Hi, I’m posting it as a response, but decided to make a separate topic in case it is useful as a reference in the future. Should be easier to search for.
Phew… OK. Where do I start? TL;DR is that the experience is a bit hit and miss.
The device I got is XP-Pen Deco Pro XLW Gen 2, this is the largest model.
The test system was Ubuntu 22.04 with AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X on X399 Taichi (that’s a pretty old HW). Graphics card AMD Radeon 6900 XT with stock Mesa drivers. Running Xwayland.
All testing done with Krita 5.2.2 app image.
The Good
The build quality is decent, especially the accessories (the pen, pen case, the cables) are top notch.
The tablet itself is a bit weaker, it’s very big (large inactive areas), a bit tall (height from the desk), and can creak slightly under pressure. Overall still comfortable to use.
The pen is very good, nice silicon grip, eraser end, additional nibs (plastic and felt), two buttons.
Cable ends are thick, so that there’s no risk of applying pressure to the USB port, because the cable acts as a support.
The remote keypad is all plastic, very light, but acceptable. The rotating ring has nice tactile clicks. An USB key/dongle is used to connect the keypad.
Pressure response and line smoothness all look good. The pen has a bit firm feel, but the curve can be adjusted to be softer.
The Driver
There are a few variants (rpm, deb, tar.gz), I used deb. Software is simple and clear to use. Decent configuration options, all the stuff you would expect.
The app works well. Every button press shows an annoying toast, but it can be disabled in the UI.
The Bad
Bluetooth doesn’t work. The device can be detected and paired with the PC, but then nothing happens. The driver app doesn’t see the device, and the pointer remains dead. Perhaps there’s an Open Source replacement driver for this, but I didn’t delve that far…
Krita table tester is a bit buggy with this device, the pointer was often disappearing or even stopped responding at all (e.g. I could not click on the buttons to close Krita).
Pen tracking somehow feels laggy, even on a 120 Hz display. However, the actual lines look good and smooth.
The 16K pressure levels seems a bit like a gimmick. The pen feels rather firm, so it’s best to adjust the curve to half the width (8K levels), or drag it in the middle to make it softer. Otherwise you have to press rather hard.
It seemed that a few times the pen didn’t register a tap with the nib.
The remote keypad may need some fine tuning. For example, zoom/scroll functions were a bit mixed up, to get a zoom in/out I actually needed to use scroll mode. Also it’s required to disable the messages in the driver, otherwise every key event shows an icon in the toolbar on the left for split second, which is super distracting.
A quick comparison with Windows
Usually Windows driver works better, but this time the pen tracking behavior didn’t seem much smoother than on Ubuntu. Hovering the pen seems to have lower resolution than dragging the pen.
Again, the lines come out really nicely, no complaints there, but the experience, especially when quickly raising and putting down the pen tip doesn’t feel as smooth as I’d like.
OK, in short, the experience is rather good and definitely you can get accustomed to it. However, comparing to Huion Giano G930L, to me Huion is a better device with a smoother experience (on Windows and Linux). I may be a bit biased, because I have used Huion for a long time now. In terms of ergonomics, Giano is a bit slimmer vertically (flatter on the desk), and has smaller dimensions without sacrificing the active area. But its aspect ratio is more 16:10, so not all area can be used depending on your monitor.
To close things of, here are some pictures:
Size comparison:
Top - Deco Pro XLW gen 2 - Huion Inspiroy 2M (H951P)
Bottom - Huion Giano G930L - A4 printer paper
Thanks for review. I’ve been looking at Deco XLW and Huion Giano as I don’t use Shortcuts on drawing tablet and want to use with big monitor. I’ve never used XP Pen before. Giano is less expensive compared to big XLW. Want to buy new one
I can vouch for Giano, especially on Windows. I have been using it for more than a year now, and it’s definitely top of the line. The drawing experience is very smooth (with USB connection), the pen can use felt nibs, and the surface has a nice matte feel. Drawing feels much better than on a screen tablet such as Kamvas 16 (less slippery).
If you don’t use the buttons (I don’t either), you can disable them in the driver to not press them accidentally. If the tablet is a bit too big, you can always reduce the active area and move your arm less. So I think as long as you have the desk space and can get accustomed to a screenless tablet, it’s hard to go wrong with this model.
I think both devices are roughly the same price, but it may vary by region. I didn’t have a chance to try Wacom (but their Intuos Pro line is old by now) or Xencelabs (they don’t have a large model).
Just to be clear – I think both devices are very close in quality and usability. The things I noticed might not even be a problem depending on your preferences and other hardware. As for the Bluetooth support, Huion likewise doesn’t support it on Linux.
I recommend watching a few reviews on YouTube (I like this channel especially) and see which features are most valuable and relevant to you.
Thanks for the advice!
Yeah, I don’t care so much about Bluetooth support, I care more about drawing experience
Anyway, I’m going to wait for Huion’s screenless tablets with PenTech 4.0 to be released (I hope they do, because I prefer screenless tablets)
Overall I’d like to upgrade my XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 to a tablet with a larger work area, felt nibs and I’m interested in trying some new technologies haha (like 16k pressure levels, x3 from Xp Pen or Pentech 4.0 from Huion)
Oh, I didn’t know Huion has something in the works. I’d be very interested in trying them out too. I hope they won’t forego the high-end / pro segment, but probably most of the sales are in the mid-range.
As for XP Pen’s 16K levels, I’m not sure if that is all that great in practice. The pen feels very firm, so it seems like these additional levels are used when you press really hard. I had a better experience with much softer and shorter pressure curve (but it can be easily adjusted).
With Huion coming from pen tech 2.0 to 3.0 was a big difference (e.g. PW507 to PW517). The pen worked better, with much smoother pressure curve, and the felt nibs are fantastic. The weakest feature is probably tilt, which I don’t think works too well on any Huion pen.
I feel like it was slightly better, but I didn’t pay as close attention honestly because I tend to not rely on this feature.
With Huion, the rotation can jump around quite erratically, unless the pen is tilted significantly. The feature is advertised as 60 degrees tilt, so that’s all within spec, but I feel like that’s too big an angle to be practical. But I think this is pretty standard, and going by the specs XP Pen has the same 60 degrees tilt.
I’m fascinated that you like a big area on a screenless tablet, as I actually prefer to make my work area smaller on the Deco LW. Perhaps it is different sitting at a desk compared to a lounge chair.
In my case, I always draw at a desk, sitting in front of a 28-inch monitor, with a lot of room to move my arm around. A large tablet can be more exhausting to use (and feels “slow”) because you need to move your hand more (especially when you are clicking on the UI elements).
Personally, I still like it because of the more precision without zooming as much. For example, it makes it possible to work on a whole piece without zooming, which is really useful when creating a rough and balancing a character. For lineart, having more space to draw from the shoulder is helpful too, but it’s probably more of a preference than a need, because we have stabilizers and other aids like that.
By the way, it also depends on the size of your monitor
I have a 27 inch and with a small tablet I would have to make a lot of small movements. To tell you the truth even with my not small Xp Pen deco 01 V2 my hand hurts from small movements haha
It’s a good thing I stumbled upon this post. I purchased a XP-Pen Deco Pro LW Gen 2 and it had the tiny glitch of transitioning from hover to contact. I ended up returning it and asked XP-Pen support if it was a defect and they said it indeed was. Because they said it’s a defect, I considered buying it again but the XL size this time, but then I stumbled upon your post and tried to verify the same issue with other owners of the said tablet. It sucks because I really like the build quality of the tablet and the pen, but pretty much unusable for me.
You mentioned you’ve had a better experience with the Huion Giano. I also considered buying that tablet but apparently Huion recently has driver issues on Windows, particularly if you have product software like Logitech, Gigabyte, etc. installed. It sucks because I have a spent a great deal of time configuring the RGB on my PC to look good and not look like barf.
The only stable option for a large screenless tablet is Wacom but it’s hella expensive.
I might be lucky, but I’m always using the most recent drivers with my Huion Inspiroy H1060P, Logitech 502 and 602, and a Corsair K55 RGB Pro and an Elgato Stream Deck as input devices, and don’t have issues between them.
Hmm same here, I’m on the latest (I think) Huion driver, I also updated the firmware before, and I don’t have any problems. Windows 11. However, I don’t own any of the other hardware you mentioned, so maybe the conflict could happen only then…
The only “glitch” I’m seeing is that once the tablet is plugged in, it asks twice for admin permission (the UAC popup). After that it’s smooth sailing.
If your local laws permit a 2-week refund policy, I would just get it and see how it works. To me this is an amazing tablet for a desktop PC. Granted, I have no first hand experience with Intuos Pro.
That is for two different parts of the driver, the server and the core. Other manufacturers do it with hidden elevation, I don’t know what I like better.
Then perhaps it’s only an issue for Huion’s pen displays. Looking at the complaints again, all of them seem to have whatever Kamvas Huion is offering.
I did email Huion about it, and here’s the reply I got:
The lagging and freeze issues are usually caused by the Logitech driver. We can disable the process to solve the issue.
We have forwarded this to our Product Development Team, who will review and improve it in our future drivers. Please check our official website regularly for the latest updates.
It’s been like this already for some of the Huion users for months already and people have been complaining, so idk what Huion is doing.
I don’t unplug my tablet at all but f I get a UAC popup every time I boot, it would certainly be a deal breaker for me.
Unfortunately, the Huion Giano isn’t sold anywhere locally. I have to buy it from their global store.
I’ve never used XP Pen before. Giano is less expensive compared to big XLW. Want to buy new one 