Huion’s 4K graphics tablet: my experience with the Kamvas Pro 19

The Kamvas Pro 19 from Huion is a 19-inch pen display with large colour spaces and extensive accessories. Drawing on the matt glass feels fluid, and the image that’s displayed is sharp. There’s hardly anything I miss when using this tablet.

Display: 4K resolution and good colour space coverage

Huion’s Kamvas Pro 19 is a true masterpiece in the most important area: its display. The surface is made of matt glass, with the primary purpose being to reduce annoying reflections. But as well as that, it reduces image noise, usually visible on a white background. The pen also glides with such comfort thanks to its fine texture.

The display delivers a UHD resolution (3840 × 2160), showcases over 1.07 billion colours and, according to Huion, boasts excellent colour space coverage:

• sRGB: 99 %
• Adobe RGB: 96 %
• DCI-P3: 98 %

Each display is also calibrated. The accuracy should be ΔE<1.5 (Delta E below 1.5). You won’t notice this kind of discrepancy with the naked eye.

You can use 40.9 × 23 cm of the display. The format is almost 2:1, which seems unusual at first glance but is actually very practical. You can display the menus on the page while drawing and still have a large canvas to play with.

You can operate the display with the stylus, and the touch function also works when paired with a Windows device. The latter function can be switched on and off using a button. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with macOS, as Apple hasn’t implemented touch control. At 60 Hz and 220 nits, this graphics tablet delivers a reasonable frame rate and brightness.

Hardware and accessories: everything you need

The tablet measures just under 45 × 27 cm, is 2 cm thick and weighs 2 kg. On the aluminium back, you’ll find two foldout feet. I’d like to vary the tilt angle, but unfortunately this isn’t possible. As well as two USB-C ports, there’s a headphone jack on the side. A switch at the top activates the touchscreen function.

There are a number of accessories for the Kamvas Pro 19. For example, two different pens: the standard PW600 pen and the slim PW600S version. The second is thinner than the first. This lets you test out which fits your hand better. Or, like me, you can use one of the other tips that the pens come with. One tip glides more smoothly over the tablet, while the other is somewhat rougher, similar to a felt tip. I like the rough one for sketching, but I use the finer version for colouring in.

The pens have customisable buttons, with the thin pen featuring two, and the thicker version three. You can use the opposite end as a rubber. These stylus also recognise up to 16,000 pressure levels. Although not particularly heavy, they look well made.

They come with replacement tips and a hard case, practical for storing the pens when I’m not using them, as it has two holes. Or I can just put them in the recess of the case lid so they don’t roll away.

Another practical accessory is the shortcut keyboard. You can freely assign more than a dozen buttons and a rotary wheel with a centre button. I use the wheel in the classic way for zooming in and assign the buttons with a delete function, switching between different brushes and so on. I hardly notice the macOS touch function is missing.

I like the rubber corners on the back, as these let me place the keyboard on the display. You can also switch it on at the touch of a button, and it connects to the computer via Bluetooth. The keyboard then charges via USB-C.

Software and setting up: plug in and go

It doesn’t take much to set up the Kamvas Pro 19. You can connect it to the power supply or to a notebook or PC via the two USB-C ports and enclosed cables. Then I need the appropriate driver so I can alter settings and ensure the pen is working properly. The device is compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, but not iPad. I’m using Clip Studio Paint for this review, but other programs such as Photoshop, Krita, ZBrush and Affinity also work.

Dreamy drawing on 19-inch, matt glass

It’s fun to draw on the matt display. The pen glides comfortably and recognises the slightest differences in pressure. As a result, I can get by with one type of brush for sketching and just work with varying pressure.

Thanks to the shortcut keyboard, I cope well without the touch function. My M1 MacBook Air handles programs like Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop reasonably well. From time to time, however, the notebook falters. So bear in mind that, alongside good graphics, you also need stunning hardware.

With a high pixel density of 238 ppi, the Kamvas Pro 19 clearly displays the finest details – even without zooming in. It’s a different story with an inexpensive Pro model like the XP-Pen’s Artist Pro 14. With a resolution of 1920 × 1200 pixels, my pictures soon look grainy and blurred and I have to zoom in to see smaller details.