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Review: Huion Inspiroy Dial 2 Q630M pen tablet

Review unit provided by Huion

The Huion Inspiroy Dial 2 Q630M is a wireless graphics pen tablet with two physical dials and six shortcut buttons. This is the upgraded version of the Inspiroy Dial Q620M Wireless which was released in 2019.

Video review

This is the 12-min long video review I've made.


Official retail price is US $159.99. Inspiroy Dial Q620M was launched at US $109 so there's a huge price increase. This new model has better pen performance, two dials, more shortcuts and uses Bluetooth instead of USB wireless for connection.

By the way, if you're want a dial and even more shortcut keys, check out the Huion Inspiroy KeyDial K200 pen tablet.


These are the items included in the box:

  • USB-C to USB-A charging cable
  • Pen stand
  • 10 replacement nibs
  • Nib remover
  • Huion PW517 pen
  • Quick start guide


The tablet design looks beautiful and feels premium. Overall build quality is solid. Finishing on the corners, edges and surface is well done.

The gray/silver part in front is actually plastic but looks like metal.

Drawing active area is 10 x 6 inches. This is a comfortable size to work with, and this pairs well with monitors up to, maybe, 27 inches. If you use a monitor larger than 27-inches, maybe check out the Huion Inspiroy Giano G930L instead.


The back is matte textured and seems to be made with metal (cold touch) and the black part is plastic.


The tablet is quite thin and compact. Thickness is just 8mm not including the height of the dial.


The buttons on the side are for power and Bluetooth pair. USB-C charging port is in the centre.

According to the company, battery life is rated at 18 hours and charging time is about 2.5 to 4.5 hours. Tablet can still be used while it's charging.


The dial can be turned from the top and the side. Turning has satisfying loud audible clicks. There's a good amount of resistance to turning which makes it easier to get the precise values you need.

Each dial can be configured with up to three functions. So two dials can get you six functions or shortcuts. You can push on the dial to switch between the functions.


The six customisable shortcut buttons have firm feedback when pressed.


The Huion PW517 pen included supports tilt sensitivity and 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity. It's not powered by battery so no charging required.

The pen looks good, has solid build quality and the large rubber grip is comfortable to hold.

The two side buttons are customisable.

The pen tip is firm and has minimal movement. Any movement is lateral rather than the in-out movement.


The pen stand included has 10 replacement nib and a nib remover in it. If you want even more texture with your nib for that extra paper-like drawing experience, consider getting the Huion felt nibs PN05F which are sold separately (US $10 for ten pieces).

Driver

There are drivers for Windows, MacOS and Linus.

The screenshots below are from the MacOS driver v15.6.1.34. Windows driver has almost similar functionality with the addition of Windows Ink which you may have to toggle on or off for troubleshooting if pressure is not working as expected.


Battery life of the tablet is located at the bottom right. There's also a low battery warning.


The driver orientation settings for left handed users.


These are the possible customisation options for the physical shortcut buttons.

There's Switch Display with three states: cursor on display #1, display #2 or across both displays.


That's this Quick Menu feature that allows you to add up to 6 shortcuts. So while there are 2 less shortcut buttons compared to the 8 found on the previous mode Huion Q620M, there are actually more shortcuts possible with Quick Menu on the Q630M.

The downside is only one Quick Menu can be created. Even if you set all the buttons to show Quick Menu, all the Quick Menus will have similar menu items. That's unfortunate because I found Quick Menu to be really useful.


Up to 3 shortcuts can be added to the dial, or a total of 6 for two dials. You can switch between the shortcuts by pressing the button in the middle of the dial.

You can also create customised shortcuts to the clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation.


The two side buttons on the pen are customisable.


The pressure curve can be customised by moving the 3 control points around. You can also choose from the pre-programmed pressure settings.

Drawing performance


These are line tests created with Photoshop CC 2022.

1. Initial activation force is minimal. As long as the pen tip touches the drawing surface, you can draw a thin line even without applying pressure. Having low initial activation force means it's possible to use a single thick brush for drawing without having to change brush size manually often.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick is smooth. Lines are able to go back to being really thin and is possible because the pen is very sensitive.

4. Lines with consistent widths can be drawn easily by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. Tilt sensitive works. Cursor is able to follow the direction of the pen.


This was drawn with Photoshop CC 2022 (Mac).


This was drawn with Clip Studio Paint (Mac).


This was drawn with Affinity Photo (Mac).


This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro (Mac).


Pressure sensitivity also worked fine with Adobe Illustrator (Mac).

The Huion PW517 pen with PenTech 3 is a sensitive and accurate pen. Drawing performance is consistent and predictable. Lines always come out the way I expect them to. There are no surprises and no glitches with the various drawing apps I've tested, e.g. Clip Studio Paint, Medibang Paint Pro, Krita, Affinity Photo.

Conclusion

The Huion Inspiroy Dial 2 Q630M is a good looking pen tablet with fantastic drawing performance. My overall drawing experience with it is very positive. This is a product that's definitely good enough for creating professional art.

I don't have any negative thing to say except maybe it's pricey but in this case you do get what you pay for.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality with premium feel
+ Sensitive pen with low initial activation force
+ Battery-less pen
+ Pen stand included
+ 5 plastic nibs & 5 felt nibs included
+ Excellent drawing performance
+ Wireless via Bluetooth 5.0
+ 6 customisable shortcut buttons
+ 2 customisable shortcut dials
+ No major driver glitches
+ Supports Windows, MacOS, Linux
- Pricey

Availability

You can find the Inspiroy Dial 2 Q630M on Huion online store.

It should be available on Amazon soon. Check the links below for availability:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

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