4K Pen Display Delivers 1.07 Billion Colors
Review by Dave Williams
The Huion Kamvas Pro 24 is a great pen display for artists and photographers that competes firmly against other manufacturers. The closest competitors are the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 at $1,899 and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 Touch at $2,449.95, so immediately it’s more affordable at $1299; but does the saving impact on the performance and capabilities of this pen display? Here are my thoughts.
The competition has caused shifts and restructuring within the market, which can cause some companies to use cheap parts or other cost-saving elements that can impact your work. So far, after using the Kamvas Pro 24, it doesn’t seem to be a victim of this bad trait. This is a powerful display commanding the attention of many photographers, designers, and artists.
In the box, which itself is well made and protected, is the display, a battery-free pen, all the cables and accessories, and a Mini Keydial KD100, which is marketed as a “free gift.” (My suspicion is that everyone will get this free gift, always.) The company also states that the Mini Keydial “can be fully customized to suit your workflow and maximize efficiency.” While this may be the case, the keys themselves cannot be labeled, and that means it can be difficult to train your brain to remember what each of the 18 keys does. The radial dial on the Mini Keydial is great, making fine adjustments on sliders, etc., very effective.
Back to the display itself: It comes in at 23.2×14.3″ (589x364mm); it’s 0.9″ (22.7mm) thick; and weighs 13.9 lbs (6.3 kg). These numbers can best be described as substantial, but this package has a lot going on, and is definitely made to stay on your desk. First up, the size of the display means far less time is occupied by zooming in and out to fit the focus of your work into the display. The 4K resolution UHD QLED display has great color (once you’ve tuned it the way you want in the settings), and features something called Quantum Dot Technology for a 140% sRGB color gamut and a 1200:1 contrast ratio. This delivers an impressive 1.07 billion colors, which is on-par with Xencelabs.
The glass is designed to deal with parallax and glare, with a viewing angle of 178° and a combination of anti-glare, laminated glass that’s bonded to the screen, which means that using the Kamvas Pro 24 is like the experience of using pen on paper. There’s just one button on the unit: the power and menu-accessing button. The screen parameters can be adjusted with the onscreen display after holding the button, making it fast to change the brightness, contrast, color, etc.
Most of the cable ports are on the top and slightly set-in, hiding the cables effectively. There’s a power port, USB-C, HDMI, and Display Port. On the side are two USB-A ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Kamvas Pro 24 can be connected easily to a Mac, PC, or Android device.
The pen features PenTech 3.0, Huion’s latest pen technology. The pen itself is comfortable, feels good to use, almost like a real pen, and it needs no battery. There are 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity and 60° tilt in every direction. The pen features two buttons and an eraser (nice and simple) and, along with other aspects of the display, these buttons can be adjusted easily in the Huion Tablet App, which also allows custom controls per application. This is great when switching between Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which require different features.
Overall, the Huion Kamvas Pro 24 is a fantastic, silent, effective pen display. It’s functional, easy to set up and use and, most importantly, it hasn’t given me any cause for concern or confusion. Everything about it just works and, although its price level is still an investment, it packs a powerful punch and certainly worth the price tag. It’s rock-solid, functional, and the display itself is stunning.
