Artist Review: Veikk Studio 16 pen display
Review unit provided by Veikk
Veikk Studio 16 (model VK1600) is the new pen display launched in late September 2024. Price at the time of review during the pre-sale period is USD 269 and should be USD 299 at a later date. Two years warranty is included.
This is a 15.6-inch pen display with a laminated 1080P IPS LCD that comes with a matte glass surface. The pen supports tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity, and there are two pens included.
I've reviewed several Veikk pen displays in the past and I'm happy to say that the display quality you get with the Veikk Studio 16 is better, and more importantly the pen performance is good. However at the time of review, there's no Mac driver yet and the Windows driver does not support pen calibration, yet.
Things included
- Pen display
- Pen case
- Veikk P09 pen
- Veikk P10 pen
- Pen holder
- 28 replacement pen nibs
- Nib remover
- Tablet stand
- 3 to 1 cable (with HDMI support)
- USB-C to USB-C video cable
- USB-A to USB-A extension cable
- User manual
- Warranty card
- Drawing glove
- Micro-fiber cleaning cloth
There's no power adapter included. If you do need to use a power adapter for the pen display when you're using the 3-to-1 cable, you can use any USB-A adapter that provides as least 10-15W.
The 3-to-1 cable has a proprietary design which means if you need a cable replacement in the future, you have to buy from the company. The cable design does look sturdy and should handle wear and tear with no issues.
The included stand supports three positions and the tallest angle is comfortable to work with for drawing.
Veikk P10 is the slimmer pen and P09 is the thicker one. Pens are well made and have decent build quality despite the plastic body.
Both pens support tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. They are not powered by battery so no charging is required. Both pens have two side buttons but only the P10 has an eraser at the back.
The pens have matte textured body with good grip. Pen nib does not move much when in contact with the drawing surface.
Specifications
- Model: VK1600
- Dimension: 409.1 x 243.1 x 14.1 mm
- Working area: 344.2x193.6 mm
- Report rate: 290 PPS
- Resolution: 5080 LPI
- Pen: P09+P10
- Pressure sensitivity: 16384
- Reading height: 10 mm
- Port: USB-C, Micro HDMI
- Tilt: 60°
- Compatibility: Windows 7 and above, macOS x 10.12 and above, Chrome OS 88 and above, Linux, Android 6.0 and above (USB3.1 DP1.2)
- Warranty: 2 Years
- Full lamination: Yes
- Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080, 60Hz
- Viewing angle: 178°
- Power supply input: DC 5V 2A
- Hotkeys: 5
- Dial: 1
Connection
The pen display supports HDMI and USB-C video connection. For HDMI, the 3-to-1 cable and a USB-A power source are needed. For USB-C, you can use a single USB-C cable to provide data, video and power.
When connected to a laptop using USB-C, battery power will drain fast so the laptop should be connected to power.
Design
Design of the pen display is beautiful. Build quality seems solid enough. There are five hotkeys by the left, and a wheel at the top left, all customisable.
The plastic matte textured back attracts fingerprints easily.
The two ports are located at the top right, one for USB-C and one is micro HDMI. If you need to replace the USB-C video cable, make sure to get one that has a small connector if you're not buying a replacement from Veikk.
These are the buttons for power and brightness. There's no OSD menu, but for Windows users, you can adjust the colour temperture, RGB, brightness and contrast using the Windows driver.
The wheel has audible clicks when turned.
Hotkeys have firm clicks to them.
The matte glass surface has good anti-glare and the display is bright enough to go through any diffused reflection as long as it's not a direct light source directed at it.
The matte glass surface provides a subtle tactile drawing experience and I was able to get good pen control on it. The display will attract fingerprints but they won't be obvious unless you look from the side from an angle.
The plastic pen nib is unlikely to scratch the matte glass.
The display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and the pen tip.
The display does have some latency so there's a gap as the line is chasing the pen tip. The company did not mention the amount of latency but from what I can see it's quite typical of pen displays.
I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 82% NTSC, 85% AdobeRGB, 93% P3 and a maximum brightness of 208 nits.
Colour accuracy is decent. Viewing angles are affected by the matte surface with slight drop in contrast but minimal colour shift since this is an IPS LCD.
All matte surface will introduce some amount of grain, colour noise or shimmering effect and I'm happy to say that you don't get much of those here. Visual quality and sharpness are not affected much the matte texture and overall visuals look good.
Driver
Veikk does provide Mac driver but there's no Mac driver for this pen display at the time of review yet.
The Windows driver I've tested is version 2.1.7.5.
Pen side buttons and pressure curve can be adjusted here.
I usually set one pen button to Switch Display since I use dual display setup, and that feature works well.
Under the mapping page, you can probably leave the settings at default.
The orientation adjustment does not work and will show an error. It is still possible to rotate the pen display 180 degrees for left handed users using the Windows display settings.
Pen calibration unfortunately also shows an error. Pen calibration is important as it helps remove cursor misalignment. Hopefully Veikk can update the driver soon.
Here's where you can customise the five hotkeys and wheel. Keyboard shortcuts can be created.
One hotkey has to be dedicated to switching the functions for the wheel so there's essentially just four hotkeys left for customising.
Line tests
If pressure sensitivity does not work or behave as expected, enable and disable Windows Ink to test.
Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro.
1. Initial activation force is low but I had to adjust the default pressure curve to draw thin lines more easily. There's no noticeable diagonal line wobble or jitter.
2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply. Note that Windows Ink is enabled by default and has to be disabled for better line quality with this app.
3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. Thin lines can be drawn easily after drawing thick lines.
4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure. This is also a diagonal line and there's no diagonal line wobble.
5. Dots can be drawn easily, but Windows Ink has to be disabled.
6. This is the cursor misalignment test and there are some gaps and overshot lines as pen calibration using the driver is not available, as mentioned early. So without pen calibration, to join the lines properly, you have to look at where the cursor is rather than where the pen tip is.
Overall pen performance is good. The only issue here is the driver currently does not provide pen calibration to adjust cursor misalignment.
Oh, tilt sensitivity works fine and the cursor can follow the direction of the pen.
Drawing experience
Here's a drawing created with Medibang Paint Pro. I didn't really have any issues while drawing. I was able to get the lines to come out the way I expect them too. Pen is sensitive and accurate. Drawing performance is predictable.
Keeping the cursor misalignment in mind, which is actually quite minor thankfully, I just had to draw slower so that I could join the lines properly.
Overall workflow is smooth. Drawing on the matte textured glass feels wonderful thanks to the subtle tactile experience. I had good control over the pen and my palm was able to glide on the matte surface easily.
After drawing, I found out there were many greasy fingerprints when I looked at the display from an angle, and they were not visible when viewing the display straight on.
Conclusion
My experience with this pen display is positive. Compared to the other Veikk pen displays I've reviewed in the past, you get better visual quality with this display, matte glass and better drawing performance.
This is a serious competitor to all the other pen displays out there.
The only thing Veikk needs to do now is update the driver to support pen calibration, and display orientation.
Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design, good build quality
+ 100% sRGB, 208 nits brightness measured
+ Matte glass with good anti-glare
+ Matte texture does not affect visual quality
+ Display is laminated
+ Display can work with a single USB-C connection
+ Two pen included
+ Pen does not require battery
+ Pen is quite sensitive
+ Many replacement tips included
+ 1080P resolution on the screen this size is sharp enough
- Just 5 hotkeys
- No Mac driver at time of review
- Pen calibration not available for Windows driver at time of review
- Display orientation from the driver does not work
- Back of pen display attracts fingerprints easily
Availability
The Veikk Studio 16 (VK1600) can be purchased from Veikk online store.
