XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro vs Wacom – which one is worth buying? A 13-inch tablet like the Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 will be much easier to make desk space for. You’ll probably just need to put the Intuos 3 away and that should be almost enough space for the Cintiq Pro 13, plus you will be able to comfortably reach other a 13-inch monitor to type on the keyboard behind it.
On other side, a 22-inch monitor like the XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro takes up a LOT of desk space. If you don’t have much desk space in the first place, you might need to buy a mount or arm to hold up the monitor in a comfortable position to draw on. If you have an L-shaped table layout, then you could put the drawing monitor on the side table, and the main keyboard and computer on the main table, but for a single table it’s hard to imagine where you can put a 22-inch monitor without it getting in the way.
The Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 simply outdoes the XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro in all aspects (aside from the size) because it offers extra features like multi-touch, pen tilt/rotation sensitivity, and I believe it actually comes with a longer warranty (I read the warranty info and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 comes with a 2 year warranty, whereas the XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro comes with a 1 year warranty). XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro vs Wacom – which one is worth buying?
The whole point of Wacom alternatives at this point and time is to offer tablets for less than 1000 USD for people who cannot afford the lowest Wacom Cintiq but still want a drawing monitor. The XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro is too close to the price of the Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 to really be considered unless you absolutely don’t want to settle with a smaller 13-inch monitor and want a larger 22-inch monitor instead.
Basically I just wanted to share my experience from this huge upgrade and it would be cool to hear about your experiences for those who had an opportunity to try a graphic tablet and a pen display monitor tablet , which tool ended up being better for you?
Customer reviews – XP-Pen Artist 22E Pro vs Wacom?
Living in Australia, we pretty much only have 1 visual tablet choice: Wacom. I couldn’t justify the insane price in AUD so went looking for other options. After doing a hell of a lot of research on the previous model of XP-Pen (22HD) and seeing the 22E was about to come out, I decided to jump in and purchase one based on the otherwise great reviews of the 22HD. I’ll try and keep this short.
PRO’S:
– Product shipped to Australia in perfect condition 10 days after making payment (Inc 3 days for AUD to clear to USD).
– All express buttons work, are responsive and are able to be remapped.
– No dead pixels.
– Easy to set up, install & configure. No driver issues (a common complaint about the 22HD).
– Great pixel quality, contrast, depth of color & response time.
– Great level of pen sensitivity and accuracy.
– Pens charge quite fast and seem to last 50 hours+ (time used, so far…)
– Heaps of additional chords and accessories.
– Chord connections on the side, unlike the previous model meaning there is no bending and stressing on the chords or connections when angle is changed.
– Doubles perfectly as a second or third monitor for other general use.
– Sturdy build quality, easy to adjust stand, solid and responsive buttons.
CON’S
– No DVI cable included. VGA is so outdated, I don’t know why they include one of those in preference to DVI. Minor complaint.
– Static build up under screen protector when applying. Now this might be a case of where I live in Australia being humid as F#@K, but I’m yet to successfully apply the screen protector without static based rainbow artifacting appearing underneath it and moving sometimes on pen and hand pressure. Still haven’t solved this issue, but I’ll try again on the weekend. A minor complaint, but a complaint all the same.
– Going from max horizontal to max vertical seating, I’d recommend a pen tracking re-calibration due to the angle change. This is literally a 15 second process though, so once again, a very minor complaint.
– Shipped with incorrect power plug shape for Australia, but with all my old computer PSU chords, wasn’t a big deal.
Overall this is an amazing tablet for the price – The pro’s vastly outweigh the con’s as the con’s are only minor quality of life annoyances. I’m so glad I did my research on the previous model in order to cement risking giving this a go. I do not regret it at all 🙂
Will try and answer any questions people have when I get the chance too and possibly even do a Youtube review when life and work is not so hectic!
So much for a short review… heh.
It’s pretty poor form to having something cost 2 grand and fail in under a year. Downgrading the score to a 3 for now.
Had this tablet now for over a month and I think it’s safe to say that this is by far the best drawing experience you can have on PC.
I’ve always disliked the earlier Cintiq models, mainly due to their small size and small resolution. Seeing wacom revise their older Cintiqs to be in line with new 4k screen tech and be of a much larger size and all that I decided to take the plunge. A $2000 plunge, mind you.
So onto the actual review:
The Pros;
– The 24 pro is big. Like, really big. I didn’t think it would be that big and was opting for the 32 for more screen real estate but the 24 has more than enough room. Make sure you have a deep enough desk to be able to accommodate this beast of a tablet.
– The 4k screen is very crisp and it feels great to be up close to your artwork. The etched glass gives you a nice feel when either drawing or animating.
– The Pro pen 2 is fantastic. Possibly the best pen to draw with. At first I wasn’t so sure about the 8000+ levels of pressure, and really who needs that many? But using the pen felt really natural, brush strokes are quick and crisp (depending on what program and smoothing you’re using) and if you require more traction on the screen then you can swap over to the 4 felt nibs it comes with. It’s pretty lightweight too, not as heavy as the previous pens.
– Speaking of pens, almost all other wacom pens are compatible with the new Cintiq pros, so if you don’t like the pro pen 2 you can go back and use older pens (with less accuracy and pressure levels of course.)
– Comes with two built in legs that can pop up to give you some elevation, around 30-40 degrees, so a stand isn’t that necessary.
– Has 4 usb ports, 2 on each side, an SD card reader and a headphone jack. It can connect to your pc (or mac) via USB C, or HDMI/Display port /USB 3.0. Plenty of connectivity options.
– Comes with 2 pen holders, one is a dome base with built in nib remover and 10 pen nibs ( 4 felt and 6 plastic ) and one is a little plastic tab that can plug into 2 positions on the top of the tablet.
– The express key remote is pretty handy, comes with 17 programmable keys, which should be more than enough for any artist. It’s also magnetic, so it can stick to the two bottom left and right halves of the tablet. The battery charge on it is also pretty good. I’ve gone a week and a half without having it go below 50% charge.
The Cons:
– The screen is great, however, the etched glass produces a weird ‘rainbow’ effect of pixels. If you’ve used photoshops noise tool, imagine having an overlay of that on the screen at 4-5% opacity. It’s not bad and you get used to it after a while, but it could annoy some.
– The Pro comes with built in fans, and the higher you have the screen brightness the longer, and louder, they become. I had brightness above 50% and they could stay on for 1-5 mins and be quite distracting. Keeping the brightness at 25% (which is still pretty bright for the screen mind you) keeps the fan noise nice and quiet.
– Wacom claims ‘virtually no parallax’. There is parallax, and it’s VERY noticeable at steep angles, not so much straight on. Calibrating the pen can help reduce this if it’s an issue for you.
– The Wacom drivers can be a pain. I’d had my express key remove reset to default several times a day for no apparent reason and the pen calibration tool can be a bit wonky, so it’s best to make a backup of your config so you can restore your settings on the fly.
– The Felt nibs aren’t as sturdy as they used to be. I’ve gone through a felt nib at least once a week. The etched glass just eats them up, not so much the standard plastic nibs.
– Even though it does come with the 2 legs to help prop it up, it’s still not enough. Having to hunch over when you draw/animate does numbers on your back. I Propped mine up on some books and seemed to help, but having a stand included would have been nice.
– And now, the biggest issue. The price. At a base of $2000 for the non touch, $2500 for touch, and a wallet melting $3300 for the 32, this drawing tablet is a massive investment. If you cannot afford it, don’t break your back to get one, stick with what you have.
All in all though, I absolutely LOVE this thing. I highly recommend this tablet to professionals who are looking to upgrade from older Cintiqs. The large 24″ work area and 4k resolution make it well worth it.