Huion Kamvas 16 (Gen 3) Review

Welcome to another review for Huion. On this occasion we will be looking at their brand new and super sleek 16 inch pen display.

This new Huion devise is super thin, light and easy to connect. It is likely that if you choose one of these that you will want to use it portably. For that reason I have decided to not connect it to my desktop for this review, but set it up with my laptop to reflect what I anticipate will be typical use.

I think it is fair to say there isn’t a great deal of innovation in the field of pen display tablets. Most have high a resolution screen, quick keys along one side, simple connection options and battery free pens.

For the reason above price becomes an important factor. Most of the devices you can choose from have similar features. This device is £500 on Amazon and £409 on the Huion Website (at the time of writing). The nearest equivalent Wacom (which I haven’t tested) is £650 and the Xencelabs (which I have tested and thought was incredible) comes in at £769. The main differences between the 3 is the way they deal with colour and the screens, but in a real world practical sense I don’t think those differences will have a huge impact on your art creation process.

Let’s start by looking in the box. Everything is packaged really nicely, so you won’t need to worry about the potential of damage during international shipping and Huion’s customer support has always been very good when I have contacted them.

There are multiple connection options depending on your Laptops port capabilities. I have USB C so I could simply have one lead between the device and my laptop and one for power. As I said previously, that isn’t innovative as you would find that on most of the comparable models, but it is practical. You can set this up in less than a minute.

Downloading the software takes about 3 minutes. Once you open the software you will be able to set up your screen position, area of interaction and test the pen in no time at all. You can use the same software to set up the quick keys and rotation dials which work very well.

I have no doubt that all of the above will take no more than 10 minutes. I do find that Huion software confuses Krita (if that is your painting software of choice). You may need to go into your brush settings and toggle the input methods and restart the software. That will be relevant for a tiny of readers but I thought I’d mention it as I have been using Krita for a while.

As there isn’t enormous difference between pen displays it is important to establish whether the basics work well. The basics being registration on the screen, speed of response and smooth pen pressure adjustments.

I actually think the on screen registration is very good. One of the best I’ve tested. In basic terms, that means it will make a mark exactly where you expect it to, which hasn’t always been the case with pen displays. The video below shows the accuracy of the pen and screen interaction.

The speed and pen pressure sensitivity can easily be tested together. Again it does really well. I use the device to paint a picture later in the review and didn’t find it at all slow or unresponsive. There are no surprises here. It works very well.

On their website Huion draw attention to a few things they think are special about this specific model. I’ll spend a few moments talking about them.

There is a new chip in the pen called the HV200 chip and I have no idea what that actually means in technical terms. They claim it improves pressure sensitivity. I actually think it does help and is an improvement on other Huions I’ve tested previously, however I doubt you would feel it is an improvement on any of the other brands I previously mentioned. The pen does work very well though.

Most devices make bold claims about the way they deal with colour. The great confusion of that is that as soon as you send that digital painting to your phone, PC, local printer or Instagram, the colours won’t look the same as they did on your device. In practical terms that means I don’t always feel these small screen improvements bring much benefit to the user. As soon as you send the image elsewhere it is likely you will continue to make adjustments to suit future uses. It does boast 99%sRGB Gamut Coverage which I think users will understand and perhaps consider useful.

The screen resolution is 2.5 QHD which is basically the same as the Wacom mentioned previously. However the 4K screen of the Xencelabs is undoubtedly the punchiest.

To summarise the above, these features all give small benefits to the users, but aren’t things you will get really excited about when you start using the device. However they do demonstrate its incredible value for money. The screen resolution aside it is on a level with the other devices I mentioned previously. So if your budget is around £400 this is the obvious option that you can have great confidence in.

You can’t do a review of something like this without really testing it so I created the painting below using the Huion. Honestly, it took about 3 minutes to get into the flow of things. The customisation of buttons helps speed things along.

CONCLUSION

This is a really good pen display tablet and if your budget is in the £400 - £500 ballpark I doubt you could get anything as good without looking at second hand devices, which carries a greater level of risk. The price shouldn’t give you the impression the quality or standard is inferior though. It works very well and as a practical tool is very comparable to other more expensive products.

I would love to see more innovation in graphics tablets. There are a growing number of entirely portable devices (no PC required) that I think are super interesting. If someone was to make a device that felt like traditional sketchbook, with a nice leather cover and a more traditional feeling pen or pencil, that would be innovative and the next step.

However, if you’re looking for something to use with your laptop and this fits in your budget you will be really happy with your purchase.

4 out of 5