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The Artist 10s is pretty much exactly what one would expect as a competitor to the Cintiq 13HD, essentially looking like someone to a shrink ray to Wacom’s $800 darling. A 10.1” 1280x800 IPS display is nestled inside a generous bezel, flanked on the left by six customizable hotkeys, and on the right by the device’s I/O: a USB Type C port, mini HDMI port, and an optional AC output if you wanna spare your laptop’s battery from powering two displays, though unlike a Cintiq, you have the option of powering the Artist 10 solely off USB power if you don’t want, or can’t, get to a wall outlet. Also on the right edge is the power button for the display, and a brightness rocker. The build itself is pretty good, made from satisfactory if unremarkable quality plastics, with an overall design that is utilitarian and understated, if not all that glamorous.

The pen included with the Artist 10s is about as spartan as a stylus could be: a simple grey plastic barrel  and a two-button rocker, with no  extra frills or design embellishments, nothing but the essentials. Unlike most other Cintiq alternatives, the pen here doesn’t need a battery, like most other styli though, or doesn’t have an eraser or recognize tilt.

Other accessories included with the 10s are pretty sparse. Just a small disc that holds replacement nibs.

Getting the 10s set up on both Windows and Mac was relatively painless: running the driver didn’t yield any problems on either platform. On the Windows side I had to go into the driver and manually set the pen input to the 10s’ screen instead of my main display, but I’ve had to do that for every pen display I’ve used under Windows. On Mac OS, I had the same issue, but unfortunately, the Mac version of the 10s’ driver doesn’t have the option to change the pen mapping. The only workaround I’ve found is to go into macOS’ System Preferences, go to displays, and drag the menu bar to the Artist 10 to make it your primary display. This is obviously rather inconvenient though, and not an acceptable implementation. I’ve reached out to XP-Pen for help clearing this up, and went back and forth a few times with a company rep, but couldn’t get anything definitive out of them, their advice referring to options that simply do not exist in OS X. It seems like this is either a limitation of the driver or Mac OS as a whole, and can’t be resolved. Interestingly, display preferences noted the 10s as running at 1280x800, but jumping into About this Mac showed it as a 30.5” display running at a full 1080p.

Needless to say, I’m not the biggest fan of macOS’ multimonitor support.

Actually using the Artist 10s is a decent experience overall. With 2048 levels of pressure you get decent control of your line weight, though the default settings blow out a bit more on the low end than I like, but that’s easily adjusted in the settings. 

What isn’t is the tracking of the pen. Throughout my time using the 10s the cursor seemed to track a few mm to the right of the pen tip. The driver has a built in calibration tool but under Windows running it didn’t help me too much. Surprisingly, calibrating under Mac OS did cause a noticeable improvement, but didn’t alleviate the issue entirely. The 10s is still very usable with this caveat, as I’ve done the majority of my Inktober work so far on the device, but not 100% perfect. 

Also worth mentioning is the display itself. Viewing angles and brightness are great, but out of the box the colors are a bit warm, the temperature of the screen a bit yellow. This is again easily fixed in the settings, but something worth noting.

So, conclusion time, is the XP-Pen worth its $300 asking price? Well, if the 10” form factor and/or a perm display for only $300 is your aim, you’re kinda starved for options at the moment. While you could spend one or two hundred dollars more and get what in my opinion would be a superior product in something like a Huion GT-185SD, that’s a completely different class of product, and a completely different price bracket. It may not be perfect, but the XP-Pen Artist 10S still does a damn good job, especially under Windows. For the most meager of budgets, there are worse ways to spend $300.

Until next time, I’m Tom Oliver, this is Rebel Pixels reminding you: We might be indie, but that doesn’t mean we’re alone. Catch you all in the next one.

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With the Artisul D13, UC Logic is clearly taking aim at Wacom’s Cintiq 13HD, and holy shit is this thing quite the opening salvo. Matching the Cintiq HD blow for blow in the majority of the spec sheet, bringing a 13.3" LED backlit IPS display, 2048 levels of pressure, fantastic build quality, and hotkeys that can be set for right or left-handed use, all while coming it at a far lower cost, $599 compared to the Cintiq 13HD’s $799.

The design of the Artisul D13 is excellent. It’s a compact matte dark grey plastic that feels nice in the hand and doesn’t take up any more space than it needs to. It’s basically identical to the last UC Logic device I took a look at, the SP1001, just blown up to 13 inches.  

Like the SP1001, the construction here is sturdy and rigid, feeling like it could take a beating. The hotkeys on the side are made of a soft touch rubber that give a confident click when depressed, and are just in the right place that they can be reached easily, and thanks to the larger button in the center, can be easily found by feel. This big center button actually contains a trick, it’s also a jog dial, letting you easily adjust things like brush size, zoom level, or canvas rotation without lift a hand. The software lets you set up to six dial options for this button, then cycle through them by pressing the button itself, a great little trick. The ports that connect the D13 to your system are conveniently located on the side of the device, making them easy to plug in or remove, and stay out of the way of both your drawing arm, and the stand.

One of the best aspects of the D13’s design comes directly from the SP1001, and that’s the port layout and requirements. The device is powered over a microUSB and microHDMI connection, which lead to a full size HDMI and USB 3.0 port that plug into your system. Amazingly, and a massive advantage over the Cintiq 13HD in my opinion, is that these are the only ports required to power the tablet. It doesn’t require a dedicated AC Adapter. This makes this device FAR more usable on the road with a notebook, since you don’t have to hunt for a wall adapter every time you take it out of your bag, and even with a desktop setup its one less cable cluttering your workspace. But UC Logic takes it a step further and include an optional power adapter that you can use just in case you don’t have a USB 3.0 port on your system, or if you don’t wanna strain your laptops battery by powering two displays. Overall this flexibility is extremely welcome, and makes the Artisul D13 a far better product all around.

The pen included with the D13 is also basically identical to the SP1001’s and thank god for that, because UC Logic has far and away the best pen experience of any Cintiq alternative vendor I’ve looked at. With a pen made of a pleasant soft touch material that gives it a good grip, a nice weighted stand, and a carrying case with a magnetic clasp for taking the device on the road, UC Logic again takes aim at Wacom and delivers a comparable experience. The pen here doesn’t have an eraser or tilt, but it’s passively powered, meaning it never needs to be recharged. Another welcome change after amassing a sea of those proprietary recharging cables from all the other Cintiq alternatives I’ve taken a look at.

UC Logic also sent me an optional accessory with the D13, and that’s this nice looking stand. I really wish that this came included with the D13 because personally I think it’s a far better design than the bizarre multi-cutout solution Wacom employs with the Cintiq 13HD. It’s far more simple and elegant. If you plan on mostly using the D13 on the road, this may be unnecessary , but with a desktop setup I’d say its required, bringing the total cost up to $649. This leads to my only minor negative concerning the D13 and that’s the lack of any sort of VESA mounting option, so you can’t easily install it on a monitor arm if you don’t wanna use, or like, this stand. Granted it’s a bit small to warrant that kind of solution, and I don’t know where the mounting points would go considering the device itself is so thin, but it’s worth pointing out when almost every other device I’ve looked at had this option.

Overall, UC Logic is leagues ahead of the pack in terms of fit and finish when it comes to Cintiq alternatives. The D13 feels like a products that was actually designed, and not just bolted together from a plethora of off-the-shelf components. It’s a breath of fresh air to encounter a device this nicely made in a product category where cost cutting usually means sacrifices are made in this area. Kudos to UC Logic for making it work.

So enough about the looks. How does the D13 perform?

Well, if my initial praise wasn’t enough to clue you in, the Artisul D13 is excellent. Drivers installed quickly and without a hitch. While not providing a cornucopia of options, you get all the necessities here like adjusting for left and right handed use, hotkey editing, pressure settings, and pen and monitor calibration.

Pen performance on the D13 is probably my favorite yet, for a multitude of reasons that take into consideration all of the hardware and software decisions. Firstly, the pen itself is really comfortable, and the software keeps up with my movements without a hitch. Pressure response is great, giving me an accurate degree of control throughout the curve. Drawing on the display itself felt great as well, because the panel is covered in a matte coating over the cover glass, which gives the pen more resistance against the screen, and approaches the bite you get when drawing on paper, greatly increasing my confidence when sketching and inking. Not only that, but the mirror finish you get from a standard glass panel is far reduced here. It’s not completely matte, but it’s more of what I’d describe as a semi-gloss, making the device far less prone to glare and reflections.

The panel choice on the D13 itself is also great. UC Logic choosing a full 1080p HD IPS display. Viewing angles are fantastic, colors are great, even though they don’t pop as much due to the plastic cover, and most striking is the improved pixel density compared to the other Cintiq alternatives I’ve looked at. While not quite a “retina” display, we’re dealing with a far higher DPI on a 13" 1080p panel, than a 22" one. Everything just looks smoother and cleaner, it’s great. Windows 10 actually tried to scale the UI to 125% after getting the device set up. Which protip: don’t do that because that messes with the pen tracking.

And yeah. That’s really all I got. The Artisul D13 is friggen fantastic. It’s flexible enough to fit into almost any setup, and built well enough to go the distance. It’s earned a permanent place on my desk and in my workflow. And I don’t see myself replacing it anytime soon.

I think probably the D13’s biggest weakness is that, unlike all these Cintiq 22 competitors I’ve been looking at, that have like a grand worth of price difference, the Artisul D13 is only $200 apart from the base Cintiq 13, $150 if you also spring for the stand. A far smaller financial divide. At that point, $150 is buying you more software features built into the Wacom driver, but you gain software tricks at the expense of portability, as the stand is far clunkier, and the unit itself requires a power adapter.

For me, I find the versatility and overall lower cost of the Artisul D13 to win out in the end. It does everything I want, and because of the USB power, it also does something the Cintiq can’t. For the price-conscious artist or the road warrior, I think the D13 is the clear victor here. For everyone else, it’ll come down to personal preference. But either way, you’re getting a really nice product.

Until next time, I’m Tom Oliver, this is Rebel Pixels reminding you: We might be indie, but that doesn’t mean we’re alone. Catch you all in the next one.

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I usually tend to go through the design of Wacom alternatives rather quickly and matter-of-factly in these videos, but we have to take a moment to really appreciate what Huion has accomplished here with the G10T. It might be the most premium feeling tablet I’ve ever laid hands on, and that includes Wacom devices. My sister, who is a graphic designer, was with me when I first unboxed the G10T and we both audibly gasped when I pulled the thing out. Huion has seriously upped their design ante with this product, with a quality soft touch plastic face with almost ZERO bezel around the active area and trackpad, housed in a gorgeous, high end anodized aluminum chassis.Just the feeling of the device in your hand inspires confidence; it just feels like a tank. There’s no flex or give to the body and it is built to go the distance. The build of the G10T screams premium design, and could be mistaken for something out of Cupertino.

Equally as impressive is the pen presentation. Huion has completely redesigned their stylus for this release, replacing the boring cylinder with a striking combination of sweeps and angles that sits elegantly in the hand. The pen is nestled inside a similarly striking case with a magnetic clasp that uses a similar design language to the pen itself, and inside it includes a complement of replacement nibs for the pen, as well as a slot for the very compact wireless dongle to connect the tablet to your PC. I think if it had a bit more weight to it the pen would feel even more premium than it looks, but even as is it’s very comfortable, and a huge step forward compared to what came before it.

I only wish the pen redesign wasn’t merely skin deep. With other companies like Monoprice, Artisul, and even Microsoft adding stuff like tilt recognition, passive power, and eraser functionality to their styli to be more feature-complete compared to Wacom, Huion ignores the advancements and still only includes the basics with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity in the tip, and nothing more. And still requires a recharge.  Like I’ve mentioned before, the longer these features go ignored, the less acceptable they will be as the market starts catching up.

Looks are only going to get us so far though, and the G10T can be as gorgeous at it wants, but at the end of the day its a tool, and tools need to work well, not look good. So let’s take a look at using the G10T.

The first thing I did, like with any tablet, was driver installation. The driver for the G10T didn’t give me any problems when installing. I ran the driver on both WIndows and Mac and was up and running. The design of the driver is just as new as the device itself, keeping the majority of the features from before and adding a bit more to compliment the multitouch surface on the device.

Speaking of the touchpad, I think its time we address the elephant in the room. As premium as the design of the G10T is I think its the dedicated multitouch zone that is really the star of the show here. When I first heard about the split design I thought it was a stroke of genius. You know, a lot of devices that have both pen and touch capabilities have to go out of there way to try and program palm rejection into their touch software so that it doesn’t interrupt with the pen. And none of these systems, at least the ones I’ve used, are perfect. Whether it’s an Intuos, a Surface Pro, or an iPad, I’ve run into instances where my palm is recognized while drawing and have had it mess up my canvas.

Which is why the Huion implementation is such a great idea. By splitting the areas it completely eliminates the issue of palm rejection, your drawing arm will never interact with the multitouch surface, as its always being controlled by your off hand. And of course, the added benefit of that is that you don’t have to put down your pen or try to juggle it when using multitouch like you would on an Intuos. You have two hands, and now each hand has a task when using the G10T; One for drawing, one for gestures. Truly a well thought out alternative.

Where this feature begins to fall apart a bit though is it’s implementation. Unlike other multitouch solutions I’ve looked at, there are NO defaults built into the driver. Normally with an iPad or a Surface or an Intuos, if you go into a compatible app and pinch to zoom, the software knows what that gesture is and reacts, no setup required. Not so here with the G10T. Every last command has to be manually set up in the driver itself. 

On top of that, you can only mirror keyboard shortcuts, so even if you want to emulate something like a pinch to zoom, the best you can do it map the gesture to Ctrl +/-, which isn’t NEARLY as smooth or reliable as a native pinch zoom, So a lot of this device’s potential is instantly kneecapped.

Not only that, but the functionality itself simply isn’t there. On Windows, and I hate to be this blunt, but it’s a complete crapshoot. Half the slots available for mapping simply don’t work, no matter how many times I attempted to program in commands, and the half that do don’t actually do anything in any applications I tested. So the touchpad is a complete waste of space under this OS.

Things are a bit better on macOS, since it uses a dropdown menu for mapping instead of a text field so commands can be registered, but the touchpad itself is pretty flaky. Simple things like two finger swipes that I set up to change brush sizes worked, but pinch to zoom was abysmal: zooming out seemed to work decently enough, but zooming back in was nearly impossible. Needless to say the multitouch support here is far from what you’d get from something like an iPad or Surface Pro, and that’s really disappointing.

Luckily for Huion though, this is a pen device first and multitouch surface second, and in this regard the G10T is as fantastic as ever. Huion’s non-display tablets have always been some of my favorite performers when it comes to pressure and the G10T continues to deliver a stellar experience, needing almost zero pressure before it starts registering a stroke, giving you excellent control throughout the entire curve. I never had any major issues with glitches in my time using it on OS X or Windows, and overall I was just really comfortable using the device. A lot of it has to do with the soft touch material used on the active area, it’s smoother than other tablets I’ve used, but has enough of a subtle bite to give some pleasant resistance while drawing, and combined with the spring loaded tip of the pen, delivers a stellar experience overall. This is one of my absolute favorite tablets to use for drawing.

So, conclusion time. Is the Huion G10T worth the asking price? For the $140 asking price, you’re getting a tablet that performs admirably with pen input, with a fit and finish far beyond what you’d normally get in this price bracket. The generous hotkeys and their placement allow for quick multitasking, and the built in wireless connectivity, which is still a $40 addon from Wacom at this price point, makes for a compelling package overall.

But, the multitouch is worse than lackluster, being borderline unusable in macOS, and literally unusable in Windows. That, combined with the biggest omissions in my book; the increasingly lackluster features in the pen, and a recommendation becomes a bit murky. An aesthetic redesign and a pretty case aren’t enough of a consolation prize to make up for no tilt, eraser, or passive power. Add it all up and you come out with a tablet that doesn’t deliver on everything that was promised, but what is there performs really well.

So it’s a toss up: What are you looking for in a tablet? If you just wanna draw stuff, and draw it well, and are okay with paying a bit more for a truly premium design, the G10T remains a solid offering to deliver just that. If the multitouch features were a big draw for you though, or you rely on the tilt or the eraser functionality a lot, this isn’t gonna fit the bill.

Personally, I’d still give a tepid recommend to the G10T. It’s a great device to draw on, and at the end of the day, that’s probably why you decided to take a look at the thing in the first place. And since the touchpad still works occasionally, I’m hoping that perhaps going forward we can get a driver update to iron out the bugs, it probably won’t ever be as good as a Surface or a Wacom, but there’s definitely room for improvement, hopefully we can get that. If we do, I’ll be sure to make an update for ya.

Until next time, I’m Tom Oliver, this is Rebel Pixels reminding you: We might be indie, but that doesn’t mean we’re alone. Catch you all in the next one.

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