It's quite exciting in the pen display market in 2021 with the release of several 4K pen displays from Huion and XP-Pen.

The Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (4K) (US $829) and Kamvas Pro 16 Plus (4K) (US $899) are the first pen displays from Huion that support 4K UHD resolution (3840 x 2160). The XP-Pen Artist Pro 16TP (4K) (US $899) is a 4K touchscreen pen display. They are all quite pricey that's for sure. If you need a high resolution pen display but for some reason don't want to go with Wacom, definitely check out Huion and XP-Pen pen display.

Below are the differences between the Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus (4K) and the XP-Pen Artist Pro 16TP. The difference between the Kamvas Pro 16 Plus vs non-Plus is the former is an AdobeRGB display which has better colour accuracy.

Design and build quality

Design of both pen displays look good. They are about the same size as 15-inch laptops but thinner. Build quality is excellent.

For the XP-Pen, if your computer does not have a USB-C port, you'll have to use the 2-in-1 cable with HDMI. The other end is a straight end rather than L-shape so the cable connection on the pen display will look like the photo you see above. It's not sightly.

XP-Pen uses a glossy reflective display that's treated to allow your fingers and palm to glide easily which is good for finger gestures. Image quality is also better because matte surface display will introduce grain or colour noise. The downside is there's no tactile drawing experience.

The matte glass on the Huion provides a nice tactile drawing experience. You can also buy Huion felt pen nibs for a more tactile drawing experience.

Touchscreen

XP-Pen has a touch-screen that supports finger gestures for Windows and Android. Drawing with finger gestures feel intuitive and those who have been drawing on portable tablets will feel right at home.

The touch-screen also allows you to use Windows apps that were designed for Windows tablets and with finger gestures in mind. Using those Windows tablet apps is difficult and challenging even with keyboard. So now you can use apps like Concepts, Sketchbook Pro, Leonardo and Sketchable just the way they are designed for touch interface.

Colour accuracy

Huion's matte glass may affect the image quality slightly but it still has better colour accuracy compared to the XP-Pen. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB and 98% AdobeRGB with the Huion and 98% sRGB and 90% AdobeRGB with the XP-Pen. The visual difference in real life is minimal though with a side by side comparison.

Brightness

Huion's maximum brightness is 160 nits measured. XP-Pen's maximum brightness is 260 nits measured but you have to connect the display to a power source to get 100% brightness.

For use indoors, 160 nits is alright although the higher the better.

Drawing performance

Lines above are from the XP-Pen. Lines from the XP-Pen will taper more abruptly than Huion. There's also a glitch with Photoshop where the lines will taper abruptly and end with a thin tail (tested with Mac and Windows driver from July 2021).

I don't have major issues with drawing with the XP-Pen. It's just that when it comes to drawing thin lines, it's easier to just reduce the brush size whereas with the Huion you can draw thin lines easily even with a thick brush selected.

XP-Pen tilt sensitivity does not work when one inch away from the edge.

Huion's pen performs really well and there were no glitches with the various drawing software I've tested.

Display Switch

There are no physical shortcut buttons with both XP-Pen and Huion pen displays. So if you have a dual monitor setup, you will need a shortcut to Switch Display, or switch the cursor from one display to another.

With Huion, you can set Switch Display shortcut to one of the two side buttons on the pen.

With XP-Pen, if you set Switch Display to the pen's single side button, you will lose access to right click. Switch Display does not work when set to a button on the XP-Pen AC19 shortcut remote at the time of this writing.

If you want to use dual display, the single button on the pen of XP-Pen is a deal breaker.

Stand

Huion includes a stand but the latch is too short so the pen display has the risk of sliding off.

Conclusion

If you use Photoshop as your main drawing app, or if you want a dual display setup, or use MacOS, don't go with XP-Pen.

The main selling point of the XP-Pen is the touchscreen which provides you with a more intuitive drawing experience, and also allows you to using Windows apps designed for touch interface.

Main selling point of Huion is the drawing performance is better and there are no glitches with the various drawing software tested. It does not have a touchscreen but you can still use your keyboard shortcuts for navigation.

To check out more detailed reviews, just visit
https://www.parkablogs.com/content/artist-review-xp-pen-artist-pro-16tp-...
https://www.parkablogs.com/content/review-huion-kamvas-pro-16-plus-4k

The buy the pen displays, just visit XP-Pen store or Huion store

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