Does Xppen 156 Come With Its Own Art Program

The XP-Pen Creative person 15.6 Pro pen brandish is the second generation of the Artist 15.half dozen that I reviewed last year. By the way, the unit of measurement I take here is a review unit sponsored by XP-Pen.

A pen display is actually a monitor that yous tin describe on. While this product may look as thin as a tablet, information technology's non a tablet. It's a thin monitor that you take to connect to a computer in gild to utilise it, and you need to provide power to it.

XP-Pen currently offers pen displays in many sizes, from 12 to 22 inches, and at prices more affordable compared to the Wacom Cintiqs.

The new model has several improvements that addresses the downsides I mentioned with the previous model. The screen is now more color authentic, brighter, and has more concrete shortcut buttons and a dial control. The cost is also higher, but not past much thankfully. At the time of this review, the XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is U.s. $399 on Amazon The states while the Artist xv.6 Non-Pro is United states of america $359.

To give you lot the bottomline up front, the improvements are worth the extra Usa $40, and the pen brandish itself is worth the money. Merely allow'south find out why in detail.

Things included

The packaging pattern looks simple. The display is well cushion by soft foam inside. Accessories are laid out very neatly.

These are the things included:

• Artist 15.6 Pro pen brandish
• USB wall plug with four types of pins for different regions
• Data connection cable
• mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter
• USB extension cable
• Artist glove
• Pen, case and stand
• 8x replacement nibs
• A stand
• Micro-cobweb cleaning cloth

The inclusion of various international pins for the power plug is a proficient move. However, if your computer can provide sufficient power through the USB port, y'all do non demand to use the wall power plug..

That'due south the 3-in-1 data/power/graphics cable on the left. There are ii full size USB type A and HDMI on 1 end. The other end that goes to the pen brandish is a USB type C port.

Observe the USB ports are coloured blackness and red? You demand to connect the blackness one because that transmit the data and allows the pen display to exist detected. The red USB connector is for additional power source to the pen display.

The two graphics ports you can use are HDMI and mini-DisplayPort (via the adapter cable provided) and then your computer will need those. If your computer uses other graphics port, you lot will demand to purchase your own adapters.

A gratis stand is included. The build quality is sturdy. It has large safety pieces on the back to prevent slipping, and on the front to cushion the pen display. The stand can simply be propped up to i meridian/bending for a more comfy drawing experience.

The pen instance provided feels extremely solid. It really protects the pen in it. You can screw off one side to reveal the pen, and the other side to reveal the eight replacement tips and the nib remover.

The pen case is cylindrical so it rolls. Be conscientious not to let information technology roll off the table. You tin accept the pen case stand vertically. Y'all tin can also employ the cap of the case as a pen stand. Both ends of the pen case accept rubber to foreclose slipping.

This pen supports tilt sensitivity and 8,192 levels of pressure level sensitivity. It has a large rubber grip that'southward comfortable to concord. It is not powered by battery and so it does not require charging. In that location are two shortcut buttons on the side but no eraser button on the back. The pen is lightweight but not too lite, and feels solid enough.

Pattern and build quality

The XP-Pen Artist xv.six Pro is a skilful looking pen brandish.

It'south thinner than most laptops. Because it's then thin, many people (based on my past reviews of such products) actually mistake such pen displays as portable bombardment powered tablets. This is certainly not a tablet. It'south a monitor so you lot need to connect it to a computer. Because of this thin factor, I have on numerous occasions thinking that this was a touchscreen (it's not) and tapped on it with my fingers but cipher happened.

The build quality feels solid. The body is matte textured, and in that location's as well a matte screen protector already practical. When you take out the pen display for the start fourth dimension, yous are supposed to peel off the protective moving-picture show for the screen protector. Do no skin off the screen protector unless you desire a glossy reflective screen. You tin see my screen protector has some scuffles at the edges.

There are eight physical shortcut buttons or expresskeys and a dial command. The previous model only had six expresskeys and no punch. The more the merrier.

On the back in that location are ii large pieces of rubber. On the right side at that place are the power button, brightness control and a single USB type C port for the cable provided.

The 15.6-inch screen is a good size to draw on. The resolution information technology supports is 1920 by 1080 which is good enough for a screen this size.

The screen uses an IPS panel so colour accuracy is quite adept.

After colour calibrating my screen with the Spyder5Pro, I got readouts for 100% sRGB, 81% NTSC and 86% AdobeRGB colour gamut support. That's very proficient colour reproduction and this screen suitable for editing photos, professional graphic pattern piece of work or digital art. The previous model had simply 78% sRGB support so this comeback is fantastic.

The effulgence has also improved. I measured a maximum of 210 nits. It's not as vivid every bit typical reckoner or laptop monitors, just it's certainly brilliant plenty for normal indoor use.

Viewing angles of this IPS screen isn't that practiced though. Colours will shift when you await at the screen from an angle, and when you take strong lite source from the side or overhead, yous tin expect the white glaze from the anti-glare matte screen protector.

You become the best colours when viewing the pen brandish directly from the front. So information technology's unlikely you volition see colours shift from normal workflow but the anti-glare screen protector may bear upon colours depending on your lighting surround.

This is the angle when the stand is propped up. Not the 2 anxiety extension at the bottom that prevents the pen display from sliding off.

Driver functionality

The driver disc is not included so you have to download the display driver from XP-Pen'south website. The driver I'm using here are the Windows driver from 5 March 2019 and Mac driver from 27 Feb 2019.

The pen display travel has a lot of useful functionality.

You can assign specific keyboard shortcuts or pre-divers functionality to the expresskeys or control dial. Pressure sensitivity can be adjusted with a pressure curve, which allows for finer tweaks than a slider command.

With the tablet display settings, you can arrange the colour temperature, RGB, effulgence and contrast, and flip the tablet 180 degrees if you're left handed.

You can create keyboard shortcut sets for specific software y'all use. Each time you lot launch the software, the specific shortcuts will exist called up. Very user-friendly.

Look at the Other section. There are the Brush/Eraser toggle, Dial Manner Switch, Switch Monitor and Fine Detail Fashion.

Dial Mode Switch allows yous to switch between the different functionality you have set for the command dial. Y'all can assign Dial Manner Switch to the expresskeys (I assign information technology to the button directly below the punch), and each time yous press, there will be a label on the screen telling y'all which mode you are in.

For Switch Monitor, when you are using dual monitor with extended desktop style, you tin press a button to switch your cursor from 1 screen to the other.

With Fine Particular Way, when you press a button, the cursor will move extremely slowly allowing you lot fine control while drawing. The speed is a fleck too tedious for me liking though. Fine Particular Fashion is not available with the Mac OS driver.

All the driver functionality work pretty well and are very convenient.

Drawing operation

Drawing performance is adept on both Windows and Mac Os.

Photoshop works well with pressure and tilt sensitivity. At that place'southward no jitter with slow diagonal lines. Strokes are smooth and taper well. Lines transition from thin to thick smoothly. All these performance is like to the other graphic apps I've tested.

Pressure and tilt sensitivity works well with Krita (Win)

The circle on the right was drawn with a tilt brush. The outer circle was drawn with the pen tiled to face outside and the darker border is outside. The inner circle was drawn with the pen vertically so the software could judge the angle and in this instance have the darker edges towards the tiptop left.

You demand to turn off Windows Ink in the driver to get Medibang Paint Pro (Win) working properly. With Windows Ink on, they were exist stray strokes when drawing (every bit I've circled in ruddy above). Without Windows Ink, line quality is fantastic.

Prune Studio Paint (Win) works well with pressure.

Performance of the pen display with the various graphics software on the Mac is essentially like to that on Windows.

Photoshop (Mac) works well with pressure and tilt sensitivity.

Medibang Pigment Pro (Mac) works cracking too.

Clip Studio Paint (Mac). No problems.

Pressure level and tilt works well with Krita (Mac).

Glitches

If you're using Windows and there are glitches, eg with Medibang Paint Pro as mentioned above, consider turning Windows Ink off or on to troubleshoot the problem. Other than that, I've non faced other bug on Windows.

With Mac OS, the old Adobe Illustrator CS5 did not have force per unit area back up. You got to install Wacom Intuos driver in improver to the XP-Pen driver to have pressure working.

Conclusion

Overall, drawing experience on the XP-Pen Artist 15.vi Pro is fantastic. The lines came out just the way I want them to. Performance is predictable and dependable.

The pattern looks nice, and build quality feels sturdy.

Improvements over the previous models to the colour accuracy, effulgence and having more expresskeys are welcome. They've also included a functional stand up. All those improvements for an actress US $40 over the previous model is a skilful deal. Fifty-fifty when yous don't compare it with the previous model, this pen display alone is a good deal. Information technology's priced very competitively against other brands, and most chiefly, information technology works really well.

So if you're in the market place for a pen display, seriously consider this model.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Sturdy build quality
+ Squeamish looking design
+ Pen does not crave battery
+ Pen supports 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ There's tilt sensitivity
+ 8 replacement tips included
+ 8 physical shortcut keys and control dial included
+ Matte anti-glare screen does non have reflections
+ Nice texture on screen to describe on
+ 1080P resolution on the screen this size is sharp enough
+ Screen has practiced colour accuracy, 100% sRGB support
+ Does not heat up significantly. Tin be used for long periods of fourth dimension without discomfort
+ Drawing performance (line quality) is good.
+ Lines take little to no wobble and jitter
+ You can power this display from a single powered USB port
+ HDMI-miniDisplay port adaptor included
+ Price is very competitive for a screen of this size
+ Stand included
- Matte screen protector affects sharpness of the screen only a proficient tradeoff for the texture it provides
- Color shift if you are not viewing the screen directly from the front
- White haze from matte screen protector if there's strong calorie-free source beside
- Some issues with the specific drawing apps mentioned in the review
- Parallax exists, corrected by calibration

Availability

The XP-Pen Artist xv.6 Pro pen brandish is available via the straight product links beneath:
XP-Pen online store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.great britain | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp

Due to currency and taxes, the prices may vary.

Anyhow, those are affiliate links so if y'all buy through those links, I earn a little commission but at no extra price to y'all.

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Source: https://www.parkablogs.com/picture/review-xp-pen-artist-156-pro-pen-display

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