Artist Review: Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) pen display

Review unit provided by Huion

Huion released three 24-inch pen displays in July 2021. They are the Kamvas 24 (QHD), Kamvas 24 Plus (QHD) and Kamvas Pro 24 (4K). These models are updates to the Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (QHD) released in 2020.

Below's the comparison table between the four models.

Here are some important things to note.

Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) does not come with a stand so you'll have to buy your own. You can consider the Huion ST100 stand (US $49) or the Huion ST410 single arm display mount ($119) or Huion ST420 dual arm display mount ($199). If you choose to buy the stands or monitor arms together with the pen display, you can get discounts from $20 to $60.

If you buy from Huion's web store, definitely get the felt pen nibs which are just $7.99 for ten pieces.

These are the items included

• Pen display
• Power cable and adapter (2.5m)
• USB-C to USB-C cable (1m)
• USB-A to USB-C cable (1m)
• Full-size HDMI to full-size HDMI (1.5m)
• PW517 pen and stand
• 8 replacement nibs
• Huion KD100 KeyDial

The Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) supports DisplayPort but there's no DisplayPort cable included.

A 24-inch pen display is quite big and provides a huge area to draw on.

Kamvas Pro 16 Plus (4K) instead.

The clean and simple design of the pen display looks good.

On the back are two fold-out feet. There's a VESA mount (10 x 10cm) in the middle.

The fold-out feet can only prop up the pen display at a fixed angle which is a comfortable angle to work with for drawing.

If you want to use this display as your main display, e.g. to watch shows or do other work, then you will need a proper stand.

If you have no use for a monitor arm, I recommend the Huion ST100 stand which is just US $29 when purchased together with the pen display.

Video ports are at the top, from left to right: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C and power.

To use the pen display as a USB hub, you have to use USB-C to USB-C connection, or use a display cable with the USB-A to USB-C cable.

Colours on the pen display look great out of the box. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 91% NTSC, 95% AdobeRGB, 89% P3 and a maximum brightness of 201 nits with the Spyder5Pro colour calibrator. Colour accuracy is good. This is a 10-bit IPS panel.

The anti-glare of the matte glass surface isn't too aggressive. There's the white haze from diffused reflections but you can still see the colours beneath. The anti-glare or matte surface will introduce some grain or colour noise to the image quality but that's the compromise between having a textured surface to draw on vs image quality.

Viewing angles are fantastic. There's minimal colour shifting even when display is viewed from extreme angles.

The display is laminated so there's no gap between the drawing surface and the LCD beneath. There's no parallax. When drawing it looks like the line is appearing directly beneath the pen tip.

4K resolution

This is how small the UI elements will look without any scaling on a 4K display.

With 1440P scaling, the UI elements look much bigger and are easier to see and click on accurately. Using 1440P scaling on a 4K display means you've have access to the 1440P workspace but with the sharpness of 4K.

1440P workspace has significantly more canvas/desktop space compared to a 1080P workspace. 1440P is a huge upgrade over 1080P and is great for productivity. With a 1440P workspace, you can place a reference photo by the side and still have enough canvas space to draw with.

All the three new 24-inch models are better for productivity compared to the Kamvas Pro 16 (4K) which has to be used with 1080P scaling/workspace.

There are some issues with scaling with MacOS that affect users of Photoshop and Affinity Photo.

When you use 1440P scaling with a 4K display, 100% zoomed 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) files in Photoshop and Affinity Photo will not fill up the 4K display. You won't be able to see a 4K file on actual 4K display as shown above. Whether this will bother you comes down to personal preference. The thing is even when the file is 100% zoomed, it's still big enough to work with. Or you can just use Ctrl+0 or Cmd+0 to fill the image to screen instead of using 100% zoom.

Windows does not have this problem with scaling Photoshop or Affinity Photo files.

For those upgrading from 1080P or 1440P displays, you'll see a huge improvement in sharpness and detail.

Pen

The Huion PW517 pen uses PenTech 3 and supports tilt and 8,192 levels of pressure sensitvity. The pen is battery-free so no charging is required. Build quality is solid.

The large rubber grip is comfortable to hold. There are two customisable side buttons.

The pen tip is firm and does not have the usual in-out movement. This is a good pen.

Hidden within pen stand are 10 replacement nibs.

Huion has recently released new felt nibs and I highly recommend these. The tactile drawing experience is similar to using a felt tip pen on paper except without the wet ink. They are sold at US $9.99 for ten pieces ($7.99 when bundled with pen display purchase). Buy two packs if you can because I'm not sure how durable they are.

Huion KeyDial KD100

This is the shortcut remote included. It has 18 customisable buttons and a customisable dial. It's quite useful.

OSD

To access the OSD, just press and hold the power button for a few seconds. Settings on the OSD can be adjusted only with the pen.

The settings you can change are brightness, contrast, colour temperature, RGB, aspect ratio.

Driver

Driver screenshots and writeup are from my Kamvas Pro 16 (4K) review since they share the same driver.

The drivers tested are Mac driver v15.4.26.297 (6 Aug 2021) and Windows driver v15.3.19.268 (6 Aug 2021).

There's nothing much to do with the driver since there are no physical shortcut buttons. If you use the Huion Mini KeyDial KD100, you can set the keyboard shortcuts using the same driver.

Mapping area can remain as default. Monitor calibration may be needed if there's misalignment with the cursor and pen tip.

Windows users will have the additional Windows Ink functionality here. If pressure sensitivity is not working as expected, you may have to toggle Windows ink on or off to troubleshoot.

Pressure curve can be adjusted by moving the two control points for finer adjustments.

If you use more than one monitors, you'll want to set one button on the pen to Switch Display.

Windows driver allows you to adjust some colour attributes using the driver.

It's also possible to create shortcut sets for specific apps you use.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance is fantastic.

1. Initial activation force is minimal so drawing thin lines is easy even if you have a thick brush selected.

2. Strokes can taper smoothly.

3. Transition from thin to thick is smooth.

4. Dots can be drawn easily by tapping the pen.

5. It's easy to maintain consistent pressure to draw lines with consistent widths.

Drawing performance is consistent and predictable. There are no surprises, no glitches. The lines always come out the way I expect them to. The PW517 is a sensitive and accurate pen.

I've tested Photoshop, Illustrator, Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Medibang Paint, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. You can expect the same drawing performance with those apps on Windows and MacOS.

Photoshop CC

Photoshop CC

Clip Studio Paint

Medibang Paint Pro

Tilt works with Krita (above) and with other apps too.

Conclusion

The Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) is a good looking pen display with solid build quality. Drawing performance is fantastic and overall drawing experience I had is terrific. The pen is sensitive and lines just come out the way I expect them too.

There are some downsides though. The cables coming out from the top don't look good. Matte surface introduces grain/colour noise but this is expected. USB-C cable is just 1m long which is considered short. There's no stand included.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Solid build quality
+ 4K UHD makes everything looks sharp and detailed
+ Good colour support: 100% sRGB, 95% Adobe RGB
+ Good viewing angles
+ Anti-glare not that aggressive
+ Matte drawing surface has nice texture to draw on
+ Laminated display with no gap between drawing surface and LCD
+ Matte drawing surface is glass and not a screen protector
+ USB-C connection possible to reduce cable clutter
+ Can be used as USB hub
+ 10 replacement nibs included
+ Pen does not require charging
+ Pen supports tilt and 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Initial activation force is minimal
+ Good drawing performance
+ No major glitches with drawing software on both Mac and Windows
+ Does not produce much heat
- No stand included
- Matte surface introduces grain/colour noise
- Cables coming out from the top don't look good
- No physical shortcut buttons
- USB-C cable is short. Just 1m
- User experience with Android is not optimal (Android's fault)
- Pricey

Which 24-inch pen display to get?

Huion is currently selling four 24-inch pen displays, namely:

• Kamvas 24 (QHD) - US $799
• Kamvas 24 Plus (QHD) - US $899
• Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) - US $1,299
• Kamvas Pro 24 (QHD) - US $829

Only the Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) has 4K UHD resolution.

It doesn't make much sense to get the Kamvas 24 for US $799 when you can get the Kamvas Pro 24 (2020) for $829 and get 20 shortcut buttons. The Kamvas Pro 24 (2020) has a laminated display and matte glass which the Kamvas 24 does not.

Kamvas 24 Plus is the best deal in my opinion. It has a laminated display, matte glass, good colour accuracy possibly matching Kamvas Pro 24 (4K), comes with a stand and is priced at US $899 which is $400 cheaper than the 4K model. Even if you get the 4K model, chances are you'll use the 1440P scaling. So both Kamvas 24 Plus and Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) are using 1440P workspace and the only difference is the 4K has sharper visuals. 1440P resolution even if it has slight pixelation is still a good resolution to work with. If you don't mind that slight pixelation, you get to save at least $400.

Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) is for people who appreciate the higher resolution and the sharper more detailed visuals. This pen display has a price to match too.

Kamvas Pro 24 (2020) is good if you want the shortcut buttons. If not, I recommend going for the Kamvas 24 Plus for even better colours and image quality.

Help me out

If you are buying any of the pen display from Huion, considering using my affiliate links to help support my blog and Youtube channel. This helps me to continue to put out more content like this.

These are direct (affiliate) links to the products on Huion's webstore:

• Kamvas 24 (QHD) - US $799
• Kamvas 24 Plus (QHD) - US $899
• Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) - US $1,299
• Kamvas Pro 24 (QHD) - US $829

You can also find the pen displays on Amazon but you'll only get discounts to bundled accessories from Huion web store. Here are the Amazon links:
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