XP-PENArtist12 11.6 Inch FHD Drawing Monitor Pen Display Graphic Monitor with PN06 Battery-Free Multi-Function Pen Holder and Glove 8192 Pressure Sensitivity

Easy to use. Works great even if left handed and perfect for drawing since you can see the screen light weight. Price is well worth it. I highly recommend it.

This drawing monitor is insanely good for the price. I’ll have to admit that I’ve only used it for a week or so at the time of me writing this. Yet the one thing I wanted to point out was something I found to be quite inconvenient and possibly challenging/ impossible for beginners as they set up their new drawing monitor. I started out by deleting my previous tablet driver and downloaded the one that my computer needed on the XP-PEN website. It was a walk in the park, super simple. The thing was when I rest my computer and connected the cables it wasn’t working. I turned on the monitor and it gave me an error message, then enabled battery saver mode. Long story short I had to fidget around with my cables for about 30 minutes and reset my computer a dozen times to actually get it going. Once inside my program I found that even though the cursor was popping up on screen once it went over the canvas it was going haywire. I went into the driver and calibrated it a bunch, then reset it again. Then I ended up having to change my virtual monitor set up so that the XP-PEN monitor would mirror my main one. After all that I came a across a slight problem, in multiple programs that I had tested I was seeing that the lines were coming out pixel-y. It actually wasn’t a problem with the monitor that time but just the custom DPI settings I had on all my programs, so keep that in mind if you come around a similar issue. Anyways, it took me about 15 resets before it was working functionally, then another one when the stylus went haywire again. Right after reset 16 I started to question my purchase but once I got into the rhythm of things with the touch bar, shortcut keys and the really great screen quality, my doubts just went away. The inclusion of the pen case and smudge guard plus cloth were nice but also incredibly practical. The drawing monitor didn’t give me any problems from then on, the only thing would maybe be that I have to disconnect and reconnect the HDMI to USB adapter cable every time I turn on my computer, this isn’t new to me though, I’ve had similar issues with that adapter when using other monitors, but hey maybe another reset would be necessary! All in all I would consider it easy to use but not easy to set up. There were a few aforementioned issues I encountered which weren’t from the monitor itself but instead as a result of the monitor such as the DPI and HDMI adapter, which is important to differentiate between as it helps better find the solution. If this were my first encounter with drawing virtually then I would love using it but maybe find it impossible to set up. If you’re planning on buying this product specifically for someone who doesn’t know anything about computers, drawing programs, or tablets in the slightest then it’s better to either A. Have it set up for them by someone who either knows about it or has the extreme patience and time to learn about it, or B. Buy a simpler type of drawing TABLET as it would most likely be 10 times easier to set up than a drawing monitor. Though they are XP-PEN’s competition, Wacom, and the Wacom Intuos tablets are really awesome for beginners, I had one starting out and at that time they even included drawing and animation programs ( all be it not very good ones). A Wacom tablet would be a better choice if choice A isn’t possible. Yet I understand the interest with this particular monitor with its size and price point. I highly recommend it regardless of my initial problems.

XP-pen did a fantastic job developing such an amazing product for such a low low cost. While I do have mostly positive things to say about it, there were a few minor annoying oversights I had to deal with.Firstly the pen is good. It has a hexagonal cylinder design much like a normal pencil, and has a nice rubbery texture for grip. Feels good to use. And the tip is smooth and sensitive and doesn't seem to be in danger of scratching the screen. My only problem with it is the button on the pen.The pen only comes with one button on it. Which is very unfortunate because both of the previous tablets I've used have had two, which I'm very used to having by this point. The button for whatever reason is also designed to blend in with the pen's shape. It's completely flat and textureless meaning if you rotate the pencil in your hand while drawing, you will most likely lose where the button-side ended up, making you stop what your doing to find it if you want to use it. A simple bump of plastic sticking out like on the tablet's main buttons would solve this problem easily.Also for some reason, the drivers that use the pen do not let you hold the pen button down and tap or drag the pen at the same time. So if you're like me and you want to use your pen button to grab and pan the canvas when you're zoomed in, well you're out of luck. The pen tip is completely disabled when you have the button held down. Which is a very odd problem to overlook. (The tablet's buttons DO work like how they should however.) There is also an eraser button on the other end, but no program I have seems to use it, so I can't say much about it. I do know that rubbing it against the screen feels a bit dangerous. I wouldn't use it unless you had a screen protector on. (Which the product does not come with, so please pick one up if you do get it.)The tablet itself is very good however. The only real problem with it is that the power button is very finnicky. You have to tap it a few times to wake up the tablet. Besides that it's pretty good. Color temperature was perfect for my main monitor by default, and the buttons are pretty well designed. The 6 buttons are arranged in a way so that you always know what button your finger is resting on without looking, the center buttons have a bump on them to give you an idea of where you are. And the touch pad for zooming in and out is brilliant. Not too sensitive but very responsive.Installation was also as easy as downloading the drivers and plugging everything in. No problems there.Overall I would say that the Artist12 is extremely good for amateur artists looking to try out a drawing tablet with a display. I can't recommend it enough to that demographic. The price for such quality is mind-blowing despite it's flaws.