Review: Huion Kamvas 22 Plus pen display

Big thanks to Huion for providing the Kamvas 22 Plus for this review. A few disclaimers first. I do not need to return the unit but this is not a paid review. I've featured many Huion products on my blog over the past few years.

The Huion Kamvas 22 and Kamvas 22 Plus are new pen displays released just months after their big brother the Huion Kamvas Pro 24.

Huion now has six 22-inch pen displays they are currently selling, namely:

  • Kamvas 22 - US $449
  • Kamvas 22 Plus - $549
  • Kamvas Pro 22 (2019) - $799
  • Kamvas Pro 22 (review) - $749
  • GT-220 V2 - $599
  • GT-221 Pro - $699

Yep, it's starting to get a bit confusing. Anyway, the GT series are the older pen displays. The recent pen displays come under the Kamvas series. The Pro models mentioned above have physical shortcut buttons while the new Kamvas 22 series don't.

Below are the differences between the Kamvas 22 and Kamvas 22 Plus.

Kamvas 22 Kamvas 22 Plus
Price US $449 US $549
Contrast 1000:1 1200:1
Colour support 120% sRGB, 92% AdobeRGB 140% sRGB, 104% AdobeRGB
Drawing surface Matte screen protector Matte glass, laminated display
Display type IPS LCD IPS LCD with quantum dot technology
Other stuff USB-C cable included

Let me give you the bottom line up front. The better model is the Kamvas 22 Plus, the one that's $100 more. It has good colour accuracy (almost 100% AdobeRGB) and comes with a matte glass laminated display. The quality of this display is even better compared to the $899 Kamvas Pro 24.

Read on to find out just how good this pen display is.

Things included


Everything's well packed in the box.


The pen display is packed in this large zipped bag.


There's a protective plastic film that needs to be removed.


These are all the items included.


Micro fiber cleaning cloth, quick start guide, card with links to where you can download the driver, artist glove, thank you card with contact details for Huion support and customer service.


Power cable and brick. You get to choose the plug if you buy from Huion's online store.


The 3-in-1 cable. The USB-C goes to the pen display. HDMI and USB goes to the computer. The last one's for power.


Pen and stand.


The Huion PW517 pen supports tilt and 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity. The design looks good. Build quality is solid and it has a nice weight. It's not powered by battery so no charging required.


It's comfortable to hold with its large rubber grip. The two side buttons are customisable to mouse or keyboard shortcuts.


The pen can rest on the stand horizontally or vertically.


Open the pen stand and you'll find 10 replacement nibs and the nib remover.


Four screws and an allen key screw driver are included to let you fix on the display stand. You can also VESA mount the display. The VESA measurements are 7.5 x 7.5cm.


The build quality is solid. It definitely feels like a premium product.


It's just slightly thicker than my laptop.


Design on the back is quite clean. There are vent holes on the sides.


There are vents at the top too.


Buttons for the OSD are located at the top right.


Things you change with the OSD menus are backlight, brightness, contrast, colour temperature, gamma, hue and saturation.


The body is made of plastic with matte texture surface. Edges on the back are all rounded off.


The stand is very easy to screw on. Just make sure the latch is at the top.


This is the stand's lowest position.


This is a more comfortable drawing angle.


This is the most upright position but the display will not be perpendicular to the table.

The stand is very stand. The rubber feet of the stand and the two rubber feet of the display are in contact with the table at all times with all positions.


When I first powered on the pen display, I was wowed. I knew instantly the visual quality of this display is better compared to the Kamvas 24 Pro.

The colours look good out of the box. I colour calibrated the unit and measured 96% sRGB, 94% NTSC, 97% aRGB and 88% P3. Colour accuracy is very good. This can be considered an AdobeRGB display. The display uses quantum dot technology, the same technology used by Samsung to make their QLED monitors.

I measured a maximum brightness of 314 nits, significantly higher compared to the 220 nits Huion has listed. I could run the display at 60% and get 200 nits.

Resolution is just 1080P, but it's still a very usable resolution.


Viewing angles are fantastic. Colours don't shift when display is viewed from the side.


This laminated display has absolutely no gap between the line/cursor and the pen tip. The Kamvas Pro 24 is supposed to be a laminated display but there's still a tiny gap if you look for it.

If you happen to be using an IPS LCD monitor that has a matte display, you'll notice the pixels look like they are on the display. Now imagine you can draw on that monitor. That's the Kamvas 22 Pro.

The matte glass surface is also similar to the matte surface you see on LCD monitors. There is none of the visual artifacts or speckled coating you get with matte screen protectors. Even the Kamvas Pro 24's matte glass has those visual artifacts.


The result is everything looks sharp. Even though pixelation is quite noticeable since it's a 1080P display, but those individual pixels are so sharp!

The matte glass here is smoother than the matte glass on the Kamvas Pro 24. Maybe that's why there's less to no visual artifacts. So when drawing, the pen glides along more easily compared to the more tactile experience you'll get with the Kamvas Pro 24.


The anti-glare works quite well.


There's no glare even if there's a strong light source on the side when you're viewing the display from the front.

This is the holy grail of laminated displays for drawing. This is the best laminated display that I've seen on a pen display. This is even better compared to the laminated display of the iPad Pro because that's glossy and this is not.


The display also does not produce much heat so you can draw comfortably for long periods of time.

Driver

Driver functionality for Mac and Windows is similar except there's the Windows Ink feature which you may have to turn on or off if pressure is not working as expected.

I've tested both Mac and Windows driver and did not experience any glitches.


There are no physical shortcut buttons to configure. I prefer to use my keyboard for shortcuts so that's not a loss for me.


Pressure sensitivity can be adjusted by moving the pressure curve with the two control dots for more precision. Driver on Mac only has one control dot for adjusting the pressure curve.

The two side buttons on the pen are customisable. I have one button set to Switch Display because I'm using dual screens.


If for some reason the cursor is not directly beneath the pen tip, you can calibrate it here.

Drawing performance

Drawing experience is excellent.


Lines are able to taper nice and gradually.


Line transition from thin to thick is smooth. Pressure sensitivity works great.


The pen is also able to maintain consistent pressure for a consistent line thickness.

Initial activation force is minimal. The pen is very sensitive and drawing thin lines with light pressure is easy. The sensitivity at low pressure is even better compared to the Kamvas Pro 24 which requires you to put in slightly more pressure to get better results.

The drawing experience is good with on both Mac and Windows with the various drawing software I've tested, namely Photoshop, Illustrator, Infinity Photo, Infinity Designer, Clip Studio Paint, Medibang Paint Pro and Krita.


Photoshop CC 2020


Clip Studio Paint


Medibang Paint Pro


Krita. Tilt works.

Android support


If you use an Android device that can output video signal with USB-C, you can connect it to the Kamvas 22 or Kamvas 22 Plus. The tablet I've used in the photo is the Samsung Tab S6 which has Samsung DeX desktop mode so I was able to get dual screen setup, and the desktop fills the whole pen display.


Shown above is the tablet running in mirror mode so there are black bars on the left and right on the pen display.

The drawing app above is Concepts which supports tilt and pressure sensitivity but pressure doesn't work.


If you use mirror mode with Android, you can draw on the display, and use your other hand on the Android device for navigating. This is quite convenient.

However, in Samsung DeX mode, you won't be able to use fingers for navigation because the drawing app only appears on the Huion display.


Pressure sensitivity support is a hit and miss with Android apps. Pressure sensitivity works well with Medibang Paint, works alright with Artflow, not that great with Infinite Painter, and does not work with Concepts and Autodesk Sketchbook.

Conclusion


The Huion Kamvas 22 Plus is one of the best pen displays I've ever used.

The drawing performance is fantastic. It works well with drawing apps on both Mac and Windows. I did not experience any major glitches with the drivers.

The main selling point here is the true laminated display with good colour accuracy and brightness. True as it there really is no gap between the line/cursor and the pen tip. I am very surprised this display is not used for the Kamvas Pro 24 which is $400 more expensive.

This laminated display is even better than the iPad Pro's because it's matte. So now it feels as if you're drawing on a 21.5-inch iPad Pro. Drawing experience is wonderful.

Downsides. There are no physical shortcut buttons but it's not a loss for me since I prefer to use keyboard for shortcuts. Maybe it would be useful to be able to use a generic USB-C cable to power the pen display instead of the 3-to-1 cable provided. And support for drawing apps on Android is a mixed bag.

Price for the Kamvas 22 is US $449 and Kamvas 22 Plus is $549. Both come with one year warranty with the option to purchase additional warranty if you buy from Huion online store.

The Kamvas 22 non-Plus doesn't use quantum dot, and I don't have a unit to test, so I can't comment on the image quality of that display. And that model does not have a laminated display. So I do feel it's worth the extra $100 to get the laminated display.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Good design
+ Good build quality
+ 21.5-inch display is massive to draw on
+ Good colour accuracy. 97% AdobeRGB measured
+ Maximum brightness of 314 nits measured
+ Matte drawing surface has nice texture to draw on
+ Laminated display with no gap between pen and cursor
+ Matte drawing surface is glass and not a screen protector
+ 10 replacement nibs included
+ Pen does not require charging
+ Pen supports tilt and 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Initial activation force is mininal
+ Stand can be deployed at various angles.
+ Stand is stable at all angles.
+ Can be VESA mounted (7.5cm)
+ Does not produce much heat
+ Excellent drawing performance
+ No major glitches with drawing software on both Mac and Windows
- No physical shortcut buttons
- Display has to be powered by the 3-to-1 cable provided. Can't use other USB-C cable for power.
- Support for drawing apps on Android is a mixed bag.

Availability

The pen displays will go on sale from 10 August 2020. You can get them on Amazon or from Huion's web store. Direct links (affiliate) below:

Huion Kamvas 22
Huion web store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Huion Kamvas 22 Plus
Huion web store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Comments

Hi. Nice review. It doesn't seem to be available in Amazon.fr. Yet.

Do you think it's better to get this or to get a Samsung tablet? For urban sketching I'm thinking maybe the tablet is better because it's more portable.

Thanks for the review. I've noticed Huion and xp Pen always have inferior pens to Wacom. The nibs push in and have a lot of bounce to them and I find that pressure repeatability is just not as accurate as Wacom. Is the pen featured on this product any better?
Also, does this screen use pulse width modulation? I can't use a cintiq as they give me neausea and so I'm always looking for a screen that doesn't.

Thanks for the review!

Hi Teoh

Excellent review as always. This comment is not necessary for display in comments section, but in your conclusion section I think you meant to say “Kamvas 22 non-Plus” Instead of “The Kamvas 22 on-Plus doesn't use quantum dot...”.

Best regards

Which will you say is better and preferable in term of all the features; XPPEN innovator 16, Huion Kamvas 16 Pro and Huion Kamvas 13 2020

In reply to by Chris Hart (not verified)

@Chris Hart
The pen tip here still has some movement, but it's minimal movement. Unfortunately I do not have a Wacom pen with me to test so I can't say how different it is. But the tip does feel more firm compared to previous pens.

As for pulse width modulation, I'm not sure how I can measure that. The display looks alright to me. It doesn't flicker. But maybe that's just me.

In reply to by Hadee (not verified)

@Hadee
The XP-Pen Innovator 16 and Kamvas 16 Pro are very comparable. Even the displays are almost of similar quality. You can probably go with the design you like better.

Kamvas 13 is good too. It's value for money because of its low price point.

Thanks for another great review. If I may ask a couple of quick questions:

Does this tablet have a fan in it, and if so what is the noise like?

How good is the accuracy of the pen at the screen edges? One of the reasons I prefer my iPad to Wacom-type tablets is that with the latter, no matter how I calibrate the pen I can't get the cursor to remain beneath the pen at both the screen's centre and the edges, which makes menu selections difficult.

(Also, do you have a Paypal account for single donations from people who don't want to pay monthly or sign up for Patreon?)

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

@Teoh Yi Chie
PWM (pusle width modulation) can be detected by the stroboscopic effect. Simply swing a long object (for example a pen) back and forth in front of the monitor. If the monitor uses PWM at low brightness (0-20%), this can be clearly seen through this effect.

Examples:
https://youtu.be/QMXYfi2lRdA?t=23
https://youtu.be/yTPYXztH1F0?t=651
https://youtu.be/pTe23G2OncU

Would be nice if you could check the Huion 22/24 and XP-Pen 24th

thank you

In reply to by Steve (not verified)

@Steve
I've tested Kamvas 24 Pro and Kamvas 22 Plus. No PWM.

I no longer have the XP-Pen so I can't test that.

Hi Theo,
Congratulations on your review of Huion Kamvas 22 plus. It is very detailed. I am very interested in buying one of those. But I have doubts about the durability of Huion products .... What can you tell me about this?
I have known that many users have problems with Huion screens or Huion pen after a short time of use. That would be the big difference with Wacom products and what would definitely make the difference in prices between both brands. I would appreciate your opinion about it.

Regards!!

In reply to by Rob (not verified)

@Rob
Unfortunately these are review units so I don't use them for that long enough to be able to say anything conclusive regarding durability and reliability.

Check out reviews on Amazon and Reddit Huion page.

But there are people who complain about Wacom too.

Hi great review! I'm interested in buying one but could you tell me if the cursor is offset from the pen tip when the pen is tilted in extreme angles? For example, in angles other than the angle used to calibrate it? If you tilted the pen in the opposite direction does the cursor shift from the pen tip?

I find it impossible to draw on an XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro for this reason since I change position a lot when I draw, the cursor is offset by a few mm when tilting the pen, I had same problem with a much older Huion. hopefully this is better.

Thank you! Would greatly appreciate it!

In reply to by Casey (not verified)

@Casey
Unfortunately I longer have this unit to test. From what I remembered, it works fine with normal holding position, eg handwriting position. There wasn't obvious offset by mm

The laminated display should also help at preventing your problem.

Would this be an upgrade from the Cintiq 24hd? I love the Cintiq but I don't like that sometimes the black's aren't visible and less paralex would be nice. Don't care about the short keys since I have those on my mouse.

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

I just ordered the device so i hope it won’t dissapoint. It will be my 3rd drawing tablet after the ipad pro and the old cintiq 24 hd. I hope it will combine the drawing experience of the ipad with the bigger 22 inch screen.

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

Thank you Parka for your review, this is a great device. It fixes my biggest 2 problems i had with the cintiq. The parallax is gone and the blacks are better visible. What settings did you use to get 97% adobe rgb? I could get only 95% adobe rgb with spyder.

In reply to by Coos (not verified)

@Coos
I no longer have the display now so I can't check. But you got to change probably the brightness, contrast or even colour temperature and re-calibrate. I actually have do calibrate this a few times with different settings.

Does the display suffer from ghosting, flickering or other issues?
In 2d application is barely noticeable but if you do 3d works/animation or anything else it is really noticeable and annoying because in the past products like the huion kanvas pro 20 2019 had this issue so..

Hey Theo,

your Reviews are the best. Thank you!

Just got one. Would you recommend using a screen protector?

In reply to by Xavier (not verified)

Just got The 22+ and yes, it ghosts like hell. Feels great for drawing and 3D sculpting, but for motion design and animation Id expect multi screen setups anyway.

I've been using an old huion 22 for I think 4 or 5 years and I just got one of these to replace it. This is cheaper than what I paid for the old one and seems to fix all of the problems I had, I'm hoping this one will be good enough to last me a long time. My old model had cords that came out of the bottom on the back and would get crunched and bent under the monitor, I was always worried this would screw up the cables and/or ports over time as it got moved around and that seems to have happened, I started getting flickering on 1/2 of the screen and messed up pixels even after changing out the cords. The matte screen with minimal paralax and this new pen model are much more pleasant to draw with and it's nice to finally have tilt. Really great price, and my family chipped in this year to help me buy it :)

Hi Teoh,
Very nice review! In fact, I heard your advice and bought this pen display. Extreemly satisfied so far. I use it with Corel Painter in Adobe RGB. Would you be so kind to tell me your color, brightness, contrast etc adjustments for Adobe RGB after calibration? Thanks in advance. Keep the nice job.

In reply to by Theo (not verified)

@Theo
I no longer have the review unit.

Anyway, AdobeRGB calibration is specific to each monitor.

E.g. If my monitor is more yellow, the calibration will make it less yellow. So if your monitor is normal, and I pass you my calibration, it will make yours less yellow which is obviously not right.

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

Hey Teoh,

Thanks for your kind response. I thought that all these pen displays come from the factory more or less the same.
Anyway, without calibration I 've simply changed the Color Profile of Windows 10 and of all my programs from standard sRGB to Adobe RGB, and by doing so, I already enjoy natural, lively and, though not perfect, much accurate colors.
Take care

Hi Teoh,

Thanks for the great review. Sorry for the unrelated question but I could not find the answer by myself despite a net search : what is the brand and model of the wireless keyboard featured in your pictures? It looks like Logitech but I couldn't find it.

Thanks for your help

In reply to by Alain L (not verified)

@Alain L
Logitech K810

That has been discontinued.

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

I own the XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro tablet and I was quite satisfied with it, especially since it has a laminated screen, reducing the parallax to practically 0. The red dial is a nice touch and one of the hotkeys can allow to switch between what it controls, such as zoom, mouse wheel function and tool size.

Hey Teoh

Awesome review. The no parallax thing and the high color rating is quite mindblowing to see from a brand besides Wacom which unfortunately is quite a steep price point to experience for me.
Anyway, my XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro died on me recently (some light bleeding on the edges, scan lines appearing and flickering despite buying a new 3 in 1 cable) and looking to get this one to replace it. Do you think this one would be an upgrade from my XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro?

Thanks.

In reply to by Sasha (not verified)

@Sasha
Yes, this is a good upgrade.

How long did you have the XP-Pen for?

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

I've had it for around 3 years. But given how flimsy XP Pen 3 in 1 cables get, I feel like it was inevitable something major would happen. I've had to change my cable thrice in its whole lifespan.

I just picked this up recently and having a bit of a time getting my monitor calibrated as I only have access to the colormunki smile and displaycal. Can you share what you set your osd to and possibly put your icc profile up?

In reply to by Dragonfyre79 (not verified)

@Dragonfyre79
You need to set the OSD colour space to sRGB or Adobe RGB before you calibrate with the colour calibrator.

I no longer have the pen display and ICC colour profile. Anyway, the ICC will be different for every monitor.

For some reason, those options are greyed out on my OSD. I emailed Huion to see if there's a way to change this.

Hi Teoh , you reviewed the Kamvas 16 ( 2021 ) .

Which size would you recommend ? This 22 or the 16.. in terms of longevity and starting up as a digital illustrator ?

Seems many is leaned towards the bigger the better.. Just wanted your thoughts ? But then again is 16 inch suffice for everyday hobbyist drawing.?

Many thanks,

In reply to by Peter (not verified)

@Peter
Any size above 15 inches is good to work with. If you're going to be using this as your main monitor, it's nicer to get a larger display.

I just got one today and tried to connecting it on my samsung tablet s6. The huion pen doesn't work at all sadly :(( is there any tutorial on how to set it up properly for my tablet? I've installed the driver via computer and it worked from there but not on my tablet.

I've also had it on dex mode but still none, could you please help me out? Thank you so much in advance

In reply to by Lin (not verified)

@Lin
Unfortunately it's difficult to troubleshoot because there's no driver for Android. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. Another common problem is the tablet not showing the cursor.

Maybe update the Android system to the latest version if you haven't and try again.

Hi Teoh. Thanks for your videos and analysis.
I would like to know your opinion.
The drawing quality on the 2021 XP Pen Pro 16 is very good. Do you think it's worth an exchange to this Huion 22 Plus? The biggest problem with the XP Pen, for me, is its smooth, artificial surface.
Thank you! Excuse my bad English. And Happy New Year!

In reply to by Víctor C (not verified)

@Víctor C
The drawing surface on the XP-Pen feels good. But it's not glass so there may be scratches in the future.

I'm personally not that fussy so I don't mind plastic matte screen protectors. But the Huion display will look visibly better in terms of colour quality.

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