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Gallery Sketch Chapter by National Gallery Singapore

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Gallery Sketch Chapter by National Gallery Singapore

National Gallery Singapore has launched a quarterly sketching programme called Gallery Sketch Chapter. Dates are

27 June 2026
5 September 2026
21 November 2026
13 March 2027

Time: 4.00pm – 7.00pm

For more info, visit
https://www.nationalgallery.sg/sg/en/workshops/Gallery-Sketch-Chapter.h…

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 18 Jun 2026 - 18:00

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national gallery singapore

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Review: Indigraph ColorClip watercolour box

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Review: Indigraph ColorClip watercolour box

Review sample provided by Indigraph

The Indigraph ColorClip is a long horizontal 8 half-pan watercolour box that can clip onto sketchbook pages. This is a new product from Indigraph, the company that made a fountain pen that can hold India ink .

The watercolour box I've received is a pre-production sample so I can't confirm how the finishing of the final product will look like. This review sample looks like it's 3D printed.

This watercolour box will be launched through Kickstarter on 17 June 2026. Price is €24.

This is a compact and portable design that should fit well into soft zipped pencil cases. The box is made with plastic and build quality is good and does not feel filmsy.

Size is not much bigger than some of the smaller watercolour boxes that I have.

The main selling feature is it can clip onto sketchbook pages easily. Just have enough paper to clip and the box will be tight and won't move. The cover will open completely flat.

The watercolour box works well with A5-sized or larger sketchbooks, landscape or portrait. It works with a 6 by 6-inch sketchbook too.

When clipped, the box will cover part of the paper, and if you want to paint or draw under those areas you'll have to move the clip somewhere else.

The cover closes with magnet(s). The magnetic strength is strong but not that strong so it is possible for the cover to open inside the pencil case. You can use a rubber band to prevent that.

The cover is not airtight so wet paint may flow out.

Shown above is my size 8 brush on one mixing well.

I find the three mixing wells to be quite small.

Small mixing wells are not good for mixing large mixes for painting large areas.

The mixing well is also not that deep. Water or mixes can flow out if the box is tilted too much at an angle.

Being able to hold 8 half pans is good. The Micro Portable Painter watercolour box that I use only has six colours and sometimes that could be limited.

There's no water tray for washing brushes so you'll have to bring your own water tray. Or you can use a travel waterbrush instead.

Indigraph ColorClip holds standard sized half pans. There are separators to separate the pans. Having those separators mean you cannot put a full pan.

I've been using this watercolour box for a few weeks now and the design is quite functional. The only downside is the mixing wells are a bit too small for my preference and the wells aren't deep enough. While holding my sketchbook outdoors, I try not to have too much water in the mixing well or the water would flow out. When painting large areas, I would often have to create the same colour mix several times and it's difficult to get the mixes to look the same each time.

Having said that, this is still a watercolour box worth checking out.

If you're interested to get it, you can get it early through the Kickstarter campaign, or wait for it to be available after the campaign.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 17 Jun 2026 - 18:00

Tags

art product reviews

indigraph

watercolour box

Comments

When will this be available?…

Jeane (not verified) Fri, 19 Jun 2026 - 01:07

When will this be available? Going on art trip and I’d like to take it

@Jeane According to the…

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 19 Jun 2026 - 10:48

@Jeane
According to the Kickstarter page, delivery is in October 2026

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The Accidental Illustrator by Chris Piascik (Kickstarter)

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 08:09:47 +0000

The Accidental Illustrator by Chris Piascik (Kickstarter)

Graphic designer Chris Piascik is coming up with a book with more than 10 years of drawings. He has launched a Kickstarter campaign for it and will end on 10 July 2026. Check it out.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 16 Jun 2026 - 16:09

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chris piascik

crowdfunding

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Huion Prime Day 2026 Buyer's Guide

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Huion Prime Day 2026 Buyer's Guide

Huion will be having a huge sale on Amazon Prime Day from June 23 to June 26, 2026.

If you're looking for a pen display or pen tablet, you're in luck because many of Huion's latest products will be discounted.

List of discounted items

Huion has released several gen 3 pen displays over the past few months and those are latest models that you should consider.

I've reviewed many of Huion's products so if you have questions, ask away.

Model	Original Price	Discounted Price	Discount Amount	Start	End
Kamvas 13 (Gen 3)-SE-With Stand	269	209.99	22%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas 13 (Gen 3)-Pink-Without Stand	249	199	20%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas 13 (Gen 3)-Black-Without Stand	249	199	20%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Slate 11	329	259	21%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 24 (Gen 3)	1399	1189.15	15%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 27	1999	1519	24%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas 16 (Gen 3)-With Stand	499	417.05	16%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas 13 (Gen 3)-Black-With Stand	269	209	22%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas 13 (Gen 3)-Pink-With Stand	269	209	22%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 16 V2	399	288.15	28%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 19	1099	747	32%	Jun 23	Jun 26
X10	119.99	83.99	30%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas 22	449	298.99	33%	Jun 23	Jun 26
H640P-With OTG	37.99	26.59	30%	Jun 23	Jun 26
H1060P-With OTG	59.99	40.99	32%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 16-With Stand	399.99	270.73	32%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 27 (144Hz)	2199	1979	10%	Jun 23	Jun 26
Kamvas Pro 27 (144Hz)	2199	2089	5%	Jun 04	Jun 22
Kamvas 22 (Gen 3)	599	509.15	—	Jun 23	Jun 26

Personal recommendation

As I have reviewed many Huion products over the years, let me give you my recommendation based on the list above.

All the Kamvas gen 3 pen displays have good pen performance so which to get comes down to how much budget you have, and which suits your needs more.

HUION KAMVAS 13 GEN 3 PEN DISPLAY (review)

This is just going for USD 209 and that's a pretty good price. This is affordable and great for beginners. If you need to work on drawing for long periods of time each day, I would recommend getting a larger pen display.

The limitation is because the display is smaller, drawing apps with many UI elements will take up much space on the screen, leaving behind a smaller area for drawing.

Here are the key specifications

Panel size: 13.3-inch
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (16:9 aspect ratio), 166 PPI
Panel type: IPS LCD, 60Hz, laminated
Brightness: 200 nits typical
Colour support: 99%sRGB / 99%Rec.709 / 90%Adobe RGB
Screen finish: 2nd gen anti-glare etched glass
Pressure levels: 16384 levels

HUION KAMVAS 16 GEN 3 PEN DISPLAY (review)

16-inch is the goldilocks size that's easy to recommend to anyone. The display is almost A4 sized and provides wonderful drawing experience, and works great with most apps. The display is big but does not take up too much space on the tablet.

The price of USD 418 is reasonable and this is a decent deal for a pen display with matte glass and 1440P resolution.

Key specifications:

Display Size: 15.8 inches
Panel Type: IPS LCD, 2560 x 1440, 16: 9
Colour Support: 99% sRGB, 99% Rec.709, 90% Adobe RGB
Colour depth: 16.7 million colors (8-bit)
Brightness:220 nits (typical)
Surface Finish: 2nd Gen Anti-glare Etched Glass
Pressure Sensitivity: 16K levels
Hotkeys: Six with two dials

HUION KAMVAS 22 GEN 3 PEN DISPLAY (review)

If you want to go big, there options for 19, 22, 24 and 27.

In terms of value for money, I highly recommend the Huion Kamvas 22 Gen 3. It's big, resolution of 1440P is sufficient and visuals look sharp enough, and the refresh rate is 90Hz. Price of USD 510 is much lower compared to the Kamvas Pro 19 (review) of USD 747, very much lower than the 27-inch pen displays.

Key specifications:

Display: 21.5-inch IPS LCD, 90Hz
Resolution: 2560 × 1440 (QHD), 133 PPI
Brightness: 250 nits
Color Gamut Volume: 145% sRGB
Pressure Level: 16384 levels
Surface Finish: 2nd Gen Anti-glare Etched Glass
Lamination: Full Lamination

And of course if you really want something gigantic, go with the Kamvas Pro 24 (Gen 3) (review) or Kamvas Pro 27 (144Hz) and you'll get the most discount on from Jun 23 to Jun 26.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 15 Jun 2026 - 17:00

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May 2026 roundup

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

May 2026 roundup

Books

Art product reviews

Tech reviews

Youtube art videos

Youtube tech videos

How to support Parka Blogs

1. If you find my blog useful, support me on Patreon.

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

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

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

If you happen to be my patron on Patreon, all the courses are available there too.

4. Buy stuff through my affiliate links
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Thanks for your support!

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 11 Jun 2026 - 08:00

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monthly reviews roundup

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Review: DIGIDRAW Turing 14 Pen Display

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 28 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Review: DIGIDRAW Turing 14 Pen Display

Review unit provided by DIGIDRAW

The DIGIDRAW Turing 14 is a 13.3-inch pen display released in May 2026. Price at the time of review is USD 365 on Amazon, and at the time of writing there's a USD 91 discount to bring the price down to USD 274.

The Turing 14 is actually one of two pen displays from the company. The other is the larger Turing Pro 19 with a touchscreen. The company also sells pen tablets.

I've not heard of DIGIDRAW before until the company contacted me to ask if I'm interested to check out their new pen displays. Turns out the founder is actually part of the founding team of Huion, which is probably why these new products look rather polished as a first generation product.

Specifications

Model	D1401
Color	Dark Night Black
Dimension	329 × 234 × 11.8 mm
Active Area	286.5 × 179 mm
Net Weight	900 g
Resolution	2560 × 1600 (16:10)
Color Gamut Coverage	99.5% sRGB, 90% Adobe RGB, 93% Display P3
Display Color	16.7M (8‑bit)
Full Lamination	Yes
Viewing Angle	178°
Brightness (typical)	220 cd/m²
Stylus	M5 Pen
Pressure Levels	16384
Tilt	60°
Initial Activation Force	2 g
Accuracy	±0.3 mm (center), ±1 mm (corner)
Reading Height	10 mm (center)
Resolution (LPI)	5080 LPI
Report Rate	≥220 PPS
Adjustable Stand	Integrated Stand 19°
VESA Compatibility	No
Ports	3‑in‑1 interface USB‑C ×1, Full‑function USB‑C ×1
Power Input	AC 110–240 V
Power Output	5 V ⎓ 3 A
Compatibility	Windows 10+, macOS 10.12+, Android 6.0+, Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)

Things included

Pen display
Colour calibration report
M5 Pen
Pen holder with 8 replacement pen nibs, pen nib remover
USB-A 15W charger
Micro fiber cleaning cloth
3-to-1 cable with HDMI
Quick start guide

Design

Design of the pen display is clean and simple. There are no shortcut buttons by the sides.

The tablet is quite thin, and weighs 900g. This is a compact device that can be stored away easily, quickly, like a laptop.

The back is made with plastic, matte textured, and overall build quality is good and does not feel filmsy.

The back has two fold-out feet that can be deployed at 19 degrees. I would recommend a tablet stand with adjustable angles instead, such as the Parblo PR100 that I've been using for years, because the display has IPS or LCD glow that's visible unless you're looking directly from the front.

Two USB-C ports are located at the top left of the pen display. One's for the 3-to-1 cable and the other is for USB-C video. You can use either one, but there's no USB-C video cable included in the box.

The USB-C connector for the 3-to-1 cable has an extra extrusion to go into the hole beside the port and this makes the cable connection more secure, less likely to move when moving the pen display.

In case you don't know, a pen display is actually a monitor so it needs to be connected to a computer. The selling point here compared to portable tablets is you can use desktop software, apps from your computer.

If you use HDMI, you use the 3-to-1 cable and connect one USB-A to power, another USB-A to your computer so that the pen can be detected.

If you use USB-C video, you can use one cable that provides video, data and power. The pen display can be powered by the USB port of a laptop, but it's gonna draw the laptop battery much faster.

Power button's located at the top right and you can press and hold that to call up the OSD menu.

The OSD allows you to adjust display settings such as brightness, contrast, saturation, RGB, colour temperature and gamma.

Display

This pen display uses a 13.3-inch LCD with 2560 x 1600 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio and 60Hz refresh rate. This is not a touchscreen

The display surface area is slightly smaller than A4 sized paper, and quite comparable to the 13-inch iPad Pro but of course the aspect ratio is different.

The display is already colour calibrated at the factory and average Delta E for sRGB is 0.62. Average Delta E is the variance between the input digital colour and the measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic.

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 89% AdobeRGB, 86% NTSC, 97% P3 and a maximum brightness of 183 nits out of the advertised 220 nits.

I wish the brightness could be higher but 183 nits is still sufficient for indoor use.

The visuals look sharp enough and pixelation is not noticeable.

There is IPS or LCD glow when the display is viewed from certain angles, so that's where having a tablet stand with adjustable angles will be very useful.

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

Anti-glare works well. All matte surface will introduce some colour noise, anti-glare sparkle or gain to affect image quality, and all that is kept to a minimum here.

Driver

There are drivers for Windows and MacOS. Linux drivers are in development.

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

The virtual keyboard only has four shortcuts so it's not that useful. And if you have to use a pen button to call up the virtual keyboard, that's one pen button that cannot be assigned to something else.

Pen

The M5 Pen is well made. There's a big silicone grip that's comfortable to hold.

The pen has two customisable side buttons. Interestingly the two buttons are beneath the silicone grip so it's not possible for the buttons to break off. There's no eraser at the back.

The pen supports tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. The pen is not powered by battery so no charging is required.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. There's no diagonal line wobble.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. There's difficulty drawing a really thin line after a thick line.

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

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

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

Tilt sensitivity works well.

This pen is accurate and sensitive. Performance is consistent and predictable.

Drawing experience

Since the pen performance is fantastic, the drawing experience is wonderful.

The matte glass surface feels nice to draw on. The matte glass surface is quite smooth, smoother than matte screen protectors, but I'm still able to get good control over the pen. The pen display only gets warm in a small localised area near the top middle section.

Main thing that affect drawing experience is probably the display size. While the display surface area is slightly smaller than A4-sized paper, when there are palettes on the left and right, the drawing area is halved.

13-inch is the smallest size for pen display that I will recommend so this size is still very usable. I wish the company would come out with 16-inch pen displays in the future to give people more options.

The 2560 x 1600 resolution makes visuals look sharp enough so 4K resolution is not needed. I appreciate the 16:10 aspect ratio very much because given the fixed width of the display, you get more vertical space, more pixels, hence more desktop space. 16:10 aspect ratio is more useful when the display is small.

Pressure sensitivity works great. Thin and thick lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. The pen can create very expressive lines.

The pen is definitely good enough for creating professional art.

Conclusion

The Turing 14 pen display looks good and works well. The pen is accurate and sensitive. Performance is consistent and predictable. Main downside or limitation is just the measured 183 nits maximum brightness but it's still sufficient for use indoors. Pricing seems competitive to other brands.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Build quality is good
+ Display looks vibrant and sharp
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Supports HTMI and USB-C video
+ Can be powered by one single USB-C video cable
+ Body has fold-out feet
+ Matte glass surface
+ Accurate and sensitive pen
+ Wonderful drawing experience
- IPS/LCD glow noticeable
- 183 nits brightness
- No shortcut buttons on display
- USB-C video cable not included
- Virtual keyboard not that useful with only 4 shortcuts

Availability

The DIGIDRAW Turing 14 can be purchased from Amazon US.

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 28 May 2026 - 20:00

Tags

pen display

tech reviews

digidraw

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Review: Pentel Multi 8 Lead Holder / Clutch Pencil

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 26 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Review: Pentel Multi 8 Lead Holder / Clutch Pencil

The Pentel Multi 8 is a mechanical clutch pencil that can hold 8 coloured leads. So essentially you're getting 8 coloured pencil in a clutch pencil that's not much thicker than some disposable pens.

The smart design allows you to switch different colours easily. Turn the pen clip to show the colour you want, press the back button and the lead slides out.

There's actually a tray that will move when you turn the pen clip, and the lead will slide onto the tray and out.

To change colour, press the back button, hold the pen so that the lead slides back, turn the pen clip to your preferred colour, push the back button and the other pencil lead slides down. You will need two hands to switch pencil leads.

Price of the pencil is around USD 19, and it's possible to buy it together with replacement colour leads for a total of USD 29.

The pencil lead is 5.8cm long and 2mm thick.

The pencil lead is held by metal clutches.

The colours do look vibrant and easy to apply. There's no information regarding pigment for the pencil leads so I'm not sure how lightfast the colours will be.

I don't use coloured pencils with watercolour often so I'm not sure what's the best way to use them together. But I suppose you can get some dramatic contrast when you use them light against dark, e.g. to create negative shapes.

This is a wonderful and smart product. You have to hand it to the Japanese to design stationery like this. This is the equivalent of having 8 colour pencils but in one body.

Where to buy

You can find the Pentel Multi 8 on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP)

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 26 May 2026 - 20:00

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pentel

art product reviews

coloured pencils reviews

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Review: Huion Note E (X50) note taking Android tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 24 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: Huion Note E (X50) note taking Android tablet

Review unit provided by Huion

The Huion Note E (X50) is an Android tablet with an 8.4-inch matte glass LCD display that's designed for note taking, and it uses Huion own pen with PenTech 3. This tablet was launched on 20 May 2026 and is priced at USD 369.

This new tablet has better pen performance compared to the Huion Slate 10, Slate 11 and 13. This is great news because it means there may be a possibility for Huion to release Android tablets in the future with better pen performance for drawing.

The Huion Note E can certainly be used for drawing but it's limited by the display size. Huion definitely needs this tablet to be bigger to compete with the XPPen Magic Drawing Pad (2025) and the Wacom MovinkPad 11.

Specifications

Model	X50
Price	USD 369, £329, CAD 499, AUD 549, ￥54,980, 369 €
Dimensions	203 x 143 x 7.4 mm
Weight	348g
Display	8.4-inch LCD, 60Hz
Display surface	Matte glass, laminated
Resolution	1920 x 1200, 16:10, 270 PPO
Response time (typical)	30 ms
Viewing angle	170 degrees
Contrast ratio	1000:1
Brightness (typical)	300 nits
Colour gamut	99% sRGB
Colour depth	16.7m (8 bit)
Pen	PW510 with eraser
Pen technology	PenTech 3 with tilt, 8K pressure, palm rejection
Pen tip	Felt
Pen weight	12.5g
Pen accuracy	±0.3mm (Center), ±2mm (Corner)
Pen resolution	5080 LPI
Report rate	220 PPS
Port	USB-C
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.2, Wifi
Charging time	2hr
Battery life	6.5hr
OS	Android 15 with Huion custom UI
Biometric security	Fingerprint scanner
Mic	2
Speaker	1
Rear camera	8MP
Processor	MTK Helio G99
RAM and storage	6GB, 128GB
MicroSD card slot	No
Bundled apps	HiPaint, Huion Store

Things included

Tablet
Flip case
Huion PW510 pen
Pen nib remover
Extra pen nibs
USB-C to USB-C charging cable
User manual
Card on how to install Google Play Store

This card has instructions on how you can enable Google Play Store which is pre-installed but not enabled by default. The process is quite straightforward.

The flip case is made with PU leather on the exterior and felt-like material inside.

There are two holes on the side of the tablet to slot into the two hooks of the flip case. The flip case is not magnetic so removing the tablet from it is not as convenient. I can still grip the tablet well enough with one hand, but can't do so as easily with the flip case.

There's actually a pen holder flap but it can't be completely flat with the pen in it, or perhaps it will need some time to become flat. Anyway, the magnet of the pen is quite strong so you may not want to use that pen holder flap.

Design

This is a compact little tablet that's easy to bring around, and can be held in one hand. Weight is just 348g not including the flip case.

Bezel is noticeably thicker on the left and provides more space for you hand to hold. There's no front camera. The tablet has an auto-brightness sensor but I can't see where it is.

The iPad mini is still slightly smaller, and thinner too at 6.3mm vs 7.3mm.

Note the reflections on the anti-reflective display of the iPad mini vs the anti-glare of the matte glass on the Huion Note E. As someone who hates reflections, I appreciate the matte glass surface a lot.

USB-C charging port on the bottom is located at the corner, near the thicker bezel on the left. Transfer speed is USB 2.

The power button with built-in fingerprint scanner is located at the top right. In the photo above, you can see a bit of camera bump.

The left side has two holes for the hooks of the flip case. This side is curved while the three other sides are flat with parallel line designs.

There's one speaker located near the lower hole and audio quality sounds flat, which is not surprising.

This tablet has no volume buttons, no microSD card slot.

Camera on the back is just 8MP and there's no flash.

Display

The 8.4-inch LCD has 1920 x 1200 resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. Visuals look sharp enough from normal working distance away.

Colour support is 99% sRGB and colour depth is 16.7 million. Contrast ratio is 1000:1. Visual quality of the display looks alright. There is IPS or LCD glow when display is viewing from an angle but it's not a big issue.

Reading experience for text is good thanks to the matte glass surface.

Display is not ideal for reading comics or PDFs as text can be too small.

For web browsing, most webpages will be presented in tablet/phone mode.

Display is laminated so when writing or drawing, there's no gap between the line and the pen tip. The matte glass surface is smooth and is good for writing. There's less texture compared to matte screen protectors.

Note taking experience is good. 8.4-inch is still big enough for taking notes, but if you like to see more lines or words are a glance, perhaps you should look for an 11-inch tablet.

Response time is listed as 30ms which is in the pen display territory. There is slight latency when writing but it's not a big issue and does not affect pen performance. The tablet, app and pen are able to capture my handwriting style quite well.

OS and software

The tablet runs on Android 15 and Huion has their own UI on top.

Here are the tabs on the left bar:

Home: Home screen
Notes: Goes to Notes home screen
To Dos: Goes to To-Dos home screen
Favourites: Your favourite apps can be added here
Apps: All apps can be found here
Files: File manager
Feedback: You can send suggestions and images to Huion
Settings: Let's your change the handwriting recognition language

For the actual Android settings, you have to swipe from top right to reveal the Settings button.

One downside to Huion's UI is there's no way to change it to the typical Android home screen with the apps and dock. You may be able to change the home screen with a launcher but I did not test that.

There's no app management. You either find your apps from the Favourites tab, or from the Apps tab. Apps cannot be grouped together.

Google Play Store is not enabled by default so you'll have to read the instruction card on how to enable that. Setting up Google Play Store should take no more than 2 minutes.

The default note taking app is Huion Note which has very limited features, but works fine for writing. Notes can be saved to Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive.

My favourite Android note taking app Notein is not available from Google Play Store. I tried installing the APK version of the app but cannot sign in to restore my past purchase. Flexcil is also not available.

So for note taking, I'm using MyScript Notes which works well, even the pen eraser works. There's also Microsoft OneNote, Goodnotes, Concepts.

Swiping up from apps may sometimes require two swipes, first to show the button handle bar, and swipe to home or app switcher.

Performance

The tablet uses the MediaTek Helio G99 processor which isn't that powerful but for a tablet designed for simple tasks and note taking, overall performance is smooth.

6GB of RAM is not much but sufficient.

Tablet only has 99GB of usable storage out of the advertised 128GB, and there's no microSD card slot. 99GB should be plenty even after installing apps as creating notes do not take up much storage. You can even use note taking apps that save to the cloud and those notes won't even use local storage.

Line tests

Line tests were created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. There's no issue with slow diagonal lines. Thin lines can be drawn easily with minimal pressure.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick is smooth. It's not as easy to draw thin lines after thick lines so this may suggest the pen has difficult detecting minor changes with pressure after drawing thick lines.

4. Consistent line width can be maintained with consistent pressure.

5. No issues with dots.

6. No issues with cursor misalignment.

There is tilt support but the front of the pen is bulbous and the pen tip will looks contact with the display when pen is tilted too low.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is good because pen performance is consistent and predictable. Pressure and palm rejection works well.

There is slight latency but it's not really an issue for drawing. The drawing app use will also affect how much latency there is.

This tablet could work well as a mini digital sketchpad. The other mini tablets that I've reviewed that also have pen support are all more expensive, such as the Xiaomi Pad Mini, Huawei MatePad Mini and iPad mini 7 (2024). Samsung does not have a mini tablet so they are missing out.

Drawing on this tablet is enjoyable.

Battery life

Battery capacity is 4500 mAh.

Huion advertised 6.5 hours of battery life. I managed to get around 7- 8 hours with auto brightness so that's not bad.

Conclusion

The tablet may not have the best specifications given the price point obviously, but it's a well made tablet. Overall performance is smooth, lag-free.

The pen works well for note taking and for drawing, limited only by display size. Pressure and palm rejection work well. Tilt doesn't work as well due to the pen design.

The 8.4-inch display is still big enough for note taking although if you're someone who prefers to see a lot at a glance, then the small display may feel limited. Reading experience is good too thanks to the matte glass surface, but the small display is not ideal for reading comics.

Main downside or limitation would probably the fixed UI for the home screen which isn't customisable.

For a first generation portable device with Huion pen tech, it's actually quite good. There are certainly many areas to improve but at least it the pen performs well. It will be very exciting if Huion can make bigger tablets that are more geared towards drawing in the future with similar pen tech.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Compact portable
+ Matte glass surface nice to write on
+ Good anti-glare performance
+ Good pen performance with pressure, tilt, palm rejection
+ Good note taking performance
+ Good drawing performance
+ Pen attaches to tablet with strong magnet
+ Pen does not require battery
+ There's Google Play Store, but needs to be enabled
+ Smooth overall performance
+ Auto brightness works well enough
+ There's fingerprint unlock
+ 7 hour battery life
- Home screen UI not customisable
- No microSD card slot
- Flip case is not magnetic
- Hardware specs not that good but does not affect performance
- Unsure whether Android OS can be updated in the future
- Slightly latency with writing but does not affect accuracy
- Bulbous front of the pen prevents tilt from working well
- Audio sounds hollow
- Huion Note app has limited features

Availability

The Huion Note E is available from Huion online store and Amazon US.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 24 May 2026 - 22:00

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Review: Huion Ink EB1011 e-ink Android tablet with pen support

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: Huion Ink EB1011 e-ink Android tablet with pen support

Review unit provided by Huion

Even Huion is selling e-ink tablets now. The Huion Ink EB101 is a 10.3-inch e-ink Android tablet that comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage with a microSD card slot. This was released either in late 2025 or early 2026.

Price at the time of review is USD 329 and includes free shipping to some countries, and there's a 1-year warranty.

Specifications

Specification	Value
Color	Grey
Pen Technology	Battery-Free EMR
Press Keys	1 Power Button
Dimension	243 x 176 x 6.5 mm
Working Area (PC Mode)	157.25 x 209.66 mm
Net Weight	450 g
Pressure Levels	8192 Levels
Pen Resolution	5080 LPI
Accuracy	±0.3mm center; ±0.5mm corner
Reading Height	10 mm
Tilt Recognition	±45°
Automatic Sleep	Adjustable
Wireless Connection	802.11 ac/b/g/n/a; Bluetooth 5.0
Battery Capacity	4650 mAh
Charging Time	3 hours
Battery Life	12 days
Interface	USB-C
OS Support	Built-in Android OS
Digital Pen	Huion Ink Pencil IP151

Things included

Tablet
Flip cover
Huion Ink Pencil IP151
3x replacement pen nibs
Pen nib clip
SIM ejector
User guide
USB-A to USB-C charging cable

Design

Design of the Huion Ink looks good although I wish the bottom bezel could be on the left side instead for a bigger grip. The tablet weighs 450g which is alright for a 10.3-inch tablet.

The tablet is well made and build quality is decent.

Thickness is 6.5mm. On this side there's the microSD card slot.

This is the top with the power button. This tablet does not have biometric unlock, so no fingerprint scanner and no face unlock since there are no cameras.

This tablet does not have buttons for page flips and volume. There is a speaker and audio sounds flat and hollow, which is not surprising.

That's the USB-C charging port with USB-2 transfer speed. A full charge for the 4650 mAh battery will take 3 hours. Battery life is 8-10 hours depending whether the front light is used.

The back has a clean design with just the Huion logo. There's no camera, so no camera bump, and this tablet can be laid completely flat on the table.

The included flip cover case is made with PU leather.

The tablet provides full protection on all sides. The case does make the tablet heavier and thicker.

It's not a magnetic case so removing the tablet is not convenient.

This angle is stable enough for writing.

This angle is better for reading, but not stable for writing.

Display

The 10.3-inch BW display has a resolution of 1404 x 1872 (227 PPI). The e-ink canvas is quite similar to newpaper gray and contrast is good even without front light.

This is probably the minimum size I would go with for reading comics although the text is still on the small side. For A4 PDFs, text would be small too. If you read comics and PDFs often, I recommend a tablet that's 12-inches or larger.

By the way, the colour-to-BW conversion is quite good.

Text quality looks good. Default mode has fuller text and sharper edges. I prefer the faster refresh mode that makes the tablet feel slightly more responsive overall, but text has rougher edges, but still look good to me.

Ghosting or image retention for reading text is not an issue. Pages can flip fast enough. Oh, there are no physical page flip buttons on the tablet.

Web browsing has more ghosting or image retention, but that will also depend on which refresh mode was used. One downside with web browsing is the download speed of this tablet is not fast.

This is how cool light looks.

This is how warm light looks.

The lighting looks even and there is no waving pattern at the edges, no light bleeding from between the frame and bezels.

Performance

I installed CPU-Z and found the processor used is the Rockchip RK3066, a dual-core chip released in 2012. Needless to say, this is an old and budget friendly processor that really feels out of date in 2026.

Most e-ink tablets are using either 4-core or 8-core processors nowadays.

The processor in this tablet isn't power and that explains why performance can feel sluggish, download speed is slow, and apps take some time to launch.

If Huion has plans for a new model, they need to use a better processor.

Having only 4GB RAM isn't a big issue since you probably won't be running that many apps in the backup.

OS and software

The tablet runs on Android 11 which is quite old since most tablets nowadays run Android 16. Anyway, it's not a big issue for e-ink tablets to run older versions of Android since these tablets won't be running highly sophisticated apps. This tablet is made for reading and will be used mostly with e-book apps and those run fine on Android 11.

Huion has their own UI on top of Android and the features are very limited. I wish there was the Android navigation bar because swiping up with this tablet sometimes does not register. One feature I like is Wifi and Bluetooth are disconnected when the tablet goes to sleep.

Home screen customisation is limited. You can only choose the grid to show more apps, but you can't move apps around or move apps into groups/folders.

Google Play Store is pre-installed but not enabled. Setting up Google Play Store involves copying a code that the tablet provides for you to paste onto Google's website to register this device.

Writing experience

The included pen is the Huion Ink Pencil IP151. I'm not sure what technology this pen is using but it's not USI, thankfully. The pen supports pressure and palm rejection.

The pen has no side button but there's an eraser at the back. The pen is not power by battery, so no charging or pairing is required.

Writing experience is good. The pen and tablet are able to capture my handwriting style well. There is slight latency even with with the default note taking app which is Huion Note.

Huion Note is a very simple note taking app without much features. There's no cloud backup option and backup involves saving a copy onto local storage which you have to transfer out (maybe to cloud manually) for an actual backup.

There's Global Handwriting feature with Microsoft OneNote. This feature lets you write with minimal latency, but there's still latency, but the compromise is you can't see the actual style of the line after a second of inactivity. For example, if you write with a thick line, you will see a thin line appear fast first, then after a second of inactivity the thick line will appear.

Global Handwriting is a feature to let you use third party note taking apps with better latency, but this feature does not work with all note taking apps.

I've tried using Concepts app for note taking and the latency performance is very bad.

Conclusion

The tablet is well made. Reading experience is good. Writing experience is alright despite having slight latency but it's not a big deal.

Overall performance of the tablet is on the slower side when compared to other e-ink tablets that I've tested. The processor isn't that powerful and I feel there's more sluggishness compared to e-ink tablets from other companies, but for reading purposes it's not a big issue.

The default note taking app has very limited features, and third party note taking apps have very noticeable latency.

Battery life of 8-10 hours is decent for an Android that's more than an e-reader.

I see this as a tablet that's gonna be used solely for reading, maybe some writing.

The e-ink tablet market is incredibly competitive and it's definitely very brave of Huion to enter this market. There are certainly many areas to improve with their first tablet, and I hope they will have more portable tablets in the future.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Decent build quality
+ Has microSD card slot
+ Good e-ink quality provides good reading experience
+ 10.3-inch big enough for comics
+ Flip case is included
+ Even front cool and warm front lighting
+ 8-10 hours battery life
+ Pen is included
+ Writing experience is alright
+ There's Google Play Store
- There are no buttons for page flips and volume
- Speaker sounds hollow
- Case is not magnetic so tablet cannot be remove easily
- No biometric unlock
- 4GB RAM, 64GB storage
- Sluggish performance
- Slow download speed
- Huion UI has very limited features
- Huion Note app has very limited features
- Third party note taking or drawing apps do not work well

Availability

The Huion Ink EB1011 is available through Huion online store and AliExpress.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 20 May 2026 - 22:00

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Book Review: Mateusz Urbanowicz Uncollected Works 2010-2021

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 16 May 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Mateusz Urbanowicz Uncollected Works 2010-2021

Sketchbook gem

Mateusz Urbanowicz is an artist from Poland who's currently based in Japan. He's known for his beautiful watercolour sketches and detailed background art created for animation studios. And he has published several artbooks over the years.

Mateusz Urbanowicz Uncollected Works 2010-2021 is a 176-page paperback artbook that's about A5-size. The binding is exposed and the pages can be opened completely flat. The publisher is MdN Corporation

This sketchbook collects the beautiful sketchbooks that were not featured in his other books. Most of the scenes are from Japan, of the cityscape, suburbs. Most are watercolour sketches, but some were created with coloured pencils and graphite pencils.

Even though most are sketches, they are all quite detailed, and must have taken a long time to draw and paint. The style is loose, colour scheme is mostly pastel with soft colours. The look and feel is idyllic and charming. The book feels very much like a travelogue.

This is a wonderful book that I can recommend easily. A Kindle version of this book is available but only for those with an Amazon Japan account.

You can see more art from Mateusz Urbanowicz at
https://mateuszurbanowicz.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8BjDleMFNvnikjAI6GdBPg
https://www.instagram.com/mateusz_urbanowicz

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, 16 May 2026 - 10:00

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mateusz urbanowicz

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