Review: Ugee UT2 Android drawing tablet

Review unit provided by ugee

ugee has just released the UT2 and UT3, two new Android 14 tablets with support for pressure sensitive pens for drawing. UT2 is a 10.36-inch tablet while UT3 is larger at 14.25-inch.

Prices for UT2 are as follows:

• Early bird special 11 - 15 Oct 2024: USD 169
• Pre-sale 15 - 30 Oct 2024: USD 199
• Retail 2 Nov 2024 onwards: USD 249

Prices for UT3 are as follows:

• Early bird special 11 - 15 Oct 2024: USD 299
• Pre-sale 15 - 18 Oct 2024: USD 319
• Retail 2 Nov 2024 onwards: USD 429

The tablets come with one year warranty.

I've received review units for UT2 and UT3, and this review focuses on the UT2. If you are interested in the UT3 tablet, please read my review before buying because the pen performance is different from UT2’s.

By the way, I did a quick search online and found out that ugee has also release another Android tablet earlier called UT1, but it seems like that’s sold only in China.

Video review

UT2 specifications

• Display: 10.36-inch LCD, 60Hz refresh rate
• Brightness: 350 nits
• Resolution: 2000 x 1200
• Colour support: 72 NTSC (~100% sRGB)
• Display surface: Matte glass
• Processor: MediaTek MT8781
• RAM: 6GB
• Storage: 128GB
• MicroSD card slot: Yes
• Weight: 466g
• Camera: 8MP front, 8MP rear
• Speakers: 2
• Pen: U-pencil included, 4096 levels of pressure
• Battery capacity: 7000 mAh
• Thickness: 7.5mm
• Weight: 466g
• OS: Android 14

Things included

• Tablet
• Flip case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• 15W USB-A charger with interchangeable plugs
• Artist glove
• U-pencil
• 1x replacement pen nib
• Pen nib remover
• Warranty card
• User manual

Flip case supports auto wake and sleep.

Design

Design of the tablet looks good with the uniform bezels and rounded corners for the body and LCD.

Build quality feels solid with the metal construction. Weight of the tablet is 466g and that’s reasonable for a tablet this size. Thickness is 7.5mm.

The 8MP landscape front camera does not support face unlock, and there’s no fingerprint unlock.

There’s another 8MP camera on the back and it has a flashlight. The ugee design on the long edge feels like pasted sticker but it’s actually some printed design on metal if I’m not wrong.

USB C port does not support video output. There are dual speakers and the audio is loud but sounds hollow. 3.5mm audio is located at one corner.

There’s a microSD card slot for easy storage expansion, but there's no support for cellular SIM.

The tablet is almost A5 size so there’s a good amount of canvas space to work with. You can place your palm on the display and there’s still space leftover for drawing. Apps that work well are those with minimal user interface.

Display

The 10.36-inch LCD has a resolution of 2000 x 1200 and 60Hz refresh rate. Visuals look sharp and brightness is much higher than expected.

There’s auto-brightness but it doesn’t work well as brightness tends to be dimmer than what I prefer.

Colours are vibrant enough but from an angle you can see the affected contrast and LCD or IPS glow. Colour support is listed as 72% NTSC which translates to around 100% sRGB.

This display uses matte glass instead of a matte textured screen protector. The anti-glare is able to diffuse reflections really well, and the display is actually bright enough to go through the diffused reflections. The display may be bright, but it’s still not bright enough if you’re using the tablet under direct sunlight.

The matte surface introduces slight colour noise but does not degrade the visual quality much. Not noticeable unless you're looking for it.

Display is laminated so there’s almost no gap between the line and the pen tip.

The only gap is the one from latency as the line chases the pen tip. Latency is listed as 20ms and is noticeable. FYI, latency for pen displays is usually around 15ms and around 2.8ms for the latest high end Android tablets with pen support.

ugee U-pencil

The pen supports tilt, 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection.

Pen is battery-powered and has to be charged through the USB-C port. Pen has to be powered on before each use by pressing the eraser button at the back. There are no side buttons. Pen nib can be removed with the nib remover or fingernail if yours are long enough. At the time of review, it’s unclear how easy replacement pen nibs can be purchased. And since I’ve only been testing the tablet for several weeks, I cannot say how fast the pen nibs will wear down on the matte glass.

Build quality of the pen is quite solid.

Performance

I did a search for MediaTek MT8781 and search results are mostly for the MediaTek Helio G99 (May 2022) which has the same specifications.

https://www.mediatek.com/products/smartphones-2/mediatek-helio-g99

Anyway, performance of the processor with 6GB RAM is mostly smooth even with multi-tasking. Performance is fast enough but isn’t as instantaneous as premium Android tablets. There’s no annoying lag though.

Needless to say, this tablet does not do well with graphics intensive games with best visual settings.

OS

The tablet runs on Android OS and the UI on top is ugeeOS. Features are quite basic so if you need more features, you’ll have to install your own launcher.

Google Play Store is supported and there’s a good variety of drawing apps to choose from. Some of the more popular ones include

• Infinite Painter
• Concepts
• Sketchbook Pro
• HiPaint
• IbisPaint
• Medibang Paint
• Krita
• Clip Studio Paint

Ugee has pre-installed an app called PaintPal which can be uninstalled.

The default file manager is Google Files which has extremely limited features so you will definitely need another file manager. I recommend Solid Explorer or CX File Explorer.

It is important to know that backup options provided by this tablet does not backup artworks. There’s no full tablet backup option.

Backup is through Google Drive and you only get to backup photos, videos, contacts, and things Google usually backups.

To backup artworks, you need to find where your files are saved and handle backup yourself. Or just save your artworks to cloud storage if possible.

The other thing I don’t like is when you swipe up for app switching, you will see one and a half big app instead of several small thumbnails of apps that are open. This means there will be much scrolling before you can find the app you want.

Pen

The ugee U-pencil included with UT2 and UT3 have different designs but are interchangeable and can work on either tablets.

UT2's pen has an eraser at the back but not side buttons. UT3's pen has two side buttons but no eraser.

Pen tip has minimal movement when in contact with the drawing surface.

Line tests

These line tests are created with Medibang Paint.

1. Initial activation force is low so it’s easy to draw thin lines even with a thick brush. But you have to press down slightly because lines will break if you draw with almost no pressure. There’s no noticeable diagonal line jitter or wobble, but it can be challenging to maintain consistent line width when drawing with minimal pressure.

There's some pressure variance with the thin lines but nothing too concerning.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. The pen is able to detect minor changes in pressure when drawing with minimal pressure.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently with consistent pressure

5. Dots can be drawn easily

6. There are no cursor misalignment issues. I could join lines without gaps and without lines overshooting.

The pen performance is better than expected.What surprises me most is there’s no obvious diagonal line wobble or jitter.

While the pen is as good compared to Apple Pencil or Samsung S Pen, it's certainly better than Microsoft Slim Pen 2.

Drawing experience

The matte glass surface is really nice to work on. While you don’t exactly get the paper-like experience, it still feels better compared to drawing on glossy glass. Sweaty palms do not stick to the matte surface as easily.

The two downsides that affect drawing experience would be latency and palm rejection.

20ms latency is on the slower side but it’s not too bad for drawing unless you’re someone who draws really fast. When writing, you can definitely notice latency more easily since when writing we write fast.

Palm rejection does not work well. What usually happens is double finger undo gesture would activate and I’ve to redraw or redo whatever was drawn, so that’s quite annoying. The workaround is to wear an artist glove, or just avoid placing your palm on the display, e.g. place your palm on the table instead of on the tablet.

Besides the issues with latency and palm rejection, overall drawing experience is still on the positive side because the pen performance is good.

I was able to get the lines to come out the way I want them to. You can draw thin lines even with a thick brush selected. Pressure sensitivity works well, and there’s no diagonal line jitter or wobble to affect accuracy.

Tilt works fine with Sketchbook Pro, but not as well with Concepts where the tilt transition is not smooth.

Battery life

Battery life is better than I expected. I was able to get 7 hours of battery life at maximum brightness. In the worst case scenario, it's probably 6 hours.

Conclusion

A budget tablet will always have compromises, downsides or limitations. This tablet certainly has room for improvement, but many of the downsides or limitations can be explained away with “but it’s a budget tablet”.

If ugee can improve the latency and palm rejection for future models, that would be great. You can ask for a better processor, more RAM, more storage but all that will add to the cost. I guess at this price point, this is the best the company can do right now.

I’ve reviewed many budget Android tablets in the past and most do not have good drawing performance due to diagonal line wobble or jitter. So I was genuinely shocked when I see that this ugee tablet and pen are not affected by this very common problem.

For a tablet that’s marketed for drawing, this tablet succeeds at being actually good enough for drawing.

This tablet is probably targeted at beginners with its budget price point. The tablet is good for casual drawing and even serious work thanks to the pen performance.

If you can get it during the early bird special period for USD 169, it's a pretty good deal in my opinion. From pre-sale 15 - 30 October, the price will go up to USD 199, and from 2 Nov 2024 onwards it will be USD 249.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good except for placement of 3.5mm audio jack
+ Compact portable design
+ Solid build quality
+ Colours look good
+ Matte drawing surface
+ No noticeable tilt or wobble with diagonal lines
+ Good pen performance
+ 7 hours battery life at maximum brightness
+ Android 14 with Google Play Store
+ Smooth performance overall
- 20ms latency is higher than usual
- Palm rejection does not work well
- App switcher UI requires much scrolling

Availability

The ugee UT2 is available from ugee online store