In this review, I will be talking about the newst 11.9-inch XPPen Artist 12 (3rd Gen) digital screen tablet.
It is one of XPPen’s Artist series display tablets and an upgraded model of the previous XPPen Artist 12 (2nd Gen).
With its charming design, portability, and excellent new X4 smart chip stylus, it can serve an artist’s needs on the go.
Unboxing
The packaging for this product has a real premium feel to it. Upon opening the box, there is an instant feeling of “neatness” to all the individually packaged components.
Inside the box are the Pen Display, X4 Smart Chip Stylus, a adjustable tablet stand, USB-C to USB-C Cable, 3-in-1 USB-C Cable, black drawing Glove, Cleaning Cloth, Warranty Card, 10 Replacement Pen Nibs, and a Nib Remover Tool.
Considering what you get in the box, it really is great value for money.
Design & Build Quality
Though the casing is made from plastic, the tablet feels well made, light weight. Overall it has a good build quality.
The entire front surface is one continuous glass pane, the 2 dials and 8 express buttons on the left side are great for your most used keyboard shortcuts like undo, pan, color picker, and more.
I really like the feel of the 2 unique dial wheels and I mostly use it to quickly change my brush size.
There are 2 USB Type-C ports and 3 physical buttons on the right side, The power button, brightness down, and brightness up. The power button glows up a blue color when the tablet is powered on.
Portability
XPPen Artist 12 (3rd Gen) is very portable with compact size and lightweight at just 719g, great for anyone tired of lugging heavy gear.
The screen- to-body ratio that squeezes more drawing space into less frame. The adjustable 0–60° stand that folds flat—no bulk in your backpack.
Display
The Artist 12 (3rd Gen) comes with a compact 11.9 inch IPS LCD panel featuring a Full HD (1920 1080) resolution, 260 nits of peak Brightness, and 97% Adobe RGB color gamut. The images looks so sharp, crisp, bright and good. It’s fit for me.
On the other hand, the screen response is fantastic and no parallax at all, thanks to it being fully laminated, eliminating any air gap between the top screen and the display panel.
The anti-glare, AF nano-etched glass surface ensures you experience minimum reflection while offering paper-like texture gives you that authentic pencil-on-paper feeling that digital artists love.
Stylus Pen
With the Artist 12 (3rd gen), you get the XPPen’s newest, most advanced X4 Smart Chip stylus.
The stylus is battery-free, doesn’t need charging, works using entirely the EMR waves of the tablet, so it allows for hours of uninterrupted drawing.
The steady nib ensures a stable performance and, powered by the X4-Smart-Chip without the spring mechanism, the stylus performs better than any other existing XPPEN stylus.
With its 16384 levels of pressure sensitivity levels, lower 2g activation force, 30ms stylus latency, and a 60-degree tilt function, you’ll have easy, intuitive control while creating artwork.
Connectivity
Unlike the Apple ipad or XPPen Magic drawing pad, the Artist 12 (3rd gen) is not a standalone drawing tablet, so it must be connected to a computer to work.
Luckily, This pen display widely supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, and Android devices.
To connect the display you can either use the provided 3-in-1 USB-C cable or the single USB-C to USB-C cable. The Single USB-C Cable connection is really great when you want to use it on the go with a laptop.
If your laptop or computer doesn’t feature a modern usb-c port, you can use the 3-in-1 cable. On one end it has a USB-C connector that goes into the Pen Display tablet itself. On the other it has a HDMI connector for the display and two USB-A connectors. One handles all the input from the pen, and then another red connector is for additional power.
Tablet Driver and Settings
You can download the latest driver version on XPPen’s website. Once installed, it will appear on your PC’s system tray.
Here you can adjust and customize your tablet and pen’s settings like pressure sensitivity, express keys, dial wheel, pen side buttons, display, and calibration.
You can also rotate the display here if you are a left handed.
Drawing Experience
I feel great by using XPPen Artist 12 (3rd gen). It supports all drawing software Photoshop, Clip Studio, Sai, etc. (I used Clip Studio Paint).
It has a clear and beautiful display, the colors looked just as vivid as they did on my laptop. The laminated screen responsive was good.
I personally dislike drawing on slippery glass screens, so the matte, non-glare etched glass surface is really satisfying and feeling good to draw.
X4 chip stylus with amazing 16,384 levels of sensitive pressure, making the smooth, whether in drawing lines or coloring. There’s no jitter when I drawing. The pen is very sensitive and able to maintain consistent pressure.
However, The 11.9-inch screen display is a bit small for me. It’s a little difficult when you draw on a large 22-inch drawing area and then switch to draw on a smaller area. But of course, this will depend on your personal preference.
Price
All this you can get for only $ 199.99, which is a much cheaper investment than a Wacom One 12 ($299.95) pen display!
For such low price, I could confidently say that it is an impulse buy for many for the value at this price point.
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In Conclusion
XPPen Artist 12 (3rd gen) has an affordable price compared to other brand’s entry level display tablet lineup, without sacrificing quality.
The amazing features from it are great for creating art, such as portable and compact design, great display quality, matte paper-like surface, 16,384 level-sensitive pen pressure, and tilt support.
The 11.9-inch screen size might not suit everyone at first, especially someone who’s used to working on large display monitors like me, but I eventually got used to it after working on it for several days.
It’s nimble, lightweight and highly maneuverable, so you can just throw it in your bag and connect it at a moment’s notice. Really perfect for students, freelancers, and creatives on the go.
If you don’t have a pen display tablet, or maybe you do and want to upgrade the screen, and you’re looking for one on a low budget, I’d recommend this one as it’s amazing for a first starter, the entry specs are good and it’s great value.
