XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen) review: Budget-friendly creativity on the go
Source: Windows Central
For an artist looking to get started with digital art, in that location tin be a bit of sticker shock once yous start shopping for a pen display. There has been a bit of a push button in the market from makers like XP-Pen to produce quality, budget-friendly drawing accessories as we come across with their Artist 12 and sixteen series of pen displays.
The road for these devices has not been a shine 1, however, as they typically need to cutting corners with oftentimes-requested features in a bid to keep the price low. We see this even in XP-Pen'south release of the 2d-generation Artist 12 pen brandish. XP-Pen manages to make some impressive leaps with their newer engineering science in both the pen stylus and the display itself, only there are some features missing for these little powerhouse pen displays to remain budget friendly.
XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen)
Bottom line: The XP-Pen Creative person 12 (2nd Gen) is a powerful and portable pen display for artists on a budget. The fully laminated screen finally brings the XP-Pen displays up to par with comparable devices from other brands, while the newly designed stylus feels comfortable and responsive.
The Proficient
- Fully laminated screen
- Portable
- USB-C connectivity
- Bachelor in dissimilar colors
The Bad
- Small work area
- Pen jitter
- Lacking accessories
XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen): Toll and availability
Source: Windows Fundamental
XP-Pen's Artist 12 (2d Gen) pen brandish is reasonably priced at $250, putting it in line with comparable pen displays from competitors. The Artist 12 can exist purchased direct from XP-Pen'southward storefront on their website, or via Amazon. Oddly plenty, the 2nd-generation Creative person 12 cannot be purchased at other online retailers similar Newegg or Best Purchase, fifty-fifty though the start generation of the pen display is more widely available.
XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen): What's skilful
Source: Windows Central
An XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro has been living on my desk for several months at present, serving every bit both a secondary monitor and my primary cartoon device. It'south only fair to say, so, that the Creative person 12 (second Gen) had some pretty big shoes to fill if it was going to observe its way into my workflow. Coming in at nigh half the size with its 12-inch frame, the Artist 12 only offers 11.6 inches of workable drawing surface. Big things do come in small packages, though, and the Artist 12 more than makes up for its smaller size by existence feature rich.
The XP-Pen Creative person 12 may be a budget pen brandish, but upon first pickup it is immediately obvious that the construction materials were not inexpensive. There'south a chip of weight to the brandish, and it doesn't flex or wobble in your hands. You tin easily lay the display on your lap, confronting the edge of your desk, or propped up on some other surface. Information technology'south safety to move the tablet most freely while using it without fright of bowing and some sort of damage. Information technology is an overall solidly built display that yous tin experience comfortable about slipping into your laptop purse and taking with yous. The Creative person 12 (2nd Gen) takes advantage of USB-C connectivity for power, increasing the display's portability as it does not need an additional power source to use.
Source: Windows Primal
Not just does the build quality of the Creative person 12 experience skillful, but it looks good, too. XP-Pen had previously introduced colorful casings to their Deco line of graphic tablets, and at present that color lineup has been extended to the Artist 12 displays. The Artist 12 is available in classic black, or a blend of muted and pastel blue, pink, or light-green colors. All four color options are the same price, which means you free to express your color preference without having to cough up extra for the dreaded pinkish tax.
The Artist 12 more than makes upwards for its smaller size by beingness feature rich.
For the screen, the XP-Pen Artist 12 is fully laminated, giving it a dainty matte end that reduces glare from any surrounding lite sources. The laminated screen has a slight scrap of texture to information technology, similar to hot press watercolor paper. It's not enough to change how you may move your pen about the screen, but the lilliputian bit of resistance provided for the stylus does more closely mimic the feeling of actual pen and paper. Full lamination lends the tablet a more natural feel when in use, as well as helping to close the parallax gap between where the tip of the pen touches and where the cursor is displayed below information technology. The IPS 1080p display offers 127% sRGB color accuracy, ensuring your images are articulate and that your images will retain their color vibrancy should you choose to print.
Source: Windows Central
On the left paw side of the tablet are eight customizable express keys. While nearly tablets include stickers to characterization the limited keys, XP-Pen has decided to vary the texture of the keys between being smooth and braille-like bumps and so that the user can determine which key their hand is on without having to divert their eyes from the screen equally they work. For those who are left-manus ascendant, the Artist 12 tin can exist rotated 180 degrees and the location of the limited keys changed within the software. Adaptability and accessibility is e'er squeamish.
The newly redesigned stylus for the Artist 12 may easily be one of the virtually comfortable pens I've used to date. It sheds the chunky barrel weight of previous Artist styli, opting instead for a slimmer, more than natural-feeling pen. The pen is also a solid 1-piece pattern with a unproblematic rocker-way button that can be customized via XP-Pen's software.
Source: Windows Central
XP-Pen's software has long been the bane of the make, but with each new cycle of tablets the commuter UI has seen dramatic improvements. The Creative person serial driver UI has been reworked to increase user friendliness, with settings existence broken into categories for the work area, pen settings, and shortcut keys. This allows the user to calibrate the screen to match their specific workspace scenario and estimator setup. Express keys tin can be customized on a per application basis or but for the device overall, and there is a wide range of options roofing both mouse and keyboard inputs that can be routed to them.
XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen): What'due south not good
Source: Windows Central
XP-Pen has had a long, rocky history with their tablets, and while I'm content to heap praise on how far their devices have come since their initial lineup, it would be disingenuous of me to plough a blind eye to the problems that still remain even with their newer products. The XP-Pen Creative person 12 is functionally a wonderful pen display, but one of its biggest pressing issues is its size. XP-Pen sells the Artist 12 alongside an Artist xiii, Artist 15.6, Artist Pro 16, and Artist Pro 16TP. While a 12-inch pen brandish is certainly going to earn skillful marks for portability, it is hard to sell when the 15- and 16-inch displays also exist. Sixteen inches is oft considered the "sweet spot" for a lot of digital artists when information technology comes to pen displays, and you lot could opt for a similarly featured Artist 15.6 pen display for just $fifty more.
The Artist 12's upkeep-conscious design also negatively impacts the included accessories. Typically, pen displays (and even graphic tablets without displays) will include a variety of pack-ins such equally an anti-fouling glove, pen case and nibs, and all necessary cables. While a bill pull ring and replacement pen nibs are included in the box, the ring itself is loose and the nibs are packaged together in a minor plastic bag. There is also no included travel bag, which is something widely included in the contest's pack-ins and therefore an unusual item to forgo, specially when the product itself is otherwise perfectly designed for portability.
Source: Windows Central
Also noticeably lacking from the Creative person 12's packaging is the USB-C to USB-C cable. The included cabling is a USB-C split into a 3-point connection, two USB-As and an HDMI port, which is certainly a useful cable to have for those without USB-c connectivity. Unfortunately, XP-Pen has opted instead to sell the USB-C cables separately, and at a markup almost double of what y'all can detect ane for at a local large box store. At that place is also no display stand included with the Creative person 12, as XP-Pen sells those independently for an additional $20-forty fee.
Despite it beingness my favorite XP-Pen styli design to date, the included pen for the Artist 12 could do good from a defended eraser button on the tip. This is an ongoing complaint of mine with XP-Pen and other budget drawing displays. An eraser button on the stylus is something that is viable for budget tablets because we've seen XP-Pen's sister brand, Xencelabs, include information technology with its stylus. In use, the Artist 12 stylus delivers on the majority of its promises, offering tilt functionality and 8192 pressure levels.
Source: Windows Key
XP-Pen does market place the stylus as having new technology in the form of the X3 chip, which is supposed to double the pen's lifetime and increase its sensitivity. Users who exercise non put a lot of pressure on the pen while cartoon will need to utilize the settings to suit the pressure curve of their ain stylus. While testing this brandish, I did have issues with the driver UI non saving my preferred pressure level curve betwixt PC start-ups, requiring me to reload and suit my curve before apply every time.
There was also a considerable corporeality of pen jitter — inconsistent wobbles in the line — when making tedious, long strokes with the pen. To an extent, software can nullify these pen jitters with stroke smoothing, simply the full general method for dealing with this is to make big, fast strokes while illustrating. Because of the overall size limitations of the Artist 12 workspace however, it can be hard to do so.
XP-Pen Artist 12 (second Gen): Competition
Source: Windows Central
While Wacom continues to sit down atop the mountain of pen displays as the undisputed front-runner, at that place has been massive strides made by companies similar XP-Pen and Huion looking to introduce some much-needed competition to the infinite. Wacom tablets are incredibly toll prohibitive to new artists and hobbyists but looking to get started with digital imaging, and in the more than portable pen brandish space someone would be limited to the Wacom One tablet.
The Creative person 12 (2nd Gen) marks a large pace up for XP-Pen.
A Wacom I does come up with the benefit of having purchased a display from an established brand with a long history of creating pen displays. In that location is certainly a positive to knowing that the drivers are going to already have had all the kinks worked out. The One also has a slight size bump over the XP-Pen Artist 12, coming in at 13.3 inches for the display. Yet, information technology does lack the limited cardinal functionality that is included on the Artist 12. There is an boosted express key remote available for the One, only it comes with a lofty $100 cost tag on top of the $300 the pen display itself costs.
More similar to XP-Pen with regard to upkeep consciousness, Huion offers a 12-inch pen brandish that boasts nearly notwithstanding features equally the Artist 12 2nd Gen. Huion'south 12-inch KAMVAS tablet includes a fully laminated screen, bombardment-free pen, and tops out at the $250 mark. Yet, the Huion KAMVAS 12 does offering one advantage over the XP-Pen Artist 12, as it includes an integrated stand congenital into the display so that it tin be adapted and tilted more easily while cartoon.
XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen): Should you purchase it?
Source: Windows Cardinal
You should buy this if ...
- You want a portable pen display choice
- Y'all are a beginner or hobby artist simply starting with digital
- You are on a tight budget
You shouldn't buy this if ...
- Yous already have a larger pen brandish unit
- Y'all have the option to go with a 16-inch display instead
While I found the Artist 12 (2nd Gen) to exist a fully functional tool for creating digital art, its express workspace was hard to suit down to after having spent so much time with a much larger pen display. Still, for a beginner artist or a hobbyist who is but looking to dabble with digital art, the XP-Pen Artist 12 could be a perfect addition to their workflow. The pen display excels at providing on-the-go creativity that can connect to a myriad of devices from laptops to tablets and cellphones, every bit well equally working well with a variety of digital art apps.
The Creative person 12 (2nd Gen) marks a big pace for XP-Pen to catch up to what some of their competitors accept been doing in the upkeep pen display marketplace. Huion's KAMVAS line, for example, has had a couple of generations of pen displays featuring fully laminated screens, whereas XP-Pen has only just started to implement this feature properly amid their Creative person series pen displays.
Even though they're playing a flake of take hold of-up in the technology race, it still gives me promise to run into that they are continuing to progress. The jump to total lamination along with the potential for 4k monitor releases in the future (equally seen in the Artist Pro 16TP) leads me to hope in that location's more innovation to look forward to in the time to come. If nothing else, peradventure nosotros'll continue to run into more colorful hardware.
XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen)
Bottom line: The Artist 12 (2nd Gen) is a reasonably priced and well-designed pen display that is a dandy starter tablet for beginners and hobbyists. While information technology may non supervene upon a larger pen brandish in an everyday work setup, it is a neat second tablet to have on hand for on-the-go inventiveness.
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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/xp-pen-artist-12-2nd-gen-review
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