Review #2: Ugee 2150 Pen Display

Special thanks to GearBest.com for providing the review unit

The Ugee 2150 Pen Display was actually released in 2015 if I am not wrong. I had actually invited a guest artist to write a review back then when the product was just released. Should you need a second opinion, you can check out that earlier review. Two years later, the Ugee 2150 is still selling. So is it still good by today's standards?

Included items

Other than the monitor, these are the included items

• 2x stylus
• 2x stylus charging cable
• Stylus stand
• 8x replacement nibs
• USB cable
• VGA cable
• HDMI cable
• Power adapter and cable

Build quality

The design of Ugee 2150 is quite similar to many other pen displays I've featured on the blog over the years, such as the XP Pen Artist 22HD and Huion GT220.

The build quality is good enough. It feels sturdy.

The stand is detachable should you want to use a VESA mount. You can adjust the angle of the stand by releasing the latch at the top.

The 21.5-inch screen supports 1920 by 1080 resolution with a 250cd/m2 brightness. The glass surface is really glossy and reflective. When you rest your palm on the screen, it's going to hinder your palm moving around easily because of the surface texture it might be better to use the gloves provided.

The IPS panel has relatively good colour reproduction. I've calibrated the screen with a Spyder 5 Pro and was able to get a reading of 99% sRGB and 76% AdobeRGB which is good enough for a monitor in this price range. Viewing angles are decent too.

These are the buttons on the monitor.

The graphic ports supported are VGA, DVI and HDMI. Note that the DVI cable is not included. There's a USB port to connect to the computer so that the stylus can be recognised.

One of the downsides to the design is the cables come out from beneath the monitor, and when you adjust the stand to the lowest (flat) angle, the monitor is most likely going to rest on the cable, and it would wobble. At the lowest angle, you can adjust the cables in such a way that the rubber feet can get contact with the table, but this means you have to manually adjust the cables each time you lay the monitor flat. It's an inconvenience if you like to draw at such a low angle, but if you don't, then it's not really a big issue.

That's the pen and stand provided.

The pens are battery powered so you have to charge them when battery life is low. But since there are two pens provided, you would always have one to use while you charge the other. Charging port is at the back of the pen so there's no eraser.

The pen is quite lightweight. The huge rubber grip is good to hold but attracts dust easily.

8 replacement tips are provided and can be found inside the pen stand.

The pen is incredibly sensitive. Very little pressure is require to produce the thinnest of lines. If you want to create dots by tapping on the screen, you have to move the tip slightly because just by tapping, the dots won't come out.

There's some parallax error but it's not really a big problem after calibrating the screen for parallax. The pen and cursor is generally very accurate.

Driver installation

The driver supports XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 and Mac OS.

Driver installation is straightforward. I've only tested this on Mac OS. If you need a Windows point of view, check out the guest artist review.

You can adjust the pressure sensitivity of the pen, assign shortcuts to the side buttons, calibrate the screen for parallax with the driver.

Drawing experience

The monitor and pen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and they work really well.

Photoshop CS5 on Mac works with pressure. Lines are smooth and can transition easily from thin to thick depending on pressure. The lines do not taper as gradually compared to Wacom tablets though.

Pressure sensitivity does not work with Adobe Illustrator CS5 on the Mac.

Pressure works with Affinity Photo.

Pressure works with Krita.

Pressure works with Mischief.

Pressure works with Medibang Paint Pro. The hatching lines also taper gradually.

Tayasui Sketches Pro does not support pressure for its drawing tools.

Video review

Conclusion

Generally speaking, the Ugee 2150 works quite well. Pressure sensitivity works with all the apps I've tried except Adobe Illustrator CS5. Maybe Adobe CC would support it but I can't confirm since I'm still using the old Adobe software.

Accuracy is good. There's no lag but this depends on your system and the apps you use. I did not face with any strange glitches so that's a major pro.

As for downsides... Since the screen is glossy, it prevents the palm from sliding around easily so you have to wear the glove. The feeling of the pen tip on plastic is not as good compared to Wacom Cintiqs because those screens have matte surface. It will take a while to get used to drawing on glossy glass screen. You may want to consider getting a matte screen protector but that would affect the image quality -- making the image look slightly more grainy.

Pros
+ Good build quality
+ 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ 2 pens included
+ Spare nibs included
+ No noticeable lag
+ Supports HDMI, DVI-I, and VGA
+ IPS panel with decent colour reproduction and viewing angles
+ Cheaper than Wacom pen displays
+ Works well with most Mac apps except Illustrator CS5

Cons
- Cables come out from bottom of monitor affects the lowest stand position
- Glossy, reflective screen
- Parallax that's compensated by software settings
- Limited driver/stylus customizability
- No shortcut buttons on the monitor

Availability

You can compare prices at Gearbest.com | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon ES | Amazon IT | Amazon JP

Purchases though the links get me a commission at no extra cost to you, and helps me put out more reviews like this.