There is nothing like drawing and painting directly on screen! Which allows you to work directly on your images via a display and pressure-sensitive stylus, giving you a real-world, natural-style workflow for painting and retouching that’s hard to beat.
XPPen offer quality pen display drawing pad for Beginner and Professional Artists. and both of their premium lines of tablet are highly respected – Deco, their screenless tablets, and Artist, their display tablets.
With a Deco, there is a hand-to-screen disconnect to get used to, moving your hand on the tablet to imitate brushstrokes while looking at your screen to see the results.
The Artist line, cranks it up a notch. It’s the same tablet experience, except you are drawing directly on screen. Using a Artist feels more like real drawing and painting.
I have used a XPPen Artist for a number of years owning the 22″ and then the 24″. These tablets always retailed for over $1,000.
I just received the new XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Generation) and it has far exceeded my expectations. The response-rate is fast, the pen tip accuracy is better, it’s lightweight and it’s the perfect size for me.
This is my third product from XP-PEN and I am completely impressed with the brand’s performance and pricing.
In this Article, I’m going to look at the product more from a design perspective.
Introduce
XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Generation) is a 15.4″ creative pen display designed to help you make your imagination come to life in rich color and sharp detail.
It comes with the super responsive X3-Smart-Chip Stylus – so you can create with incredible control and high accuracy and offers the familiar feel of pen on paper with the boundless potential of digital creativity.
The 2nd Generation version of the XPPen Artist 16 is a refresh of the previous generation and costs $399.99. XPPen took a lot of the feedback from users and used it to improve upon the device.
The Artist 16 (2nd Generation) is a fantastic tool for digital sketching, illustration and technical drawing and incorporates XPPen’s many years of experience and know-how in building products that make creativity more natural and productive.
Click here to visit the XPPen’s official site if you want more information: https://www.xp-pen.com/product/1203.html
Unboxing
The packaging just felt fancy, super high quality, and really pretty to boot.
Once open, the first thing you find inside the box is the tablet. The tablet is covered in a plastic bag.
This tablet also comes with Stylus, Quick Guide, 18 months warranty card in the US, 3-in-1 USB Cable, USB Extension Cable, Power Adapter, 3 Power Plug, Cleaning Cloth, Black Drawing Glove and 8 additional standard nibs.
The ACS05 foldable adjustable tablet stand, Protective Case and the single USB-C to USB-C Cable are optional which not included.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with the tablet and the addition items in the tablet.
Design
The XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Generation) includes an attractive but compact design, making it easy to incorporate the tablet into a workspace.
The enclosure is machined from a solid piece of plastic, giving it a very durable and professional feel.
Four gorgeous colors are available to fit your personal style: Black, blue, green, and pink. the green one is really aesthetic.
There are eight shortcut buttons on the display’s left side that can be programmed to carry out simple tasks.
On the right side, you’ll find several buttons and connectivity options. There is the power and a pair of dedicated brightness buttons starting from the top. Below are two USB-C ports connecting the pen display to the computer.
Behind the tablet are 4 large rubber feet to prevent it from sliding around on table.
I was a little shocked by the weight of the tablet, I figured it would be super light and slight playable which is a big plus for transport.
If you’re looking for a pen display to use on the go with a laptop, you should definitely check the Artist 16 (2nd Generation) out – you won’t be disappointed.
Connections
The connections are fantastic, including USB type-c. not providing a USB-C to USB-C cable with the tablet seems like an oversight.
The USB-C to USB-C cable for connection shoule be full-featured. In this case, “full-featured” means a cable that’s rated for power, video, and data transfer.
With the apple Macbook Pro, I can easily use the USB type-c cable to connect the XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Gen) tablet. So easy and convenient.
I can also use the pen display with the desktop computer with the HDMI connection (3-in-1 cable).
The included 3-in-1 cable is USB-C port on the pen display’s end and has a separate HDMI and two USB-A (power and data) plugs on the other.
The HDMI plug and black USB Type-A plug need to be connected directly into your computer. However, the red USB Type-A plug is only used for power delivery. The USB extension power cable gets you about three extra feet of reach.
If you don’t have an extra USB port on your laptop, you can use a simple USB-C adapter.
Driver Download and Install
Once I downloaded the driver from XPPen’s official site, installed, and restarted, it didn’t take long at all to get started at all.
The driver functions as expected, allowing pen calibration, canvas area and pen pressure customization, and setting up the dedicated shortcut buttons.
Of those, we get eight on the tablet and an additional two on the pen. these buttons can be programmed to activate shortcuts and other commands.
Compatibility
The XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Gen) will work with pretty much any computer. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux, and even Android OS. If your device has the necessary ports, you shouldn’t have any issues. The same is true for your software. You can dig right in and start working in all Adobe software, GIMP, MediBang, Krita, and others.
The operating systems I’ve tested are MacOS and Windows 11. I have seen reviews of people using this with a Android phone or another tablet out and about on the go, but I don’t use it with Linux and Android devices so I can’t say much.
Screen Technology
The XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Gen) have a beautiful, vibrant screen. which is pleasant and really smooth.
This pen display uses a 15.4-inch IPS panel that supports 1920×1080 resolution. the high-definition provides outstanding clarity and color.
The screen response is fantastic, thanks to it being fully laminated, eliminating any air gap between the screen and the touch-sensitive sensor.
The tablet can reproduce 94% of the Adobe RGB color range, equivalent to 90% of NTSC or 127% of sRGB. It means a screen with colors you can trust compared with a regular monitor. which is an extremely useful function when you publish a lot on the internet.
XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Gen)’s wide color fidelity improves a photographer’s workflow and helps guarantee better results every time. Photo prints that always look right make this a photographer’s favorite.
Even out of the box, the colors look accurate. Of course, I recommend you calibrate the monitor before starting to work with it. I use X-Rite i1 Display to calibrate my monitors, and after the calibration, I can say that the display looks even better. The contrast and sharpness are both perfect for photo editing.
It has a glossy display and, rather than an etched glass screen, but it comes with an anti-glare textured matte screen protective film.
The onscreen feel is a very personal choice. the matte screen protective film makes drawing more natural and can help deal with glare issues.
The Screen protector also protect screen from irreversible damage such as scratches, dings, and harsh cleaning chemicals.
Stylus with X3 Smart Chip
Its companion stylus, the X3 Elite, provides 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, a low activation force, and tilt recognition of even the lightest pen strokes. As with other pens in the XPPen family, you don’t have to charge it.
It reacts to as little as 3 grams of Initial activation force with ten times better sensitivity, so “artwork can be produced with a featherlight stroke.
The nib has less retraction of about only 0.6 mm when pressed against the screen, and lines appear instantly upon the slightest touch of the surface. The pen is also very light and handles perfectly.
This new X3 smart chip technology certainly makes the stylus very responsive that shows while carefully crafting sun-shadow ink line transitions or adding rapid brush strokes for color texturing.
The super precise pen is combined with virtually no parallax and just enough screen resolution, allowing the artist to achieve exact line placement when needed!
Drawing Performance
For the past few weeks I have been using the Artist 16 (2nd Gen) Display Tablet by XP-PEN and I must say I was really impressed by the drawing experience.
This product’s build is elegant, The screen feels so nice to glide the pen on. There’s very little parallax, and the beautiful matte etched screen protector creates a drawing experience that feels natural.
It has such a high color accuracy and such good contrast that – when combined with the provided pixel density – it makes you completely forget that you’re working on a screen.
The tablet runs smoothly – of course this also has to do with the computer you plug it into – it has no lag, working on the screen surface is really comfortable & the pressure sensitivity is really great.
Having used XPPen tablets since the 22″ Artist 22 (2nd Generation), I have become used to the fluid drawing experience that the EMR (Electro Magnetic Resonance) pens provide. The pens don’t have batteries and are well balanced with a comfortable feel and never need to be charged.
When in Photoshop, there are so many tools that take advantage of pressure sensitivity, that I can’t image drawing or retouching without one.
The pen has minimal initial activation force. As long as the pen tip touches the drawing surface, even without any pressure applied, you can get a line. The pen is very sensitive at low pressure levels.
Lines can transition from thin to thick and back smoothly. Curves turn smoothly. It’s easy to maintain consistent pressure. Drawing performance is consistent and predictable.
I did not experience any glitches with various drawing software I’ve tested, namely Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Medibang Paint Pro, Clip Studio Paint and Krita. Pressure and tilt sensitivity work as expected.
The overall drawing experience is excellent. Lines come out exactly the way I expect them to.
The Digital Artwork made by this tablet:
The shortcut buttons are such a life saver! They don’t wobble, are large, and have a delightful, rubbery feel with a satisfying click when pressed.
The included Drawing Glove is made of Lycra which is an elastic material that provides comfort and flexibility, it fits my hand perfectly, keep sweat off of my tablet and help me draw smoothly.
XP-PEN’s attractive design and attention to detail are admirable, especially considering the company’s target user base at this price point.
Final Verdict
XPPen Artist 16 (2nd Gen) is a good looking graphic tablet with solid build quality. I really love my new tablet so much, it has given me the ability to create the art I’ve always wanted.
The Drawing performance is consistent and predictable, in other words, excellent. I did not encounter any glitches with the various drawing software I’ve tested.
My overall experience is very positive. The product works as expected so this review is easy to make.
The only downside is perhaps the limited number of physical shortcut buttons. If you need more than 8 buttons, you can purchase the optional XP-Pen AC19 Wireless Shortcut Remote.
So if you’re interested in looking to get more hands-on with your work in a digital way, with one of the best and most affordable pen tablets on the market right now I think you are really going to like this product.
You can decide whether this is worth the money based on the experience I’ve shared.
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