XP-Pen Artist 22 (2nd gen) PC drawing tablet review: Digital art made easy

Xp Pen Artist 22 Gen 2 Review Source: Windows Central

To preface, I'm by no means a professional artist, but I've washed plenty of dabbling over the years. In a past life, I had aspirations of beingness an animator, and occasionally even so exercise projects in Adobe Animate and drawing apps like Sketchable. Historically, I've used Surface devices equally my main drawing tool, even if cartoon on glass always felt a little off for someone used to paper. But similar anything, it takes practise to adjust to a new hobby, and digital art is no exception.

That being said, I was surprised how piece of cake it was to get to grips with my outset e'er dedicated drawing tablet, the XP-Pen Creative person 22 (2nd Gen).

Here'southward a hobbyist's perspective on how XP-Pen makes digital art easy with this truly awesome production.

Digital art made easy

Xp Pen Artist 22 Se

XP-Pen Artist 22 (2d Gen)

$499

Bottom line: The XP-Pen Artist 22 (2nd Gen) provides a bully drawing experience for start-timers and veterans, with a tactile experience, easy-to-use software, and smoothen pen action.

Pros:

Line reproduction is dandy
Expert pressure sensitivity
Elementary, intuitive software
Functions well as a second monitor
Stylus feels tactile and pleasant

Cons:

Piece of cake to misclick stylus function buttons
No touch response
Altitude between digitizer and display feels quite large at certain angles

XP-Pen Creative person 22 (2nd Gen) review: What I loved

The XP-Pen Artist 22 is, like its proper name suggests, a pretty big boy. The display is 21.5 inches diagonally, with a 1080p resolution with a ≥90% Adobe RGB colour accurateness rating. It requires its ain power supply and connects to a Windows PC using USB-C, and works with HDMI on older laptops or PCs.

XP-Pen Artist 22	Spec
Dimensions	538 x 332 x 25.8 mm
Active Area	476.064 10 267.786 mm
Resolution	1920 x 1080
Brightness	250 cd/m2
Color Gamut	86% NTSC, Adobe® RGB ≥ 90%, sRGB ≥ 122%
Contrast Ratio	800:1
Response Time	8ms
Pen Tilt	60°
Force per unit area Sensitivity	8192
Adjustable Stand	xvi–xc°
In the box	USB-C, HDMI, and power cables, pen holder with alternative nibs, drawing pen with two buttons, drawing tablet, silk fine art glove
Compatibility	Windows 10, 8, 7, Mac OSX x.10, Linux

The display is big and bright, ideal for whatever home studio, although it might exist too large if you're working in a confined space. XP Pen has smaller alternatives over on its website if y'all're shopping for something a little more svelte.

The tablet comes with a good range of accessories, including a silk wrist residuum glove, reducing the friction betwixt your hand and the brandish. The pen holder besides bakes in a range of alternative nibs, rather than selling them separately. Speaking of which, right out of the box, the pen feels well-counterbalanced and lite, and the matte display has a textured feel, making for a far more natural drawing experience than what I experienced on the drinking glass-based Surface devices. The pen has a rubberized edge, making it piece of cake to grip.

Xp Pen Review 2 Stuff Source: Windows Central

The XP Pen Artist 22 has very easy-to-use driver software, giving you easy access to adjusting force per unit area sensitivity depending on how heavy-handed you typically are. It too lets you bandy between their own inking driver and Windows Ink. Some users find that the XP Pen driver is improve than Windows Ink, but for me, the divergence seemed negligible for the sort of basic stuff I was drawing. Line rendering, shading, and tilt control with the XP Pen tablet all felt great, with Windows Ink on or off, with minimal jitter or corruption in the smoothness of my lines.

The latency betwixt the pen and brandish is good but possibly not amazing. I experience like Surface devices may have an edge there. I as well did get a bit of trailing later on lifting the pen away from the display, which has a peak registration of effectually 10mm, only that can exist adjusted or accounted for with a fleck of practise.

The inking experience more often than not superior to that of the Surface devices I've drawn with previously, with superior pressure sensitivity and feel owing to the display's texture. The software is simple and easy to understand, with customizations for pen usage and the 2 buttons situated on the pen for shortcuts and things like that.

The tablet itself also feels well-synthetic, with robust, loftier-quality materials and an impressive stand up, which offers shallow angles from sixteen degrees all the way upward to xc degrees. At 90 degrees, you could quite happily employ this tablet as a second monitor, also, adding to its versatility as a desk-bound companion. The matte display is likewise great at reducing glare from light sources you may have in your work area.

Your inking feel will also, of class, depend on the tools you lot're using. I use Sketchable thanks to its simplicity, but the app is clearly designed for impact-enabled displays. Using the Artist 22 tablet with apps similar Photoshop, Adobe Animate, and Prune Studio Paint was a breeze, with accurate cursor mode touches and clicks via the pen, and smooth brush strokes, and tactile sketching. The effulgence and RGB rating really brand your colors and designs popular.

It wasn't likewise long afterward getting started that I simply forgot I was reviewing a tablet and got myself fully immersed in trying to describe some Pokemon.

XP-Pen Artist 22 (2d Gen) review: What I didn't honey

Xp Pen Review 2 Stuff Source: Windows Central

As expert every bit this tablet is, at that place are a few things worth being aware of that I plant a petty irritating, although never deal-breaking.

The software drivers are good, giving you a wide range of control over what the buttons do and how the pen reacts to your action, just the buttons themselves on the pen are incredibly sensitive. More than than once, I found myself accidentally brushing against them, activating them without permission. In the end, I only decided to turn off the pen buttons altogether.

XP-Pen says its 2nd gen version of the Artist 22 has better corner recognition than its predecessor. Having not used the previous version, I cannot adjure to the improvements, but I will say that even on this version, I sometimes found it difficult to become apps to recognize my cursor fashion taps without multiple attempts. There'southward also no affect support on this display, which naturally has trade-offs. In that location's no chance your finger or your palm will interfere with your work, but it also ways there's no pinch to zoom in and stuff similar that.

Depending on the apps you use, this may not be an issue for you, but in Sketchable, which is clearly designed for touch on displays found on Surface devices, information technology did present a problem. Photoshop and others permit you to movement menu items, though, so this will potentially exist a minor gripe for any serious artist. On the plus side, brush strokes right upwardly to the edge of the display didn't have any issues rendering; it was but cursor motion that seemed to present some small problems.

Another couple of small gripes I had with the experience overall, at least when compared to Surface devices, is the altitude betwixt the digitizer and the brandish. While working flat, it's easy to determine where you're pen is, but at an angle, y'all can see quite a large corporeality of altitude betwixt the surface of the screen and the actual brandish, forcing you to reorient adequately frequently. This sensation tin be improved with right screen scale, however.

Xp Pen Artist 22 Gen 2 Review Source: Windows Key

The altitude on Surface devices feels much smaller by comparing, with the added do good of higher resolution. Although, those are also full computers, and far more than expensive. I'k not sure if other drawing tablets present similar drawbacks and whether it's simply symptomatic of the format and physics, just it was adequately noticeable in practise, even if scale did help outset the trouble a decent amount.

Other than that, at that place's almost nothing bad to say near this tablet. Information technology has groovy features; it's simple and intuitive to prepare and should fit well into any artist'southward period.

Should you buy the XP-Pen Artist 22 (second Gen)?

Xp Pen Review 2 Stuff Source: Jez Corden | Windows Central

The XP-Pen Artist 22 is an crawly drawing tablet for artists of all shapes and sizes, whether yous're a beginner or a hobbyist, or even someone diving deep into fine art as a profession. Some of the creations people accept made (far better than me) are truly heed-blowing with this tablet and speak to its value proffer. Some of XP-Pen's primary competitors offer similar features at much, much higher prices, making this ane of the amend value options on the market right now.

As a hobbyist, I can't envision a time when I would call up, "I need something amend than this" afterward using this tablet. It required me to adjust my workflow a fleck versus a Surface device or a tablet with inking like the Samsung Milky way Tab S6 that I sometimes apply. The trade-off is a much larger work area, a much nicer screen experience, with a more than tactile stroke activity, and even the adequacy to utilize it as a second monitor. This is a versatile production that is platonic for anyone looking to go started with this fun hobby.

Great value big-screen tablet

Xp Pen Artist 22 Se

XP-Pen Artist 22 (2nd Gen)

Versatility.

The XP-Pen Artist 22 (2nd Gen) is a great drawing tablet for hobbyists and professionals alike, with good pen stroke activeness, decent response time, and prissy color reproduction.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.