Pen displays with touchscreen for digital drawing

Should you get a touchscreen pen display to create digital art?

In this article, we'll look at the pros and cons of a touchscreen pen display for creating digital art, and the pros and cons of getting one. I'm writing this based on my experience of having reviewed too many pen displays.

What's a pen display

A pen display is essentially a monitor you can draw on with the included pen. A monitor has to be connected to a computer. There's no OS inside the pen display, and there's no built-in battery. A pen display may or may not support touch.

Touchscreen pen displays are more expensive compared to those without touchscreens. So you may be wondering if it's actually worth the money, especially if you have been drawing on tablets that also have pen support, e.g. iPads, Samsung tablets with S Pens and others.

The main reason to get a pen display is so that you can use desktop OS. If you don't need to use desktop OS, getting a portable tablet is actually more convenient, but you'll be limited by the OS features, and also display size.

A tablet has OS and built-in battery and will have a touchscreen. Whether there is pen support will depend on which tablet you have. If no pen support is advertised, the tablet does not support pen input.

If you're a digital artist looking for pen displays with touchscreens, see this list I've compile below. Whenever possible, I will link to my reviews, and I will try to keep this list updated.

Regarding touchscreen support on Windows and MacOS
If you want to find out more about touchscreen support for drawing apps running on Windows, see this article. If you're using MacOS, just note that touchscreen does not work well because MacOS doesn't really support external touchscreen monitors, and even the drivers from pen display companies may not work well.

Huion Kamvas Pro 19 and 27 (2024)

The Huion Kamvas Pro 19 (review) and Kamvas Pro 27 are top-of-the-line pen displays from Huion. Prices are USD 1099 and USD 1999 respectively.

They have 4K UHD resolution, matte glass and are huge.

Gaomon PD1621 (2022)

The Gaomon PD1621 is a 15.6-inch 4K UHD pen display priced at USD 599.

I've not tested this pen display before so I can't say much about its performance.

Wacom Movink (2024)

The Wacom Movink (review) is Wacom's first pen display with an OLED display. Price is USD 749.

The other pen displays with touchscreens from Wacom are the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16, 17, 22, 24 and 27.

XPPen Artist Pro 16TP (2021)

XPPen Artist Pro 16TP (review) is the company's first pen display with 4K UHD resolution and also the first touchscreen from them. Original retail price was US$899 but now it's selling at USD 539.

ASUS PA169CDV (2023)

The ASUS PA169CDV (review) is a 15.6-inch 4k UHD pen display that uses Wacom EMR pen technology.

Original retail price was USD 899 but at time of writing it can be found at USD 794 on Amazon US.

UPerfect Delta Pro Touch (2024)

UPerfect Delta Pro Touch is a dual stack monitor with pen support. Price is currently USD 589.

This product has two 16-inch touchscreen with 2560 x 1600 resolution.

UPerfect isn't a company that's known for making pen displays for digital artists so the pen performance for drawing isn't ideal.

Other options

As you can see, there aren't many touchscreen pen displays in the market currently.

Other options would include using your iPad or Android tablet as a pen display that connected either wirelessly or with cable to your computer. For this to work, you'll need to use apps and some options are

• Astropad Studio for iPad - USD 79.99/year
• Apple SideCar for iPad - free
• SuperDisplay for Android - USD 10
• Duet Display for iPad and Android - Studio plan with pen support is USD 6/month, USD 229 lifetime

There are more options listed here with pros and cons. Generally speaking, the performance won't be as good as a connected pen display.

Should you get the touchscreen?

At the time of writing this article, many drawing apps on Windows have limited finger gesture support. Basic navigation shortcuts is usually supported, but more advanced shortcuts like 3-4 finger taps, swipes, tap and hold may not be supported.

I've actually written another article talking about the types of finger gesture shortcuts supported by various drawing apps in another article.

Even having basic navigation gestures can help improve productivity. Zoom, pan and rotate is more intuitive. You already use finger zoom and pan (scroll) when web browsing so you pretty much know how useful it is.

Having finger gesture support is certainly useful. But not having finger gesture support is not a dealbreaker since you can always use keyboard shortcuts to do the same thing, which is what artists have been doing for years before touchscreen existed.

Some companies have also created compact shortcut remotes to replace the functionality you get from finger gesture shortcuts.

There's also a Windows utility app called Tablet Pro Studio that adds hotkeys on the screen to provide more shortcuts - works great for apps that have only basic navigation support.

As an artist and graphic design who is used to using keyboard shortcuts, I'm fine without a touchscreen. I have read many comments online talking about how much more productive you can get with a touchscreen those people are correct too. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, and also how much budget.