Review: Huion Kamvas 13 gen 3 pen display (2024)

Review unit provided by Huion

The Huion Kamvas 13 gen 3 pen display was released in August 2024 and is priced at USD 249, or USD 269 with a tablet stand.

This new pen display has several improvements for digital artists. There are now two dials, the Huion PW600 pen supports tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity, and the display now uses matte glass instead of a matte screen protector.

Bottom line

The drawing performance is fantastic and the visual quality of the display is great. The matte glass does not affect image quality much and this should have been the one that the Huion Kamvas Pro 19 should have used.

Video review

Specifications

• Model number: GS1333
• Colour: Sakura Pink / Cosmo Black
• Panel size: 13.3-inch
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (16:9 aspect ratio), 166 PPI
• Panel type: IPS LCD, 60Hz, laminated
• Active area: 293.8 x 165.2mm
• Contrast ratio: 1000:1
• Brightness: 200 nits typical
• Response time: 25ms
• Viewing angle: 85°/85°(H)/85°/85°(V) (Typ.) (CR>10)
• Colour support: 99%sRGB / 99%Rec.709 / 90%Adobe RGB
• Display colours: 16.7M (8bit)
• Screen finish: 2nd gen anti-glare etched glass
• Pen: Huion PW600L
• Pen technology: Pentech 4.0
• Pen resolution: 5080 LPI
• Pressure levels: 16384 levels
• Accuracy: ±0.3mm (center), ±2mm (corner)
• Reading height: 10mm
• Tilt: ±60°
• Video connection: USB-C, HDMI
• Stand: Huion ST300 (optional)
• Dimensions: 361.21 x 202.77 x 11.7mm
• Weight: 865g
• OS: Windows, Mac, Android, Linux

Things included

• Pen display
• 3-to-1 cable with HDMI support
• USB-A to USB-A power extension cable
• Huion PW600 pen
• 10x replacement plastic pen nibs
• Pen stand
• Micro-fiber cleaning cloth
• Artist glove
• User manual
• Colour calibration report
• Huion ST300 stand

There are no replacement felt nibs included. If you want to buy replacement felt nibs, model is PN06F.

The pen display supports USB-C video connection but no USB-C video cable is included.

The optional Huion ST300 stand is an extra USD 30. I highly recommend getting a tablet stand if you don't already have one as it's more ergonomic to draw on the pen display at an inclined angle.

Design

Design of the pen display looks beautiful. There are two dials and 5 hotkeys included. Body is made with plastic and mostly matte textured throughout. Build quality is solid.

The two colour options available are Sakura Pink and Cosmo Black.

The dials are exposed on the sides which make them easier to turn. The dials have audible clicks when turned. There's a button in the middle to switch between different customisable functionality.

The five hotkeys are firm and have dampened feedback when pressed.

One significant upgrade is the use of matte glass instead of a matte screen protector. It's quite unlikely to scratch the glass with the plastic nib, and you still get the nice tactile drawing experience. The matte glass provides anti-glare and removes reflections.

All matte surfaces will affect display quality by adding slight grain or colour noise. I'm happy to say that this matte surface has minimal grain or colour noise, and the sharpness isn't affected much. In other words, the quality of this matte surface is quite good and this should be the minimum standard Huion should go with for their future products.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and pen tip. There's also minimal to no cursor misalignment when the pen is held at an angle vs vertical.

Response time is rated at 25ms which is on the slower side compared to 15ms of other pen displays. Latency is there but it's not really an issue when drawing unless you're drawing very fast.

OSD menu can be accessed with the pen.

With the Spyder X2 Ultra colour calibrator, I measured colours support for 98% sRGB, 79% NTSC, 84% AdobeRGB and 82% P3, and a maximum brightness of 288 nits which is good enough for use in bright room environment.

Image quality due to viewing angle is affected by the type of LCD this pen display is using and the matte surface. You will get the best image quality when viewing the display from the front. There will be colour variance when display is viewed from the side, but this is not a big issue since the display is not that big so your field of view from the front will cover the whole display. E.g. A larger 27-inch version of a display like this will have colour variance near the edges even when viewed from the front.

Colour calibration report from Huion mentions a Delta E of 0.89. Delta E is the difference between input colour vs display colour. Anything less than 2 is good, and less than 1 is great.

Pen

This is the Huion PW660L pen that supports 60 degrees tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. This pen is a variant of the PW660 which has an eraser at the back, but this does not.

The pen is not powered by battery so no charging is required.

The silicone grip is quite firm and does not attract much dust. Build quality is good and it's a comfortable pen to hold. There are three customisable side buttons with firm feedback. Pen tip is firm and has minimal movement when in contact with drawing surface.

This pen display is also compatible with the Huion PW660S pen which is the slim version that has only 2 side buttons. It's quite pricey though at USD 79.

Extra replacement pen nibs are stored inside the pen stand.

Cursor tracking at the extreme edges is good.

Driver

The Mac driver I've tested is version 15.7.2.

Here's where you can customise the five hotkeys and two dials.

The two dials are pre-programmed with shortcuts to change brush size, scroll and zoom. There's no way to customise other shortcuts for the two dials (with the Mac driver).

Here's the list of shortcuts that can be assigned to the hotkeys:

• Keyboard key
• Mouse key - Includes modifier keys, Ctrl Shift Alt Cmd
• Tools - Includes Switch Display and you can choose which displays to include
• Run program
• System application - Mac or Windows shortcuts
• Multimedia
• Precision mode - Moves the cursor slower
• Pan scroll
• Quick menu - Shows a popup menu with 6 customisable shortcuts
• Fixed pressure sensitivity
• None

This is where you can customise the three side buttons of the pen. The shortcuts you can assign are similar to the hotkeys.

The pressure curve can be adjusted by moving three control points.

There's display settings for the Mac driver but I can't do anything with the loading screen always above. Alternatively, the display settings can still be customised by holding down the power button for a few seconds.

Line tests

Line tests below are created with Medibang Paint

1. Pen has very low initial activation force. Drawing thin lines is easy even with a thick brush selected. There's no noticeable diagonal line wobble or jitter.

2. Lines are able taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. This is also a diagonal line and there's no noticeable diagonal line wobble and jitter. Thin lines can still be drawn after drawing thick lines, and this is possible because this pen has excellent pressure sensitivity.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently with consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. There are no issues with cursor misalignment. Lines could be joined easily without gaps and without lines overshooting.

Tilt sensitivity works fine.

The pen performance is predictable and consistent. I was able to get the lines to come out exactly the way I expect them to.

Drawing experience

Since the pen is accurate and sensitive, the overall drawing experience is excellent.

This was drawn with Clip Studio Paint. Ignore the "gen 2" typo.

This was drawn with Photoshop.

This was drawn with Affinity Photo.

Overall workflow is smooth and without issues.

Conclusion

The Huion Kamvas 13 gen 3 is the result of years of refinement and improvement. If you look at the list of pros and cons, you can see I have difficulty listing the cons. If you want higher resolution, there's the Huion Kamvas 13 (2.5K) current selling on Huion's website for USD 339. Maybe Huion can improve the latency or brightness with their next model because I've no idea what else they can improve.

This is definitely one of the better Huion pen displays in terms of visual quality of the display, and drawing performance. The pen is accurate and sensitive and definitely good enough for creating professional work.

Pricing of USD 249 is quite reasonable. You have have stretch your budget slightly if you want the Huion ST300 stand or a USB-C video cable.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Good looking design
+ Good build quality
+ 5 hot keys and two dials
+ 13.3-inch still a good size to draw on
+ 1080P resolution sufficient for 13.3-inch display
+ 98% sRGB colour support
+ 288 nits is above the advertised 200 nits
+ Matte glass has nice texture to draw on
+ Matte glass does not affect image quality much
+ Laminated display
+ No cursor misalignment with pen at angle
+ USB-C single cable connection possible
+ 10 replacement nibs included
+ Pen does not require charging
+ Pen is accurate and sensitive
+ Initial activation force is minimal
+ OSD settings can be adjusted with the pen
- No USB-C video cable is included

Availability

The Huion Kamvas 13 gen 3 is available from Huion online store and Amazon (US | UK | CA | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP