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Review: Huion Kamvas Pad 12 portable drawing tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: Huion Kamvas Pad 12 portable drawing tablet

Review unit provided by Huion

Huion has just launched the Kamvas Pad 12 on 7 September 2026. This is an Android 16 tablet with a matte 12.2-inch 90Hz LCD with 2400 x 1600 resolution, and has pen support.

The Huion PW600C pen uses PenTech 4 and supports tilt, 16K levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. This is the same pen technology Huion use in their pen displays. Pen performance is good and is significantly better compared to the Huion Slate 10, 11 and 13 Android tablets.

Price at the time of review is USD 499. There's a 1-year warranty and free shipping to selected countries.

Specifications

Display:
- Type: LCD
- Size: 12.2 inches
- Active Area: 257.9 × 171.9 mm
- Resolution: 2400 × 1600
- PPI: 236
- Aspect Ratio: 3:2
- Refresh Rate: 90 Hz
- Color Gamut: 99% sRGB
- Brightness: 350 nits
- Contrast Ratio: 1600:1
- Cover Glass: Nano‑etched (AG + AF)
Device:
- Dimensions: 281.5 × 195.5 × 7.8 mm
- Weight: 665 g
- Color: Space Gray
Hardware & System:
- Processor: MediaTek Genio 720
- CPU: 2× Cortex‑A78 (2.6 GHz) + 6× Cortex‑A55 (2.0 GHz)
- OS: Android 16
- RAM: 8 GB
- Storage: 256 GB
- Wi‑Fi: 2.4 & 5 GHz Dual‑Band
- Bluetooth: 5.4
- Cameras: 8 MP front, 13 MP rear
- Battery: 8000 mAh
- Speakers: 8Ω 1W × 4
- Microphones: × 2
- Sensors: Gravity, Ambient Light, Gyroscope, Hall
- Location Services: GPS Not Supported
Buttons:
- Power Button × 1
- Volume Up × 1
- Volume Down × 1
Touch & Pen:
- Touch: 10‑Point Incell Capacitive
- Pen Tech: PenTech 4.0 EMR
- Digital Pen: PW600C
- Pressure Sensitivity: 16,384 Levels
- Pen Resolution: 5080 LPI
- Tilt: ±60°
- Accuracy: ±0.3 mm (Center), ±1.0 mm (Edge)
- Sensing Height: 10 mm (Center), 8 mm (Edge)
- Report Rate: >260 PPS
Ports & Connectivity:
- USB‑C (USB 2.0 charging/data, USB‑C headphones)
- MicroSD Slot (up to 1 TB)
Battery & Charging:
- Charging Power: 5 W–18 W
- Charging Time: ~3 hours
- Battery Life: ~8 hours (50% brightness)
- Power Adapter: Not Included
Pre‑installed Apps:
- HiPaint
- HiNote
- Huion Store
- MediBang Paint
- Clip Studio Paint
- ibisPaint
Package Contents:
- Drawing Tablet
- PW600C Pen (magnetic)
- USB‑C Cable
- Felt Nibs × 10
- Nib Remover
- Protective Case
- Anti‑fouling Glove
- SIM/SD Tray Ejector
- Quick Start Guide
Certifications:
- Global: GMS
- Europe: CE RED, RoHS, REACH
- USA: FCC, FCC ID
- Japan: PSE, TELEC
- Canada: IC, IC ID
- South Korea: KCC
- Australia: RCM

Things included

Tablet
Flip case
Colour calibration report
Artist glove
Pen nib remover
10 replacement pen nibs
SIM ejector
USB-C to USB-C charging cable
Quick start guide

There's no charger included but you can use any USB-C charger you may already have.

The flip case is quite basic, thin enough, and protects the front, back and one side.

Tablet can be propped up for watching shows but not for drawing.

Design

Design of the tablet is simple. Corners are rounded off, including corners for the LCD. Bezels are thin enough. There's a front landscape 8MP camera which unfortunately does not have face unlock.

There's auto brightness and it works well.

2400 x 1600 resolution is considered high for a 12.2-inch display so pixelation is not noticeable. 90Hz refresh rate produces smooth animation and makes the tablet feel more responsive.

I like the 3:2 aspect ratio because it makes the tablet usable in both landscape and portrait.

The back is metal and matte textured. The rear camera is 13MP and has a flash.

The power button has no fingerprint scanner. This tablet does not have biometric unlock.

There are four speakers and volume is loud. Audio is stereo but sounds rather flat with almost no sense of surround and no bass. Still very usable speakers for the fact that they do not sound hollow.

Tablet is quite thick at 7.8mm.

The pen can attach magnetically to the side of the tablet. This is not for pairing or charging the pen as the pen does not require pairing or charging.

There's a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Display

Display quality is better than expected. Huion advertises 99% sRGB colour support and the colours look good out of the box.

The colour calibration report mentions sRGB average Delta E of 1.48. Average Delta E is the variance of the digital input colour vs measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic.

It's good to see the tablet come with a matte glass surface which provides a subtle tactile drawing experience. The pen is still quite smooth but not slippery. Texture is definitely not as rough compared to matte screen protectors.

Anti-glare works well. Whatever's on the screen can still be seen through diffused reflections. 350 nits of brightness is high enough for indoor use, but not high enough for use under the sun or under shade near sunlight.

Display is laminated but the glass has slight thickness so if you look close, you can see a gap between the line and the pen tip. From normal working distance away, the gap should not be noticeable and will not contribute to parallax.

All matte surfaces will introduce some colour noise, grain or anti-glare sparkle and all that is kept to a minimal with this tablet. The matte surface does not affect the sharpness.

Ebook reading experience is quite good as 12.2-inch is big enough for reading comics.

Performance

The tablet uses the MediaTek Genio 720 processor, has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Overall performance seems responsive enough, certainly more than powerful enough for drawing purposes. I did not test any gaming on the tablet.

OS and software

The tablet runs on Android 16 and it's pretty much stock Android so there aren't many features. There is split screen but the display is just 12.2-inch so multi-tasking isn't ideal.

There's no pen display mode. You cannot connect the tablet to a computer and use this like a pen display.

It is possible to use the tablet as a wireless external display, and even use desktop drawing apps but wireless pen latency performance is not good.

The pen settings available lets you adjust the pressure sensitivity, offset the cursor if there happens to be any cursor misalignment, enable/disable the side button and choose cursor style. There is no option to hide the cursor.

There's Google Play Store and there are many capable drawing apps available, such as Clip Studio Paint, Infinite Painter, Krita, Sketchbook, HiPaint, Concepts, Medibang Paint and more.

Huion has not provided any information as to whether the tablet will get future Android OS updates. It's running Android 16 now, just one version behind the current 17. I'm just gonna assume that it will be stuck at 16.

Will not having any OS updates be an issue? Well, all existing drawing apps will still continue to run even without OS updates. However, newer versions of drawing apps may not install on older Android OS. Another issue is if you happen to reset the tablet in the future, newer versions of drawing apps may not be able to install back to the tablet, and you'll have to install downloaded APK versions of those apps, and some features may not work with APK versions of the apps.

Pen

This is the Huion PW600C pen. It's a rather slim pen with a side button but no eraser at the back. The side button is flushed to the body and I press it too often unintentionally.

Pen body is matte surface, has a good grip and is comfortable to hold. Weight is considered light.

Pen tip is quite firm with minimal movement. The pen tip is quite smooth on the matte glass surface but it's not slippery and controlling the pen is still easy. The tactile experience of drawing is similar to pens on screenless pen tablets.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint.

1. Initial activation force is low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. It is possible to adjust the global pressure sensitivity through OS settings to make it easier to draw thinner or thicker lines.

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 a thick line. This is also a diagonal line and there's no noticeable diagonal line wobble.

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. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. There's no cursor misalignment. Cursor is always directly beneath the pen tip. Joining lines does not result in gaps or overshooting. The diagonal lines do not have wobble.

The pen has tilt sensitivity but it does not seem to work well with Concepts and Krita. Tilt works well with Sketchbook, Infinite Painter.

Pen is quite sensitive and accurate.

Drawing experience

Since the pen performance is good, the drawing experience is good.

Palm rejection works reasonably well. Palm rejection may not be enabled by default so you may have to enable that manually.

The big display works fine with drawing apps that have many UI elements, such as Clip Studio Paint and Krita.

I've tried sketching on the train while commuting to work and I find the tablet heavy to hold when standing. Weight of 665g is alright for a 12.2-inch tablet but the weight, size and thickness makes it more unwieldy to hold. The train was shaking and I was still able to draw so I don't have anything unusual to report.

It's definitely more comfortable to set the tablet down on a surface for drawing. I've brought it to a cafe to draw and it was a good experience.

The anti-glare of the matte surface was able to diffuse the reflections of the many overhead lights.

Here's the sketch drawn at the cafe.

Click for a larger view.

And here's a sketch drawn at another cafe.

Click for a larger view.

My overall drawing experience is very positive.

Battery life

Battery life is around 8 hours and will vary depending on the brightness.

Conclusion

The Huion Kamvas Pad 12 is an Android tablet that provides a wonderful drawing experience. It's also portable so you can bring it anywhere. Colour quality of the display is also pretty good.

If you're selling a drawing tablet, the pen better work well and thankfully the pen does work well here with good support for pressure sensitivity. This is a significant and noticeable upgrade over the previous Huion Slate tablets.

Main downsides or limitations would the lack of info regarding whether the tablet will get any OS updates. I don't think this is a big issue but it could be for others.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean simple design
+ Auto-brightness works well
+ Display is sharp, vibrant and bright (350 nits) enough
+ Matte glass surface is wonderful to draw on
+ 3:2 aspect ratio
+ 90Hz refresh rate
+ Display is laminated
+ Pen has good pressure but tilt performance varies
+ Pen does not require charging and pairing
+ 8 hours battery life with auto brightness
+ Android 16 with Google Play Store
- Case does not prop up the tablet for drawing
- No biometric unlock
- Speakers sound flat, but loud enough
- USB-C port has only USB 2 transfer speed
- No info on future Android OS updates

Availability

The Huion Kamvas Pad 12 can be purchased from Huion online store and Amazon USA.

If you have intention to buy this, consider using the affiliate link to make your purchase. I earn some commission at no extra cost to you. And your support helps me put out more reviews such as the one you just read.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 08 Sep 2026 - 22:00

Tags

drawing tablet reviews

tech reviews

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Book Review: Set Sail: The Art and Making of One Piece

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Set Sail: The Art and Making of One Piece

Fun and outrageous

Let me start by saying that I've not read the One Piece Japanese manga before, and I've not watch the Netflix adaptation. So I may not be the best person to review this book as I cannot tell you the differences with the manga vs live-action adaptation. Having said that, after going through the book, I can tell it's a great book for fans of the show.

This book is a 208-page hardcover published by Viz Media.

The book covers the making of the show and has all the things fans will enjoy, namely plenty of behind the scenes photography, wonderful character and set designs and a lot of commentary. This book is packed with insights and beautiful images. Fawn Lau and Jenny Haru Kim have done a terrific job with the layout of the book, and the author is Mike Avila

The characters are just incredibly fun to look at. The designs are so wild but still work. Having guns pointing out from the magistrate wig? The art direction is over the top and there is so much style.

If you like the show, you'll love this book.

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 Sat, 05 Sep 2026 - 11:00

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viz media

art book reviews

making of

one piece

basheer sponsored

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Karl Kopinski's Studio Tour

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 02:40:20 +0000

Karl Kopinski's Studio Tour

Have a look at Karl Kopinski's workspace.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 30 Aug 2026 - 10:40

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video

karl kopinski

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Aug 2026 sketchwalk at Zion Road Riverside with Urban Sketchers Singapore

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 04:44:18 +0000

Aug 2026 sketchwalk at Zion Road Riverside with Urban Sketchers Singapore

This month's sketchwalk will be located at Zion Riverside Food Centre.

Date and time: 29 Aug 2026, 930am. More details at: https://www.facebook.com/events/980612108376739

I invite you to join us to sketch together, make friends, even if you're a beginner (just go buy a sketchbook and pen).

Giveaway contest

Listed below are the prizes sponsored by Etchr Lab that I'm giving away:

I have reviewed many of their products before and you can find the reviews here.

Criteria for winning the prizes

Prizes are given out at the end of the sketchwalk
Post a comment on the prize you want. If you select more than one prize, order by preference
Only comments here count.
Leave your real name if you're using nickname.
You have to introduce yourself and your sketch that day.

Good luck!

Comments posted will not appear immediately. But fear not, they are received.

Oh, support me on Patreon if you can.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 12:44

Tags

urban sketchers singapore

Comments

Etchr accordion sketchbook

Regina (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 13:42

Etchr accordion sketchbook

Ooh.. Llamated edition…

Stephanie Ng (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 13:57

Ooh.. Llamated edition accordion sketchbook 🦙

😬

Thanks the accordian…

Seokart06 (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 16:35

Thanks the accordian sketchbook book please

First choice: 2. ETCHR…

Judy Yip (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 19:45

First choice: 2. ETCHR Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook
Second choice: 1. ETCHR 4x8in 100% cotton panoramic watercolour sketchbook

Interested in the Llama…

Pat Ng (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 19:57

Interested in the Llama Accordion S/book… thanks Parka! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🫶🏻🥹

accordion sketchbook please!…

Benedict (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 21:16

accordion sketchbook please!! thanks parka!

A4 size Watercolor block…

Karen Kong (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 21:28

A4 size Watercolor block. Thank you.

I like the etchr a4…

Clara Sophia (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 21:37

I like the etchr a4 watercolour block!

Thank you!

So nice of you. Keen on the…

Karen Lim (not verified) Thu, 27 Aug 2026 - 01:19

So nice of you. Keen on the 4x8in 100% cotton panoramic watercolour sketchbook. Thank you

Etchr Llamated edition…

Edric (not verified) Thu, 27 Aug 2026 - 13:04

Etchr Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook, please! 😊

Accordion sketchbook

Ai Lin (not verified) Thu, 27 Aug 2026 - 20:50

Accordion sketchbook

Etchr 4x8 inch panoramic…

Sangmi Lee (not verified) Fri, 28 Aug 2026 - 13:30

Etchr 4x8 inch panoramic watercolour sketchbook Please! Gamsahamnida!!🤗

First choice: 2. ETCHR…

Martha Morales… (not verified) Fri, 28 Aug 2026 - 14:47

First choice: 2. ETCHR Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook
Second choice: 1. ETCHR 4x8in 100% cotton panoramic watercolour sketchbook

2. Etchr Llamated edition…

Youjin Oh (not verified) Fri, 28 Aug 2026 - 17:41

2. Etchr Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook, see you!! 👩👶🏻

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Review: Bigme F7 Pro e-ink photo frame

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Review: Bigme F7 Pro e-ink photo frame

Review sample provide by Bigme

The Bigme F7 Pro is a 7.5-inch photo frame that uses a colour e-ink display. This is the upgraded model of the Bigme F7 that I've reviewed almost a year ago. The main upgrade seems to be in the app which has added more options for displaying pictures.

Price of the Bigme F7 Pro at time of review is USD 99.

That's the default photo loaded onto the photo frame. The frame is made of real wood and is available in two colours: dark walnut or light beech. Build quality is good.

The colour e-ink technology hasn't evolved much so there are the usual limitations which I will talk more about later.

There's a detachable leg included to prop up the photo frame vertically or horizontally. Or you can use the holes behind to hang the photo frame.

An app is needed to transfer photos to the photo frame. The Bigme Photo Frame app is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

To connect the phone to the photo frame, you can follow the instructions on the back of the photo frame. 2.4Ghz wifi is needed. It took me a few tries to get the phone paired.

With the app, you can

Upload a photo
Create an AI image
Beautify your photo
Create a slideshow
Show calendar
Show memo
Show art gallery

After selecting your photo, you have to press the power button behind the photo frame to transfer. It will take a few seconds before the display shows any activity, and the e-ink display will flicker for a few seconds as it draws the image.

You can crop, flip and rotate the photo in the app, but there's no option to crop a vertical photo into a horizontal one.

For the slideshow, you can set the interval for 10 min, 1hr, 6hr, 12hr, 1 day, 1 week. Battery life will vary depending on the option. Battery life of the photo frame is rated for 1 year before you have to charge it with the USB-C port.

Showing the calendar requires syncing with your Google or Outlook account.

The Art Gallery has selected old masters paintings. I wasn't able to add the paintings to the photo frame though so I suspect there's some bug. Alternative workaround is to screenshot and upload manually.

Colour e-ink displays are usually darker, so white will not be as white or bright. The white colour e-ink is not as white compared to the photo frame's white framing as you can see above.

Colour e-ink would also show grain, noticeable when you look close but not a big issue from normal viewing distance away. Resolution of the display is just 1024 by 600.

Having the colour wheel on the e-ink canvas shows its limitations. The blue appears green and there's difficulty showing variations of red. Colour accuracy is obviously not as good as LCD or OLED displays, but the main advantage of e-ink is battery life.

I've reviewed many e-ink devices over the years so I know what to expect with colour e-ink so those limitations do not surprise me. The colour accuracy is still acceptable and the photos look alright to me.

The Bigme F7 Pro photo frame is pretty cool product. Pricing is quite reasonable.

Availability

The Bigme F7 Pro is available from the Bigme online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 24 Aug 2026 - 12:00

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tech reviews

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USk Symposium Toronto 2027 – Call for Correspondents

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 08:52:59 +0000

USk Symposium Toronto 2027 – Call for Correspondents

The call for correspondents is up for the 15th International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toronto, happening on 4-7 August 2027. Application deadline is 14 September, 2026.

If you can go, you should definitely apply. Canada's too far for me so I won't be applying.

More info on this page.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 23 Aug 2026 - 16:52

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urban sketchers symposium

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Review: Arrtx 90-colour Alcohol Sketch Marker (Brush & Fine Tip)

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: Arrtx 90-colour Alcohol Sketch Marker (Brush & Fine Tip)

Review sample provided by Arrtx

Arrtx has released new alcohol markers called Sketch Markers and these come with brush and bullet tips.

FYI, Arrtx ALP markers have chisel and fine tips, Arrtx OROS markers have brush and chisel tips.

At the time of review, I do not have the USD pricing yet but based on other Arrtx alcohol markers I've reviewed, the price should be below USD 1 per marker.

This is the 90-colour box set I received. I like getting free art supplies from Arrtx because I can give them out as lucky draw prizes at our monthly Urban Sketchers Singapore sketchwalks.

This box also comes with a carrying strap but I won't be bringing this outdoors with me because it's a bulky heavy box.

The cover can be folded to prop up the box. The markers in the box are not arranged in any order so it's best to arrange them yourself to make it easier to pick colours.

The markers are triangular in shape and won't roll off the table. The cap cannot be posted. There are colour codes on the cap.

Brush tip is good for creating varied line widths, blocking big areas and drawing details. The bullet tip is good for drawing lines.

Ink flow is good.

These markers are juicy. They overlap well. Note that the ink is dye-based so colours will fade when exposed to light for long periods of time. They are alright for use in sketchbooks but even so colours will still fade eventually.

I tried blending to create a gradation but wasn't able to do so easily. Maybe the marker paper that I used was too absorbent, or the ink dried too fast before I could blend.

I do recommend swatching out the colours on the paper provided because it makes picking colours easier.

It's difficult to comment on the colour choices in the box. The darker colours certainly look vibrant and rich. The lighter colours are kinda difficult to see sometimes. And there isn't a nice skin tone colour that I like.

The markers are not sold individually and there are no refills. So each marker is single use.

As these markers are so affordable, they are great for beginners, for kids to mess around. The quality is good enough for professionals too, as long as there are colours that you need.

Arrtx is having an anniversary sale from 24 - 31 August 2026 on their online store and Amazon. There will be a 15% discount storewide on those dates. That would be the best time to buy the markers if you want to try them.

Where to buy:
Amazon | Official store | AliExpress | Amazon US

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 21 Aug 2026 - 22:00

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arrtx

alcohol markers

art product reviews

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Review: XPPen Artist Ultra 14 OLED pen display

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Review: XPPen Artist Ultra 14 OLED pen display

Review sample provided by XPPen

XPPen has just released the Artist Ultra 14 OLED pen display on 17 Aug 2026. This is a pen display with a 14-inch touchscreen OLED panel with 2880 x 1800 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio and 90Hz refresh rate. This is the smaller version of the Artist Ultra 16 OLED released almost a year ago.

Price of the Artist Ultra 14 OLED at time of review is USD 699 and the special launch offer price is USD 592.99 (15% off) until mid-September.

Video review

Specifications

Category	Details
Product	Artist Ultra 14
Model	MD140QH
Color	Frost Silver
Dimensions	330.4 x 221.6 x 8.0 mm
Net Weight	720g
Work Area	301.8 x 188.6 mm
Display Type	AMOLED
Display Size	14 Inch
Aspect Ratio	16:10
Resolution	2880 x 1800 Pixels (2.8K)
Refresh Rate	90 Hz
Color Gamut Coverage Ratio (Typical)	99% Adobe RGB, 99% sRGB, 99% Display P3
Display Color (Typical)	1.07 Billion
Brightness (Typical)	350 nit
Viewing Angle	178°
Full Lamination	Yes
Touch Screen	10-point touch, Anti-glare glass, Anti-fingerprint coating
Stylus Models	X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus PD21D, X3 Pro Slim Stylus PD51B
Stylus Technology	Chip-powered & EMR
Pressure Levels	16384
Initial Activation Force	3 g
Accuracy	±0.4 mm (center)
Reading Height	10 mm (center)
Resolution (Stylus)	5080 LPI
Power Input	100-240V
Power Output	12V⎓2.5A
Ports	Full-featured USB-C x 2
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, Linux (Touch function supports only on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later)

Things included

Artist Ultra 14 Drawing Display x 1
X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus x 1
X3 Pro Slim Stylus x 1
Pen Case with Nibs (X3 Pro Slim Stylus nibs x 4, X3 Pro Stylus felt nibs x 4)
ACK05 Shortcut Remote x 1
Bluetooth Receiver x 1
USB-C to USB-C Cables x 2
Power Adapter x 1
3-in-1 Cable x 1
X3 Pro Slim Stylus Nibs x 10
X3 Pro Stylus Standard Nibs x 10
ACS20 Stand x 1
Cleaning Cloth x 1
Glove x 1

This is the better stand compared to the one that has to stick to the back of the Artist Pro 16. Main limitation is the stand has only one angle.

The XPPen ACK05 Bluetooth shortcut remote works fine. I'lll not talk too much about this shortcut remote as I've reviewed this in detail years ago. I don't use this because I prefer a keyboard that has access to all keyboard shortcuts instead.

Design

Design of the pen display is clean and simple. It definitely looks like a portable tablet when there no cable is attached.

Dimensions are 330.4 x 221.6 x 8.0 mm. Weight is just 720g. Work area is 301.8 x 188.6mm so that's smaller than A4-sized paper.

If you have the budget, I recommend getting the 16-inch model (above right) where the bigger display will work better with drawing apps that have many UI elements.

The body of the 14-inch is almost the same size as the drawing area of the 16-inch pen display. And the drawing area of the 16-inch is almost A4 size.

Thickness is just 8mm.

At the top are buttons for power, brightness control, two USB-C video ports, touch control (enable/disable).

The softkey on the left will show the customisable Floating Menu with 8 shortcuts. The Floating Menu actually takes up a good amount of space so XPPen should find a way to make it smaller.

Softkey on the right will show the UI that lets you control the mouse cursor on one or two desktops.

The display size is almost similar to the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 (above) and the Samsung Tab S11 Ultra. The XPPen has a bigger body because of the thicker bezels.

The XPPen has a wider body compared to the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro.

Even though the form factor of the XPPen Artist Ultra 14 OLED is comparable to portable tablets, it is still a pen display which has to be connected to a computer. XPPen markets this as portable and technically it is but it also means you have to bring a laptop around if you want to draw outdoors. It is portable in the sense that you can easily store this away on a bookshelf after use.

The advantage of a pen display over true portable tablets is you can use desktop software.

Antiglare of the matte glass surface is more reflective than the one on the 16-inch. The surface texture is smooth matte, similar to screen-less pen tablets. Pen glides smoothly on it but you can still get good control over the pen.

The pen display supports USB-C and HDMI video connection.

For USB-C, a single cable connection is needed, and is able to power the pen display to maximum brightness. When connected to a laptop, this will drain the laptop battery much faster.

For HDMI connection, you'll need the 2-to-1 cable. HDMI and USB-A (for data) goes to the computer. Another USB cable is needed to provide power to the pen display.

By the way, it is not possible to control the brightness of the pen display from the OS. You have to use the physical brightness buttons or XPPen driver for brightness adjustment.

Display

Visual quality of the OLED display looks amazing. My colour calibrator measured 100% sRGB, 92% AdobeRGB, 90% NTSC, 100% P3 and a maximum brightness of 322 nits. I find it interesting the AdobeRGB is not higher, but the overall measures are good. The display is reasonably colour accurate.

According to the colour report, average Delta E for AdobeRGB is 0.68. Average delta E is the variance between the input colour and measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic.

The display does look bright enough and the brightness is high enough to go through the diffused reflections. Contrast looks good, amazing actually when compared to LCDs.

I don't see brightness or colour shift when display is viewed from the side.

The display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the pen tip and cursor. The glass has some thickness but it's not too thick, and parallax is not really an issue on a 14-inch display.

All matte textured surfaces will introduce some colour noise, grain or anti-glare sparkle. I do not notice any colour noise is visible when working from normal distance away, but if I'm looking for colour noise yes I can see that. Resolution of 2880 x 1800 looks sharp and pixelation is not noticeable. If I look real close, I can see a hint of softness but from working distance away the visuals look sharp.

OLED displays have pulse wave modulation which can affect people with sensitive eyes. If you are not sure whether you are affected by PWM, I recommend going to an electronics store to look at OLED displays, eg OLED TVs or laptops, to experience it yourself.

OLED pen displays are still quite new so the risk of burn-in is unknown at the moment. The Wacom Movink 13.3 was released in mid 2024 and the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 OLED was released in May 2024. XPPen Artist Ultra 16 OLED was from September 2026. There isn't much data available yet to let us know how durable OLED displays will be.

Touchscreen

Having a touchscreen is a bonus, but in my opinion not a must have, at least for me as someone who always have the other hand on a keyboard.

The touchscreen works well with most drawing apps on Windows since Windows has support for touchscreen tablets and laptops for more than a decade.

Touchscreen also works with most drawing apps on Mac but not as well. Many drawing apps on Windows actually have support for touchscreen features, e.g. pan, zoom and rotate, but that's not the case with MacOS. Below are my findings for how touch behaves with drawing apps on MacOS:

Clip Studio Paint (v2): Pan does not work
Sketchbook: Pan, zoom, rotate does not work consistently
Photoshop: Pan, zoom, rotate works
Affinity Photo: Pan and rotate works. Zoom does not work
Medibang Paint: Pan, zoom, rotate works
Krita: Pan does not work

Three other Mac-only issues are:

The rotation or zoom pivot points are usually in the middle of the display and not between the fingers. Krita's rotate/zoom pivot is usually between the fingers.
When panning with two fingers to move the canvas, the canvas usually moves away from the fingers rather than remain underneath the finger like it does on iPads and Android tablets.
Palm rejection usually does not work properly unless the pen is near the display.
Scrolling webpages on a Mac requires a two finger screen. Using the pen would select text. Scrolling webpages on Windows can be done with one finger or the pen.

Pan, zoom, rotate and palm rejection works more predictably and consistently with drawing apps on Windows.

So when drawing on Mac, you'll have to remember which touch shortcuts work, and those that don't.

Driver

I've tested Mac driver v4.0.17_260611, Windows driver v4.0.17_260612.

The driver has similar features to the one for the Artist Ultra 16 so I'll just duplicate the driver portion of the review here.

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.

Pens

The two pens included with the pen display are the XPPen X3 Pro Stylus PD21 and X3 Pro Slim Stylus PD51. There are only a few felt nibs included and I do recommend getting the felt nibs as they provide slightly more texture when drawing.

Both pens support tilt, 16K levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. The pens are not powered by battery so no charging is required.

The thicker pen has a big comfortable silicone grip and comes with two side buttons and an eraser.

The thinner pen has two side buttons and no eraser.

The side buttons can actually be replaced with a cover that's provided. If you use the pen display with an Android device, the side buttons may not be necessary, but those buttons are definitely necessary for use with Windows and Mac.

Line tests

1. Initial activation force is very low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. There's slight wobble with slow diagonal lines but not really noticeable unless you're looking for it. Diagonal line wobble isn't really an issue when drawing.

Red lines were drawn with a ruler and 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. This is also a diagonal line and I can see slight diagonal wobble but it's not a pattern that's very noticeable.

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's slight wobble with diagonal lines but they don't show up when actually drawing.

Drawing experience

Pen performance is fantastic and I don't have negative things to say about that. But drawing experience can be negatively affected by touch gestures and palm rejection.

Palm rejection is not as perfect compared to iPads and Samsung tablets. I even have to mention specifically Samsung tablets because there are many Android tablets with pen support that have lousy palm rejection.

Switching from drawing on an iPad or Android tablet to a touchscreen pen display will feel off. Shortcuts activating when they should not is frustrating and really breaks the workflow.

To improve palm rejection, you can

Wear the artist glove provided
Disable the touchscreen using the top right button
Disable touch from certain areas on the screen using the driver
Enable pen-only mode in the drawing app

Touch support not working well is a long-time Windows problem. Even the Microsoft Surface Pro does not have flawless touchscreen support.

It is not surprising that Windows has better touch support than Mac. What's surprising to me is many of the drawing apps on Mac actually support touch, although there are many issues. XPPen's touchscreen support with Mac is better than the Huion Kamvas Pro 19.

The pen display does not generate much heat since it does not use that much power. I measured 16W power transfer when the pen display is connected to power outlet.

The display is certainly smoother compared to matte screen protectors so that will take time to get used to. Controlling the pen accurately is not difficult. Get the felt pen tips if you want more a more tactile drawing experience.

I don't really use the ACK05 shortcut remote as I prefer my keyboard which gives me access to all keyboard shortcuts.

This was drawn with Concepts. Workflow was mostly smooth except for the unintentional undos due to palm rejection.

Tilt did not work well with Concepts but that's a problem specific to Concepts.

The best drawing apps to use with a touchscreen are Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Sketchbook, perhaps Concepts.

Pen tip is considered firm with minor lateral movement, but no in-out movement. Cursor tracking is accurate. Cursor is always directly beneath the pen tip even when pen is tilted at different angles, unless at really low angles.

Even though the stand only has one angle, it's still a good and comfortable angle to work with.

If you use drawing apps with many UI elements such as CSP and Krita, I highly recommend getting the XPPEN Artist Ultra 16 OLED instead for the larger display.

Android support

This pen display can work with Android devices that can output video signal, but the pen display has to be connected to power.

Support for Android is not good.

Medibang can click, but cannot draw
Concepts, Sketchbook, Infinite Painter and CSP treat the pen no different from a finger
IbisPaintX and Krita works with pressure and palm rejection

And you cannot swipe up on the pen display to go back to the home screen.

Conclusion

The XPPen Artist Ultra 14 has a wonderful OLED display with good pen performance.

User experience with touchscreen is a mixed bag. For Mac users, you're better off getting a (cheaper) pen display without touch since MacOS does not work well with touch. Windows has better support for touch but even so palm rejection is not perfect, at least not as perfect as iPads and Samsung tablets.

This pen display is a good product. Just note the pros and cons, strengths and limitations.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Good build quality
+ Stand included
+ Can be powered by a single USB-C cable
+ Softkeys for extra shortcuts
+ Bright, vibrant, sharp display
+ Matte glass has good antiglare
+ Good colour accuracy
+ OLED has much better contrast than LCD
+ Good pen performance
- OLED may not work with certain colour calibrators
- Palm rejection not perfect compared to iPad and Samsung tablets
- OLED has PWM which may affect people with sensitive eyes
- Support for drawing apps on Android is not good

Availability

The XPPen Artist Ultra 14 is available from XPPen online store.

Remember to get extra felt nibs.

By the way, if you have intention to buy this pen display, considering using the affiliate links above. I get to make some commission for each sale but at not extra cost to you. Your support helps me put out more reviews like the one you've just read.

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

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 19 Aug 2026 - 09:30

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Review: Chiara Di Francia sketchbook vol 2

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Review: Chiara Di Francia sketchbook vol 2

Chiara Di Francia is an Italian illustrator and comic artist who started her career in 2010. Some companies she has worked for includes Hachette Livre, Sigil Entertainment Group, Kymera Press, Maverick Arts, and Arancia Studio.

Almost 10 years ago, I featured her book Drawing Recipes (Drawing Recipes Collection) (Volume 1).

She has recently launched her Sketchbook Vol 2, a 52-page paperback published in August 2026, and she has shared with me some images to show you guys.

The sketchbook features preliminary studies, concept art, maps, and illustrations for editorial projects, role-playing games, and independent productions, with a particular focus on fantasy, horror and tabletop RPG projects.

Much of the material comes from her Patreon archive, now conveniently packaged into a book.

Price of the book is €11.44 at the time of review, and currently available from Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | AU | JP)

Shown below are some page previews from her sketchbook.

To see more art from her, check out her Instagram page.

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 14 Aug 2026 - 11:00

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Artist Review: 13.2" Huawei MatePad Pro Max (2026)

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 03:50:00 +0000

Artist Review: 13.2" Huawei MatePad Pro Max (2026)

Review unit on loan from Huawei Singapore

Huawei released the Huawei MatePad Pro Max in May 2026, and now the tablet is finally available in Singapore one month later.

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is the flagship tablet with a 13.2-inch 144Hz PaperMatte OLED with peak brightness up to 1600 nits. Processor is the Kirin T93 Pro (9-core chipset), and this review unit has 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Price

Price at the time of review is SGD 1898, and that includes the Huawei M-Pencil Pro, Huawei Glide Keyboard, 1-year WPS AI membership and a 1-year warranty, 2-year free battery replacement service.

And that price is before any discount which you may find on Shopee SG or Lazada SG. So you could get SGD 100-200 off depending on the promotional period.

Just for comparison purposes, the Apple M5 iPad Pro is SGD 2299 (and was SGD 1999 before the June 2026 price hike), and that does not include the Apple Pencil Pro which is SGD 199, and there's no keyboard case. We're looking at a SGD 600 price different before applying any discount to the Huawei tablet.

The increase in RAM prices due to the AI bubble is likely to have made the Huawei tablet more expensive.

Specifications

Design & Build
- Dimensions: 289.3 x 196.3 x 4.7 mm
- Weight: 499 g (Standard) / 509 g (PaperMatte Edition)
- Build Material: Aluminum unibody back and frame, glass front
- Colors: Blue, Space Gray
Display
- Size & Type: 13.2-inch Flexible OLED (Available with anti-glare PaperMatte finish)
- Resolution: 3000 × 2000 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio, ~273 ppi)
- Refresh Rate: 144 Hz
- Brightness: 1600 nits peak brightness
- Contrast Ratio: 2,000,000:1
- Screen-to-Body Ratio: 94%
Hardware & Performance
- Processor: Kirin T93 Pro (9-core chipset)
- RAM: 12 GB / 16 GB / 20 GB
- Storage Options: 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
- Expansion: No microSD card slot
- Cooling System: Dual-layer VC cooling with 100% larger heat dissipation area
Software
- Operating System: HarmonyOS 4.3
- Productivity Features: PC-level WPS Office AI, Live Multitask (up to 3 simultaneous apps), HUAWEI Notes with AI handwriting recognition, GoPaint app
Cameras
- Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.8 aperture, Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF)
  - Video: Up to 4K @ 30fps
- Front Camera: 12 MP, f/2.4 aperture
  - Video: Up to 1080p @ 30fps
Battery & Charging
- Capacity: 10,400 mAh (Global model) / 9,760 mAh (EU/UK regional model)
- Wired Charging: 66W Huawei SuperCharge
- Reverse Charging: 40W reverse wired charging
Audio & Connectivity
- Speakers: 6-speaker stereo system with HUAWEI SOUND tuning
- Headphone Jack: No 3.5mm jack
- Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6/7, dual-band)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 6.0 (A2DP, LE, L2HC HD Audio)
- NearLink Support: Yes (for low-latency stylus & accessory connectivity)
- USB: USB Type-C 3.1, DisplayPort 1.2 support, OTG
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Proximity sensor
Accessory Compatibility
- HUAWEI M-Pencil: NearLink connectivity, 10,000+ levels of pressure sensitivity, magnetic charging
- HUAWEI Glide Keyboard: Full-size keyboard with integrated touchpad, stylus charging slot, and multi-angle adjustment

Things included

Tablet
Polishing cloth
USB-C charging cable
Huawei SuperCharge charger (100W)
Quickstart guide
Huawei M-Pencil Pro (Singapore bundle)
Huawei Glide Keyboard (Singapore bundle)

Keyboard

The Huawei Glide Keyboard is 439g and Huawei M-Pencil Pro is 47g. Total weight of the three items is 995g. This is lighter than most similar sized laptops out there.

The keyboard case is well made and looks sleek.

There's a NearLink logo on the keyboard but the keyboard does not seem to work wirelessly away from the tablet. This is a downgrade from previous keyboards that can work wirelessly.

The storage area on the keyboard case for the M-Pencil Pro also charges the pen.

This is a full-sized keyboard. Layout of the keys is pretty standard and easy to get used to. There are shortcut keys at the top row. Keys have good travel and feedback. Typing experience is good. It's a good quality keyboard.

Touchpad works well and support gestures.

Design

The tablet is real thin at just 4.7mm. Weight of 509 is considered lightweight for a tablet with a 13.2-inch display.

Bezels are 3.5mm thin. Impressive.

But on numerous occasions while drawing, my thumb holding the side would affect my drawing experience because of touch issues. Palm rejection works well in the sense that you can rest your writing/drawing hand on the display and there won't be any issues. But there would be issues if the tablet detects the thumb on the side and your other hand on the display, e.g. Are you trying to pan, zoom, rotate?

If you're just gonna be holding the tablet for reading, web browsing, watching shows, there won't be any issues with the thin bezels.

The front landscape 12MP camera is so small that Huawei can afford to not have a notch. There's face unlock and fingerprint unlock.

There's this sheen on the back which will change its look based on the angle.

There's no card slot for 5G and microSD card.

The 13.2-inch OLED display looks terrific.

Resolution is 3000 x 2000, 1.5 aspect ratio, 273 PPI and refresh rate is adaptive 144Hz. Screen to body ratio is 94%. Contrast ratio is 2 million to 1.

Huawei is not using tandem OLED here but it's still a bright display. Peak brightness is up to 1600 but there's no mention of standard brightness.

The PaperMate anti-glare surface is effective at reducing glare.

The matte surface also provides a wonderful reading experience. The large display is great for reading PDFs, magazine and comics.

The aspect ratio works well for reading taller pages compared to the iPad Pro.

The display is laminated so when writing, there's almost no gap between the pen tip and line beneath.

Performance

Overall performance is smooth and responsive. There's plenty of compute power and 12GB of RAM for multi-tasking. Of course the tablet can be used for gaming.

I don't have any benchmarks for you though but nowadays with mid and high-end Android tablets you can expect fantastic performance that will last for years. The battery will probably deteriorate first before the performance slows down.

OS and software

Seems like the Chinese version of the tablet is running HarmonyOS 6.1 and the global version runs HarmonyOS 4.3.

This is not the typical Android OS so there's no official support for Google Play Store. However, installing Google Play Store is easy. Just go look for GBox or GSpace and install them from Huawei AppGallery (Huawei app store), and you'll get Google Play Store.

With Google Play Store install, you can install Google apps and other apps. All Google apps work well for me, but some third party apps have issues.

The downside or limitation of installing Google Play Store this way is not all Google features may work. For example, with certain apps, you may not be able sign in using Google authentication, may not be able to restore past Google Store purchases, or some apps are not available.

Here are some issues I found with apps I use:

GBox

CSP can't be installed for some reasons
Installed apps from Gbox all shows 0B in Google Play Store
Apps already available from Huawei AppGallery cannot be installed from GBox, e.g. Lazada, Edge, Outlook
Lazada (Huawei) cannot sign in with Google
I could not sign in to Shopee, Notein, MyScript Nebo even though I've signed in to Google already
Notein can be signed in manually, but only Microsoft OneDrive sync works
I could not restore purchase of Medibang, Infinite Painter, Solid Explorer, Concepts

GSpace

I can sign in with Google
Amazon, Facebook, Google auto-login works
There's no Infinite Painter, CSP, Notein, Myscript (Nebo)
I could restore purchase with Concepts, Medibang
CPU-Z doesn't install

Huawei AppGallery

There are Edge, OneNote, NoteIn, Medibang, Lazada
Medibang is different version from GPS, so purchases cannot be restored even if you sign in
NoteIn is a separate account
Microsoft has several apps available but not all apps, no Copilot, OneDrive

Clip Studio Paint can be installed from APK file. But there's a warning saying that future versions of CSP are not going to be compatible with the tablet, which I'm not sure how accurate that will be.

HarmonyOS has many useful features, e.g. sidebar, multi-window mode, split-screen, lift to wake, etc. The tablet can output video from its USB-C port but there's no external display PC desktop mode.

One thing I don't like about HarmonyOS is there's too much adware. There are many pre-installed bookmarks for apps that can install. All those can be removed, thankfully. And when you have not opened Huawei AppGallery for a while, there's always a full-page ad that appears.

Many people put perhaps too much emphasis on ecosystem, like when you get devices you should always get the same company. Sure devices from the same company may work well together, but with Android you can often duplicate ecosystem features with apps you install.

If you use other Huawei devices, there are of course Huawei Super Device features such as screen, file sharing, pairing wireless speakers, earphones, laptops, more.

As someone who reviews so many products from so many companies, having some ecosystem is nice but it's not a huge deal. E.g. I can still wirelessly transfer files from Huawei tablet to my Macbook Pro with the LocalSend app. For external display mode, I use Duet Display, but there are many third party external display apps out there.

Backup process lacks some clarity. You can choose to backup to external storage or to a computer using HiSuite, but there's no mention what exactly will go to backup. Some apps save data within the app itself, and that data goes into the Android data folder which is usually does not get backed up.

So for backup, I highly recommend you use apps that save to the cloud, or apps that save files into the local folders where sync them yourself for backup manually. It's good practice too. If you want to switch to a tablet from a different company in the future, you can do so easily. E.g. Imagine saving your Clip Studio files to Google Drive, it doesn't matter what device you're using for drawing.

Huawei M-Pencil Pro

The M-Pencil Pro is a digital pen that supports tilt, 10K levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. The pen can attached to the tablet for charging and pairing. I don't know the battery life but there's no need to worry about since you'll always be charging the pen when you store it away.

The pen supports pinch/squeeze, double tap which can be used to call up shortcuts. The shortcuts are Huawei Notes shortcuts, or if you're using GoPaint app then you get shortcuts to drawing tools. Squeeze and double tap shortcuts cannot be customised by other drawing apps unfortunately.

The pen also has barrel rotation, but there aren't many apps that use this feature, certainly not third party apps.

There's also button at the end of the pen which by default will open Huawei Notes app, but can be customised to open other apps. The button has ring light that will appear when the pen is charging.

The default pen tip is the transparent glossy one which is really smooth on the matte glass surface.

Huawei has also included a white tip which is matte texture but is also quite smooth. And there's a soft black tip which has more texture than the white tip and is still considered smooth too, but less slippery.

The transparent and white ones are good for writing because you want to write fast when writing. By the way, the handwriting and note taking experience with the pen on this tablet is fantastic, 5/5.

For drawing, you definitely want the soft black tip.

In short, all three pen tips are smooth on the matte glass, just how smooth. It may be possible purchase replacement pen tips from AliExpress.

Drawing experience

I'm gonna skip the line tests this time. Just note that the pen has good support for pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. Tilt sensitivity is not perfect because sometimes holding the pen at normal angle can activate tilt.

This is big tablet for drawing so it will work well with drawing apps that have many UI elements such as Krita and Clip Studio Paint.

The app I've used for drawing is Huawei's GoPaint, which is a free and full-featured drawing app. This app has no ads which is surprising considering many Huawei apps have some form of ads.

Huawei GoPaint has many features and is definitely a very capable drawing app. The main downside is I'm not exactly sure how to backup the artworks. Because of that, I'm hesitate to use GoPaint as my main drawing app.

And this was drawn with Concepts app. I had to disable tilt sensitivity because tilt would sometimes activate unintentionally. The overall drawing process or workflow was uneventful except for the issue with tilt.

I was able to get the lines to appear the way I expect them to. No issues with diagonal line wobble. Line tapers well when needed.

The pen's shortcut for pinch and double tap are not supported by the drawing apps I've tested. But some of the note taking apps are able to use the pen shortcuts though.

Sometimes I would hold the pen too tight when drawing so I had to disable the pinch shortcut.

Conclusion

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max definitely has great hardware. Pen works well for writing and drawing. Drawing experience is affected by tilt sensitivity not working perfectly and the pen shortcuts are not supported by drawing apps.

Of course the other big issue is there's no official support for Google Play Store.

It's a good tablet overall. Just note the pros and cons.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful and well made
+ Excellent display quality
+ Big and lightweight for its size
+ Keyboard and pen included (in Singapore)
+ Pen supports pressure, tilt and palm rejection
+ Good pen performance for writing and drawing
+ Smooth responsive performance
+ Amazing sound
+ Long battery life
+ Has face and fingerprint unlock
- Keyboard cannot be used wirelessly away from tablet
- No support for 5G, microSD card
- No Google Play Store (but can be installed)
- Many ads and adware
- No PC mode but USB-C can output video
- Pen tilt sensitivity not perfect
- Pen shortcuts are not supported by drawing apps

Availability

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is available from Shopee Singapore and Lazada Singapore.

I recommend waiting for the X.X or end-of-month sale for additional discounts.

If you have the intention to buy the tablet, consider supporting my blog by making your purchase through the affiliate links above.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 11 Aug 2026 - 11:50

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