Huion’s new, cheaper drawing tablets take on Wacom’s Cintiq Pro lineup

Huion has showcased the two latest additions to its Kamvas Pro range of display drawing tablets at CES, targeting budget-conscious creatives with professional features like high color accuracy and touchscreen support. 

The Huion Kamvas Pro 27 and Kamvas Pro 19 are now available to buy in the US for $1,999 and $1,099, respectively, following their initial launch in China on December 15th, and share some similarities with Wacom’s much pricier Cintiq Pro lineup. The product range from both companies features a 4K resolution and paper-like anti-glare glass display, which has been specially bonded to reduce parallax (that gap between the stylus nib and the cursor), for example.

Color accuracy is also a standout feature for both product lineups, with the Kamvas Pro 27’s Delta E <1.5 (a value that measures potential color distortion) being a smidge better than the $3,500 Wacom Cintiq Pro 27’s Delta E <2. Anything below a Delta E of 2 tends to be pretty difficult for the majority of people to distinguish differences in.

The Kamvas Pro 27 also supports 98 percent Adobe RGB, 97 percent DCI-P3, and 99 percent sRGB color gamut coverage, compared to the Cintiq Pro 27’s 99 percent Adobe RGB and 98 percent DCI-P3 coverage. That means it likely won’t nail a few shades of green unique to Adobe RGB quite as well as the Cintiq, but it should still be perfectly fine for the vast majority of work.

The Kamvas Pro 27 features an HDMI, DisplayPort, DC, USB-C, 3.5mm audio, and two USB-A ports. The display has a peak brightness of 300 nits. Some of the promotional videos Huion posted to Bilibili also showcase accessories like a mounted shelf for resting iPads and other accessories on, though there’s currently no word if these are available to purchase outside of China.

The smaller Kamvas Pro 19 features an 18.4-inch display with a peak brightness of 220 nits. Color gamut coverage comes in at 96 percent Adobe RGB, 98 percent DCI-P3, and 99 percent sRGB. This compact model should be better suited for creatives looking for more portable options, sporting two USB-C ports for charging and connectivity alongside support for reverse charging for connected devices at up to 40W.

Both the Kamvas Pro 27 and Kamvas Pro 19 have a claimed 1000:1 contrast ratio and touchscreen support that allows users to zoom, rotate, and manipulate projects using their fingers instead of the two battery-free pens included alongside the tablets. Both pens — the three-button PW600 and the slimmer two-button PW600S — feature an additional digital “eraser” button on the end and provide 16,000 levels of pressure sensitivity.

There are no buttons built into either of these Kamvas Pro tablets for assigning keyboard shortcuts. Instead, they both ship with Huion’s Keydial Mini K20 — a Bluetooth-supported macro pad worth $69.99, akin to Wacom’s $99 ExpressKey Remote. On the back of the tablets, you’ll find a collapsable stand that can be used to better angle the drawing position like an artist’s easel. Alternatively, Huion is also releasing an adjustable stand that can be purchased separately (for an unspecified sum), and both models support VESA mounts.

Many creatives won’t care that the specs for these Kamvas Pro tablets fall a little short of Wacom’s coveted Cintiq Pro lineup. For some, the vast difference in pricing may not be worth the slight variations in features, especially considering Wacom’s 27-inch $3,500 flagship doesn’t even come with a stand. That might be fine for those willing to pay the premium for Wacom’s reputable build quality, but Huion’s new Kamvas Pro products sure look like a tempting alternative for anyone on a tighter budget.