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Review: Maruse A5 Leather Journal Cover

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Review: Maruse A5 Leather Journal Cover

Review sample provided by Maruse

Maruse is a company that sells leather products made in Italy. They make portfolios, desk accessories, document holders, wallets and corporate gifts.

I've received a leather journal recently from them for review purposes. The price is USD 75 and it comes with a ruled notebook. There's mention of free shipping for purchases above $85 but that probably applies to USA.

The leather journal comes in five colour options: rope, black, burgundy, brown, blue. The one I have is Rope. The journal definitely looks well made.

The leather has this obvious grain texture which surprised me as I was expecting something smoother where the grain pattern isn't that visible. It is listed as pebbled leather on their website though.

The stitching looks perfect and durable.

The leather journal together with included notebook looks thick.

The included journal also has some sort of leather cover, but the surface is more cloth-like.

The notebook is only available with ruled lines, so no blank pages.

I prefer blank pages but I'll have to make do with drawing on lined pages.

The paper quality of the notebook is good. Fountain pen ink works well, and lines are solid. There's a certain satisfaction looking at the wet ink dry, so ballpoint pen users may not get the same satisfaction.

There's no mention of the paper weight on the website. From what I can see, the paper is not too thick, and seems to be the typical weight of writing paper, so maybe around 70gsm. I can see the ink impression from the previous page but it's not too distracting.

I'm using this journal to keep track of little miscellanous items that I buy. It's a fun project. The included notebook is quite thick so this will take a long time for me to fill up.

I've tried putting a hardcover A5-sized watercolour sketchbook in the journal but the cover cannot go into the back pocket. So instead I had purchased an A5-sized watercolour booklet which fits nicely. Then I realised if I am to use watercolour, the journal will likely be stained with watercolour paint and water.

Availability

This leather journal is available for sale from the Maruse online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 18 Oct 2026 - 12:00

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Artist Review: Samsung Tab S12+ and Tab S12 Ultra

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Artist Review: Samsung Tab S12+ and Tab S12 Ultra

Review unit on loan from Samsung Singapore

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 series tablets were released in October 2026. My review is from the perspective of an artist. I will not be writing my usual long review since the text content will be scrapped by AI anyway, so I'm embedding my video review instead.

Some of the improvements include:

The MediaTek Dimensity 9500 is 17% faster than the 9400+ from Tab S11
There's better thermal management
It comes with Android 17, Samsung OneUI 9, and will have seven years of OS updates
There's now Bluetooh v6
There's a new 4-channel spatial audio system

Video review

Bottom line

The Samsung Tab S12 is the best Android tablet in the market currently. You get fantastic build quality, display, battery life, OS features and good pen support. It is pricey though but if you account for how many years you can use this for, the average cost per years is not too bad.

If you already have an older Samsung Galaxy tablet such as the Tab S8, S9, S10, S11, then there's no reason to upgrade as the user experience is mostly similar. I'm still using the Tab S9 Ultra I had purchased in 2023 and it's still a great tablet.

Drawing experience is good since the pen performance is good. Downsides would be the removal of the anti-reflective coating on the display, so you have to spend extra money to buy the anti-reflective screen protector if needed.

And the side button of the pen is still difficult to feel.

For digital artists, the premium tablets to consider for drawing today are the iPad Pro, Samsung Galaxy tablets and Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14. If you're just gonna be drawing most of the time, I recommend the Wacom. If you need a more versatile tablet, something that can do more, then get the Samsung. iPad Pro is seriously overpriced right now. Actually I would recommend you consider the Tab 10 or S11 because those will be much cheaper since they have been out for a while and are still great tablets.

Prices over the years

Wifi models

Series	Model	RAM	Storage	Price (SGD)	Price (USD)
Tab S8	S8 WiFi	8GB	256GB	1188	699
Tab S8	S8+ WiFi	8GB	256GB	1538	899
Tab S8	S8 Ultra WiFi	8GB	256GB	—	1099
Tab S9	S9 WiFi	8GB	128GB	1128	799
Tab S9	S9+ WiFi	12GB	256GB	1388	999
Tab S9	S9 Ultra WiFi	12GB	256GB	1688	1199
Tab S10	S10+ WiFi	12GB	256GB	1401	1099
Tab S10	S10 Ultra WiFi	12GB	256GB	1704	1199
Tab S11	S11 WiFi	12GB	256GB	1198	899
Tab S11	S11 Ultra WiFi	12GB	256GB	1698	1199
Tab S12	S12+ WiFi	12GB	256GB	1698	1199
Tab S12	S12 Ultra WiFi	12GB	256GB	1998	1399

Cellular models

Series	Model	RAM	Storage	Connectivity	Price (SGD)	Price (USD)
Tab S8	S8+ 5G	8GB	256GB	5G	1738	—
Tab S8	S8 Ultra 5G	8GB	256GB	5G	2188	—
Tab S9	S9 LTE	8GB	128GB	LTE	1328	—
Tab S9	S9+ LTE	12GB	256GB	LTE	1588	—
Tab S9	S9 Ultra LTE	12GB	256GB	LTE	1888	—
Tab S10	S10+ 5G	12GB	256GB	5G	1603	—
Tab S10	S10 Ultra 5G	12GB	256GB	5G	1905	—
Tab S11	S11 5G	12GB	256GB	5G	1398	—
Tab S11	S11 Ultra 5G	12GB	256GB	5G	1898	—
Tab S12	S12+ 5G	12GB	256GB	5G	1868	—
Tab S12	S12 Ultra 5G	12GB	256GB	5G	2148	—

The tablet cost more than many laptops nowadays. The selling point here is the pen support because if you don't need that, I recommend a laptop instead.

Prices of accessories in Singapore

Accessories	Colour	RRP (Including GST)
Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra Book Cover Keyboard Slim	Black	$268.00
Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra Book Cover	Black	$148.00
Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra Pro Keyboard	Grey	$498.00
Galaxy Tab S12+ Book Cover Keyboard Slim	Black	$218.00
Galaxy Tab S12+ Book Cover	Black	$128.00
Galaxy Tab S12+ Pro Keyboard	Grey	$348.00

Specifications

Specification	Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra (14.6-inch)	Galaxy Tab S12+ (12.6-inch)
Dimensions	208.5 x 326.3 x 5.1 mm	187.8 x 289.5 x 5.3 mm
Weight	692 g (Wi-Fi), 695 g (5G)	553 g (Wi-Fi), 555 g (5G)
OS	Android 17, One UI 9	Android 17, One UI 9
Display	14.6-inch, 2960 x 1848, 120Hz, Dynamic AMOLED 2X	12.6-inch, 2800 x 1752, 120Hz, Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Brightness	Peak 1,600 nits / HBM 1,000 nits	Peak 1,600 nits / HBM 1,000 nits
AP	MediaTek Dimensity 9500	MediaTek Dimensity 9500
Memory & Storage	12GB + 256GB, microSD up to 2TB	12GB + 256GB, microSD up to 2TB
Battery / Charging	11,600 mAh / 45W	10,600 mAh / 45W
Network & Connectivity	5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth v6.0	5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth v6.0
Camera	Rear: 13 MP + 8 MP ultra-wide Front: 12 MP ultra-wide	Rear: 13 MP Front: 12 MP ultra-wide
Sound	Quad Speaker (4-channel Spatial Audio)	Quad Speaker (4-channel Spatial Audio)
S Pen	S Pen (BLE not supported) In-box	S Pen (BLE not supported) In-box
Durability	IP68	IP68
SIM	Dual SIM (pSIM + eSIM)	Dual SIM (pSIM + eSIM)
Security	Fingerprint on Display	Fingerprint on Display
Color	Grey, Silver	Grey, Silver
Accessories	Pro Keyboard Book Cover Keyboard Slim Book Cover	Pro Keyboard Book Cover Keyboard Slim Book Cover

Which size to get

The Tab S12 series comes in two sizes: 12.6-inch Tab S12+ and 14.6-inch Tab S12 Ultra.

Get the larger tablet if you often use split-screen, SamsungDex, external display mode and apps with many UI elements such as Krita, CSP. The smaller 12.6-inch tablet is noticeably easier to handle while the larger tablet is mostly a table-top tablet.

Vs XPPen Magic Pro 13

I hate reflections.

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 15 Oct 2026 - 09:00

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samsung

drawing tablet reviews

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Art TikTok Has A New Delusional Problem

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:52:26 +0000

Art TikTok Has A New Delusional Problem

Not being able to differentiate real and AI art is one thing. Accusing an artist of using AI-generated art without proof is another. AI is making people even more lazy, stupid and irresponsible.

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 15 Oct 2026 - 08:52

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Clinging to the Beauty of Life: Yasunari Ikenaga

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 14:45:38 +0000

Clinging to the Beauty of Life: Yasunari Ikenaga

This video features an intimate look at the creative process and philosophy of Japanese painter Yasunari Ikenaga in his atelier.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 11 Oct 2026 - 22:45

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Review: UPERFECT 14-inch pen display UD14BQ

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: UPERFECT 14-inch pen display UD14BQ

Review unit provided by UPERFECT

UPERFECT is a company known for selling portable displays, and they have just released their first pen display. The UPERFECT UD14BQ is a pen display with a 14-inch QLED LCD with 2560 x 1600 resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. Price at the time of review is USD 499, and it comes with a 2-year warranty.

The company has provided the following discount codes for my audience:

TONT80, $80 off for order amount above $500
TONT100, $100 off for order amount above $600

Since the pen display is $1 off the minimum amount needed to use the discount code, I recommend getting an extra USB-C video cable (USD 14) just to meet the minimum order amount.

UPERFECT in case you don't know sells white label products. And I found that this pen display looks identical to the DIGIDRAW Turing 14, which I have reviewed months ago, now priced even lower at USD 311.

Specifications

Item	Specification
Item	14 Inch Professional Monitor
Refresh Rate	60Hz
Response Time	16ms
Screen Size	14 Inch
Resolution	2560 × 1600 (QHD)
Pixel Pitch	0.12 mm
Pixels Per Inch	215.63 PPI
Viewable Area	309.31 × 173.99 mm (12.18 × 6.85 inch)
Display Ratio	16:10
Viewing Angle	178°
Panel Type	QLED
Screen Type	Mirror
Contrast Ratio	1000:1
Brightness	210 cd/m²
Color Gamut	102.20% Adobe / 101.70% DCI-P3
Color Depth	16.7M (8bit)
Touch Screen	EMR Electromagnetic Touch
Built-in Battery	No
Gravity Sensor	No
HDR	No
Freesync	No
Material	ABS
Built-in Speakers	Yes, 2 × 8Ω 1W
Vesa	No
Driver Free	No
Stand Holder	Yes
Cover Case	No
Folded Size	329 × 234 × 11.8 mm (12.95 × 9.21 × 0.46 inch)
Unfolded Size	372 × 278 × 70 mm (14.65 × 10.94 × 2.76 inch)
Package Size	450 × 320 × 110 mm (17.72 × 12.6 × 4.33 inch)
Net Weight	0.9 kg (1.98 lbs)
Package Weight	1.88 kg (4.14 lbs)
Interface	1 × USB-C (Video Signal & Power), 1 × USB-C (Power Only)

Things included

Pen Display
Pen Holder
M5 Digital Pen
EU Power Adapter Converter
3-in-1 Cable (For Desktop Only)
30W Foldable PD Power Adapter (USB-C Output)
1.8m USB-C to USB-C Power Cable
1.5m USB-C to USB-C Data Cable
Manual

Design

This pen display is well made and looks good.

It's quite thin at 11.8mm. Even though it looks like a portable tablet because it's so thin, it is a pen display so it will need connection to your computer.

The pen display supports HDMI or USB-C video connection. If you use USB-C video, you can use a single cable connection for data, power and video. The 3-to-1 cable with HDMI has a connector that's designed specifically to fit the port on the pen display. That's to say that if the 3-in-1 cable breaks in the future, you'll have to buy a replacement cable from UPERFECT. If you use USB-C video, you can use any generic USB-C video cable.

The back is matte textured and is quite susceptible to fingerprints.

The two foldout feet can prop up the pen display at 19 degrees, a comfortable angle for drawing. If you want a more versatile tablet stand, I recommend the Parblo PR100.

Display

The QLED LCD is already colour calibrated at the factory, and colours look good. Resolution of the display is 2560 x 1600 and on a 14-inch display visuals are sharp with no noticeable pixelation. Refresh rate is 60Hz and that's typical.

There's no noticeable colour shift when the display is viewed from extreme angle but there is IPS or LCD glow that's visible, not really an issue as you'll most likely

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 86% NTSC, 88% AdobeRGB, 97% P3 and a max brightness of 220 nits.

Colour accuracy is good. I wish the brightness was higher but it's still sufficient for indoor use.

To adjust brightness, you have to press and hold the power button for a few seconds before the OSD shows up. The display is not a touchscreen so you'll have to use the pen to adjust the settings.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the pen tip and the line beneath.

There is the pen latency gap though, but it's the typical amount of latency with most pen displays.

The display is matte glass so it is unlikely to scratch. Diffused reflections can be glaring if it's from a strong and big light source.

The matte surface is quite smooth for drawing. Texture is quite similar to pen tablets. While the surface is smooth, you should still be able to get good control over the pen as you can rest your palm comfortably on the display and not have to worry about palm rejection as this is not a touchscreen.

All matte textured surfaces will introduce some grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle. With this pen display, all that is kept to a minimum. Visual quality isn't affected much and the visual quality looks good.

DRIVER

There are drivers for Windows and MacOS.

The driver is quite basic and provides adjustment for mapping, pen & cursor alignment, pressure sensitivity, pen button shortcuts and a virtual keyboard.

The virtual keyboard is a popup on screen that shows you softkeys. There's a rectangular virtual keyboard that has 24 customisable shortcuts. Since there are no hotkeys on the pen display, you may have to use one pen button to call up the virtual keyboard.

The driver has switch display shortcut that lets you switch the cursor from one display to another when you're using a dual display setup.

PEN

This is the M5 digital pen and it's well made. The silicone grip is big and comfortable to use. The pen uses EMR technology so no charging or pairing is required. The pen supports tilt sensitivity and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity.

The pen has two customisable side buttons, and there's no eraser. The side buttons are covered with the same silicone from the grip and are almost flush with the body. It is not easy to feel for the button and I have a high tendency to press on them unintentionally while drawing.

The design of the side buttons is the main downside for this pen display as it affects drawing experience. You could disable the buttons but sometimes you want to use the buttons.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. I find it difficult to draw thin lines with consistent line width. Thin lines have line width variance which is quite obvious. This thankfully does not appear when actually drawing with the pen. There's no diagonal line wobble.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. Thin line can be drawn easily after drawing thick.

4. You can create consistent line width by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily, and react to pressure.

6. No issues with cursor misalignment. Cursor is always directly under the pen tip even when pen is tilted very low, or pen tip is at the extreme left or right edges.

Tilt sensitivity works fine. Cursor is able to follow the direction of the pen.

This pen is sensitive and accurate. The line quality you can get is good enough for creating professional comics.

Drawing experience

Since the pen is sensitive and accurate. Drawing experience is fantastic.

A 14-inch display is not too small. Even with palettes on the left and right, there's still a good amount of space for drawing, maybe about an A5-size area for drawing.

UI scaling can still show the text and buttons at comfortable sizes.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro. The drawing process was smooth without issues.

I was able to get the lines to come out the way I expect them to. The issue with line width variance when drawing thin lines did not affect my art.

To improve drawing experience, I recommend you get a tablet stand where you can get more adjustment for angles.

Conclusion

Since this is UPERFECT's first pen display, I did not know what to expect. Thankfully, the pen display is fantastic.

Colour accuracy is 100% sRGB and visual quality of the display looks great. Pen is sensitive and accurate, so the drawing experience is wonderful. The line quality you can get is good enough to create professional comics.

Main downside for me is the buttons on the pen are difficult to feel, and I have a high tendency to click on them unintentionally. There are no hotkeys and the display has no touch support but those are not really downsides for me.

The pen display just works and it works really well. I'm very impressed.

As mentioned above, this pen display is likely a white label product that's similar to the DIGIDRAW Turing 14. As a result, there's no competitive advantage for UPERFECT and which to get will come down to which is cheaper.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Build quality is good
+ Display looks vibrant and sharp
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Supports HDMI and USB-C video
+ Can be powered by one single USB-C video cable
+ Body has fold-out feet
+ Matte glass surface
+ Accurate and sensitive pen
+ Wonderful drawing experience
- Diffused reflection can be glaring with large light source
- IPS/LCD glow noticeable
- 220 nits brightness
- No shortcut buttons on display
- Pen buttons too flushed, not easy to feel

Availability

The UPERFECT UD14BQ is available directly from the UPERFECT online store.

Here are discount codes you can use:

TONT80, $80 off for order amount above $500
TONT100, $100 off for order amount above $600

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 07 Oct 2026 - 22:00

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uperfect

pen display

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Artist Review: Asus ProArt PZ14 tablet with ASUS Pen 3

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Artist Review: Asus ProArt PZ14 tablet with ASUS Pen 3

Review unit on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt PZ14 is a powerful Windows tablet with a 14-inch OLED display with pen support that was announced in January 2026. The tablet was released in Singapore in June 2026 and comes with 32GB RAM, 1TB storage, priced at SGD 4499.

ASUS also released the Asus Pen 3 at the same time. The pen uses Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP) 2.6, supports tilt, 4K levels of pressure and palm rejection. There's also haptic feedback and magnetic charging.

My review is from the perspective of someone who does graphic design, sketch, edit photos and videos.

Specifications

Category	ASUS ProArt PZ14 (2026)	Microsoft Surface Pro 13 (2026)
Release Date	Jan 7, 2026 (CES)	Jun 2026
Display	14" OLED, 2880×1800, 144 Hz, True Black 1000, 16:10	13" OLED/IPS, 2880×1920, 120 Hz, HDR, 3:2
Color Accuracy	100% DCI-P3	100% DCI-P3
CPU Options	Snapdragon X2 Elite	Snapdragon X2 Plus / X2 Elite / Intel Core Ultra 5 / Ultra 7
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno	Qualcomm Adreno
RAM	16 GB / 32 GB LPDDR5X	16 GB / 24 GB / 32 GB / 64 GB LPDDR5X
Storage	512 GB / 1 TB SSD	512 GB / 1 TB SSD
Battery	75 Wh (OLED)	47 Wh (LCD) / 53 Wh (OLED)
Physical Dimensions	312.1 × 221.6 × 9mm	287 × 208 × 9.3 mm
Weight	0.79 kg	~0.895 kg
Ports	2× USB-C (USB 4), SD Express 7.0	2× USB-C (USB 4
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.x
Front Camera	8 MP + IR	5 MP
Rear Camera	13 MP	None
Pen Protocol	Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP)	Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP)
Supported Pen	ASUS Pen 3	Surface Slim Pen 2
Pen Features	4096 pressure levels, tilt, USB-C charging	4096 pressure levels, tilt, haptic feedback, magnetic charging
Pen Storage	No built-in silo	Magnetic slot on keyboard
Best For	Creative work, color-critical tasks	Productivity, note-taking, flexible configurations

The 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro (2026) with the same specifications costs SGD 3699. The Microsoft Slim Pen 2 and keyboard case are SGD 439. So the total with accessories is SGD 4138. One year warranty is included while ASUS includes a 2-year warranty.

The ASUS ProArt PZ14 has a larger display, larger battery capacity and is lighter and thinner. Impressive.

Things included

Items may vary depending on location.

Tablet
Keyboard case
ASUS Pen 3
68W Power adapter and cable
Sleeve
Warranty and quickstart guide

The included keyboard case comes in two parts.

The detachable keyboard attaches to the bottom of the tablet with magnets. Keyboard is full-sized and typing experience is good with decent travel and feedback. Keys have backlight. The touchpad is big and accurate.

The back cover attaches to the back of the tablet and can stand vertically. The back cover has a storage area for the ASUS Pen 3 and there's a status light which will appear to show the charging status of the pen.

The pen would attach magnetically behind the tablet for charging and pairing. I do not know the battery life of the pen. Since the pen is always attached, battery will always be full the next time you use it.

Nice thing about the keyboard is it can be used wirelessly away from the tablet. I have no info about the keyboard's battery life but there should not be an issue when it's connected to the tablet frequently.

Design

'
This tablet is well made and build quality feels premium. Design of the tablet looks beautiful and sleek.

9mm can be considered thin for a Windows tablet. Edges are beveled and there's a slight tilt on the sides to make it easier to lift the tablet. Built quality is solid. This looks and feels like a premium product.

Fan exhaust is located at the top right, just beside the power button which does not have a fingerprint scanner. Fan noise is not audible with normal workload unless you're exporting videos or playing games.

The tablet doesn't get hot with normal workload, and fan noise would not be audible.

The tablet has two USB-C 4.0 ports on the left and a SD card reader that's covered by a removeable cover. Both USB-C ports support video output and charging.

The tablet is 14-inch and weighs 790g. It's a big tablet and not something I can hold in hand for long periods of time. For drawing, I would remove the tablet from the back cover and place it on my Parblo PR100 stand.

Display

The 14-inch 144Hz OLED display looks stunning. This display is bright, vibrant and sharp.

There's Windows Hello face unlock but it doesn't seem work perfectly as failure rate for me seems high. Auto brightness works but I wish there's a way to adjust how much brighter or less bright with auto brightness.

Resolution is 2880 x 1800, aspect ratio is 16:10.

Standard brightness is 500 nits and HDR brightness up to 1000 nits. Colours support is 100% DCI-P3. Contrast ratio is 1,000,000:1.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and pen tip.

There's anti-reflective coating but it doesn't seem to be as good as I prefer, but having is better than not having.

And this is how the anti-reflective display looks vs matte glass.

The tablet is much bigger than a 13-inch M4 iPad Pro. The two tablets are quite different though because one runs Windows OS and the other iPadOS.

14-inch is sufficiently big to work with graphic design and drawing apps that have toolbars and palettes by the side.

Performance

Performance looks and feels responsive.

I've only tested the tablet for drawing so I didn't really push the processor to its limits. You'll have to look for other reviews if you want benchmarks fo video editing.

OS and software

This tablet runs on Windows 11 Pro.

To get the best drawing experience, there are many settings to change.

Under Pen & Windows Ink, set "Ignore touch input" otherwise the pen may sometimes not draw when your palm is on the display, Finger gestures for pan, zoom, rotate will still work.

For drawing apps that rely on 3 and 4 finger gestures, you'll have to disable Windows' own 3 and 4 finger gestures otherwise there will be conflicts.

Palm rejection is not flawless so it's best to have the taskbar hide automatically, otherwise your palm may press buttons at the corners.

Disable "Touch screen edge gestures" for left and right edge swipe, otherwise your palm may swipe out widgets from the left and right edges of the display.

The pen has haptic and I don't like it. When drawing you can feel the haptic vibrating and there's a disconnect because you're drawing on smooth glossy display, also the haptic vibration can be heard in a quiet room.

With Krita, you have to go into settings to enable Windows Ink, then restart the app.

Palm rejection may not be enabled by default so you may have to enable that manually. There are desktop drawing apps that are not designed with touchscreens in mind so those apps may not have palm rejection, e.g. Medibang Paint Pro on Windows. Photoshops runs well, surprisingly well. CSP works fine. Krita works fine.

ARM architecture

ARM chips have a different architecture compared to Intel and AMD. As a result, not all drawing apps can run, and some drawing apps are in the midst of being updated to run on ARM chips.

For example, Adobe Fresco, Bridge, Indesign, Illustrator are not available as they are incompatible with ARM. The version of Adobe Premiere and After Effects supported at the time of review is 26.5. There are Beta versions 27 of these two apps but I'm not sure how stable they are.

The most important thing you need to know is to check if the app that you need can actually run on ARM before you buy this tablet.

Pen

This is the ASUS Pen SA205H that was released together with the tablet. The pen could be designed specifically for this tablet as it supports magnetic charging and pairing when it's attached to the back.

Dimensions are 160mm±0.3mm Ø8.9±0.1mm. Weight is 15.9g.

There's one side button and a back button and eraser. The side button can be disabled so that you can assign the drawing app's shortcut to it.

The back button can have single, double click shortcuts.

The pen uses Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP) 2.6. It supports tilt, 4K levels of pressure and palm rejection. There's cursor hover.

ASUS did not provide any software to customise the pressure curve of the pen, so you'll have to rely on drawing apps for that.

The pen will behave erratically when tablet is charging.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint.

Results of the line tests are not good.

There's slight diagonal line wobble but the bigger issue is the pen has difficulty maintaining consistent pressure when drawing with minimal pressure.

There's no problem with cursor misalignment. Here you can see I've difficulty drawing smooth natural looking lines.

The pen also has difficulty drawing smooth tapered strokes. Lines will often taper abruptly, with a round end or worse with a shoelace effect.

When applying minimal pressure to draw dots, dots may not appear.

Initial activation force of the pen is low, but the pen has difficult detecting minimal changes in pressure when drawing with minimal pressure.

The pen supports tilt, but I was not able to get the cursor to follow the direction of the pen with Krita and Photoshop.

Drawing experience

Windows requires much setup before you can enjoy a better user experience, but even so the drawing experience with a MPP pen will never be as good compared to the Apple Pencil or a Wacom EMR pen.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint. When switching from heavy to light pressure, sometimes the lines to become too thin suddently. Drawing the hair was difficult because I could not get the hair to taper smoothly and sharply.

When drawing tapered strokes, you really have to be more intentional. You definitely need to spend more time to get a feel of how this pen performs.

Clip Studio Paint works best on this tablet. This app allows you to customise the pressure curve, and you can also choose how the lines taper. The desktop version of this app is a one time purchase while CSP on iPad and Android tablets is subscription based.

Photoshop ran rather smoothly and that's great because I've tested many Windows tablets where Photoshop can feel sluggish.

Pen performance with Photoshop is not great. It's difficult to maintain consistent pressure and difficult to get lines to taper nicely.

Concepts seems to work fine, but this app is quite forgiving even if the pen performance isn't good.

14-inch is a big display for a portable and this size works well with desktop drawing apps that have many UI elements.

Note that many desktop drawing apps are not designed with touchscreens in mind, so the best way to be more efficient with those apps is actually to use keyboard shortcuts. For example to adjust brush size with Photoshop, you need to click once before you can see the brush size slider. Medibang Paint (Win) has no palm rejection, a feature only for the iPad and Android version.

Navigation gestures such as pan, zoom and rotate are usually supported. 2-finger tap to undo may not be supported. And with Windows, you can't swipe up and hold to see all the opened apps.

As palm rejection does not work that well, resting your palm on the display may mean creating stray strokes in apps that do not have palm rejection, and you may pull out widgets from the edges of the display, or touch the palettes of drawing apps or buttons on the taskbar.

Battery life

Battery life is much better than expected. The ARM chip architecture really does wonders with battery life.

I did not measure the battery life as it's not something I would think about. With Microsoft Surface Pros that run Intel processors, battery life is bad. ARM battery life is very good, and this tablet can fast charge up to 90W which is incredibly fast.

Conclusion

The hardware of the ASUS ProArt PZ14 is great, except for the pen. For drawing, ASUS Pen 3 is that good unfortunately and can't compete with Apple, Wacom or even Huawei.

There's much setup to be done before you can get a more enjoyable drawing experience, but even so because of the pen performance and palm rejection are not perfect, the overall drawing experience isn't good.

The tablet can be used for casual drawing, note taking but the line quality is definitely not good enough for professional work that requires accuracy.

If you're thinking of creating digital art, I would recommend you get an iPad, Android tablet with proper pen support or the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14. Then get a separate laptop.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Well made, premium build quality
+ Bright, vibrant, sharp OLED display
+ 120Hz refresh rate
+ Long battery life
+ Silent operation most of the time
+ Has some water resistance
+ 90W fast charging
+ Keyboard case is well made
+ Keyboard can be used away from the tablet
+ Pen can be charged and paired magnetically
+ Audio quality is good
+ There's microSD card slot
+ Processor is fast and powerful
- Palm rejection with Windows is not great
- Some drawing apps are not compatible with ARM
- Pen uses MPP and has difficulty drawing with minimal pressure
- Much setup is needed with Windows to improve experience with drawing
- OLED display has PWM that can affect sensitive eyes

Availability

You can find the ASUS ProArt PZ14 from ASUS Singapore online store and Shopee SG.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 07 Oct 2026 - 21:00

Tags

asus

drawing tablet reviews

tech reviews

Comments

How I wish Wacom installed…

Tebanski (not verified) Thu, 08 Oct 2026 - 12:52

How I wish Wacom installed 16GB RAM on the MovinkPad Pro 14 - then I could do away with Apple's 13in iPad Pro. I have no issues with the CPU but 12GB RAM would be limiting for 3D sculpt explorations with Nomad Sculpt or ZBrush for Mobile. While there are Samsung Galaxy Ultra tablets that go up to 32GB, we lose access to Wacom's Pro Pen 3. We can't have everything, I guess.

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July - Sep 2026 roundup

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 01:00:00 +0000

July - Sep 2026 roundup

So I haven't been publishing the monthly reviews roundup because I was so busy. Listed below are all the reviews from the July to September 2026.

Books

Art product reviews

Tech reviews

Youtube art videos

Youtube tech videos

How to support Parka Blogs

1. Be a patron

You can support me on Patreon or through Youtube Membership.

You're supporting the art community, publishers, artists directly too, because that's what this blog is about.

2. Follow me on social media
Follow me on Patreon, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. It's as simple as that.

3. Check out my art courses on Skillshare and Gumroad
If you happen to be on Skillshare, check out my art courses there. Or just sign up for an account to get 14 days of unlimited access. Some of my courses are on Gumroad as well.

Many of the courses are available on Patreon too.

4. Buy stuff through my affiliate links
I get to earn some commission but at no extra cost to you. The money I earned is used to fund webhosting for this blog.

Thanks for your support!

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 02 Oct 2026 - 09:00

Tags

monthly reviews roundup

Comments

Hi Parka, it seems all links…

Carlo (not verified) Fri, 02 Oct 2026 - 16:05

Hi Parka,
it seems all links to books don't work

Hello, the Stalenhag link…

Alessandro (not verified) Mon, 05 Oct 2026 - 00:08

Hello, the Stalenhag link points to Krenkel ;-)

Thanks for the correction on…

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 06 Oct 2026 - 00:16

Thanks for the correction on the links

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How Atsuhiko Iijima (Creator of TRAVELER'S) Uses his TRAVELER'S Notebook

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How Atsuhiko Iijima (Creator of TRAVELER'S) Uses his TRAVELER'S Notebook

And here's another interview with many lovely photos.

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 02 Oct 2026 - 08:00

Tags

sketchbooks

video

Comments

What struck me was his point…

Shubhranshu (not verified) Wed, 14 Oct 2026 - 17:27

What struck me was his point that it's not necessary to label everything that one does, to define it. His point that the Traveller notebooks just exist to be used as you want, without judgement, to experiment etc. This was a lovely interview with the creator of the product. I hope more can happen over time with other brands.

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Review: Ugee ArtPlay Pad 12-inch portable drawing tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Review: Ugee ArtPlay Pad 12-inch portable drawing tablet

Review unit provided by Ugee

The Ugee ArtPlay Pad is an entry-level Android tablet with pen support and a 12-inch matte display designed for drawing. Price at the time of review is USD 399.

I've tested this tablet for a few weeks and the drawing experience is decent for the price point. Pen performance is definitely much better than the Ugee UT2 and UT3 released in 2024.

As with any tablets, there are pros and cons. So read on.

Specifications

Category	Feature	Specification
Size	Dimensions	289.7187.27.4mm
Size	Weight	644g
Stylus	Technology	Chip-powered & EMR
	Pressure Levels	16384
	Reading Height	Max≥10mm
	Accuracy	±0.5mm(Center), ±1.5mm(Corner)
	Resolution	2540 LPI
	Tilt	±60°
	Initial Activation Force	3g
Display	Size	12-inch
	Ratio	16:9
	Resolution	2000*1200
	Color	16.77 million colors, 99% sRGB
	Brightness	350 nit
	Refresh Rate	60Hz
	Contrast	1500:1
	Surface Technology	AG (Anti-glare) + AF (Anti-fingerprint)
	Display Technology	IPS
	Viewing Angle	170°
Processor	CPU	MT8781
Processor	GPU	Mali-G57 MC2
Operating System	OS	Android 14
Memory	RAM	6GB
	ROM	256GB
	Micro SD	Max 1TB
Camera	Rear Camera	13MP
Camera	Front Camera	8MP
Battery	Battery	7800mAh
Battery	Charging Power	30W
Connectivity	Wi-Fi	802.11a/b/g/n/ac
	WLAN Frequency	Dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz)
	Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.2
	USB	Type-C
Audio	Microphones	2
Audio	Speakers	4

Things included

ArtPlay Pad x 1
Stylus x 1
Nib Extractor x 1
Pen nibs x 8
Power adapter x 1
USB-C video cable x 1
Eject pin x 1
Protective Case x 1
Quick guide x 1
Warranty card x 1

The included case is made with silicone and provides full protection for all sides of the tablet. The case is kinda heavy since it's quite thick.

There's a stand that can prop up the tablet to different angles, but the hinge isn't strong enough to hold the tablet in place when you press on it while drawing. Judging by the design of the case, this tablet seems to be targeting the younger crowd.

Kids may not be that careful with their belongings so having a protective case is useful.

Since the case is heavy, I prefer to put the case into tablet sleeve instead which is much lighter.

Design

Design of the tablet looks clean and simple. Bezels are quite thick when compared to other tablets but that's fine. There's a 8MP landscape front camera which has no support for face unlock. Auto brightness sensor is a bit too sensitive for my personal preference so the brightness can change too often.

The back is matte textured with a cute panda design. There's a 13MP camera with a flash.

Edge of the metal frame are bevel. Around the top left corner you can find the buttons for power, volume and a switch to disable touch. There's no fingerprint unlock.

The tablet has four speakers. Volume is loud but audio sounds slightly hollow, but still very usable and much better than many budget tablets. There's a microSD card slot.

Pen display mode

This tablet can be used as an external display when connected to your computer using the included USB-C video cable. But there are some quirks, namely:

When connected to Windows

With dual displays, the cursor will go across two display and there's no driver available to set the cursor to work only on one display
To use the tablet as a pen display, you can only use the tablet as the only display, so no dual display setup
The pen button does not work
Tilt sensitivity does not work
Switch that enable/disable touch does not work. Pen and touch will always work (in single desktop mode)

The huge limitation here is if you want to use the pen display mode, you can only use one display and not two. The pen button is a left double click instead of a right click for some reason.

When connected to MacOS, touch and pen do not work so the tablet is just a simple external display.

One issue I encountered with this external display feature with Windows is, there's always this alert box that keeps appearing and sounding off. You will have to disable the notifcations in Windows settings to prevent the popup box but I can't seem to stop the sound.

Display

The display is a 12-inch LCD with 2000 x 1200 resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. I don't like the 16:9 aspect ratio as drawing with the tablet vertically feels too narrow.

Colour quality of the LCD looks good. Viewing angle is good and IPS glow isn't that obvious. Colour mode options are Natural, Boosted, Saturated. There's night mode which makes the display look warm. There's dark mode. There's bedtime mode which makes the display black and white. RGB colour adjustment is available from Accessibility, Color and Motion.

The matte textured glass has anti-glare but diffused reflections can be glaring when there's a strong light source. Maximum brightness of the display is 350 nits is sufficient for use indoor but not outdoors.

The matte glass surface feels good to draw on. My palm could glide smoothly on it without sticking to it. The tactile experience is quite subtle, similar to what you get with pen displays, pen tip is smooth on the surface but not slippery. The tablet does not generate much heat.

My tablet unfortunately already has a slight scratch on the matte surface. It's not a deep scratch, not too visible thankfully but I can see and feel the scratch. The tablet was probably scratched by something when I took it out of the back. That's why it would be good to have a case that also protects the glass.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap to create parallax.

Performance

The processor is the MediaTek Helio G99 which is quite popular in budget tablets. Tablet comes with 6GB RAM, 256GB storage and supports microSD card for external storage.

Overall performance is smooth enough. This tablet is not gonna be used for heavy workload so the performance provided by the processor is sufficient.

OS and software

The tablet runs on Android OS 14 and there's Google Play Store. There's no mention of whether this tablet will get OS updates in the future so I'm just gonna assume it won't be getting any OS updates.

Ugee has their own UI on top of Android and there aren't many features. Even the home screen customisation is limited. Apps icons are squares and there's a lot of unnecessary empty space when more apps can be fitted.

There's no tap to wake, no raise to wake, no tap to sleep, no split screen mode, no button to close all apps and no volume slider from control panel.

The lack of biometric unlock is inconvenient as you always have to use pin unlock. You can use the Extend Unlock feature so that the tablet can remain unlocked when at trusted locations or near trusted devices.

When transfering data from my other Android tablets, the cable transfer did not want to work for some reason, so I had to use wireless transfer which took much longer.

There are many capable drawing apps available on Android. I was unable to find and install Infinite Painter, Flexcil and Notein. Those apps are not supported on this tablet for some reason. I installed the Infinite Painter APK but that did not work well as some brush previews do not show, and there are some bugs.

The only setting you can customise for the pen is to choose whether you want to see the cursor. Pen pressure customisation is only possible if your drawing app has that feature.

Pre-installed apps are Tripo AI (1-month subscription) and ibisPaint K (lifetime license). Tripo AI is some AI art generation app. ibisPaint K seems similar to ibisPaint X so I'm not sure why the name of the app is different. It is interesting to note that when ibisPaint K or ibisPaint X runs, a popup saying "X3 Pro Pencil" is detected.

This is called the U-Pencil Pro. This pen uses EMR and supports 16K levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt and palm rejection. The pen is not powered by battery and no charging or pairing is required.

There's one side button which may be customisable depending on the drawing app used. No eraser at the back.

The pen is made with plastic and build quality is alright. The pen is almost cylindrical but there's one flat side probably to help you locate the side button more easily.

Pen tip is plastic, firm and has no movement. The body is matte textured and grip is alright.

Line tests

The line tests below were created with Medibang Paint.

1. Initial activation force is low, but there's a tendency to draw thicker lines. There's slight diagonal line wobble and jitter.

2. Lines can taper but do not taper that smoothly or sharply compared to more sensitive pens. If you need lines to taper more naturally, you may have to use Clip Studio Paint which allows customisation for how lines taper.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back looks smooth enough. However drawing extra thin line is not easy after drawing thick. This is also a diagonal line and there's noticeable diagonal line wobble in some parts.

4. 4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure. There seems to be diagonal line wobble at the start of the line.

5. Small and big dots can be drawn easily.

6. There are no issues with cursor tracking or misalignment. Here you can see the lines have mostly uniform thickness.

It seems the pen has difficulty detecting minor changes in pressure when drawing with minimal pressure.

There's tilt sensitivity but it does not work consistently so just assume there's no tilt sensitivity. Cursor does not follow direction of the pen in Krita.

Pen latency is quite noticeable in many drawing apps. I don't think it's a big issue but it would be nice to have better pen latency performance. Thankfully latency is better with Concepts app, my main drawing app.

Here's something interesting. This pen can be used on the XPPen Magic Pro 13. And the pen performs slightly better with that tablet. Lines taper more naturally, smoothly and sharply. Seems easier to draw thinner lines too but this is more subjective without a precise test. There's also less latency but that could be due to the XPPen tablet's 120Hz refresh rate.

Drawing experience

There are some downsides or limitations with this pen, but overall its performance is still noticeably better compared to the USI pens from the Ugee UT2 and UT3 tablets.

I enjoy drawing on this tablet despite the issues mentioned in the line tests which are really just minor issues except for tilt sensitivity not working well.

This was drawn with the HiPaint app. I created a 4000 x 3000px canvas and the app said the resolution is high and could impact performance. Drawing was still smooth enough without lag. Only downside here is it took a bit longer to open the saved file.

The tablet is quite portable and I've brought it to sketch in cafes several times. The weight of 644g is alright for a 12-inch tablet but it will be more comfortable to set this down on a table or surface to draw on.

This was sketched while I was standing in the train while commuting to work. The weight is still manageable.

The diagonal line wobble or jitter did affect some lines but it's not too bad. The main thing to notice is line width is mostly consistent without much variation. The pen does not detect minor changes in pressure that well even though it's supposed to support 16K levels of pressure sensitivity.

Drawing process was mostly uneventful, which is good.

Here's another sketch drawn in a cafe.

I don't think diagonal line wobble or jitter is a big issue.

12-inch is considered a big tablet, and it works well with drawing apps that have more UI elements such as Krita or Clip Studio Paint.

My main drawing app is Concepts, and tilt sensitivity does not work. When tilt is enabled, the pen will always draw with maximum line width. Pressure works fine.

I even tried sketching on a bus. The ever changing lighting conditions outside the bus caused the auto-brightness to adjust the brightness constantly and it was quite annoying.

Also, I had to increase the brightness to maximum as it was quite bright. It's best to use this tablet indoors away from strong sunlight.

There could be some issues with diagonal line wobble or jitter here as this sketch has many diagonal lines. Bear in mind that this sketch was drawn on a moving bus.

This was drawn with Concepts.

Battery life

Battery life is around 10 hours. Charging speed is advertised 30W and my charger shows 35W so that's better than advertised.

Conclusion

The Ugee ArtPlay Pad is a decent drawing tablet for USD 399. The main selling point for me is the matte glass display that provides a nice subtle tactile drawing experience.

Pen performance is good enough for drawing, but if you need more precision you'll have to look at the more expensive iPads or Android tablets that use Wacom EMR pens. I have no major complaints when drawing on this and I find the drawing experience to be enjoyable and satisfactory considering the price point.

At this price point, it will compete with the Samsung Tab S10 FE, which has better specifications and will have future Android OS updates. The XPPen Magic Drawing Pad, Huion Kamvas Pad 12 and Wacom MovinkPad 11 are all more expensive. The only cheaper Android tablet for drawing is the Samsung Tab S10 Lite, but the display does not look as good.

This tablet is targeted at the younger crowd so I'm not sure if the users will care about Android OS updates. The tablet comes with Android 14 but the current version is 17. I wished Ugee had shipped this with at least Android 16.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean simple design. Well made.
+ Large 12-inch display
+ Vibrant, sharp and bright display
+ Laminated display
+ Big display suitable for drawing apps with many UI elements
+ There's auto-brightness but it could be too sensitive
+ Matte drawing with good anti-glare and sharpness
+ Pen and case included
+ EMR pen does not require charging or pairing
+ Some XPPen pens are compatible with this tablet
+ Decent audio quality from 4 speaker system
+ Smooth overall performance
+ MicroSD card slot
+ Has pen display mode or external display mode
+ There's Google Play Store
+ Android 14
- 16:9 aspect ratio makes drawing in vertical mode feel narrow
- Pen latency is quite noticeable in some apps
- Slight diagonal line wobble or jitter, not a deal breaker
- No face or fingerprint unlock
- Ugee's OS and UI features are limited
- Included case is quite bulky
- Don't expect OS updates
- Tilt sensitivity does not work consistently
- Matte surface may be too smooth for some
- Pen display mode does not work with dual display setups
- Infinite Painter, Flexcil, Notein apps are not compatible
- No pen customisation provided by Ugee

Availability

The Ugee ArtPlay Pad can be purchased from Ugee online store.

Do me a favour. If you have intention to buy one, consider supporting me and my work by using the affiliate links above. I earn some commission for each sale at no extra cost to you.

And if my review is inaccurate in any way, let me know in the comments section below.

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 01 Oct 2026 - 23:00

Tags

ugee

tech reviews

drawing tablet reviews

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Book Review: The Art of Rachel and Terry Dodson

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Book Review: The Art of Rachel and Terry Dodson

Incredible artbook for comic lovers

This is a wonderful artbook for fans Rachel and Terry Dodson, and comic art. It's a large format 176-page paper back that features selected artworks from 1996 to 2022.

There are beautiful full coloured comic covers as well as the drafts, sketches, inks and commentary. The pencils and line art look so detailed, precise and refined. The print reproduction looks great.

There's much to learn just by looking at how the covers are designed. In this age where many artists are going digital, it's so nice to see the Dodsons are still producing amazing traditional media art before adding colours digitally.

Last few pages of the book features a step by step guide on how the book's cover art was created. Here you can learn some techniques and get some tips from the professionals.

This is an incredible artbook that I can recommend easily.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 29 Sep 2026 - 11:00

Tags

rachel dodson

terry dodson

art book reviews

basheer sponsored

flesk publications