- Today, there are a ton of drawing tablets
and displays on the market.
You've got the Wacom tablets, the Cintiqs,
there's the Surface Studio,
the Surface tablets and iPads to name a few.
And they all come at a variety of price points.
Now personally, I love to draw.
It's what I did all the time as a kid
and it's what got me into design in the first place.
But since I got more into design on the computer,
I have found myself using the mouse and keyboard
more and more.
Today as a designer,
most of my drawing amongst a sketching and drawing on paper
while I think about my ideas
which I will typically bring onto the computer afterwards.
So I'm not an illustrator,
but I do love connecting to my work and incorporating
hand-drawn elements into my work where possible.
Tablets and displays are great to draw
and are amazing for illustrators and digital artists.
But what about us designers?
Now for the past a few weeks
I have been using the Artists 22 Pen Display 2nd Generation
by XP-Pen.
And I think I may have found my new jam
and an awesome sidekick to my main display.
Now there are a bunch of reviews of this product
already on YouTube
but what I'm going to do in this video
is look at the product more from a design perspective.
So if you're looking to get more hands-on with your work
in a digital way,
I think you're really going to like this product.
So let's get into it.
(gentle upbeat music)
So here I have the Artist's 22 Pen Display 2nd Generation
by XP-Pen.
If you've not heard of this product
I recommend you check it out.
This is a gorgeous 21.5 inch display,
comes in HD 1920x1080 with 90% Adobe color range.
Now I'm about to show you how good this product is.
But before that,
I have to talk about the price right off the bat,
because this is what sets it apart
from most of the competition.
So right now this product is retailing
for 499 American dollars
which when you compare it to products like the iPad
and Surface tablets, it's half the price.
And when most decent display monitors are close
to this as well, this is really good value
for the added tablet capability.
And for what you get in the box,
it's really good value.
So let's see what you get here.
So in the box, you get the display,
the stylus and the connection cables
which you can either connect with USB-A, USB-C or HDMI.
It also comes with a cloth and a glove,
which is pretty neat.
So the screen itself works
like a sidekick to your main display.
So you can either clone or extend the desktop.
Now, one of the coolest things
about this display is the stand on the back.
When drawing, one of the key things is comfort.
With the adjustable stand
you can change the screens angle
from 16 to 90 degrees to suit your needs
and create comfortably and freely.
To connect the display,
you can either use the provided to USB-C to USB-C cable,
the USB-A to USB-C cable
or the HDMI cable.
Which is pretty cool
if you're rolling with a USB-C Mac
because all it requires is this one cable,
so no dongles.
As mentioned earlier,
the display is 21.5 inches and comes in HD.
And I have to say this made
for an amazing drawing experience.
Being able to get hands-on with my work
on a large scale is what it's all about.
This really has the wow factor for me
to get a better preview of my work before printing.
Now, I was also impressed with the color.
As I mentioned earlier,
this comes with 90% Adobe color range,
which of course is important for us designers
to preview our work accurately.
The build quality of the display is also more than adequate.
The stand arm feels really sturdy and substantial
without any loose shaking.
And each angle of the stand is held in place firmly.
The screen also has a nice matte finish
to reduce screen glare.
It's got these really nice rubber soles at the front
to keep it in place.
And importantly, there is not much of a gap
between the glass and the screen itself.
Now, unlike its more expensive counterparts,
the display does not come
with any side buttons for shortcuts.
So you will have to use a keyboard,
which I found using my small Mac keyboard
worked really well.
Now this is a screen you're going to get close to
when you're drawing
and the resolution being HD 1920x1080 is good
but you can see the pixels.
But to be fair
if you're using a display like this,
it's really for the function of drawing
rather than the sharpness of the screen.
For the price point, it's not too bad.
And when you were drawing, you do tend not to notice it
after a while.
The display also works well as part of a mobile setup.
It's easy to pick up,
place on another desk or carry around.
And if you want to take a break from all that hard work
with it's additional three millimeter audio output,
it's easy to hit some games.
So what about the stylus?
Now this is where I get really fussy.
In my experience,
I've used a lot of styluses
and if they are not even close
to the real drawing experience,
it's a huge deal breaker for me
and I can't stand huge, thick styluses.
I like drawing with pens and pencils for precision.
And with this stylus, I was actually pretty happy.
So the stylus comes in this really neat tube
which when open act as a stand, which is really neat
and you also get eight additional nibs.
I was also impressed
that the stylus itself is battery free.
Has 60 degrees of tilt
with 8,192 levels of pressure.
And on the stylus itself
we have two buttons which can easily be programmed.
When drawing with the stylus,
the nib does press in a little, which can feel quite nice.
This helps with the sensitivity
and to gauge your pressure.
So when it comes to using the display,
it's pretty straightforward.
This display supports Windows, Linux, and Mac
and is compatible with all industry standard
creative software tools.
Installing the software drivers
from the XP-Pen website was pretty easy.
And once installed, you can calibrate the stylus
and tweak the properties of the stylus to your preference.
Calibrating the stylus is quite easy,
and programming the two buttons is also simple
where you can choose a range of functions.
Now onto the important bits.
So I've been using this display
for the past couple of weeks,
and I have to say for me, it's a wicked sidekick.
This display maybe designed for drawing
but it's perfectly adequate for an extra monitor,
to extend your screen space
and use with other programs.
As mentioned earlier, the stand on the back is wicked.
This allows me to stand it upright
and use as an additional monitor
and tilt it down when I want to get hands-on.
It's really fun to sketch on this thing.
And after a few hours, you really get the feel for it.
The size of the screen is just amazing.
Going from a 12 inch iPad to a 21.5 inch display,
being able to see my work on a large scale
is absolutely awesome.
For this review,
I designed and created these letter forms
and this type composition,
which was a lot of fun
and easier using the stylus functionality.
And I love how in Photoshop and Illustrator,
I can turn on the pressure sensitive function
and draw and get nice tapered ends.
For this particular project,
it was great to add texture and shading effects
to my letter forms.
Using the stylus, there is a heightened sense
of control and connection to the work.
You can easily finesse the effects
as opposed to using a mouse.
Overall, I found it to be a much more natural experience.
Now for me as a designer,
workflow is really important.
If I'm working on a desktop,
I don't like breaking my flow and jumping onto other devices
and especially using alternative apps with different UIs.
For me, I found using this display seamless
not only is it right there in perfect position to work with
but I can jump from my mouse to the stylus
in a second and use the tools and features of my main apps
perfectly on the same device.
It's just really easy.
Drawing on this thing is also a breeze.
I didn't notice any considerable lag
which didn't interfere with my flow
and the space between the glass
and the screen is quite small.
So it did not impact on my drawing experience too much.
For me, I found this display is not only perfect
for creating digital art, but for drawing and sketching.,
and developing my design, which I can then bring straight
into other applications on the fly.
So in conclusion,
if you're considering getting a tablet computer
to get more hands-on and add more human qualities
to your work within more natural experience,
I would recommend you consider this display.
iPads and Surface tablets maybe more mobile
but they can be really expensive.
This is a product that not only offers
a comparative drawing experience
but compared to the competition,
I was impressed with what the product offers
for the price point.
Huge screen size, good color quality,
smooth drawing experience
with a comfortable and seamless workflow.
All the main things we need in our workflow as designers.
Now, resolution is standard but it's good enough.
Now having thought about this,
the best way to see this display is like a sidekick.
It's not going to replace your main monitor
and it's not going to replace your main system
but it will make an amazing sidekick
and give you that extra screen space
and drawing capability at an affordable price.
So if like me, you like focusing on your work on the desktop
and tend to use multiple creative tools
and don't like jumping from one device to the next,
this could be a great sidekick to your main setup.
Now, if you're looking to get an additional monitor,
you're going to spend around the same price
as this product anyway.
So you could consider something like this,
to not only add space but to give you
that drawing capability.
Having a nice big display like this
has actually inspired me to go back to my roots
and draw more digital artwork.
For me personally
I've wanted to do more hand lettering
and sign lettering for a while.
Getting hands-on with this display
and having a go at the project has been really fun
and rewarding.
In future when I do more hand lettering,
I'll definitely be using a display like this,
looking forward to my next project.
So for me,
this is not just a great product for illustrators
but it would also be a great sidekick for designers
especially type designers and surface pattern designers.
So if you don't have a drawing tablet
and you're looking for one on a low budget,
I'd recommend this one as it's amazing for a first starter,
the entry specs are good and it's great value.
So those are my thoughts on
the Artist 22 Pen Display 2nd Generation.
So what do you think?
Would you see yourself using a display like this?
Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below
and if you want to learn more about this display,
you can check the links in the description.
Well, I hope you enjoy this video.
If you did, hit the like button
and don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell button
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like this in future.
Also, if any of you have any other design product reviews
you would like to see me discuss,
be sure to pop them in the comments
and I'll look into it.
Until then have fun guys.
And I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)