Important Update (Fed. 23, 2019)
This review is now outdated.
Please read my re-review of the Huion H640P here instead: Huion H640P ReReview 2019
Important Update (Jan. 31, 2019)
The newest firmware update version HUION_T173_181115 for the Huion H640P addresses all the major issues I have mentioned regarding the H640P in this review, which are:
-Non-linear pen pressure
-Bad click sensitivity
-Wobbly lines
To check that your firmware version is up to date, open your Huion driver with your tablet plugged in, then on the “About” screen, press the keys Ctrl+V+E+R. The firmware version of your tablet should now be displayed.
To get the firmware update, you can send your tablet serial number, order number and your OS version to service@huion.com and they will send you a firmware upgrade package. Please make sure to follow the included instructions precisely to install it properly.
The above 2 images are my testing pages which test pen pressure and line wobble with the new firmware update.
As you can see in the pen pressure tests, there are no longer sections in the pen pressure which clearly “blow out” in an unnatural way. As far as I could tell, the pen pressure is now properly linear instead of the weird pressure curve it used to be previously.
Also, in the line wobble test, you can see that the slow ruler lines are not very wobbly at all. This is a massive improvement from how wobbly the lines were before this firmware update.
Conclusion
I now believe this is a worthwhile tablet thanks to these improvements, and can wholeheartedly recommend it to any artist who is looking for a cheaper alternative to the small Wacom Intuos.
Please keep these changes in mind when reading this review as I have not tried to rewrite the whole review to reflect this change.
Instead of rewriting this review, I may do a whole new review of the Huion H640P at a later date.
End of Important Update (Jan. 31, 2019)
Update (Nov. 11, 2018): I have written a post detailing the main reasons why I do not suggest this tablet: Why I do not recommend the Huion H640P/H950P
Update (Oct. 24, 2018): I have revised this review with my latest thoughts regarding its drawing capabilities.
I reread this review which I wrote last year and I am honestly appalled by how uneducated my conclusions are about this tablet. I would like to believe that all of my more recent reviews have been written objectively, but I will be taking some time to check them to make sure.
I apologize for not realizing back then that this tablet is a failure when taking into consideration the issues present on it.
Huion came out with a new tablet which features a battery-free pen (no-battery/no-recharge), so I just had to buy it for myself to see how good it is! I’m not sponsored by them for this review, but I have contacted them to talk about a pen pressure anomaly.
Another reason I got the tablet is because I wanted to try ordering off huiontablet.com to see how good their shipping is. This tablet is still not available is now available on Amazon, and my conclusion is that you should order Huion tablets from Amazon instead of their official site. More about that near the end of the review.
Please note!
-I am not a Mac or Linux user!! I only tested this tablet on Windows 8 and Windows 10.
-The USB cable direction on this tablet is not suited for use in left-handed mode!
-Prices may have changed since I wrote this review.
-Check when a review was written. Some aspects may improve or change over time, so it is in your best interest to concentrate on reviews which are less than 1 year old.
Table of Contents
- How good is this tablet?
- Important specifications
- What’s in the box?
- Tablet drivers
- The pen pressure anomaly
- The drawing experience!
- Conclusion
- Buying off of huiontablet.com
- Places to buy the tablet
How good is this tablet?
Design and build quality: Excellent!
Tablet drivers: Really good!
Drawing experience: Workable, but certainly not ideal.
Overall: An “okay” buy for 50 USD.
My verdict:
-I can’t really recommend getting this because of the pen pressure anomaly and click sensitivity issue. It can draw, but there are much better tablets for you to buy which will give you much more consistent drawing capabilities than the Huion H640P.
Important specifications
Price: 49.99 USD (when this review was written) Amazon.com
Active Area: 6.3 x 3.9 inches
Pen Type: Battery-free
Pen Buttons: 2 side buttons, no eraser
Pen Pressure: 8192
Pen Tilt Sensitivity: None
Expresskeys: 6 Buttons
Multi-touch: No
Special features: None
What’s in the box?
The Huion H640P comes in a simple white box with a pleasing image on the front. As you might be able to see, the official name for this tablet is Huion Inspiroy H640P, so it is a part of Huion’s newest line of Inspiroy tablets.
The things that come in the box:
- Tablet
- Pen
- Pen stand
- Tablet cable (USB type-A to Micro-USB)
- Pen nib replacements x8
- Driver installation CD shaped instruction card
- User manual
- “Thank you” card
Before talking about the tablet, I wanted to talk about this driver installation CD shaped instruction card. It replaces the driver installation CD which often comes with a tablet, but it is a much better choice. This card redirects you to download the latest drivers directly from Huion’s main website, and this addresses the issue where many people run into problems simply because they use the outdated drivers on the installation CD.
I just had to applaud Huion for creating a card that looks like an installation CD so that it catches peoples eyes. It is much more eye-catching than a normal rectangle sheet of paper which many people tend to ignore and not read.
This tablet has a very simple design with a matte plastic covering most of the surface area on top of the tablet. The right and left edges of the tablet feature a spotted design. The tablet itself is quite small and should fit in basically any bag that you’d want to put it in. The small size makes it extremely portable.
The surface of the tablet has enough texture to prevent your pen from slipping and losing control, but it is quite smooth so it will not eat your nibs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Is it like paper? No. Is it a good texture? Yes.
The underside of the tablet has the information sticker and four rubber feet. The rubber feet do their job properly as I did not have problems with the tablet sliding around while drawing.
All the edges of the tablet are curved so that they doesn’t dig into your wrist when drawing.
The expresskeys along the side are fantastic and feel great to use. They have very nice feedback when they are clicked and are not hard to use whatsoever. Compared to other 50 USD tablets, these expresskeys are amazing in both quality and feel.
The Micro-USB port on the tablet is located on the side with the expresskeys. The USB cable itself bends upward. This design is meant for right-handed users, and the cord will point toward the user when the tablet is flipped for left-handed use. This is something you should note if you are left-handed!!!
The lock switch on the right side of the tablet locks the expresskeys and prevents them from activating any functions. I guess if you don’t need the expresskeys you can just leave that as set to lock.
Another use for it is for left-handed people. If you lock the expresskeys, you can avoid turning the tablet around and pointing the USB cable at yourself by drawing with your hand on the (locked) expresskeys.
The pen is made of a matte plastic with a semi-hard/semi-soft rubber grip. It has a nice shape with a bulge at the bottom of the grip to prevent your fingers from sliding, although the rubber grip does already do a plenty good job of preventing sliding. The center of gravity is much more towards the pen tip then the center due to the rubber grip. Perhaps it’s because of the rubber grip, but the pen is light but weighty enough, so the pen does not feel unbalanced at all when in use.
The pen for the Huion H640P is a battery-free pen, meaning that it does not require batteries or recharging, just like Wacom’s pens. This is Huion’s first tablet featuring a battery-free pen!
The grip is very comfortable because it features a rubber grip which no other battery-free pen currently does (except for the Wacom Intuos Pro, but that’s in a whole different class of tablet due to its super high price). The Wacom Intuos CTL-480, the previous generation of Intuos which has been discontinued, used to have a battery-free pen with a rubber grip which I really loved, but the current Wacom Intuos CTL-490 series only uses cheap plastic pens.
The pen buttons are flush with the surface but are surprisingly easy to find without looking because the plastic buttons feel different from the rubber grip. They also click nicely and feel very good to use.
The top of the pen does not have anything as it does not need a charging port.
The pen stand is a small plastic cone with a hole in the top. You can stand the pen upright, or horizontal on it. When you stand the pen upright, you can tell that the stand is not made properly for the pen because the pen always leans to one side and never stands completely vertical. Is that a problem? No, it’s just something funny I wanted to mention.
The bottom of the pen stand is purely plastic, so the pen stand does not have very much grip on hard surfaces. However, the bottom is not as smooth as the previous all-plastic Huion pen stand so it doesn’t actually slide so much that it’s obnoxious.
The inside of the pen stand houses the replacement pen nibs. The pen nib remover is built into the bottom of the stand with the instructions on how to use it engraved into the plastic on the bottom. But for those who don’t understand the pictures, you stick your pen into the hole, lever it to the side a bit, and pull the nib out.
Tablet drivers
The tablet drivers are extremely easy to install. You don’t even need to have your tablet plugged in to install them! Just go download the latest version from huion.com and remove all other tablet drivers you have on your computer before installing it.
Once you’ve installed the driver, the icon shows up in your taskbar, and the driver also creates a shortcut on your desktop so you don’t have to go searching for it in your apps.
Correction: The desktop icon only starts the Huion driver software (if it doesn’t run automatically on startup) and clicking it doesn’t actually open the settings screen. To open the settings screen, you will need to click the Huion icon in the system tray (the bottom right portion of your screen).
If you don’t see the Huion icon in the system tray, it could be automatically hidden by Windows. If so, click on the small white arrow to show all the system tray icons.
Although the installer doesn’t prompt you to restart your computer after it finishes, I wholeheartedly suggesting restarting your computer anyways to allow Windows to properly update the files necessary for the driver to run smoothly.
In the driver, you can configure your tablet expresskeys, pen buttons, pen pressure curve, and work area. There’s also an option to save different profiles, although the save and open buttons are named a bit ambiguously (they’re the import config and export config buttons in the “About” section).
If you see a “Require Admin” button along the bottom of the driver when you first run it, click it to give your driver proper administrator privileges so that it can make changes to system files when necessary.
The Press Keys tab allows you to customize the functions mapped to your expresskeys. As you can see above, the hotkeys menu has keyboard shortcuts, pen clicks, and some “switch” functions available. The drop down menu for the keyboard shortcuts has every keyboard key that I can think of.
The only thing that I notice is missing is the double click function, but I guess it’s pretty easy to just double tap your pen instead so that can’t even be considered a problem.
The Stylus Pen tab allows you to customize the pen buttons and the pen pressure curve. The pen buttons have the same amount of configuration as the expresskeys. I found that the pen pressure works best for me at a setting of -1.
Usually you will need to uncheck the “Enable Windows Ink” option to prevent Windows Ink from messing with your drawing. That said, some programs such as Photoshop usually do not work if it is not turned on, so play with that option as you see fit.
One limitation of this tablet driver is that the pen buttons cannot be used at the same time as the pen nib click. For example, if you were to assign spacebar (for panning) to the pen button, then you hold down the pen button and press the pen onto the tablet, the result would be a normal pen stroke, not the hand tool for panning as you would expect. It seems the pen nib overrides the pen button command rather than occurring alongside it.
A simple way to remedy this is by assigning both spacebar and left click to the same pen button (because you can do that with the Huion drivers), but it should be noted that the pen button and pen nib don’t interact as expected.
Edit (July 10, 2018): This limitation was fixed in the latest V14 Huion driver.
Also, as I mentioned before, the pen pressure on this pen has a small anomaly, and I will elaborate on that in the next section after I finish going over the tablet drivers.
The Work Area tab allows you to customize the monitor your tablet is mapped to, and the size of the active area your tablet uses. Pick your monitor from the drop down menu, then click the Full Area button, and then click the Screen Ratio button to properly adjust your tablet area to match your monitor.
There is also the option to rotate your tablet input for left-handed use, but like I mentioned before, the USB-cable direction may be annoying for left-handed users.
The pen pressure anomaly
I have found out that this anomaly was being “amplified” by the custom pressure curve on my CSP pen, and that was the reason my pen would skip the middle pressures so noticeably. If I instead use a normal linear pressure pen, the middle pressure skip isn’t as bad, despite still being there a bit.
The Huion H640P pen pressure is clearly a bit skewed if it gets affected this negatively by my custom CSP pen which has a perfectly linear pressure curve.
The pen pressure anomaly that I found is that the pen pressure jumps too quickly when trying to do a gradual increasing pressure stroke from low to high.
You can see the problem even more clearly when you set the pen pressure curve setting to above zero.
The above are screenshots of my slow strokes from left to right, low pressure to high pressure for all the different pen pressure settings available on the Huion driver. I did the exact same tests on the Q11K for comparison.
Comparing the +1, +2, and +3 sections, you can clearly see that I was completely unable to draw any middle pen pressures with the H640P, whereas I am able to get the middle pen pressures on the Q11K even at +3. Even with -1 and 0, you can see a slight jump in the pen pressure on the H640P.
The issue becomes the least prominent when using -2, -1, or 0 in the pen pressure curve settings. With those settings, the pen pressure feels more natural, although it requires you to draw lighter.
From left to right, the above are all screenshots of reviews on Youtube for the Huion H640P by Tech Guy, Illustrayna, and Trent Kaniuga. Only Trent Kaniuga noticed the pen pressure anomaly and mentioned it briefly, but I have drawn red arrows pointing to the spots where you can see the pen pressure jumps in all 3 of their reviews.
Using the Youtube reviews as reference, it seems pretty clear that this pen pressure anomaly is an issue present in all Huion H640P tablets currently out.
I have received a definitive answer from Huion that this problem is either a firmware or hardware issue. So if they fix it, it will only be fixed on the newer batches of this tablet.
Update (October 24, 2018): This issue has not been fixed, and it appears it will not be fixed as it has been almost a year since this tablet was released.
A drawing tablets most important function is to draw consistent lines. Having an unpredictable pressure curve such as this is a clear fail for a drawing tablet.
The drawing experience!
This tablet gave me a decent drawing experience for a simple 50 USD tablet. The surface of the tablet is smooth but feels great to draw on, and the fact that the pen has a nice rubber grip and doesn’t need to be recharged is definitely a good thing.
Unfortunately, the issues regarding the pen pressure anomaly, click sensitivity, and wobbly lines betray the great build quality of the tablet.
I only test my tablets on Clip Studio Paint because that’s all I use. You should contact Huion support directly if you want to know if the tablet is compatible with the drawing program you use, but most major drawing programs should be compatible. Their customer support is also very kind so there’s no need to be afraid of contacting them directly.
The stroke control of the pen is decent when using the pen with pen pressure set to -1, but the pen pressure anomaly is certainly still there. I was able to draw even with the non-linear pen pressure curve, but it was certainly not ideal.
One problem I have noticed is that clicking things with the pen requires more initial force than any other tablet I have ever used. Simple things like clicking layers, or opening Chrome require more than a simple light tap. It’s not a massive problem because this problem doesn’t affect drawing, but it’s quite annoying when using your pen to navigate your computer or the internet. If you are considering this tablet for something like photo editing (which requires you to click lots of options), then I would suggest against it for sure.
Another problem I noticed is that slow diagonal lines tend to have a fair bit of wobble to them. The wobble will not get in the way of your drawing when doing quicker strokes as it will be smoothed out, but it will get in your way if you often do slower lines.
The expresskeys on this tablet are amazing and feel much better than the cheap plastic buttons that you get on most 50 USD tablets. If the expresskeys were the most important factor, I would have no qualms suggesting this tablet to someone who uses expresskeys for most of their functions.
Conclusion
I can’t really recommend this tablet to anyone wanting to start out in the world of digital art due to the pen pressure anomaly and click sensitivity issue. Like I mentioned once, a drawing tablet with an unpredictable pressure curve is a failure of a drawing tablet as that is its most important feature.
This tablet is certainly “okay” when considering all the factors, but I believe it would be much better to consider other options as they will most likely give you a better and more consistent drawing experience overall.
Buying off of huiontablet.com
At the time of writing this review, this tablet is still not available for purchase on Amazon (now available on Amazon.com). I bought the tablet off of huiontablet.com because I figured it was a good chance to check how good their service is, and I have come to the conclusion that you should probably buy Huion’s tablets off of Amazon due to a few reasons.
One reason is that there are high shipping costs involved if you order off of huiontablet.com (for North America in particular). If I had not ordered the Huion H640P during their free shipping event which occurred during the first month of the release, I would have had to pay 20 USD for shipping to Canada, that’s an extra 40% added to the price of the tablet! (Shipping within China is free though.)
For comparison, if you were to order the tablet off Amazon, you would not have to pay any shipping because it is usually free. At most, you might need to pay ~5 USD for standard shipping if the tablet is not yet a “Fulfilled by Amazon” item, but even then that is loads better than the shipping cost on huiontablet.com.
Edit: Huion has updated their chart to specify which countries use which postal services and the estimated delivery times for each. They have also properly included a disclaimer at the bottom which includes the possibility of delays during busy periods. Very good on them!
This section no longer applies so I have striked out the text.
Another reason is the shipping speed. My tablet took 2 and a half weeks to arrive in Canada. The expected delivery window was 5-10 days because they chose EMS for my package (I assume 5-10 business days, but they do not specify).
I asked them why it was taking longer than expected, and they said that delays were caused due to high shipping traffic in China, but they do not state anywhere on their site that there may be delays in shipping times due to high traffic.
Delays due to congestion do happen and that is common sense, however, you are still required to state that they may happen, otherwise you’re basically guaranteeing that the package will arrive in the estimated delivery window, which in my case, it didn’t.
But either way, the shipping was very slow.
As a continuation of the above, another reason to not order off huiontablet.com is because you do not get to choose your shipping speed. Look at the list of possible carriers and their delivery estimates. If you’re lucky you’ll get assigned UPS, but if you’re unlucky you’ll be assigned something much slower. How is that worthwhile at all when Amazon will deliver within 3-5 business days no matter which carrier you’re assigned?
Edit: I will mention here that my Huion H430P which I bought off huiontablet.com on January 2nd, 2018 arrived on January 8th, 2018. So it can be assumed that the shipping speed is acceptable during non-busy seasons.
And the last reason that you should not order off huiontablet.com is because of their returns policy (here: https://www.huiontablet.com/warranty-statement/).
Huion “Return with quality issue” – You can only return within 30 days from date of purchase, or 7 days after maximum delivery date.
Huion “Return without quality issue” – Same time frames as above, but you must pay 8% restocking fee + return shipping.
Huion “Cancel order” – You can cancel an order before it’s shipped if you pay an 8% restocking fee.
As comparison, the Amazon return policy for Fulfilled by Amazon products is: You can return products for any reason within 30 days after delivery. And if you return without product defect you only have to pay the return shipping. Also, you can cancel an order before it’s shipped for free.
Unless there is a very good promotion exclusive to the huiontablet.com site, I suggest buying Huion tablets off of Amazon for the faster shipping speeds and better return policy.
Places to buy the tablet
Huion Store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca
People living in other regions should check their regions Amazon or see if the Huion Store ships to them.
If you have any questions about the tablet, feel free to ask me!
Digital Art Tablet Guides 
Excellent review! I also ordered mine from huiontablet.com and it took longer than expected. It arrives this Saturday. Please let us know if you receive a response from Huion about the pen pressure issue!
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Thank you!
I suppose it’s good enough that the tablet actually arrives eventually if you order off huiontablet.com, but I sure hope they put the tablet on Amazon so that it can ship quicker.
Huion’s on vacation until Oct. 8th, but hopefully I’ll be able to update you on the pen pressure issue soon!
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I’m back with a little update on the pen pressure issue.
Based on the conversation I had with Huion, it seems that they didn’t notice this issue until I pointed it out to them (which was expected since the reviewers they sent review units to didn’t notice it either). So most likely, your H640P will also have the issue.
However! As long as you set your pen pressure curve to 0 or -1, it’s not something that will get in the way of drawing. I can vouch for that because I was able to do a full drawing without being bothered by it.
Huion told me that the tech support is looking into the issue to figure out a fix. I’ve asked Huion to notify me if they’re able to fix it, so hopefully it’ll be fixed soon!
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Good to know they’ll be looking into it. I’ve been using it on sai 2 with sai’s stabilizer on 1 and it seems the problem doesn’t appear/ Overall excellent drawing tablet, super comfy!
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I’m glad to hear that you’re having a good drawing experience on it! 🙂
I was finally able to explain the issue to Huion’s technical support (language barrier made it hard), and they say that it’s either a hardware or firmware issue so it cannot be changed.
But after playing with the tablet so much, I can confidently say that the pen pressure anomaly is basically unnoticeable when the pen pressure is set to -2, -1, and 0 in the Huion drivers. I doubt anyone will even need to use the +1, +2, +3, +4 pen pressure settings where the problem is the most obvious, so it shouldn’t be an issue for anyone.
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This has been a great site for learning about these tablets, I’m convinced about getting a Huion now. You mention the Q11K, but I’m curious how you think the 640P compares in terms of value for money to the 1060+?
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Hey there!
I think that the Huion New 1060 Plus has more value for the money because it has more features: Twice the number of expresskeys, a much larger active area, a bunch of soft keys, and 8GB of built-in USB memory if you want to use it. The only big “issue” is that the Huion New 1060 Plus uses a recharging pen, but it’s supposed to last 800 hours (33 days) on a single charge so I personally consider that a non-issue.
However! Both are really good tablets for their prices, so it really depends on how much you’re willing to spend. If you don’t want to spend around 90 USD on your first tablet, then the Huion H640P is a great 50 USD Wacom alternative that’s the same size as the 80 USD Wacom Intuos Draw. Or if you think a smaller size will fit you better, then getting the big Huion New 1060 Plus might not be the best option.
My personal favourite is the Huion New 1060 Plus because I enjoy the amount of control I get when using a bigger tablet, and because it allows me to draw while only using expresskeys because of how many it has.
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I purchased an H640p last week from Amazon and I can confirm the pen pressure issue is resolved. It really does work amazingly well for the price. I am going to return it simply because the size is too small for my large hands, but the quality is top-notch. Thanks for your review.
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Thank you so much for confirming that, that information is extremely helpful! I will make sure to update my review to mention that it is fixed then 😀
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Hi, my hubby bought me the H640p for xmas, and I have noticed that the setting for the pen is set to go to where the screen is on the tablet. I.E if you move you hand a lot like I do to get comfortable the cursor moves to the other side of the screen. I haven’t had if for long and am trying to get into drawing on the computer so maybe I just haven’t found a setting to fix it, but is there one? I’d really appreciate the help 🙂
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Hey,
By “the pen is set to go to where the screen is on the tablet”, I am unsure what you mean. I may need a more elaborate explanation of your problem to be sure what you are having problems with.
On all drawing tablets, the cursor will always jump to the location of the pen. For example, if you put the pen near the top left corner of the tablet, the cursor will always appear at the top left corner of your screen. Just imagine that your screen is also on your tablet, and where you are pointing at that screen is where the cursor will appear.
Pen tablets use “absolute” tracking, where a single position on the tablet will always map to a single position on the screen. This is different from a mouse which uses “relative” tracking where the cursor can be moved to different locations, even if the mouse stays in relatively the same position. Unfortunately, there is no option to use a pen tablet with “relative” tracking, but I believe “absolute” tracking is much easier to use for drawing?
Sorry I wasn’t able to understand your question,
Nikage
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I honestly had no idea about the difference in tracking. I understand now and may have to adjust my art style because of it. I really appreciate the reply!
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Hi, i read your review and it was amazing :D, but I don’t know if i should buy the Huion h640p or the xp-pen star03.
Which one would you recommend me?
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Hey, thanks for reading and I’m glad you think so!
Which one is better for you depends on a few things, so I’ll try to go through them all below.
-Drawing area size
The Huion H640P has a small size drawing area of 6.3×3.9 inches, while the XP-Pen Star03 has a larger drawing area size of 10×6.25 inches. The difference between small and big is fairly minimal since you can get used to either size the more you draw on it, but having a bigger size helps you do more controlled lines without zooming into the canvas as much.
However, the small size of the Huion H640P is the minimum which is still useable, the proof being that the Wacom Intuos which everyone trusts is the same small size but not too many people complain about it being too small.
For a first tablet, I suggest bigger sizes because they’re just slightly easier to get used to, but once you get used to it, the size stops mattering.
-Expresskeys
If you intending to use the expresskeys for your shortcuts, I would suggest the Huion H640P simply because the quality of the expresskeys on the XP-Pen Star03 is really low. The expresskeys on the Huion H640P are a pleasure to work with, whereas the buttons on the XP-Pen Star03 feels very cheap and they also click quite loudly.
-Tablet texture
The Huion H640P has a fairly smooth texture that certainly doesn’t grip as much as paper, but still does a good job. The XP-Pen Star03 on the other hand has a lot more texture which makes it grip more like paper.
However, the con of the XP-Pen Star03’s texture is that your nibs will grind faster, and the texture will rub off over repeated use. I personally don’t see the point of having rough textures because of those issues, but a lot of people enjoy having texture when they are drawing.
-Pen
The Huion H640P has a really nice rubber grip pen, while the XP-Pen Star03 has a plastic stick of a pen. However, both of them are completely useable so it’s not really a factor that’s important.
Note that 2048 and 8192 levels of pen pressure are impossible to tell apart. If a pen nib moves 0.5mm from 0% to 100% pressure, then it moves around 0.00025mm and 0.0000625mm for each level of pressure with 2048 and 8192 respectively. No human should be able to feel that difference, so it shouldn’t be a factor in deciding your tablet as long as the tablet has 1024 levels of pen pressure or more.
-Left-handed use
The Huion H640P unfortunately doesn’t have a very left-handed friendly layout because the cord is bent in an L-shape at the top left of the tablet. So if you flip it around, the cord comes out toward you off the table which would be quite annoying for a left-handed person. Well, if you don’t intend to use the expresskeys, then a left-handed person could probably use it in right-handed mode.
-Tablet driver configurability
The Huion tablet drivers can program the expresskeys and the pen buttons to anything. The XP-Pen Star03 on the other hand can configure the expresskeys to all keyboard keys, but can only program the pen buttons to mouse clicks.
I can’t exactly pick for you which would be better, so you should try to use this information to choose for yourself what you value more. My own choice would be the Huion H640P because I don’t like rough textures on my tablets, but that’s just my personal preference.
In all honesty, if you can spare to spend like 30 USD more for your tablet, then I would recommend doing so for tablets such as the Huion New 1060 Plus, XP-Pen Star06, GAOMON M106K, Huion H950P, or XP-Pen Deco 01.
The Huion H640P is good, but like I mentioned in the Drawing Area Size section, it’s small, and the XP-Pen Star03 seems to be more oriented towards people who just can’t buy anything pricier. So honestly, if you can afford it, I would suggest looking at tablets in the 70-100 USD range instead to get the higher quality feeling of the Huion H640P with a bigger active area like the XP-Pen Star03.
Oh, sorry this reply got so long. I hope it helps though.
Nikage
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Thank you, that really helped me a lot, I think i will buy the huion h640p.
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I am trying to decide between the H640P and the 610 PRO. Can you help me? Is the 640 uncomfortable like the 420 with awkward hand resting because of the small surface?
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Hey there,
The Huion H640P is comfortable and your hand only ever comes off the side of the tablet when you’re using the furthest edge of the tablet. For me, that’s only when I need to edit my layers so I don’t think it feels awkward at all. When you’re drawing in the middle area, your hand will be resting completely on the tablet.
About the Huion H610 Pro, I actually suggest against that one as it is a fairly old tablet and its build quality is not quite as good as other tablets you can get at present. If you are considering the H610 Pro, I would suggest spending around 10 USD more to get the Huion New 1060 Plus instead.
Between the H640P and H610 Pro, it’s really up to you and whether you want the passive pen of the H640P, or the larger drawing area of the H610 Pro.
Hopefully that was at least a little bit helpful,
Nikage
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Thank you very much! 🙂 I was actually really looking into the 950P as it seems like a step up from the 640P. I just found it on their site, and I think it is relatively new. Plus that 8192 pressure level!
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Ah sorry, I should’ve mentioned that one too. It is indeed basically a Huion H640P, except bigger. I forgot to mention the H950P because they haven’t made it available on Amazon yet despite it being out for a few months already (for some odd reason, it’s available on Amazon.ca though).
If you don’t mind buying it from Huion’s site directly, then it certainly is a really good choice since it’s almost like a H640P and H610 Pro combined.
I’m glad you noticed that tablet and brought it up! 🙂
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I wish it was out on Amazon already! I like the idea of not paying almost $20 for shipping!
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Thanks for the review! I noticed this same pressure issue when I got my first and current tablet (H580), and I originally thought that I just wasn’t used to drawing with tablets since nobody else saw this. Sounds like I might get this tablet (if Shawn is right and the problem really is fixed) soon; it sounds like a better deal than the 1060 and all of the Intuos.
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Hey, no problem! Thanks for reading it.
About the pressure issue, I went ahead and bought a second one near the end of December 2017 (because it was on sale on Amazon and I decided it would be safer to buy it myself than ask Huion for a updated model), and unfortunately, it had the exact same pressure curve as the first. I bought that tablet after Shawn’s comment too.
Quite frankly, the pressure issue is so unnoticeable that I can say it’s almost unnecessary to take into consideration, but you should decide that, not me. I honestly still believe that the best value per dollar comes from the Huion New 1060 Plus or Huion H950P (not a fan of the Huion H610 Pro despite its lower price because it’s older and seems to have slightly weaker build quality), and that the Huion H640P should be considered mainly if: 1) You have a low budget, or 2) you are just trying digital art for the first time and want to start out on something dependable but cheap so you won’t have spent too much money if you decide digital art isn’t for you.
Another new tablet that’s competitive with the Huion H640P and Wacom Intuos size is the XP-Pen G640 (45 USD) which is currently only available on XP-Pen’s site. It doesn’t have expresskeys, and it has a simple plastic pen, but I’m assuming it will have perfectly linear pen pressure unlike the Huion H640P because, as far as I know, XP-Pen hasn’t ever had a problem regarding pen pressure.
I’ve ordered it already to give it a review, so if you’re willing to wait a week or two to hear about it from me, then that’s an option too. I’m just not sure how much longer the shipping will take.
-Nikage
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can’t decide between this and the XP-Pen Star G640 any help i would appreciate it
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Hey there, either will work for drawing.
I would suggest the XP-Pen Star G640 for its slightly more customizable pen pressure, but the Huion H640P would be better if you are looking for comfort and confidence in quality. The overall appearance of the XP-Pen Star G640 kind of reflects its lower price so it loses out to the Huion H640P in that regard, but they are both completely capable for drawing.
Hope that helps.
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Hello! Thank you for all your tablet reviews, they’ve been very helpful as i’m currently on the lookout for a new tablet on my low budget. I understand this one is small, but that doesn’t bother me much, and the features seem perfectly ok with me and my setup! I’ve only ever used old model Wacoms so this will be a bit of an upgrade in comparison (express keys! micro usb cord!!)
What I am curious about is the lifespan & durability of the Huion H640P. I try not to be rough with my technology, but I am very clumsy and drop things a lot 😬 my cords especially get a beating since they tug when things are dropped, but hopefully the micro usb will help with this. I also try to draw at least once every day, so it will get a lot of use
I haven’t been able to find much in the way of post-use reviews, so I thought i would ask you directly in case you’ve had more experience with it since you got it ^-^
thank you!
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Hey there, thanks very much for reading!
Since I only draw on my tablets for a few days to review them (aside from my main tablets), I am not really suited to rating the lifespan and durability of tablets accurately. However, most of the tablets I have reviewed so far “feel” as durable as any Wacom tablet I have used before it, and I actually haven’t had any of my tablets break on me yet.
What I do know for sure though is that you should be able to use any micro-USB cable you have even if you break the included cable (as long as you haven’t broken the port itself).
The tablet itself should be completely fine against normal usage (nib wear and surface wear is not a problem because the surface has quite a smooth surface), and I would guess that it can also withstand at least a fair number of drops based on how it felt in my hands.
The pen is always the easiest part of a tablet to break (for every tablet company counting Wacom), so I would suggest doing your best not to drop it at all if possible.
Sorry if that wasn’t that helpful, but that’s all I can really say about durability since I’m not using it as my main tablet!
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thank you very much!! I will keep the pen’s durability in mind. I’ve never broken a pen so hopefully that streak continues!
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Hello, I know you are a digital artist…but I am thinking of trying out a tablet for photo retouching (currently use a mouse). Do you think the h640 would be good for Photoshop use? Do you know any retouchers who have tried it out?
Thank you!
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Hey there,
I wouldn’t recommend the Huion H640P for photo retouching due to the fact that the H640P requires more pressure than other tablets to click things on screen. I predict that it will annoy you when light taps won’t register as clicks properly.
For digital art, light taps not registering perfectly is not a problem since digital artists don’t tap as much as they slide while drawing, and the H640P senses slides completely fine. But for photo retouching where you will most likely tap lots of buttons and menus, it will probably be annoying when the pen doesn’t register a bunch of your light taps as clicks.
I would suggest looking towards either the Wacom Intuos or XP-Pen G640 if you want a tablet with the same active area size as the Huion H640P as they have better click fidelity and will require less force for taps to register.
I apologize, but I haven’t heard of or know any photo retouchers who have the Huion H640P, so I can’t point you to any relevant reviews.
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Thank you for the quick reply. This is very helpful.
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I got this web site from my friend who told me concerning this
site and now this time I am visiting this web
page and reading very informative content at this place.
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Hi!, can the Huion Inspiroy H640P be used for Firealpaca?
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And can it be used for animation too?
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Hi there,
I just tried the Huion H640P in FireAlpaca and it works as far as I can see.
I do not know anything about animation, so I cannot answer your second question.
-Nikage
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Hey,
Could you help me choose a Graphics tablet ? I was thinking of getting the Huion H640p but due to the pen pressure anomaly and the limited space I don’t feel like getting the tablet. I have been looking at some Xp-Pen Tablets and found the Xp-Pen Deco 01 to be to my liking but then again didn’t like it’s pen and I don’t know if the company is reliable and if they have frequent driver updates. Now I am inclining towards Huion H950p and was wondering if it has the pressure anomaly or not. It would be great if you could check it out. If you have any recommendations for me feel free to write about it (my budget ranges from $50 ~ $80). This is the first time I am getting a tablet and don’t think I’ll be buying a newer one any time soon so I want this tablet to last a long time and not have too many of a problem (also I have small hands and a pen of smaller size would be a bonus).
Best,
Sunaya
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Forgot to mention that I’ll also be doing some photo retouching. So does the Huion H950p register light touches ?
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Hey there,
I believe XP-Pen is quite a reliable company and they release frequent driver updates. At the moment, the three companies which I believe are the least “risky” to buy tablets from are Wacom, Huion, and XP-Pen.
It is very unfortunate, but I have no direct experience with the XP-Pen Deco 01 and Huion H950P that you are interested in, so it’s very hard for me to assure you of their capabilities.
For instance, I have no idea how well the Huion H950P registers pen taps and how good its pressure curve is. I have not seen complaints about the Huion H950P having bad pen tap sensitivity so it seems like it doesn’t have the same problems as the Huion H640P, but I need to emphasize that I have not tried it myself so I cannot be sure. You will want to refer to reviews of the Huion H950P to make sure.
With regards to the XP-Pen Deco 01, however, I have not heard any problems about it at all. The only problem is that the pen might feel cheaper than other choices because it’s a straight plastic pen, but it has no problems with its hardware/software aside from that.
If you don’t mind a small size tablet like the Huion H640P, then the new XP-Pen G640S might be a good one for you to look at since it has a nice rubber grip pen and XP-Pen’s pressure sensitivity and pen tap sensitivity is consistently quite good.
Maybe you could also look into the Huion H610 Pro V2 that recently came out, but I have absolutely no idea how good that one is. No other tablets come to mind in the 50-80 USD range.
I’m sorry, but I cannot help you with the Huion H950P and XP-Pen Deco 01 and you will need to go look up reviews of them to understand what they can do.
Sorry I can’t be of much help,
Nikage
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Do you know of any company other than Huion, Xp and Wacom that sell graphics tablet on par with these companies ? (I was just curious)
And can you send me some review videos of H610 pro V2 cause I can’t find any.
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Hey again,
Not as far as I’ve seen. I consider those 3 the most reliable because they’re the only tablet companies that have been around for around 10 years or more. Other companies which are around for less time often stop making new tablets, stop releasing new driver updates, or just disappear altogether, which is why I recommend those 3 as they won’t just disappear suddenly.
With regards to the Huion H610 Pro V2, I just mentioned it in passing because it sounds like a good tablet on paper. I also have not found any reviews of it, which is why I said I have absolutely no idea how good it is. I just mentioned it as a side note as the only other tablet I know of in the 50-80 USD range.
-Nikage
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Which company’s product would you choose between Huion and Xp-pen ?
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Out of the few tablets I’ve tried from both companies, I like the Huion H1060P the most.
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I am not able choose which graphics tablet to buy.
1) Huion H610 pro V2
2) Huion H950p
3) Xp-pen Deco 01
Among these three which one do you think is the best. I know you don’t own any of these tablets and hence don’t know how they compare with each other but I just wanted an opinion since you have used tablets similar to this (like h610 pro, deco 03 and H640p/H1060p ). I would have already bought the Star G640s by now if it didn’t have a small drawing area.
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I would pick the XP-Pen Deco 01 because it seems the most stable, and reviews about it seem to say it doesn’t have many bad points.
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Hi there! First off all I want to say that it’s awesome that you are that kind of people that doesn’t buy things just because its brand! I totally agree with your blog’s goal.
Now my situation: I’m going to make some tutorial videos that involve handwriting in them. As I don’t need a professional graphic tablet I was going to buy the latest Wacom Intuos but then I found your blog.
I’ll maybe use it in the future to create some animations and edit some photos/videos but at this moment in time I would use it only for handwriting. Even so, I would like to buy something that could cover both situations without much trouble.
At my local Amazon page both the Wacom Intuos 2018 and the Huion H640P cost almost the same ~$60 (the difference is the equivalent to 1 or 2 dollars), so the question is: Which one would you buy under that circumstance?
Hope you can solve my question!
Please keep feeding this blog since is awesome!
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Hey there,
Thanks for checking out my blog, and I’m glad you agree with the goal!
Based on what you’ve just told me, between just those two tablets at roughly the same price, I would suggest the Wacom Intuos 2018.
The reason for this is because the Huion H640P has an issue where clicking things with pen taps requires more force than expected. You can’t just lightly tap to select things with the Huion H640P. This does not really affect drawing and painting, but it can get quite annoying in subjects such as photo editing where you will be tapping lots of options and menus.
The Huion H640P also has much more line wobble than the Wacom Intuos 2018, and I believe that may actually affect handwriting a bit, especially when doing slower, controlled strokes.
I only really find the Huion H640P to be competitive when the Wacom Intuos 2018 is at its higher standard retail price due to those two issues. If both are put at the same price, I would most likely never recommend the Huion H640P.
Thanks for asking,
Nikage
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So I got this H640P for a couple of days now, and I can confirm it sometimes hard to click buttons, opening folders etc.
I also noticed that the pen tip moves a lot (hole should be a bit smaller) compared to wacom pen, more noticeable when using scrollbars on browser where the page may move crazily.
Also I cannot set this up to drag pan/scroll like my wacom which is very helpful on browsing, if you know how, please let me know.
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Hey there,
Thanks for letting me know about that!
Unfortunately, I have not noticed the size of the pen hole being too large and I have not noticed any problems regarding that.
Sorry, but since I always use my mouse when surfing the web, I am not sure how the Wacom pan/scroll option works specifically. If you check the “Enable Windows Ink” option in the Huion drivers, it will let you pan webpages by pressing and dragging though.
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Hi there! I was truly convinced to buy this tablet after reading your review, however, today, I stumbled upon a video on YouTube saying that Huion is actually bad… Like the girl on the video said that she had a lot of problem with the wires, and she also said that the driver is really buggy, and that the tablet itself doesn’t really last as long as a wacom tablet, I wonder if it’s actually true… I was considering to buy Huion H640p as my first drawing tablet but now I’m not really sure… I would like to now from your side if you don’t mind… Thank you before >_<
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Hey there,
Hm, is the video you are referring to perhaps the “Huions Kinda Suck” Youtube video by Chiibe? https://youtu.be/zZGQX1_9YKI
If you look at the comments… ah, they’re disabled now. Anyways, many people pointed out that she treats her tablets quite “roughly” as she broke even a Wacom tablet in just over 2 years (3:25) (this is a relatively short lifespan for a tablet no matter what brand you’re talking about). Her case is very special, and I doubt very strongly that this is what happens to the majority of people who try a Huion.
Or perhaps its a different video you were referring to?
In my own experience, I have only had minor problems when Huion released a driver update or two which were buggy, but they quickly fixed those issues and released updates soon after. Every driver version aside from those were stable and didn’t have any drawing-ruining bugs or issues. In fact, I’ve been mainly using Huion tablets since around 2 years ago, and I haven’t run into any drawing-experience ruining bugs.
In terms of the issues relating to the Huion H640P specifically, I have written in my re-review of the Huion H640P that all of the issues have been fixed as far as I can tell thanks to driver and firmware updates made by Huion.
If I am to be completely frank, some people just have problems with any technology they try to use. I won’t deny their experience of having problems with drivers and whatnot since it’s probably completely true that they ran into problems, but my reviews have also always been written exactly how I have experienced the tablets myself, and in my experience, I have not run into major problems with Huion tablets.
From my perspective, the “vast majority” of users won’t have issues with the drivers and hardware, and I believe they will have a good user experience similar to mine.
Again, I want to repeat that what I think of Huion’s drivers and hardware is based on my own experiences with their tablets, and so you should choose for yourself who you believe on the internet (whether it’s a Youtube video, some unknown reviewer, etc). Who knows if I’m just lucky and just haven’t experienced very much of the bad side of Huion’s products.
I hope that helps,
Nikage
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Hi, do you still have any links for the HUION_T173_181115 firmware?
I did e-mail them about this today but sadly they will be back on office at Feb. 11, I currently have HUION_T173_180802 and this is from the automated email I got from them, thanks.
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Hey there, here’s the download link for the Huion H640P firmware update which Huion gave me: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vW3w6CKgYrhnBP5fOyrj0AsBw_gZbh9w/view
-Nikage
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Have you received a reply from them? They have sent me the installation files. However, when I try to connect the tablet after clicking “Connect” in the installation software, the tablet won’t get recognized. I tried exiting the software and the opening the Huion driver, and it says it is connected. I think it’s the installer issue or I’m just unlucky to receive a faulty device :((
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Hey there,
If you are having problems with the firmware upgrade, try consulting Huion support. I believe there was a case before where the firmware upgrade that worked for my tablet did not work for someone else. So they asked Huion support and received a different firmware upgrade package than mine which worked properly for their tablet.
-Nikage
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Hello, i was wandering wat should I buy, xp-pen deco 01 or xp-pen star 05, the price difference is $15 to $20.
If they are similar, why spending more.
Thanks regardless.
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Hey there,
From what I know, the difference between those two is purely in the side features and the main drawing performance should be the exact same. The pens are the same plastic pens, the surface texture is the same, and the drivers they use are also the same. The only differences are that:
-The XP-Pen Star 05 has wireless while the XP-Pen Deco 01 does not
-The XP-Pen Deco 01 has a slightly larger drawing area at around 10×6.25 inches while the XP-Pen Star 05 has a roughly 8×5 inch drawing area.
-The XP-Pen Deco 01 has physical shortcut keys, while the XP-Pen Star 05 has hard to use touch keys.
I think the only selling point of the XP-Pen Star 05 is the wireless feature. If the wireless is not something you need, then I believe the XP-Pen Deco 01 would be a much better choice due to its larger drawing area size.
I hope that answers your question,
Nikage
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Okay thanks, I appreciate your help.
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Hello there,
Long time….
Im stuck so badly…. They asked me to send a video about whether i was doing right so i did..and they mailed me.. everything u did is right then what might be the problem… Asked a few days so after like 3-4 days they again gave the link and asked to do exactly the same…this time it did connect and when i started the update…it failed and now my tablet does not connect to my or any other laptop anymore🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
Lol…i just dont knw where to rant…sorry for this 😝
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