Review: XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) pen display

Review unit provided by XPPen

The XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) is a 18.4-inch 4K pen display released in August 2024. The pen supports tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. This is the third product from the gen 2 series and features the same design as the XPPen Artist Pro 14 (gen 2) and XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2).

Price is USD 899. Price during the pre-sale period was USD 809.

If you're wondering if this is better than the USD 1099 Huion Kamvas Pro 19 touchscreen pen display, I would say yes because the Huion matte glass has softer visuals. So even if the pen performance from both pen displays are quite comparable, I'll have to give the XPPen the edge for the sharper display vs Huion's touchscreen.

Video review

Bottom line

The XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) looks good and works well. The pen is sensitive and quite accurate, performance is consistent and predictable. Overall drawing experience is fantastic.

Specs

• Product Name: Artist Pro 19 (Gen 2) Drawing Display
• Product Model: MD180UH
• Color: Grey
• Dimensions: 460 x 306.6 x 21.5 mm
• Work Area: 409 x 230 mm
• Net Weight: 2.23 kg
• Display Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (16:9)
• Color Gamut Coverage Ratio (typical): 99.8% sRGB, 96% Adobe RGB, 98% Display P3
• Color Gamut Area Ratio (typical): 156% sRGB, 116% Adobe RGB, 115% Display P3
• Display Color: 1.07B (8bit + FRC)
• Full Lamination: Yes
• Viewing Angle: 178°
• Brightness: 250 cd/m²
• Resolution: 5080 LPI
• Stand: Integrated, 19 degrees
• Stylus: X3 Pro Roller Stylus + X3 Pro Slim Stylus
• Hover Height: 1cm
• Pressure Sensitivity: 16K
• Hotkeys: None, but ACK05 shortcut remote has 10
• Connection:USB-C video, HDMI
• VESA mount:7.5 x 7.5cm
• Compatibility:Windows 7 (or later), macOS 10.13 (or later), Android (USB3.1 DP1.2), Chrome OS 88 (or later) ,Linux
• Warranty: 18-Month Warranty + Free Shipping

Things included

• Drawing Display
• 3 in 1 Cable
• 2 x USB-C to USB-C Cable
• USB-C to USB-A Cable
• PD Power Adapter
• Wireless Shortcut Remote ACK05
• Drawing Glove
• Cleaning Cloth
• H11 Pen Case (X3 Pro Roller Stylus x 1, X3 Pro Slim Stylus x 1, Bluetooth Receiver for Wireless Shortcut Remote x 1, Replaceable Button Cap for Slim Stylus x 1, Standard Nib for Slim Stylus x 4, Standard Nib for Roller Stylus x 2, Felt Nib for Roller Stylus x 2, Nib Extractor x 1)
• Pen Nibs Bag (Standard Nib for Slim Stylus x 5, Standard Nib for Roller Stylus x 5, Felt Nib for Roller Stylus x 5)

Pen

There are two pens included, the X3 Pro Slim Stylus X3 and Pro Roller Stylus. Both pen support tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. No battery is included so charging is required.

The slim pen has two customisable side buttons and the buttons can actually be removed and replaced with a blank cover.

The roller pen also two side buttons and there's a roller, all customisable.

The slim pen uses a thinner pen tip compared to the roller pen.

The pen case is well made and has extra pen tips, the slim pen button cover, pen tip remover and the ACK shortcut remote Bluetooth receiver (USB-A). There are also extra pen tips included in plastic packs.

There are no hotkeys on the pen display. So for shortcuts, you'll have to rely on the included XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote. Check out my full review here.

Design

Design of the pen display looks good. Corners are rounded off and there's a wrist rest area at the bottom.

Design looks similar to theXPPen Artist Pro 14 (gen 2) and XPPen Artist Pro 16 (gen 2) except it's bigger.

There are two foldout feet that can deploy the pen display at a 19-degrees angle which is comfortable for drawing. If you need to prop up the display higher, you'll have to use a tablet or laptop stand, or a VESA mount. For tablet stands, I recommend either the Parblo PR100 or the Huion ST100.

It is possible to connect the pen display to your computer using one USB-C video cable, but the maximum brightness you can get from that is juse 131 nits, and when connected to a laptop will drain the laptop battery quickly.

To achieve maximum brightness (measured 230 nits), the pen display has to be connected to power using the second USB-C cable.

For HDMI connection, the HDMI and USB-A connectors go to the computer, and the black component has to connect to power with the included USB-C cable.

When pen display is connected to power, the USB-C port has power delivery for charging laptops. Convenient.

The pen display was already calibrated in factory and colours look good out of the box. I measured colour support for 98% sRGB, 85% NTSC, 85% P3 and 91% AdobeRGB.

The amount of latency is not mentioned by XPPen. From what I can see, latency is typical of most pen displays that I've tested. For drawing purposes, latency is not an issue or something I would think about while drawing.

The display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and pen tip.

After pen calibration, there's almost no cursor misalignment. Cursor is accurate even at the extreme edges of the display. There is slight cursor misalignment when you change normal holding angle to vertical angle with the pen, but it's a non issue unless you're always changing how you hold the pen that drastically. I did not experience any issues while drawing.

Shown above is the Medibang Paint Pro app on Windows which has not been updated for high-resolution displays so the UI elements look soft. The same app on MacOS looks tack sharp.

4K resolution is high resolution and is wonderful to work with as you can see more details. All your older files, photos, videos, scans and wallpapers will not look good in 4K. Even since I started reviewing 4K displays years ago, I've started scanning my artworks at 600 DPI and thanks to that my artworks still look detailed when viewed with 4K resolution.

I'm actually using the 1080P workspace with 4K resolution and all the UI elements are big and look sharp. The display is big so there's space for palettes and tools on both sides and the canvas space is still big enough for drawing. It is possible to scale the UI elements slighly smaller so that you can get even more canvas space.

For MacOS users with UI scaling problems, you can use BetterDisplay app to handle the UI scaling.

The matte glass surface provides a subtle tactile drawing experience that feels great. The matte surface also doesn't stick to hands that easily. And since the surface is glass, it is extremely unlikely for the pen tip to scratch the display.

For an even more tactile drawing experience, you can replace the plastic pen tip with the felt tip.

Note that all matte glass will add slight grain, colour noise or shimmering effect to affect the image quality. I'm happy to say that all that is keep to the minimal with this pen display, so the overally visual quality still looks great, and sharp.

Driver

There are drivers for Mac and Windows.

Seems like XPPen has updated the look of the driver.

Pen pressure can be adjusted with the three control points. The pen side buttons and roller can be customised here.

If pressure is not working as expected, you may have to toggle Windows Ink on or off for troubleshooting.

If there's cursor misalignment, this is where you can calibrate the pen and display.

The Windows driver lets you adjust the brightness, contrast, colour temperature, display modes and RGB. For Mac users, you'll have to rely on your OS settings for such adjustment. Or just get a colour calibrator.

The configuration can be backed up.

Mapping of working area can be left as default most of the time.

For all the buttons and hotkeys, you can use your own keyboard shortcuts or choose from the pre-programmed shortcuts. Switch Display works well and this is essential for those who use dual displays.

To customise the ACK05 shortcut remote, you have to select it from the drop down menu at the top left.

Oh, it is also possible to create shortcut groups for specific apps. Those shortcuts will then launch automatically depending on which app is active. To do so, just add the app you want to the drop down menu at the top right.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. Initial activation force is minimal. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. Thin lines can be drawn even if you apply no pressure as long as the pen tip is touching the surface (using weight of the pen). There seems to be slight diagonal line wobble.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly, sharply and naturally.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. There seems to be diagonal line wobble.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test. Separate lines can be joined easily without gaps and overshooting. Note the variance with the line width due to pressure differences, and this helps create expressive lines.

The X3 Pro pens are very sensitive and quite accurate. I say quite accurate because there seems to be slight diagonal line wobble, but thankfully I don't really see this issue while actually drawing.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience with XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) pen display is excellent. Just by placing down a few lines, I instantly know how good the pen performance is.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro. Workflow is smooth and I did not experience any issues.

The 18.4-inch display size is wonderful to work with. The matte glass surface provides a nice tactile drawing experience. Pen is able to glide smoothly on the surface and is not slippery.

I actually don't use the XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote since I prefer to use my keyboard for all keyboard shortcuts.

I was able to get the line to come out the way I want. Since the pen is so sensitive, I was able to use one thick brush and vary the pressure to get whatever line width I needed without having to adjust brush size settings manually.

While the line tests show slight diagonal line wobble, I do not see or experience the issue while drawing. And I can confidently say that this pen is accurate enough for creating professional art.

The pen display does get warm with usage but it's not hot. It's probably about as warm as a charging tablet, or maybe lower, cooler.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the bottom line, this pen display looks good and works well. Pen performance is really good and my overall drawing experience is very positive.

The XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) is a pen display I can recommend easily if you have the budget for it.

Pros and cons
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Laminated display
+ Display has foldable feet
+ Good colour accuracy with 98% AdobeRGB
+ Matte glass drawing surface
+ Matte drawing surface has minimal grain and colour noise
+ Accurate cursor tracking
+ Pen has tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity
+ Pen case included
+ Two pens included
+ X3 Pro pen is accurate and sensitive
+ Many replacement pen nibs
+ ACK05 shortcut remote included
+ USB-C to USB-C video connection support
+ Cables connection seems secure and durable
+ Fantastic drawing performance
+ Supports Mac, Windows, Android, Chomebook and Linux (driver upcoming)
+ 18 months warranty
- Another stand is needed to prop up the display for non-drawing work
- No OSD menu for manual colour adjustments
- Slight diagonal line wobble with line tests, but does not appear when actually drawing
- MacOS users need BetterDisplay app to get sharper UI scaling

Availability

The XPPen Artist Pro 19 (gen 2) is available from XPPen online store

If you have intention to buy one, consider supporting me and my work by using the affiliate links above. I earn some commission for each sale at no extra cost to you.

And if my review is inaccurate in any way, let me know in the comments section below.