, design, and efficiency that far outstrips its $450 value, and XP-Pen deserves to be praised for it. For the primary time in … ever? … it would really be cheaper for photographers to go for a high-quality pen show as an alternative of a high-end pen pill. That’s superior. Are There Options On this value vary, the principle competitors for the Artist Professional 16 is Huion’s Full-HD Kamvas 16 and Kamvas Professional 16 or the Wacom One we reviewed final yr. Sadly, neither of those choices can compete by way of construct, design, or coloration gamut.
From there, the choices shortly get dearer. The Full HD Wacom Cintiq 16 presents barely improved coloration gamut but it surely’s not totally laminated, it’s bulkier, and it prices $650; the Huion Kamvas Professional 16 4K and Kamvas Professional 16 Plus 4K are $830 and $900, respectively. Mockingly none of those dearer choices supply a single specific key or adjustment dial, forcing you to spend an extra $40 to $100 on a separate shortcut key distant. For now, the Artist Professional 16’s explicit mixture of options is tough to beat at its value. Ought to You Purchase It Completely. Most photographers have most likely by no means thought-about a pen show for his or her picture enhancing. For a very long time, the price merely outweighed any profit that you just would possibly recover from a standard pen pill just like the trusty Wacom Intuos Professional line. Choices just like the XP-Pen Artist Professional 16 flip that complete equation on its head. For the primary time, you possibly can really get a high-quality, rugged, ultra-thin, ultra-portable pen show for lower than the price of an excellent pen pill. Whether or not or not you’d want this model of enhancing is so that you can resolve, however value ought to not be an element.