Artist Review: Huion H610 Pro Graphics Tablet

The Huion H610 Pro is probably the most significant competitor to Wacom Intuos tablet since Wacom has been around. There are almost close to 1,000 reviews on Amazon currently and most are favourable. Since my blog features lots of tablet reviews, I thought I should review this too.

The set that I have was bought off eBay from some unknown seller which was surprisingly selling at a cheaper price compared to Amazon. However, when the box came, it was knocked up pretty badly. Thankfully, the items in are still in working condition.

Build quality

Build quality is good. It's comparable to Wacom Intuos, perhaps the Intuos Pro feels more premium, but it's definitely as sturdy as the Intuos non-Pro. Shortcut buttons on the left have a firm feedback when pressed.

The tablet connects via a detachable USB cable.

Stylus and its holder

The stylus is lightweight, feels a bit cheap, but personally I prefer stylus that is light.

You can detach the stylus holder to reveal 4 replacement tips. There's also a metal nib remover to help you remove the nib from the stylus.

The grip section is a hard matte surface. Drawing with it for long is comfortable enough. There are two buttons on the stylus and each can be customized to a specific keyboard shortcut through the tablet settings.

The stylus is powered by an internal battery and you have to charge it with the charging cable provided. Battery life is good. It can last for weeks until the next recharge. Because the charging port is at the back, there's no eraser button.

Shortcut buttons

The shortcut buttons on the left are great. By default, they have been assigned shortcuts to Photoshop, so you can shortcuts to the Brush tool, Hand, Brush sizes, Zoom, Undo. Each button has a small icon that reflects the function. If you use other software, you have the option to reassign those buttons.

For left-handers, you can change the orientation of the tablet through the tablet settings.

In addition to the physical shortcut buttons, there are also 16 soft keys located at the top of the drawing surface. You can set each of these keys to keyboard shortcuts or menu functions as well.

I don't use these soft keys because in order to use them, I need to look at them. Compared to the physical shortcut buttons, I can use them without looking at them. It's good to have them though if you do need access to more shortcuts.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is great.

The drawing surface is around A5 size but slightly wider because it's designed for wide-screen monitors. The drawing surface is matte and when the nib is on it, there's a tactile feel to it, again very similar to Wacom stylus on their own tablets.

The 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity works well. The stylus is very sensitive. Strokes taper well. Basically, the stylus works as expected, except when it comes to certain applications (more on that below). There's no tilt sensitivity though.

Driver

Let's talk about the drivers first.

I downloaded the latest driver on Huion's website instead of using those from the CD provided.

With the tablet driver, you can change things like keyboard shortcuts to the buttons on the tablet and stylus, pressure sensitivity and mapping area of the tablet (best left at default).

Software support

I've only managed to use the tablet on Mac OS so I can't speak for Windows. These are the apps I've used:

MAC OS:

• Photoshop CS5: Works fine
• Illustrator CS5: Works fine
• Mischief: Works fine
• Sketches Pro: Works fine
• Medibang Paint Pro v8.1: After the stylus is lifted off the surface, the stroke continues until the stylus is far away.
• Krita v3.1: After the stylus is lifted, the cursor hangs in place until you draw again. But you won't be able to see the cursor until the nib touches the drawing surface.

WINDOWS

• Photoshop: Works fine
• Paint tool sai: Works fine
• Manga Studio/Clip: Works fine
• ArtRage: Works fine
• Sketchbook Pro: Works fine

How well the tablet works depends on the software. I've read a handful of reviews saying that it doesn't work with Photoshop CC Windows, but there are many others who reported no problems.

If you are using this tablet, please share with me your experience.

Conclusion

The tablet is definitely very affordable when compared to Wacom Intuos non-Pro. The drawing surface is almost A5 and that's a comfortable size to draw on. It's priced under $80. For Wacom Intuos at this size (medium), they usually sell for twice the amount.

The downside is its performance really depends on the drawing application you're using. Wacom Intuos typically work without issues with most drawing applications.

If you're using going to use Photoshop, I would say go ahead and get it. If you use other software, do some research first to see if your software actually supports this tablet.

Oh, the difference between H610 and H610 Pro is the non-Pro has a resolution of 4,000 LPI. By the way, the Wacom Intuos has 2540 LPI. So if you want to save even more money, you can go for the H610.

Below are the pros and cons at a glance:
+ Affordable compared to Wacom tablets at the same size
+ Plenty of shortcut keys
+ Pen pressure works well
+ Drawing surface has slight texture that's similar to Wacom
+ Comes with 4 replacement nibs
+ Build quality relatively good
- Has issues with certain graphics software (I've only tested on Mac though)
- No eraser on back of pen
- Battery powered pen (but battery life is good)

Availability

Check out more reviews of this tablet from the Amazon links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Gearbest.com

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