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Review: ASUS ProArt PA27USD OLED display

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Review: ASUS ProArt PA27USD OLED display

Review unit on loan from ASUS Singapore

The ASUS ProArt PA27USDM is a 26.5-inch 4K 240Hz OLED display with outstanding colour accuracy targeted at creative professionals. ASUS made this for photographers, video editors, graphic designers, colorists and digital imaging technicians. This has almost everything. I have reviewed many monitors over the years and this is likely the best monitor I've ever seen. It's so good it's probably overkill for most.

Price is SGD2699 (~USD2100) and comes with a 3-year warranty. Yes, it's expensive which is not surprising.

Specifications

Model: ProArt Display OLED PA27USD
Panel size: 26.5 inch (viewable)
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Display viewing area (H × V): 589.97 × 332.93 mm
Display surface: Anti‑Reflection
Panel type: QD‑OLED (Quantum Dot OLED)
Viewing angle (CR ≥ 10, H/V): 178° / 178°
Pixel pitch: 0.155 mm
Resolution: 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD)
Display colors: 1,073.7M (10‑bit)
Color gamut: 100% sRGB; 99% DCI‑P3
Native color temperature modes / presets: ProArt Preset (CAL 1 / CAL 2 / CAL 3), sRGB, Adobe RGB, Rec.709, BT.2020, DICOM
Brightness (Typical): 250 cd/m²
Brightness (HDR, Peak): 1,000 cd/m² (peak on small window)
Contrast ratio (Typical / HDR Max): 1,500,000:1
Response time: 0.1 ms (GTG)
Refresh rate (Max): 240 Hz
HDR support / certifications: Dolby Vision; HLG; HDR10; VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400
ASUS OLED Care: Yes (panel care features)
Flicker‑free: Yes
Built‑in color calibrator: Yes (automatic hardware calibration)
Inputs: Thunderbolt 4; DisplayPort 2.1; HDMI 2.1; 12G‑SDI
Connectivity / hub: USB hub and daisy‑chain support (Thunderbolt / DP MST where applicable)
Ergonomics / stand: Height, tilt, swivel, pivot; quick‑release short feet; VESA mount compatible
Dimensions (W × H × D): ~610.3 × 378.8 × 59.6 mm (varies by stand configuration)
Weight: ~4.74 kg (monitor only; varies with stand)
Power consumption: (typical / max) — refer to official spec sheet for exact wattage
Special features: Hardware calibration, ΔE 1 factory calibration target, multi‑format HDR presets, professional I/O including SDI, high refresh rate for mixed creative/workflows
Release / announcement: 2026 (CES product / ASUS announcement)

Things included

Monitor
Warranty Card
USB-C to A cable
USB-C cable
Thunderbolt™ 4 Cable
User manual
Power cord
Monitor hood
Mini Stand
L-shaped Screwdriver
HDMI Ultra High Speed Cable
Ergonomic Stand
DisplayPort 2.1 (DP80) cable
Color pre-calibration report
Cable Clip

Design

The monitor comes with detachable feet already attached.

The two feet can be rotated to have the monitor stand upright. These two feet and the handle behind make it easy to deploy this display outdoors. To remove the feet, just push the button and take them off.

There are three parts to the stand: the base, stand and monitor holder. All three parts have to be assembled before the monitor can be attached to the stand.

The monitor has adjustment for height, tilt and rotate.

This is a heavy monitor, and of course you should remove the feet if you're using it as a desktop monitor.

These are the ports available:

Thunderbolt 4 x 2 (daisy chain)
DisplayPort 2.1 x 1
HDMI(v2.1) x 2 (FRL)
USB Hub : 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
Earphone Jack : Yes
USB-C Power Delivery : 96W
USB 3.2 (Signal) : x 1 USB Type-C (for KVM switch)

There's even a 12G-SDI port mainly used for broadcast, live production. There aren't many monitors with 12G-SDI so this is one key selling feature.

These are the specifications for 12G-SDI:

Standard: SMPTE ST 2082-1 (Physical Interface) and ST 2082-10 (Mapping)
Data Rate: 11.88 Gbps (nominal 12 Gbps)
Max Resolution: 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) and DCI 4K (4096 x 2160)
Supported Frame Rates: 50, 59.94, and 60 fps (Progressive)
Chroma Subsampling: 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
Bit Depth: 10-bit or 12-bit
Audio Support: Up to 16 channels of embedded digital audio
Physical Interface: 75-ohm BNC (High-frequency 12GHz rated)
Typical Coax Distance: 70 to 100 meters (depending on cable grade, e.g., Belden 4694R)
Backward Compatibility: Supports 6G, 3G, and HD-SDI signals

Daisy chaining requires thunderbolt or DisplayPort and I don't have another suitable monitor to test with.

ASUS has provided some hooks that can be attached by the side of the monitor for cable management.

I don't find those hooks useful since the cables still dangle beneath. I prefer to have the cables go above the stand.

Display

The shading hood is already assembled and can be installed or removed easily. There's also a small hole at the top for you to use your own colour calibrator.

The anti-reflective coating is very effective. Shown above is the anti-reflective coating vs the reflective display of the Samsung Tab S9 Ultra.

The visual quality of this display is stunning. The OLED display is sharp, vibrant and bright. It does look better than LCD, more specifically the white looks more white and darks are much darker. Contrast ratio is 1,500,000:1. You don't need a side by side comparison with other displays to know that this is a stunning display.

Typical brightness is advertised to be 250 nits and HDR brightness up to 1000 nits. I find the monitor too bright so I don't use it anywhere near maximum brightness. Actually I use my monitors at around 120 - 150 nits.

Response time is 0.1ms and refresh rate is 240Hz. This monitor can be used for gaming and for designing games.

The display is already colour calibrated at the factory and ASUS recorded average Delta E of less than 1. Average Delta E is the variance between the input colour and measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is excellent.

The monitor comes with a built-in colorimeter which is very convenient.

Third party colour calibrators can be used too, with the ASUS ProArt Calibration app. Supported colour calibrators for Windows and those for macOS are slightly different. If you use the built-in colorimeter, you may not need to use the calibration app.

ASUS advertised colour support for 100% sRGB, 99% DCI-P3 and BT. 2020. I measured 98% DCI-P3 which is close. I did not bother to measure sRGB because I don't think it's necessary to do that for an OLED display. AdobeRGB is just 91% though. I've reviewed several laptops with OLED displays but I've never gotten my colour calibrators to work properly so I've never been able to measure AdobeRGB, so I can't say if 91% AdobeRGB is normal or not.

Oh, the calibration process is around 8 minutes. The calibration data is stored onto the monitor itself, which means the monitor does not need to be re-calibrated again when connected to another computer.

Anyway, the colour accuracy of this display is fantastic and suitable for most colour critical work, unless you want higher AdobeRGB.

I measured the colour accuracy with both the built-in colorimeter and my Spyder X2 colour calibrator and results are consistent.

OLED protection

OLED can suffer from burn-in and ASUS has these features to prevent burn-in:

Panel Protection: This is pixel shift to prevent the same colour from being on screen too long. When you first power on the display and notice the left and right bezels are not of the same thickness, that's due to this feature. When you adjust this feature through the OSD, you will see the whole desktop move.

Image Protection: This detects static images such as logos, taskbar and reduce their brightness.

Proximity sensor: This will sense the user and reduce the brightness when no user is detected.

Some of these features may have visible changes when in effect. Sometimes I can see the window bar brightness change visibly which is distracting. These settings can be disabled from the OSD settings if needed.

KVM switch

This lets you use one set of keyboard and mouse with two computer systems through the monitor.

First computer is the one connected to the Thunderbolt port. Second computer can use DisplayPort or HDMI, and will need a USB connection to the monitor too.

Downsides

There are some downsides or limitations.

1. MacOS UI scaling does not work well with 27-inch and 4K resolution. It's a well documented fact. You may have to install BetterDisplay to handle the UI scaling. My M1 Mac Mini from 2020 was sluggish when running this display, but my M2 Pro Macbook Pro could run it smoothly and with a dual display setup.

2. OLED displays have pulse wave modulation. People with sensitive eyes may be affected by PWM flicker. I am not affected by PWM though. If you're not sure if you're affected by PWM, I recommend you go look at OLED displays at an electronics shop.

3. There is coil whine when this display was connected to my Macbook Pro with USB-C and HDMI. There was no coil whine when I connected the display to a phone, tablet, two Windows laptop and the M1 Mac Mini.

4. AdobeRGB is surprisingly not above 95%.

5. There are speakers and audio quality is not good, which is not surprising.

Conclusion

This is a great monitor. Visual quality is fantastic and there are so many features. There are some minor downsides but none are deal breakers, except for the PWM if you're affected by that.

This monitor is extremely satisfying to use. I will miss it when I return it to ASUS Singapore.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Bright, vibrant, sharp display
+ Amazing contrast level
+ Effective anti-reflective coating
+ Shading hood included
+ There are detachable feet and carrying handle for outdoor use
+ Built in colorimeter
+ Colour calibration data is stored on the monitor
+ True 10-bit display
+ Supports daily chaining with Thunderbolt, DisplayPort
+ Supports KVM Switch
+ Has many useful ports
+ Supports 12G-SDI
+ OSD is easy to navigate
+ Third party colour calibrators can be used
- PWM may affect some people
- MacOS does not work well with 27-inch 4K resolution
- Colour calibration is around 8 minutes
- Audio quality from speaker is bad
- AdobeRGB is surprisingly not close to 100%
- Coil whine can be heard with my Macbook Pro but not other devices

Availability

Teoh Yi Chie Sat, 11 Apr 2026 - 13:00

Tags

asus

4k monitor

asus monitor

monitor reviews

tech reviews

oled

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Review: The Art of DreamWorks The Bad Guys 2

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: The Art of DreamWorks The Bad Guys 2

One of the best concept artbooks of 2025

This is a wonderful companion artbook for The Bad Guys 2. It's packed with beautiful comic-style hand drawn art of characters that are so fun and a world that's so beautiful. It's a large format 24-page hardcover published by Abrams.

There are concept designs for the characters, props, interiors, buildings and the world. If you're an artist, there are many things to learn too just by looking at the artworks, such as how the characters are designed, how the scenes are framed. There's even a 64-page comic included too.

Many of the scenes are so detailed and you clearly tell lots of thought and effort went into the creation. The designs are visually interesting. DreamWorks Animation is still on top of their game.

There is some commentary from the artists but not that much. Highlight of the book is the art, and the characters.

Highly recommended.

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 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 - 22:00

Tags

dreamworks animation

art book reviews

movie book reviews

3d animation

animation

2025 favourite

harry n abrams

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Review: Orico iFolder Go portable SSD

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Review: Orico iFolder Go portable SSD

Review unit provided by Orico

The Orico iFolder Go is a portable SSD that's designed to look like those folder icons on your desktop. Storage capacity is from 128GB to 4TB. The company advertises 5Gbps transfer speed so that's USB 3.

At the time of review, there's only the 1TB storage capacity and the price is USD 199.99.

Several colours are available and I highly recommend going with the more colourful ones.

The purchase comes with the SSD, landyard, user guide and USB-C data transfer cable.

This SSD is available from
The USB-C data transfer cable is well made, thick enough, but quite short. The folder-like design does look pretty cool. It would be great if the SSD can be even smaller, and look even more like a real folder.

Transfer speed for read and write will be around 300MB/s or higher during the first few minutes before it throttles down to what you see above in the screenshot.

After a few minutes, I measured write speed of around 90-120MB/s and read speed of 360MB/s. Transfer speed is fast enough for 1080P video editing but not for 4K. So the general use case for this SSD is going to be for external storage, backup purposes.

If you need faster transfer speed, you can go with the Orico BookDrive P10Plus which I've reviewed recently and that's much faster, but with a simpler looking design.

The Orico iFolder Go is available for purchase from Orico online store and Amazon (use code WR5PLUS1TB for 10% off).

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 10 Apr 2026 - 09:00

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orico

external storage

tech reviews

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Review: Etchr Lab Mystery Pack (Spring Edition)

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:20:00 +0000

Review: Etchr Lab Mystery Pack (Spring Edition)

Review sample provided by Etchrlab

Etchr Lab is a company from Australia that sells art supplies, and I've featured many of their art products over the years.

They have started mystery packs recently and I've always wondered what's in them. I'm personally not fan of mystery packs or boxes because I would like to know what I'm paying for. Anyway, Etchr Lab reached out, again, to ask if I'm interested to check out their latest mystery pack, aka Mystery Pack Spring Edition, and I said sure.

By the way, this post I've written is not a review. I'll be keeping all the items brand new so that I can give them out to lucky sketchers at the monthly sketchwalks organised by Urban Sketchers Singapore. I receive too much art supplies for review purposes and it's just not possible for me to use them up, or keep them all.

There have been several mystery packs in the past and they are all sold out now.

This particular one is selling at SGD 156 (USD 122) and that includes free global shipping.

According to the company, you get a discount of around 40% compared to buying the items individually.

This pack is packed safely, and is quite thick. Of course the fun of buying mystery packs is in the element of surprise you get when unpacking.

These are all the items included.

Etchr Mini Palette (SGD 68, USD 53)

This is the Etchr Mini Palette designed by Stephanie Law. I've reviewed this several years ago.

There are two porcelain palettes, one with 19 wells and the other with 7 wells.

Etcher Watercolour Paint Set (SGD 61, USD 48)

This is a 12-half pan watercolour set.

The paint is student grade, lightfast, transparent and vegan friendly. I've not reviewed these before so I can't say much about the quality.

Watercolour block with wood-pulp paper (SGD 29, USD 23)

The watercolour paper here is made with wood-pulp or cellulose, and hence it's student grade paper. Etchr Lab do sell 100% cotton watercolour paper blocks and those are more expensive, but quality of course is also much better.

Llamated Edition Accordion Sketchbook (SGD 50 estimated, USD 39)

I have to estimate the price of this since this is a special edition accordion sketchbook that's not sold on their website. Etchr Lab does sell accordion sketchbooks, but they are of different size and paper weight.

This accordion sketchbook is really well made. The cover feels like leather but it's not real leather since most of Etchr Lab's products are vegan friendly.

There are 22-pages of 100% cotton watercolour paper (300gsm). The paper quality is excellent.

Watercolour Post Cards and Envelopes (SGD 90, USD 70)

This is quite expensive and you can tell from the way it's designed, it's meant to be a luxury product.

There are 30 pieces of 100% cotton watercolour post cards included. The paper quality looks and feels amazing. There are folds on the cards, in case you're thinking of using them as panorama paper.

Imagine painting and writing something on this and sending them out.

The envelope is also thick and well made. This box set is certainly an exquisite gift.

The total

If you are to buy all the items individually, they would cost SGD 298 (around USD 232) but Etchr Lab is selling them at SGD 156 (USD 122). As to whether they are worth the money, you can decide.

If you're interested to buy this, you can buy it from their online store.

At the time of writing this, there's a countdown timer on their website so I guess they will stop selling this on 24 April 2026, 5pm SGT (2am PDT).

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 06 Apr 2026 - 21:20

Tags

etchr lab

art product reviews

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Everything to know about Wacom Pro Pen 3

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Everything to know about Wacom Pro Pen 3

Review sample provided by Wacom Singapore

Here are all the things I know about the Wacom Pro Pen 3 after using it for several months with the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14.

Grips

If you find the Wacom Pro Pen 3 too thin, you can buy grips for it.

Wacom has three grips available for this pen:

Straight grip: USD 25 for two pieces
Flare grip: USD 25 for two pieces
Wooden grip: USD 50

If you find those grips too expensive, you can find more affordable ones on AliExpress, such as the one shown the photo above which is under USD 3.

Protect your pen tip with the grip

The pen with the grip will be much thicker to fit into any pen holder so to protect the pen tip when I bring it around, I just pull up the grip to cover the pen tip. This way, I can throw the pen into my bag and won't have to worry about the pen tip breaking.

Hidden pen tips

You can unscrew the back of the pen to reveal three hidden pen tips. Those pen tips provide slightly different tactile experience when drawing.

Beware the rubber tips

On Amazon, there's a product called "Wacom Pro Pen 3 Rubber Nibs (ACK253010Z)" priced at USD 15 for five pieces.

These pen tips are not made with rubber. If it's really rubber, it's hard rubber. Some product photos also show the packaging with "Standard" printed on it, so it's actually the standard nib.

I actually bought these pen tips thinking they would provide more tactility when drawing but it's the same as the default pen tips. Money wasted. What you want is actually the felt tips.

Other compatible pens

If you feel that the different pen tips of Wacom Pro Pen 3 is just too slippery for you, another option is to use other Wacom EMR pens. Shown above is the Wacom One Standard Pen fitted with the Wacom Elastomer nib.

The Wacom Elastomer nib is a rubberised nib that has excellent resistance or friction on glass, and can give you precise control that no other pen tips from Wacom Pro Pen 3 can provide. There is a rubbery feel rather wooden pencil feel when drawing.

The Wacom Elastomer nib is the one I prefer.

Before you can use other Wacom EMR pens

You may need to enable some settings before you can use other Wacom EMR pens.

On the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14, you have to go into settings, Pen, enable "Enable use of pens not included with the device".

Selecting tools when pen is hovering

By default, Android tablets will enable palm rejection when the pen tip is near the display. This is unlike iPads where you can still select tools when the Apple Pencil pen tip is near the display.

To allow touch to work when pen tip is near the display, go into Settings, Wacom Lab, enable "Touch enabled when using the pen". Note that this may cause some bugs with some drawing apps. For example with Concepts, when pen tip is near and finger touches the display, a straight line will be drawn unintentionally.

Side buttons can be removed

The pen buttons can be removed and replaced with cover that has no buttons.

You will have to buy the Wacom Pro Pen 3 customisation kit to get those button-less cap though. This kit will also provide extra buttons, grips and a tool to adjust centre of gravity in the pen. All for USD 30. This is definitely more worth the money compared to just buying the grips alone from Wacom.

Pen tip remover

If you pull out the thing that holds the replacement pen tips, you can find the pen tip remover on the other side.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 05 Apr 2026 - 11:00

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wacom

wacom emr

tech reviews

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January to March 2026 roundup

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

January to March 2026 roundup

You did not remember wrongly, there were no roundup newsletter sent out for Jan and Feb 2026. I'm probably just too busy to remember to send them out.

Two more upcoming artbook reviews you can expect in April are Superman: The Art and Making of the Film and The Art of The Bad Guys 2.

Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter because email subscription is the best way to get up to date.

Books

Tech reviews

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I have reviewed too many items so I'm listing only products that relate to drawing

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Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 03 Apr 2026 - 21:00

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Review: The Art of the Boy and the Heron

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Review: The Art of the Boy and the Heron

As you would expect from Studio Ghibli

This a beautiful large format hardcover companion artbook of The Boy and the Heron. The book is the English translated version of the original Japanese artbook The Art of 君たちはどう生きるか. The English edition is published by Viz Media and is satisfying thick at 320 pages.

If you have owned any Studio Ghilbi artbooks, you'll know to expect here.

This book is packed with beautiful concept art for the animated film. There's a good mix of hand drawn storyboards, background paintings, character designs, film stills and commentary.

The back of the book has interviews with supervising animator Takeshi Honda, art director Yoji Takeshige, background artist Noboru Yoshida and key animator Shinya Ohira. There'a also the complete English dub script provided.

The artworks as always are gorgeous. I love the pencil watercolour sketches. The setting and environment though simple are still painted so beautifully. You'll get the Japanese-style countryside vibe. Almost reminds me of designs from Spirited Away for some reason.

Studio Ghibli is still on top of their game. Despite the popularity of 3D animated films, Studio Ghibli still sticks to 2D hand drawn animation and that shows how much they believe in their craft. That is admirable.

This is a great artbook for all fans of Studio Ghibli and of the film.

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, 31 Mar 2026 - 09:00

Tags

hayao miyazaki

studio ghibli

art book reviews

asian art books

animation

viz media

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Review: XPPen Artist Pro 27 (gen 2) 4K touchscreen pen display

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Review: XPPen Artist Pro 27 (gen 2) 4K touchscreen pen display

Review unit provided by XPPen

XPPen has just released the Artist Pro 27 (gen 2), a 27-inch 4K touchscreen pen display, on 20 March 2026. Price at the time of review is USD 1899 (Euro 1999, £1799) and that includes free shipping to selected countries, and 18-months warranty.

During the launch promotion period from 20 March to 19 April, you can get 10% off the US price, and 5% off Europe and UK prices.

Do me a favour: If you have intention to buy this pen display, consider making your purchase through my affiliate links (from the full reviews) to support my blog and help me put out more reviews. I get to earn some commission but at no extra cost to you. And support me on Patreon if you can.

XPPen's big pen displays

This is the largest pen display from XPPen as the previous largest models are 24-inches.

Model	Size and resolution	Colour gamut	Pen support	Pressure levels	Price (March 2026)
XPPen Artist 24 (FHD)	23.8″, 1920 × 1080	132% sRGB, 98% Adobe RGB	P05R	8192	USD 398
XPPen Artist 24 Pro (review)	23.8″, 2560 × 1440	90% Adobe RGB	PA2	8192	USD 585
XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) 4K (review)	23.8″, 3840 × 2160	99% sRGB / Adobe RGB, 98% DCI‑P3	X3 Pro / X3 Pro Slim	16384	USD 1039
XPPen Artist Pro 24 (Gen 2) 165Hz	23.8″, 2560 × 1440	99% sRGB / Adobe RGB, 94% DCI‑P3	X3 Pro / X3 Pro Slim	16384	USD 879
XPPen Artist Pro 27 (Gen 2)	27, 3840 × 2160, touchscreen	99% sRGB / Adobe RGB, 95% DCI‑P3	X3 Pro / X3 Pro Slim	16384	USD 1899

And these are the 27-inch pen displays in the market currently:

Feature	Wacom Cintiq Pro 27	Huion Kamvas Pro 27 (4K)	Huion Kamvas Pro 27 (144Hz Edition)	XPPen Artist Pro 27 (gen 2) 4K
Release Date	October 2022	January 2024	December 2025	March 2026
Refresh Rate	120Hz	60Hz	144Hz	120Hz
Price (USD)	~$3,499	~$1,899	~$2,199	~$1,899
Resolution	4K (3840 x 2160)	4K (3840 x 2160)	4K (3840 x 2160)	4K (3840 x 2160)
Pen Tech	Pro Pen 3 (8,192 levels)	PenTech 4.0 (16,384 levels)	PenTech 4.0 (16,384 levels)	X3 Pro (16,384 levels)
Color Accuracy	99% Adobe RGB / 98% P3	99% sRGB / 98% Adobe RGB	99% Adobe RGB / 98% P3 (3D LUT)	99% sRGB / 99% Adobe RGB
Touch Support	10-Point Multi-touch	10-Point Multi-touch	10-Point Multi-touch	10-Point Multi-touch

XPPen's pricing is competitive.

Specifications

Product	Artist Pro 27 (Gen 2)
Model	MD270UH
Color	Black
Dimensions	681.3 x 423.8 x 44.0 mm
Work Area	596.7 × 335.7 mm
Net Weight	7 kg
Type	LCD
Aspect Ratio	16:9
Size	26.9 Inch
Resolution	3840 x 2160 Pixels (4K)
Refresh Rate	120 Hz
Display Color	1.07 Billion (8bit + FRC)
Color Gamut Coverage Ratio (typical)	99% Adobe RGB, 99% sRGB, 97% Display P3
Color Gamut Volume	sRGB 149%, Adobe RGB 110%, Display P3 110%
Brightness (typical)	350 nit
Viewing Angle	178°
Full Lamination	Yes
Touch Screen	Ten-finger Multi-touch, Anti-glare glass, Anti-fingerprint coating
Model (Stylus 1)	X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus
Model (Stylus 2)	X3 Pro Slim Stylus
Technology	X3 Pro Chip-powered & EMR
Pressure Levels	16384
Initial Activation Force	3g
Reading Height	10 mm (center)
Accuracy	±0.4 mm (center)
Resolution (Pen)	5080 LPI
Input	100-240V
Output	12V⎓5A
Ports	USB-C port, HDMI port, DisplayPort, 3.5mm headphone jack, DC port
Compatibility	Windows 7 or later (Touch function supports only on Windows 10 or later), macOS 12 or later, Android 10.0 or later (USB3.1 DP1.2 required), ChromeOS 88 or later, Windows ARM, Linux (Touch function supports only on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later)

Things included

Everything's packed neatly in the box.

Pen display
Colour calibration report
2x pen holders
Cover for pen display back
60W power adapter with barrel connector
2x power cable
1x USB-C video cable
1x full-size HDMI to full-size HDMI cable
1x full-size DisplayPort to full-size DisplayPort cable
Pen case
1x USB-A to USB-C cable
Replacement pen tips for X3 Pro and X3 Pro Slim pens
Felt tips for X3 Pro pen
XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote
USB-A Bluetooth receiver for ACK05
Artist glove
User guide
Warranty card
Micro fiber cleaning cloth

These are the pen accessories. Extra pen nibs, pen holders.

These are the two pens included, the X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus and the X3 Pro Slim pen.

The X3 Pro pen is thicker, has a silicone grip, and has two side buttons and an eraser. The X3 Pro Slim pen has two side buttons, and the back can be oped to store 4 replacement pen tips.

I've a separate detailed review created for the ACK05 Shortcut Remote so I won't mention that as much in this review for the pen display.

Design

This is a beautiful and well made pen display with solid build quality. Corners are rounded off. Bezels are quite thick and make the pen display look even bigger, but they allow your palm space to rest when your hands are near the edges.

Since the pen display is so big, you will need a big desk, and make sure there's enough space for your keyboard too.

There's a stand already attached and it's made with metal so the build quality is excellent.

Angle of the pen display can be adjusted easily by pulling and locking the latch behind. The moving part of the stand will roll (there are wheels). The pen display has two huge rubber feet in front with good grip on the table. The pen display weighs 7kg so it's quite heavy and very stable with no movement when drawing.

The pen display can be deployed vertically but it has a good chance of toppling.

The pen display supports 10 x 10cm VESA mount. You can consider the XPPen ACS15 desktop stand if you want to elevate the pen display to a more ergonomic height and vertical deployment. VESA dimensions are 10 x 10 cm.

The four buttons at the top right of the pen display will enable/disable touch, choose input source, adjust brightness and power.

There are two pen holders of different sizes, made for the thicker and slim pen. Having pen holders on the pen display is very convenient.

The smaller pen holder is made with silicone so that it will not scratch the slim pen's plastic body. The bigger pen holder is plastic because the bigger pen has a silicone grip.

Ports are located on the same side of the power button, and the cables will point inwards towards the stand. Ports are for power, HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C video and 3.5mm audio.

There's a back cover to cover the cables to keep the back of the pen display neat and tidy.

Display

Colours on the 27-inch 4K touchscreen LCD looks great out of the box.

The display is already colour calibrated to the AdobeRGB space at the factory. Average Delta E is 0.89. Anything less than 2 is good, and less than 1 is fantastic. Average Delta E is the variance between the input colour and measured output colour.

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 93% NTSC, 95% AdobeRGB, 96% P3 and a maximum brightness of 382 nits.

Colour accuracy is quite high. AdobeRGB is good for graphic designers who work with print. 382 nits of brightness is higher than advertised.

The display has wide viewing angles. There's no colour shift or drop in brightness when viewing the display from extreme angles.

Anti-glare works well, not too aggressive. Visuals can be seen clearly through diffused reflections.

Matte textured surfaces usually adds grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle to affect the visual quality. All that is kept to a minimum on this pen display.

The matte surface is quite smooth to draw on. The tactile experience is similar to drawing on screenless tablets, and the surface is smoother compared to matte screen protectors. If you want more texture, use the felt pen tips, and I highly recommend buying more felt pen tips at the time of purchase.

The display is laminated but the glass is quite thick, so there will be parallax unless you calibrate the pen with the driver.

4K UHD resolution on a 27-inch display looks sharp. Pixelation is not noticeable. If you look really close, you may notice a hint of softness, but the display looks sharp from working distance away.

120Hz

Having a 120Hz display is a good upgrade. Mac and Windows handles 120Hz well. Animation for opening and minimising windows, scrolling and zooming webpages are extremely smooth.

When connected to my computers, my computer did not default to 120Hz so I have to manually adjust the settings.

Some drawing apps have not been updated to take advantage of 120Hz refresh rate though.

For example, Concepts apps works well with 120Hz and all the animation is extremely smooth for pan-zoom-rotate navigation gestures. However with Clip Studio Paint, navigation gestures still has that 60Hz choppy look, and Photoshop (Win) even looks like 30Hz or that could be due to my laptop's graphics card.

For drawing apps that do not support 120Hz, when drawing you may see the line appear chunk by chunk, relatively speaking. CSP despite it's 60Hz navigation look still has lines that appear very smoothly as they appear on screen.

Driver

I've tested driver v4.0.14 for Mac and Windows. Linux driver will be provided one month later.

This is the home screen of the driver.

Look at the top left area and you can see a target icon which is actually the Calibration button to correct cursor misalignment, and the hand icon is for configuring finger gesture shortcuts.

Up to eight shortcuts can be configured for Floating Menu, and you can input your own keyboard shortcuts.

It is possible to set mouse controls to shortcuts for the Floating Menu, pen buttons and XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote.

You can also choose from pre-programmed shortcuts provided by XPPen.

Precision mode makes the cursor move more slowly. Switch touch state lets you enable/disable touch, or set touch to work in a specific area (as configured in the driver)

These are the basic gestures supported, e.g. pan, zoom, rotate. Note that for MacOS, pan/scroll for webpages requires two fingers.

The driver provides advance gesture shortcuts for 3, 4 and 5-finger gestures. For 3 fingers, there's tap, swipe up, swipe down. For 4 fingers, there's swipe left or right. For 5 fingers, there's tap or swipe down. These shortcuts may interfere with gesture shortcuts from the OS or from the drawing apps. If there are conflicts with the gesture shortcuts, you'll have to disable the gesture shortcuts from the OS or from the drawing apps you use.

The default setting for 3-finger tap would call up the Floating Menu, which can be configured to be horizontal (above) or vertical. You can pin the Floating Menu permanently, or configure the shortcuts with the settings button.

Touch area should be left as default so that the whole display can be used as a touchscreen.

Mapping area should be left as default. If the pen is only working specific areas of the display, or the cursor is moving away too much from the pen tip, you may have to configure the mapping area.

The pen display does not have an OSD menu, so to adjust colour settings manually you'll have to do that with the driver. Settings you can adjust include changing the brightness, contrast, colour space (sRGB, AdobeRGB, P3, user), colour temperature and RGB sliders.

Pressure curve can be adjusted using three control points, or pre-programmed pressure curves. Pressure, tilt and mouse mode can be enabled or disabled.

The XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote uses the same driver. From the dropdown menu, you choose either Artist Ultra 16 or Shortcut Remote. The shortcut remote obviously has to be connected first before it will appear, and you have to use the USB-A wireless receiver for wireless connection.

A total of 36 shortcuts can be set to the hotkeys. That's 9 shortcuts per page/group with 1 for switching between different page/group.

It is possible to create groups of shortcuts for specific apps. So different groups of shortcuts will load depending on which app is active.

All the programmed shortcuts can be backed up into a configuration file.

MacOS issues

MacOS may have issues with UI scaling because MacOS does not work well with 27-inch pen displays and 4K resolution. If you're unable to get sharp visuals from MacOS System Settings, you may have use the BetterDisplay app to handle UI scaling.

Touchscreen support

Having touchscreen for me is a bonus but not a must have. Touchscreen pen displays are usually more expensive so you can actually save a lot of money by not going with a touchscreen. But it is great that there are touchscreen pen displays who those who prefer touchscreens.

How touch behaves is different on MacOS and Windows. And how touch behaves with drawing apps is different from what you would expect when drawin g on iPads and Android tablets. If you use multiple platforms, e.g. Mac, Windows, iPads, Android, you can expect confusion with how touch works due to the inconsistent behaviour.

Touch support works better with Windows. Touch behaviour is what you would expect when using a phone, tablet or Windows tablet. You can use one finger to scroll or pan, tap and hold to select text, two fingers for pan, zoom and rotate.

For MacOS, scroll and pan requires two fingers. Selecting text on webpages requires swiping the finger across text, and not tap and hold.

Touch support will vary depending on OS and the drawing apps used. With MacOS, many panning, artwork will not track directly underneath the finger. When rotating, the rotation usually does not happen at the pivot between the fingers. Zoom works fine mostly, as in zoom will be from the pivot.

Palm rejection works quite well, but how well palm rejection works also depends on the drawing app used. Drawing apps with pen-only mode will have perfect palm rejection.

The driver supports 3, 4 and 5 finger shortcuts. Those shortcuts may interfere with shortcuts from drawing apps or Windows OS that use the same gestures. To prevent conflicts with gesture shortcuts, it's best to disable shortcuts from either XPPen driver, drawing app or Windows OS.

TOUCH SUPPORT WITH VARIOUS APPS
Below's a list of how touch works with various apps I've tested. Pan, zoom, rotate (at pivot), 2-finger undo and palm rejection work fine unless mentioned. When 60Hz app is mentioned, it means animation for navigation appears choppy (eg. 60Hz).

Windows

Affinity Photo: Zoom does not work. No 2-finger undo. 120Hz app.
Adobe Photoshop: No 2-finger undo. 30Hz app
Adobe Fresco: Works well. 120Hz app
Adobe Illustrator: No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app.
Clip Studio Paint: Works well. 60Hz app. 120Hz line.
Concepts: Works well 120Hz app
Krita: Works well. 120Hz app
Medibang Paint: Rotation is not a pivot point. No palm rejection. No 2-finger undo. 60Hz app. 120Hz line.
Sketchable Plus: No 2-finger undo. 120Hz
Sketchbook: No 2-finger undo. 120Hz app
StylusX: Works well 120Hz app

Animation for Photoshop on Windows looks noticeably more choppy compared to other apps.

Mac

Affinity Photo: Panning does not track under finger. No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app.
Adobe Photoshop: Panning does not track under finger. Rotate from centre of display. No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app.
Clip Studio: No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app. 120Hz line.
Krita: Panning does not track under finger. No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app.
Medibang: Panning does not track under finger. Rotate from centre of display. No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app.
Sketchbook: No panning. Rotate from centre of display. No 2-finger undo. No palm rejection. 60Hz app.

All the drawing apps I have on the Mac do not support palm rejection and 2-finger undo, and all looks like 60Hz apps.

Android

Navigation gestures work with drawing apps. Pen pressure or palm rejection may/may not work depending on drawing apps. Tilt usually does not work.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint

1. Initial activation force is very low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. There's slight wobble with my hand drawn lines, but lines drawn with a ruler are perfectly straight.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick, and back to thin is smooth. The pen is able to draw thin lines after thick lines suggesting the pen has good control over the pressure curve regardless of whether it's heavy or light pressure.

4. Line width can be maintain consistently while maintaining consistent pressure.

5. No issues with drawing dots.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test where lines are drawn separately, then joined to check for gaps and overshooting lines. There are no gaps and overshooting lines, which means cursor misalignment is not as issue.

Cursor does not stray away from the pen tip when the pen is held vertical then switched to an angle.

Tilt works well, at least with Krita. Cursor can follow the direction of the pen. Tilt did not work with Concepts app on Windows unfortunately, which is actually one of my main drawing apps.

The pen is quite accurate and sensitive. Performance is consistent and predictable.

There is still some latency. I'm actually not sure if latency has improved with the 120Hz when compared to other XPPen pen displays but latency isn't something I think about when drawing, so I can say that latency is not an issue.

Drawing experience

Since the pen performance is excellent so I don't have negative things to say about that. The line quality you can get is definitely good enough for creating professional art.

Drawing experience is mostly affect by touch gestures not working consistently, e.g. some apps may or may not support 2-finger undo, pan zoom and rotate may not happen at the pivot point between the fingers. Touch behaviour is inconsistent because different apps implement touch control differently.

Palm rejection works quite well but is not perfect. To get better palm rejection, it's better to wear the artist glove provided. You will get perfect palm rejection with apps that have pen-only mode. I feel like palm rejection is slightly better than the XPPen Artist Ultra 16 but I can't be sure.

Touch support just works better with Windows, but even with Windows there are some inconsistencies with touch.

This was drawn with Clip Studio Paint on Windows.

The three drawings below were all drawn with Clip Studio Paint (Win) and it works quite well. Pan, zoom, rotate work as expected, and there's 2-finger undo. Palm rejection is flawless as there's pen-only mode.

Workflow is smooth and uneventful. There are no surprised. Lines come out exactly the way I expected.

Concepts app is actually my main drawing app on iPads, Android tablets and Windows. Tilt doesn't work that well specifically with this app, and that's not surprising as tilt doesn't work well with many other touchscreen pen displays I've tested. Pen pressure definitely needs to be adjusted to get the pressure to perform and feel better. This app supports 2, 3 and 4 finger shortcuts without issues.

Another fantastic app that works great on this touchscreen pen display is StylusX.

Here's a 1hr video review

Conclusion

The XPPen Artist Pro 27 (gen 2) has fantastic hardware, and that includes the excellent pen performance. Display quality is fantastic. So it's 5/5 from the hardware side.

The drawing experience is mostly positive since the pen performance is great. Main thing that affects drawing performance is really just the inconsistent touch support that varies across different drawing apps and OS. This inconsistent touch support will get confusing if you're someone who uses multiple touchscreen devices for drawing. But this is probably something you can get used to with time, it's kinda like using Mac and Windows keyboard layout and hitting the wrong keyboard shortcuts occasionally.

And then there's the inconsistent performance of 120Hz refresh rate. Mac and Windows OS handles 120Hz really well and that makes the computer feel very responsive. But not all drawing apps have been updated to take advantage of the 120Hz.

I don't think this pen display has any major deal breakers.

The pricing seems competitive. So if you're looking for huge touchscreen pen display, this could be the one to consider.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Stand can adjust to many angles
+ Bright, vibrant, sharp display
+ 120Hz works well with OS
+ High colour accuracy, 95% AdobeRGB measured
+ Matte drawing surface has nice texture to draw on
+ Matte glass surface is unlikely to scratch
+ Matte glass has minimal grain/colour noise/anti-glare sparkle
+ Wide viewing angles
+ Supports USB-C video, HDMI, DisplayPort
+ Shortcut remote included
+ Two pens are included
+ Pen does not require charging
+ Pen supports tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Excellent pen performance
+ Does not produce much heat
+ Floating Menu gives you eight more shortcuts
- Touch behaviour is inconsistent across OS and apps
- 120Hz does not work with all drawing apps
- Palm rejection does not work as well compared to iPads and Android tablets
- Display settings are only available from driver, not OSD

Availability

The XPPen Artist Pro 27 (gen 2) is available from XPPen online store.

Consider using my affiliate link above when you're buying the pen display to support my blog and the work I do here.

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 20 Mar 2026 - 23:00

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Artist Review: M4 iPad Air (2026)

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Artist Review: M4 iPad Air (2026)

Not a sponsored review

Apple has just released the M4 iPad Air on 11 March 2026, almost one year after the M3 iPad Air from 12 March 2025.

Prices for the 11-inch and 13-inch models with 128GB storage and 12GB RAM are USD 599 and 799 respectively. Apple Pencil Pro is USD 129.

Listed below are the upgrades.

Upgrades

Feature	iPad Air (M3, 2025)	iPad Air (M4, 2026)
Processor	M3 Chip	M4 Chip, 30% faster CPU performance
Unified Memory	8GB RAM	12GB RAM
Memory Bandwidth	~100 GB/s	120 GB/s
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6E / Bluetooth 5.3	Wi-Fi 7 / Bluetooth 6.0
Modem (Cellular)	Qualcomm SDX70M	C1X Apple-designed Modem

By the way, if you find this review useful and you have the intention to buy the tablet, consider using the affiliate links below to make your purchase to support the work I do here.

Bottom line

The M4 iPad Air is still a well made tablet that does not have the extra features as the iPad Pro, but will still get the job done.

The M4 iPad Air is a good tablet that provides good value for money simply because the M5 iPad Pro is really or too expensive. There's a USD 300 and USD 400 difference for the 11-inch and 13-inch models with 256GB storage. But if you don't mind refurbished models direct from Apple, an 11-inch M4 iPad Pro is USD 850 and and the iPad Air is USD 700.

For drawing purposes, there isn't any functional or perceivable difference between the iPad Air and iPad Pro. The extra features with the iPad Pro are the 1000 nits OLED display, thinner and lighter designs, 4-way speakers, Face ID, 120Hz refresh rate and 60W fast charging. Whether to spend the extra money to get more features is just personal preference.

The M4 iPad Air's most substantial upgrade is probably the increase in amount of RAM from 8GB to 12GB. The M4 iPad Air has the same amount of RAM as the M5 iPad Pro, and more RAM than the M4 iPad Pro.

If you're considering getting the M4 iPad Air, I would highly recommend you check out the refurbished M3 iPad Airs from Apple to save even more money. Main difference is the older model has 8GB RAM which is still plenty.

SPECIFICATIONS

	11-inch iPad Air 8 (2026)	13-inch iPad Air 8 (2026)	11-inch iPad Air 7 (2025)	13-inch iPad Air 7 (2025)
Display type	IPS LCD at 60Hz	IPS LCD at 60Hz	IPS LCD at 60Hz	IPS LCD at 60Hz
Resolution	2360 × 1640 pixels	2732 × 2048 pixels	2360 × 1640 pixels	2732 × 2048 pixels
Brightness	500 nits	600 nits	500 nits	600 nits
Processor	M4	M4	M3	M3
Storage	128GB to 1TB	128GB to 1TB	128GB to 1TB	128GB to 1TB
RAM	12GB	12GB	8GB	8GB
Camera	12MP f/1.8 rear, 12MP f/2 front	12MP f/1.8 rear, 12MP f/2 front	12MP f/1.8 rear, 12MP f/2 front	12MP f/1.8 rear, 12MP f/2 front
Port	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Connection	Wi-Fi 7, 5G	Wi-Fi 7, 5G	Wi-Fi 6E, 5G	Wi-Fi 6E, 5G
Security	Fingerprint unlock	Fingerprint unlock	Fingerprint unlock	Fingerprint unlock
Apple Pencil	Apple Pencil Pro	Apple Pencil Pro	Apple Pencil Pro	Apple Pencil Pro
Size	247.6 × 178.5 × 6.1 mm	280.6 × 214.9 × 6.1 mm	247.6 × 178.5 × 5.9 mm	247.6 × 178.5 × 5.9 mm
Weight	464 g	616 g	460 g	616 g
Battery life	10 hours	10 hours	10 hours	10 hours
Price	From US $599	From US $799	From US $599	From US $799

PRICE

Storage	11-inch iPad Air (M4)	13-inch iPad Air (M4)	11-inch iPad Pro (M5)	13-inch iPad Pro (M5)
128GB	$599	$799	—	—
256GB	$699	$899	$999	$1,299
512GB	$899	$1,099	$1,199	$1,499
1TB	$1,099	$1,299	$1,399	$1,699
2TB	—	—	$1,799	$2,099

Wi-Fi + Cellular models of iPad Air (M4) cost $150 more than the equivalent Wi-Fi models.
Wi-Fi + Cellular models of iPad Pro (M5) cost $200 more than the equivalent Wi-Fi models.

Things included

Tablet
20W USB-C charger (depends on country)
USB-C to USB-C charging cable
Quick start guide

Design

Design of the iPad Air is just like the previous model, and just like the iPad Pro from 2018. It's still a good looking design so I have no complaints.

Bezels are thin and uniform on all sides. Corners for the body and LCD are rounded off.

The tablet has 6.1mm thickness, thicker than the 5.3mm and 5.1mm of the 11-inch and 13-inch M5 iPad Pro. But this tablet is definitely not considered thick.

The front camera unfortunately does not support face unlock. There's an auto-brightness sensor which works effectively.

The tablet has True Tone technology that can sense the ambient colour temperature to adjust the white balance of the tablet, to make the white look more like paper-white, and it's a feature that works really well.

Power button has a fingerprint scanner that works fast and effectively. There's a front landscape 12MP camera that does not support face unlock. There's a sensor for auto brightness and true tone and both features work well.

Four colours are available: Space Gray, Blue, Purple and Starlight (above). The back camera is 12MP but there's no flash.

There are four sets of speaker grilles but there are only two speakers, on the side nearer to the landscape camera. Audio is loud and clear, stereo sounds fine but definitely does not sound as full compared to the four speakers on the iPad Pro.

The USB-C port supports USB 3.1 gen 2 transfer speed (10Gb/s) and can output video.

Display

The iPad Air uses a glossy IPS LCD display with 60Hz refresh rate. There is anti-reflective coating which works well, but obvious reflections will still be obvious. The iPad Air does not have the nano-texture matte glass option.

Resolution of the 11-inch and 13-inch tablets are 2360 × 1640 and 2732 × 2048 pixels respectively. Visuals are sharp and pixelation is not noticeable.

The 11-inch tablet has 500 nits brightness and the 13-inch tablet has 600 nits brightness.

There really isn't much difference with latency when comparing a 60Hz vs 120Hz display. The gap as the line chases the pen tip looks the same. The main difference is the line will appear more instantaneous on a 120Hz. But you really need two tablets side by side to compare to see the difference.

120Hz difference is more obvious when there are many things moving on the screen. E.g. Maximising and minimising windows, pan, zoom, rotate, and scrolling web pages. For drawing purposes, 120Hz doesn't really provide much advantage. Apple Pencil latency performance is already good even with a 60Hz display.

Display is laminated so there's no parallax gap between the line and the pen tip. Pen tip glides smoothly on the display but is not considered slippery so you can still get good control over the pen.

Performance

When Apple M1 chip made its debut in the iPad Pro, it was revolutionary as it was a powerful chip, a desktop chip fitted into a tablet. The M4 chip is even more powerful and the processing power is definitely good enough to last for at least 10 years.

The more significant upgrade is actually the increase in RAM from 8GB to 12GB. There's now more RAM in the M4 iPad Air than the M4 iPad Pro which starts with 8GB RAM.

More RAM is great for multi-tasking, and you can create more layers too when creating artworks.

Below are the number of layers you can get for an A4 sized 300 DPI canvas in Procreate.

Model	RAM	No of layers
iPad 11 (2025)	6GB	73
iPad mini 7 (2024)	8GB	116
M2 iPad Air 6 (2024)	8GB	116
M3 iPad Air 7 (2025)	8GB	116
iPad Air 8 (2026)	12GB	73 (Before update)
M1 iPad Pro 2021	8GB and 16GB	116 (26 before update), 211
M2 iPad Pro 2022	8GB and 16GB	116, 211
M4 iPad Pro 2024	8GB and 16GB	116, 211
M5 iPad Pro 2025	12GB and 16GB	150, 211

OS and software

iPadOS has too many features to list.

Main selling point is iPadOS will be updated for many years. My 2018 iPad Pro is still getting updates in 2025 but it's really sluggish now as the hardware can no longer keep up with the latest OS.

The M4 processor is way more powerful and there's even more RAM now so I expect the tablet to remain responsive for many years far into the future.

Another key selling feature of iPadOS is iCloud Backup will backup the whole tablet, 100% of the tablet, include the last webpage you browse. In the event that the tablet gets damaged, stolen or lost, you can get a new tablet, enter your Apple ID, and restore everything effortlessly. I don't know of any Android tablet that can back up 100% of the tablet.

Apple Pencil Pro

The Apple Pencil Pro is compatible with the M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air. This is a separate purchase of USD 129.

Apple Pencil Pro attaches to the side of the tablet for charging and pairing.

All of Apple Pencil 2 features are still around, namely cursor hover (only for M2 or newer iPads), double tap shortcuts, magnetic pairing and charging.

Shown above are double tap shortcut options available for customisation.

New features are haptic feedback, squeeze to show shortcuts, barrel roll with the new gyroscope and lost location finder with Find My app.

Haptic feedback: This provides a phyiscal confirmation for an action you made, and this is better than looking for visual cues on the display for confirmation. E.g. When you double tap to switch from brush to eraser, you don't have to look at the brush and/or eraser icon.

Squeeze: At the time of review, squeeze can be used with Apple Notes to call up a mini palette with brush options. Shown above are squeeze shortcut options available for customisation. Hopefully squeeze feature can be customised by third party apps in the future.

Barrel roll: The pen has a new gyroscope to detect pen rotation and adjust the brush shape accordingly. E.g. You can adjust the angle/direction of the brush shape with both direction and rotation of the pen. Apple Pencil 2 only allows you to adjust angle of shape with direction of the pen. This new feature makes it easier to create certain brush effects or strokes.

Find My: This lets you find your misplaced Apple Pencil Pro.

Creative and visual apps

iPads have a huge selection of feature-rich drawing, graphic design and video editing apps.

Below are non-exhaustive lists for some of the popular creative apps:

Drawing

Graphic design

Affinity Photo
Affinity Designer
Vectornator
Amadine
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Affinity Publisher

Photo and video editing apps

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Lightroom
LumaFusion
DaVinci Resolve

Drawing experience

Drawing experience of the Apple Pencil Pro on the iPad Air is fantastic. Tilt, pressure sensitivity and palm rejection work really well. Pen performance is predictable and consistent. Lines come out exactly the way as expected.

Even though the display is glossy, Apple Pencil Pro is not too slippery and can be controlled quite well.

Countless artists have created careers from drawing on iPads, and for some the iPad is their only drawing device. iPads have been used to create professional art for years.

Battery life

Battery life is around 9 to 10 hours with auto-brightness.

If you use the tablet outdoors under bright conditions, you can expect the battery to drawin 20% per hour. Sometimes the tablet may even be too hot until the display will dim, and in worst case scenario there may be an overheating warning pop-up box that appears.

If you're using the tablet indoors, you don't have to worry about battery life or overheating.

Battery can last for many years, and if your battery health drops under 80%, you can go to an Apple Store to pay for a battery swap.

Conclusion

The iPad Air may not have all the extra features of the iPad Pro, but it's also not as expensive. It's still a good tablet and it's a dependable tablet with consistent performance. It's a well made tablet that works great. Pen performance is fantastic and hence I can be recommend this easily to artists who may not want to spend that much money to get the iPad Pro.

Sure the iPad Pro is the better tablet, but the iPad Air provides more value for money because of its much lower price point. All the extra features of the iPad Pro are nice to have but come at a much higher proce.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Beautiful design
+ Tablets are thinner, lighter and hence more portable
+ Effective anti-reflective coating on display
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Auto-brightness works well
+ True tone looks great
+ Apple Pencil Pro has many features
+ Apple Pencil Pro have great drawing and writing experience
+ 10 hours battery life
+ Many drawing, graphic design, creative apps
+ iPadOS has many features
+ iPadOS will have many years of updates
- No face unlock
- Stage Manager multi-tasking's usefulness is mainly for switching between apps
- Stage Manager external display usefulness depends a lot on third party app implementation
- Apple Pencil 2 is not compatible
- Rear camera has no flash
- No nano-texture glass option
- Display can still dim with overheating under extreme bright conditions
- No water resistance

Availability

If you're interested to get the M4 iPad Air or accessories, consider supporting my blog by buying through the affiliate links listed below at no extra cost.

Here in Singapore they are available from Lazada SG and Shopee SG.

They can be found on Amazon too via these links
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.jp

For matte screen protectors, I recommend SuperShieldz for 11-inch and 13-inch because you can get three pieces for less than USD 10. These are cheap and good. Just make sure you're getting for the correct tablet model.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 15 Mar 2026 - 23:00

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Review: BenQ ScreenBar Halo 2 monitor light bar

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Review: BenQ ScreenBar Halo 2 monitor light bar

Review unit provided by BenQ Singapore

The BenQ ScreenBar Halo 2 is a desktop monitor light bar designed to prevent eye fatigue when you're working in a dark room. Retail price is Singapore is SGD 289 but you can get it at a lower price on Shopee SG and Lazada SG.

What you get in the box would be the light bar, a web cam mount, wireless remote, USB-C charger and a user manual.

The wireless remote included has excellent build quality with the metal rotating ring. There's an internal battery that can be charged with USB-C. The remote is already paired with the light bar out of the box, but if that's not so you can read the user manual on how to pair.

The remote provides controls for

Colour temperature from 2700 warm to 6500 day light
Brightness from 1 to 100%
Enable or disable the front and/or back light
Power off, pairing
Save your favourite setting
Auto setting
Proximity sensor

Just tap on the touch sensitive control panel, and turn the dial to adjust settings. The dial allows for very fine adjustments, e.g. 1% brightness or 25K colour temperature at a time.

Setup is straightforward. You just mount the light bar on top your monitor. This unfortunately does not work with a monitor hood.

When you look at your monitor and the surrounding is just dark, the contrast can make your eyes tired, and that's certainly not good for your eyes.

The light bar is designed to create a sphere of light around your monitor. There's a back light for lighting the back wall behind the monitor. This makes the area around your monitor brighter, or as bright as the display, and this prevents eye fatigue, and this works surprisingly well.

Shown above is the maximum light setting. The light bar has an attached USB-C cable to power source, and will draw up to 15W at maximum brightness. You do not need to use the included USB-C charger but you need a charger that can provide at least 20W of power. 15W of brightness should also give you an idea to how bright the light bar can be -- it can be very bright.

The minimum brightness is brighter than I expected, but low enough for me to want to increase the brightness further.

This is how the warm light looks. You can select either the front and back light to adjust each light separately, or select both to adjust them together.

If you're someone who likes to work in a dark room and don't want to switch on your room lights, this light bar is gonna work best for you since it will only light up a localised area, the front of your desk and back of the monitor. The light bar can be adjusted slightly to light more or less of the desk. The LED light bulbs are not visible to the eyes.

I've not tested monitor light bars from other brands so I cannot say how BenQ's offering compares to competitor. All I can say is this light bar works very effectively and does it job well. And looks pretty good too without getting in the way.

Availability

The BenQ ScreenBar Halo 2 can be purchased from BenQ online store, Shopee SG and Lazada SG.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 11 Mar 2026 - 12:00

Tags

benq

tech reviews