If you are not familiar with XPPen, they are a notable brand within the graphics tablet industry.
XPPen specializes in manufacturing drawing tablets, pen displays, and other digital drawing tools for artists, designers, and other creative professionals.
So if you’ve ever been on the lookout for pen displays or drawing tablets, you’ve probably heard of these guys, as well as Wacom and Huion.
If you have ever gone into this rabbit-hole of what drawing tablet to get yourself because you LOVE to draw, you may have even considered just getting an iPad Pro.
The XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) is, as the name suggests, the second iteration of XPPen’s Artist Pro 16.
Table of Contents
Build and Display
It’s a 16-inch drawing tablet that features a 2.5K laminated X-Nature display (2560 x 1600) at a 16:10 aspect ratio. Laminated displays mean that there isn’t any space between the screen and the panel below, which can cut down on parallaxing, which is that offset between the glass and display like from tablets of decades ago.
At 16-inches a 2.5k resolution is definitely better than FHD, everything looks sharper with good detail and we also get really nice viewing angles here at 160-degrees!
For display specs, we get 99% sRGB coverage and 159% of the sRGB area, which to skip the boring details, means that this display can output very accurate colors!
The panel can even switch between sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts for the most accurate results.
It’s fairly portable at less than 7lbs for its weight and with dimensions measuring 405.11 x 291.37 x 20.23 mm.
But I personally wouldn’t bring this around everywhere with me, unless of course it was my life.
Although if I wanted to I could; because with my current rig, all I need is the nifty USB Type-C to C cable that came in the box to power this display.
If ever your laptop or home rig does not feature a Type-C port that can power the display, the Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) also gets an AC adapter in the box, coupled with a USB A to C cable and a USB A extension cable to give you more options for cable management.
–And yes, it comes with all the adapter prongs you need for wherever you are in the world!
What it doesn’t come with is the 3-in-1 connector cable that you can use to plug into an HDMI and USB A port to power the tablet.
X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus and Accessories
Apart from those we also get a microfiber cleaning cloth, a drawing glove, and LOOK AT THIS PEN CASE.
Its shell is made out of aluminum and it looks just as good as it feels.
This case houses all your plastic and felt nibs, as well as the X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus.
To get in we push the bottom of the case like a fancy car drawer and voila!
This X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus feels just as nice as the case, not because of any metals in its construction, but because of its silicon or rubber grip material; It’s matte and soft to the touch, it truly makes me feel like a professional cartoonist or animator already (without the obvious imposter syndrome)!
Another cool thing about the rubber material is that it doesn’t collect lint as much as older stylus’, which keeps it from becoming all grimey which I love!
The macro buttons on the side are very ergonomically placed as they comfortably rest right below my thumb.
This stylus is where we get the 16 thousand levels of pressure sensitivity, and at the other end is a pressure sensitive eraser. (But hey, I see why you may not need that when you’re so used to pressing your mapped “undo” button too.)
It’s overall well weighted for prolonged drawing sessions, and to give you readers a better idea, it’s lighter than a new AA battery.
Switch over to one of those felt nibs and it feels a bit more like traditional drawing, kind of like inking with a fine tip marker.
Overall with the 16 thousand+ levels of pressure, which does feel kinda overkill btw just like mouse DPI is AMAZING!
My reference is from the pressure sensitivity of stylus’ from smart tablets like an iPad Pro, and honestly with something like the XPPen Artist Pro 16 Gen 2, I feel I have a lot more control over my lines more like on real paper, but this time I don’t need to worry about bleed-outs!
Apparently we also get a higher activation rate at 3g, which I don’t particularly notice because the product itself works so damn well already, but I believe that was worth mentioning.
Wireless Remote
Now this could strike you as a surprise but there aren’t any mappable shortcut buttons on the tablet!
–Because it features a wireless remote that houses all those shortcut keys you would be missing.
It charges via USB Type-C and its receiver can be found in the aluminum pen case.
Due to its wireless-nature the remote is friendly for both left or right-handed users. So no more flipping your drawing tablet around and remapping the built-in shortcuts to match which hand your draw with.
To be honest, I don’t really have a preference for these things just yet but I think it’s neat! (Being a lefty and all. Just make sure you don’t lose it ’cause that would suck).
Conclusion
Overall the Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) from XPPen feels pretty solid in build AND performance.
It gets an official price tag of PHP 29,999 from the official XPPen Philippines website, but it is currently on sale at the time of writing for PHP 24,999.
There are other drawing tablets out there similarly priced and just as good, so consider the XPPen Artist Pro 16 Gen 2, for the nice stylus case and its cool flip-out feet.
Now if I wasn’t buying this thing because I’m nothing more than a drawing hobbyist, I would definitely want to see maybe a higher refresh rate and maybe OLED?
–Which you could argue is already available in smart tablets but; I know it’s not about the gear but drawing on smart tablets make me feel like I’m doodling, this thing makes me feel like I’m a low-income anime artist but I love my job.
And this is more affordable than an iPad Pro I reckon, although you could do more with a smart tablet too, but then I’m not even in the Apple ecosystem…
Either way, this was the Artist Pro 16 Gen 2 from XPPen, and in my opinion it’s basically THE TOOL budding artists, designers, illustrators, and animators would love to start their passions with.
What do you guys think of drawing tablets, maybe an 11 or 13-inch one would be better for someone just trying to dip their feet into digital illustrations and animations?
XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) specs:
16-inch X-Nature Display (2560 x 1600 resolution)
X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus
Pressure Levels: 16384
Tilt: 60°
Dimensions: 405.11 X 291.37 X 20.23 mm
Work Area: 344.68 X 215.42 mm
Full Lamination
Viewing Angle: 178°
Contrast: 1200:1
Brightness (typical): 250 cd/m2
Resolution: 5080 LPI
Color Gamut Coverage Ratio: 99% sRGB, 97% Adobe RGB, 99% DCI-P3
Color Gamut Area Ratio: 159% sRGB, 118% Adobe RGB, 117% DCI-P3
Reading Height: 10 mm
Response Rate: 20 ms
Report Rate: 200 RPS (max)
Accuracy: ±0.4 mm (center), ±0.8 mm (corner)
Port: 1 x Full-featured USB-C, 1 x 3-in-1 USB-C
Power Input: AC 110-240V
Power Output: DC 5V ⎓ 3A
Compatibility: Windows 7 (or later), macOS 10.10 (or later), Android (USB3.1 DP1.2), Chrome OS 88 (or later), Linux
Order the XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) from here, Lazada 19 or Shopee 16.
