Parka Blogs - Art books, art products, art tech

Review: Huawei MatePad Air (2026) with M-Pencil Pro

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Review: Huawei MatePad Air (2026) with M-Pencil Pro

Review unit on loan from Huawei Singapore

Huawei has just made the Huawei MatePad Air available in Singapore in September 2026. This is a 12-inch tablet with a 144Hz OLED PaperMatte display, comes with Kirin T93C, 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Official price in Singapore is SGD 1198 and includes the Huawei Smart Magnetic Keyboard and Huawei M-Pencil Pro. The price will be cheaper with discounts on Shopee SG and Lazada SG.

Just for comparison purposes, the previous Huawei MatePad 11.5S I reviewed with 12GB RAM, 256GB storage, Huawei M-Pencil 3 and keyboard case sells for SGD 648, currently SGD 531.

Bottomline: The Huawei MatePad Air is the better tablet between the two but the price difference is too big so I would personally go with with the MatePad 11.5S (2026) instead. The user experience is almost similar, except the OLED display of the MatePad Air does look stunning.

Specifications

Feature	Huawei MatePad Air 2026	Huawei MatePad 11.5S 2026
Display	12-inch OLED PaperMatte	11.5-inch LCD
Resolution	2800 × 1840, 275 ppi	2800 × 1840
Refresh rate	Up to 144 Hz	Up to 144 Hz
Brightness	1,200 nits	500 nits
Colour	1.07 billion colours, P3 gamut	Not specified
Dimensions / weight	271.6 × 182.9 × 5.3 mm; approx. 509 g	261 × 177.3 × 6.1 mm; approx. 515 g
RAM / storage	8 GB or 12 GB / 256 GB	12 GB / 256 GB or 512 GB
Rear / front camera	50 MP AF + LED flash / 12 MP	13 MP AF / 8 MP
Battery	10,100 mAh	8,800 mAh
Maximum charging	66 W	40 W
USB	USB-C, USB 3.1 Gen 1	USB-C, USB 3.0
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 6.0	Bluetooth 5.2
Pen support	M-Pencil 3, M-Pencil Pro	M-Pencil 3, M-Pencil Pro
Speakers	6 speakers; Huawei Sound	4 speakers; Huawei Histen 9.0
Operating system	HarmonyOS 4.3	HarmonyOS 4.3
Other features	NearLink, OTG, Wi-Fi positioning, 2 microphones	NearLink, OTG, Wi-Fi positioning, 2 microphones

The Huawei MatePad Air is certainly better in many ways than the MatePad 11.5S 2026. But the price difference is at least SGD 500.

Things included

Tablet (built-in battery) × 1
Quick Start Guide × 1
Type-C cable × 1
Warranty Card × 1
Polishing Cloth × 1
HUAWEI M-Pencil Pro × 1
Transparent protective case × 1
Huawei SuperCharge charger (Max 66 W) × 1
HUAWEI Smart Magnetic Keyboard (Powered by NearLink) × 1

Design

Design of the MatePad Air looks beautiful, really thin at 5.3mm and weighs 509g.

A 12-inch tablet to me is considered big but this one is still easy enough to handle thanks to how thin and light it is. However, it's still a tablet I will want to set down on some surface if I have to draw for long periods of time.

Bezels are really thin. Corners for the body and display are rounded off. Sides are curved and comfortable to hold.

Audio is loud, clear with good surround.

The 12MP landscape camera has face unlock, and there's auto brightness which works quite well.

The back has a 50MP camera with flash. Camera bump is not too big. The tablet is only available in Airy Blue colour in Singapore. There must be some colour coating because the exterior does not feel like metal, or maybe it's metal but Huawei has some tech to create the colour.

The included magnetic keyboard case is well made and protects the front and back of the tablet.

The keyboard case can deploy the tablet at two angles, and both are still quite high for my personal preference.

Keyboard is almost full-size except for a few keys on the right side that has less width. Typing experience is good. Keys have good tavel and feedback. There's no backlight and no touchpad.

The keyboard gets its power from the tablet and cannot be used wirelessly away from the tablet.

Display

The 12-inch OLED display looks amazing. Standard brightness is 500 nits and peak brightness up to 1200 nits (when battery level is at least 20%). Colour support is 100% DCI P3.

Resolution is 2800 × 1840, aspect ratio is 3:2. The

This is a bright, vibrant and sharp display.

144Hz refresh rate makes the OS animation, pan, zoom and rotate look smooth, and tablet feel responsive.

Since this is an OLED display, there will be pulse wave modulation (PWM). People with sensitive eyes may be affected by PWM. If you're not sure if you are affected by PWM, I recommend you visit an electonics store and look at OLED displays to see if you feel anything strange.

I'm glad to see that Huawei is putting the PaperMatte display on many of their tablets. I know there are people who prefer glossy displays because colours will look more vibrant but I hate reflections even if it's reflection on an anti-reflective display.

Anti-glare of the matte surface works great. And the reading experience is wonderful.

The display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and the pen tip. There's no parallax.

Performance

I do not have benchmarks for the Kirin T93C processor. From my experience, overall performance is smooth and responsive. 8GB of RAM is sufficient for multi-tasking.

OS and software

The text and pictures in this section are copied from my review for the Huawei MatePad 11.5 S (2026).

The tablet runs HarmonyOS 4.3 and there are many useful features. There is split screen, floating windows, knuckle knock two to record screen, 3-finger swipe to take a screenshot, double tap or lift to wake.

If you use other Huawei devices, there's the Huawei Super Device for cross device collaboration.

80% smart battery charging is available.

There is no Google Play Store. To find apps, there's the Huawei app store called Huawei AppGallery. Most apps in the Huawei App Store are in Chinese since this tablet is actually made for the China market. There are some apps that are officially ported over from Google Play Store to Huawei AppGallery but many of the popular apps are not available, e.g. All the Google Apps, Amazon, Netflex, more.

Huawei's file management does not have direct integration with Google Drive, DropBox, Microsoft OneNote. You have to open those cloud storage apps to transfer files.

Not having Google Play Store is a huge downside as you lose access to a huge variety of apps.

It is possible to install Google services using MicroG, GBox and GSpace. I did not test MicroG but I did test GBox and GSpace which are available from the Huawei AppGallery. After installing GBox and GSpace, Google Play Store becomes available.

Here's what I found.

GBox

CSP can't be installed for some reasons
Installed apps from Gbox all shows 0B in Google Play Store
Apps already available from Huawei AppGallery cannot be installed from GBox, e.g. Lazada, Edge, Outlook
Lazada (Huawei) cannot sign in with Google
I could not sign in to Shopee, Notein, MyScript Nebo even though I've signed in to Google already
I could not restore purchase of Medibang, Infinite Painter, Solid Explorer, Concepts

GSpace

I can sign in with Google
Amazon, Facebook, Google auto-login works
There's no Infinite Painter, CSP, Notein, Myscript (Nebo)
I could restore purchase with Concepts, Medibang
CPU-Z doesn't install

Huawei AppGallery

There are Edge, OneNote, NoteIn, Medibang, Lazada
Medibang is different version from GPS, so purchases cannot be restored even if you sign in
NoteIn is a separate account
Microsoft has several apps available but not all apps, no Copilot, OneDrive

I started by using GBox but had to switch to GSpace after I found out I could not restore my purchase of Concepts app, my main drawing app.

The point I want to make here is it's not possible to know whether the app you need will work properly when using MicroG, GBox and GSpace. E.g. I could not give location permission to Google Maps installed via GSpace because this app is not listed within HarmonyOS settings. Sure there may be issues with Google Play Store (original) at times, but it is still very difficult to go wrong with Google Play Store (original).

If you're switching from another tablet with Google Play Store, you can expect some issues such as inability to restore past purchases, can't sign in apps using Google authentication even though you're signed with Google already.

One downside of HarmonyOS is there are many ads. There are some pre-installed apps, and bookmarks to apps which you can remove. There are ads in some Huawei apps too, such as Huawei AppGallery where you often see fullscreen ads upon launch.

Huawei M-Pencil Pro

The text and pictures below are copied from my review of the Huawei MatePad Pro Max (2026).

The M-Pencil Pro is a digital pen that supports tilt, 10K levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. The pen can attached to the tablet for charging and pairing. I don't know the battery life but there's no need to worry about since you'll always be charging the pen when you store it away.

The pen supports pinch/squeeze, double tap which can be used to call up shortcuts. The shortcuts are Huawei Notes shortcuts, or if you're using GoPaint app then you get shortcuts to drawing tools. Squeeze and double tap shortcuts cannot be customised by other drawing apps unfortunately.

The pen also has barrel rotation, but there aren't many apps that use this feature, certainly not third party apps.

There's also button at the end of the pen which by default will open Huawei Notes app, but can be customised to open other apps. The button has ring light that will appear when the pen is charging.

The default pen tip is the transparent glossy one which is really smooth on the matte glass surface.

Huawei has also included a white tip which is matte texture but is also quite smooth. And there's a soft black tip which has more texture than the white tip and is still considered smooth too, but less slippery.

The transparent and white ones are good for writing because you want to write fast when writing. By the way, the handwriting and note taking experience with the pen on this tablet is fantastic, 5/5.

For drawing, you definitely want the soft black tip.

In short, all three pen tips are smooth on the matte glass, just how smooth. It may be possible purchase replacement pen tips from AliExpress.

Drawing experience

I'm gonna skip the line tests this time.

The pen has good support for pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. Tilt sensitivity is not perfect because sometimes holding the pen at normal angle can activate tilt.

Diagonal line wobble or jitter is not a problem. I was able to get the lines to appear how I expect them to.

The display is big so works well with drawing apps that have many UI elements such as Krita and Clip Studio Paint.

My main sketching app is Concepts and it works well except tilt performance isn't consistent. Line quality with apps such as Clip Studio Paint, Medibang Paint is fantastic.

My palm is able to glide smoothly without sticking to the matte glass surface. The pen is quite smooth on the matte glass so tactile experience is actually minimal but at least it's better than drawing on glossy glass. I'm able to control the pen quite well. The tactile drawing experience is very similar to drawing on those screenless tablets.

Note taking experience is good. Apps are able to capture my handwriting style quite accurately. Latency isn't really an issue.

Battery life

Battery capacity is 10,100 mAh. According to the company, battery life is around 10 hours when playing HDR content.

I didn't test the battery life but I can say confidently that battery life is good and not something I even think about when using the tablet. Huawei MatePad tablets always have good battery life.

Conclusion

The Huawei MatePad Air has great hardware. Pen works well for writing and drawing. Drawing experience is affected by tilt sensitivity not working perfectly and the pen shortcuts are not supported by drawing apps.

Of course the other big issue is there's no official support for Google Play Store.

It's a good tablet overall. Just note the pros and cons.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful and well made
+ Excellent display quality
+ Big and lightweight for its size
+ Keyboard and pen included (in Singapore)
+ Pen supports pressure, tilt and palm rejection
+ Good pen performance for writing and drawing
+ Smooth responsive performance
+ Amazing sound
+ Long battery life
+ Has face unlock
- No fingerprint unlock
- Keyboard cannot be used wirelessly away from tablet
- No support for 5G, microSD card
- No Google Play Store (but can be installed)
- Many ads and adware
- No PC mode, no video output
- Pen tilt sensitivity not perfect
- Pen shortcuts are not supported by drawing apps

Availability

The Huawei MatePad Pro Air (2026) is available from Shopee Singapore and Lazada Singapore.

I recommend waiting for the X.X or end-of-month sale for additional discounts.

If you have the intention to buy the tablet, consider supporting my blog by making your purchase through the affiliate links above.

Laza

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 17 Sep 2026 - 21:00

Tags

huawei

huawei matepad

tech reviews

drawing tablet reviews

Add new comment

Dreaming in Color by Natalie Andrewson

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Dreaming in Color by Natalie Andrewson

"Dreaming in Color" is a 150-page art book by Natalie Andrewson, showcasing over 70 pieces of her fantasy-inspired risograph artwork along with insights into her creative process and printing techniques.

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 17 Sep 2026 - 19:00

Tags

art book reviews

natalie andrewson

Add new comment

Book Review: Get Set Procreate: A practical guide, filled with tips, tricks, and best practices, for illustrating on an iPad

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Get Set Procreate: A practical guide, filled with tips, tricks, and best practices, for illustrating on an iPad

Review copy provided by Packt Publishing

Get Set Procreate by Samadrita Ghosh, published by Packt Publishing, is a comprehensive guide for beginners to all drawing tools and features available in Procreate.

The book's a 498-page paperback and there's a Kindle version available too. If you buy the physical book, you'll also get a free PDF version of the book. Prices for the physical and digital are USD 49 and USD 29.

This second edition was published in August 2026 and covers Procreate 5.4. So this will cover the latest features such as Page Assist and 3D model painting from v5.2 and the new brush library from v5.4.

Procreate is an extremely popular so there is a lot of free educational content and tutorials teaching this app on Youtube available. The advantage provided by the book is all the learning materials are conveniently gathered in a single package, and everything's structured in sequential learning order.

Learning through free tutorials on Youtube is possible. Many have done so. But if you don't know that a certain tool or feature exists, then you won't know to search for those tutorials. E.g. If you don't know Procreate can be used to create animation, you may not know there's even such a tool in the app called Animation Assist.

Here are the chapters in the book:

Part 1: UI Overview
- Getting Started – the Canvas and Gallery
- Understanding Your Workspace
- Using Gestures and Shortcuts
Part 2: Utility and Features
- Working with Layers
- Painting Tools and Brush Libraries
- The Brush Studio – Editing and Combining Brushes
- Using Color Tools
- Applying Image Effects with Adjustments
- Assisted Drawing Tools
- Animating on Procreate
- Sketchbooking with Page Assist
- Painting on 3D Models
Part 3: Tutorials
- Rendering a Character with Blend Modes
- Making Manga on Procreate

The book seems pretty detailed. When talking about Brush Studio even goes through the many settings for tweaking a brush which is quite helpful because sometimes the name of the setting is not self explanatory.

Procreate has so many tools and features so there's a lot to learn. You can search for "top 10 Procreate tips" on Youtube but after a while you'll be wasting time watching the same tip being repeated by countless Youtubers.

Having the digital copy is probably better if you have an additional monitor to spare. That way you can read the ebook and practice on your iPad at the same time. The paperback book does not open completely flat so you may need to always have one hand on the book.

Here's the awkward paragraph where I have to say that much of the content in the book is already available from the Procreate Handbook, Procreate's official online manual. The book does offer extra pictures to show certain features, e.g. showing how different layer blend modes actually look instead of just writing, and in the Brush Studio section it shows what the settings actually affect visually.

And there are two tutorials at the back of the book, one teaches you how to use blend modes to create a comic character, and the other teaches you how to use Page Assist to create comic pages.

This is a good book, for the fact that it is quite comprehensive, but I kinda wish there are more step by step tutorials that teaches the workflow, not just the tools.

The book has pictures that shows how the brush will look when certain attributes are shown.

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

The links below are affiliate links, which means I earn some commission from each purchase, but at no extra cost to you.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 13 Sep 2026 - 09:00

Tags

procreate

instructional art book reviews

samadrita ghosh

Add new comment

Review: Huion Kamvas Pad 12 portable drawing tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: Huion Kamvas Pad 12 portable drawing tablet

Review unit provided by Huion

Huion has just launched the Kamvas Pad 12 on 7 September 2026. This is an Android 16 tablet with a matte 12.2-inch 90Hz LCD with 2400 x 1600 resolution, and has pen support.

The Huion PW600C pen uses PenTech 4 and supports tilt, 16K levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. This is the same pen technology Huion use in their pen displays. Pen performance is good and is significantly better compared to the Huion Slate 10, 11 and 13 Android tablets.

Price at the time of review is USD 499. There's a 1-year warranty and free shipping to selected countries.

Specifications

Display:
- Type: LCD
- Size: 12.2 inches
- Active Area: 257.9 × 171.9 mm
- Resolution: 2400 × 1600
- PPI: 236
- Aspect Ratio: 3:2
- Refresh Rate: 90 Hz
- Color Gamut: 99% sRGB
- Brightness: 350 nits
- Contrast Ratio: 1600:1
- Cover Glass: Nano‑etched (AG + AF)
Device:
- Dimensions: 281.5 × 195.5 × 7.8 mm
- Weight: 665 g
- Color: Space Gray
Hardware & System:
- Processor: MediaTek Genio 720
- CPU: 2× Cortex‑A78 (2.6 GHz) + 6× Cortex‑A55 (2.0 GHz)
- OS: Android 16
- RAM: 8 GB
- Storage: 256 GB
- Wi‑Fi: 2.4 & 5 GHz Dual‑Band
- Bluetooth: 5.4
- Cameras: 8 MP front, 13 MP rear
- Battery: 8000 mAh
- Speakers: 8Ω 1W × 4
- Microphones: × 2
- Sensors: Gravity, Ambient Light, Gyroscope, Hall
- Location Services: GPS Not Supported
Buttons:
- Power Button × 1
- Volume Up × 1
- Volume Down × 1
Touch & Pen:
- Touch: 10‑Point Incell Capacitive
- Pen Tech: PenTech 4.0 EMR
- Digital Pen: PW600C
- Pressure Sensitivity: 16,384 Levels
- Pen Resolution: 5080 LPI
- Tilt: ±60°
- Accuracy: ±0.3 mm (Center), ±1.0 mm (Edge)
- Sensing Height: 10 mm (Center), 8 mm (Edge)
- Report Rate: >260 PPS
Ports & Connectivity:
- USB‑C (USB 2.0 charging/data, USB‑C headphones)
- MicroSD Slot (up to 1 TB)
Battery & Charging:
- Charging Power: 5 W–18 W
- Charging Time: ~3 hours
- Battery Life: ~8 hours (50% brightness)
- Power Adapter: Not Included
Pre‑installed Apps:
- HiPaint
- HiNote
- Huion Store
- MediBang Paint
- Clip Studio Paint
- ibisPaint
Package Contents:
- Drawing Tablet
- PW600C Pen (magnetic)
- USB‑C Cable
- Felt Nibs × 10
- Nib Remover
- Protective Case
- Anti‑fouling Glove
- SIM/SD Tray Ejector
- Quick Start Guide
Certifications:
- Global: GMS
- Europe: CE RED, RoHS, REACH
- USA: FCC, FCC ID
- Japan: PSE, TELEC
- Canada: IC, IC ID
- South Korea: KCC
- Australia: RCM

Things included

Tablet
Flip case
Colour calibration report
Artist glove
Pen nib remover
10 replacement pen nibs
SIM ejector
USB-C to USB-C charging cable
Quick start guide

There's no charger included but you can use any USB-C charger you may already have.

The flip case is quite basic, thin enough, and protects the front, back and one side.

Tablet can be propped up for watching shows but not for drawing.

Design

Design of the tablet is simple. Corners are rounded off, including corners for the LCD. Bezels are thin enough. There's a front landscape 8MP camera which unfortunately does not have face unlock.

There's auto brightness and it works well.

2400 x 1600 resolution is considered high for a 12.2-inch display so pixelation is not noticeable. 90Hz refresh rate produces smooth animation and makes the tablet feel more responsive.

I like the 3:2 aspect ratio because it makes the tablet usable in both landscape and portrait.

The back is metal and matte textured. The rear camera is 13MP and has a flash.

The power button has no fingerprint scanner. This tablet does not have biometric unlock.

There are four speakers and volume is loud. Audio is stereo but sounds rather flat with almost no sense of surround and no bass. Still very usable speakers for the fact that they do not sound hollow.

Tablet is quite thick at 7.8mm.

The pen can attach magnetically to the side of the tablet. This is not for pairing or charging the pen as the pen does not require pairing or charging.

There's a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Display

Display quality is better than expected. Huion advertises 99% sRGB colour support and the colours look good out of the box.

The colour calibration report mentions sRGB average Delta E of 1.48. Average Delta E is the variance of the digital input colour vs measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic.

It's good to see the tablet come with a matte glass surface which provides a subtle tactile drawing experience. The pen is still quite smooth but not slippery. Texture is definitely not as rough compared to matte screen protectors.

Anti-glare works well. Whatever's on the screen can still be seen through diffused reflections. 350 nits of brightness is high enough for indoor use, but not high enough for use under the sun or under shade near sunlight.

Display is laminated but the glass has slight thickness so if you look close, you can see a gap between the line and the pen tip. From normal working distance away, the gap should not be noticeable and will not contribute to parallax.

All matte surfaces will introduce some colour noise, grain or anti-glare sparkle and all that is kept to a minimal with this tablet. The matte surface does not affect the sharpness.

Ebook reading experience is quite good as 12.2-inch is big enough for reading comics.

Performance

The tablet uses the MediaTek Genio 720 processor, has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Overall performance seems responsive enough, certainly more than powerful enough for drawing purposes. I did not test any gaming on the tablet.

OS and software

The tablet runs on Android 16 and it's pretty much stock Android so there aren't many features. There is split screen but the display is just 12.2-inch so multi-tasking isn't ideal.

There's no pen display mode. You cannot connect the tablet to a computer and use this like a pen display.

It is possible to use the tablet as a wireless external display, and even use desktop drawing apps but wireless pen latency performance is not good.

The pen settings available lets you adjust the pressure sensitivity, offset the cursor if there happens to be any cursor misalignment, enable/disable the side button and choose cursor style. There is no option to hide the cursor.

There's Google Play Store and there are many capable drawing apps available, such as Clip Studio Paint, Infinite Painter, Krita, Sketchbook, HiPaint, Concepts, Medibang Paint and more.

Huion has not provided any information as to whether the tablet will get future Android OS updates. It's running Android 16 now, just one version behind the current 17. I'm just gonna assume that it will be stuck at 16.

Will not having any OS updates be an issue? Well, all existing drawing apps will still continue to run even without OS updates. However, newer versions of drawing apps may not install on older Android OS. Another issue is if you happen to reset the tablet in the future, newer versions of drawing apps may not be able to install back to the tablet, and you'll have to install downloaded APK versions of those apps, and some features may not work with APK versions of the apps.

Pen

This is the Huion PW600C pen. It's a rather slim pen with a side button but no eraser at the back. The side button is flushed to the body and I press it too often unintentionally.

Pen body is matte surface, has a good grip and is comfortable to hold. Weight is considered light.

Pen tip is quite firm with minimal movement. The pen tip is quite smooth on the matte glass surface but it's not slippery and controlling the pen is still easy. The tactile experience of drawing is similar to pens on screenless pen tablets.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint.

1. Initial activation force is low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. It is possible to adjust the global pressure sensitivity through OS settings to make it easier to draw thinner or thicker lines.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. Thin line can be drawn easily after a thick line. This is also a diagonal line and there's no noticeable diagonal line wobble.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure. There seems to be diagonal line wobble at the start of the line.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. There's no cursor misalignment. Cursor is always directly beneath the pen tip. Joining lines does not result in gaps or overshooting. The diagonal lines do not have wobble.

The pen has tilt sensitivity but it does not seem to work well with Concepts and Krita. Tilt works well with Sketchbook, Infinite Painter.

Pen is quite sensitive and accurate.

Drawing experience

Since the pen performance is good, the drawing experience is good.

Palm rejection works reasonably well. Palm rejection may not be enabled by default so you may have to enable that manually.

The big display works fine with drawing apps that have many UI elements, such as Clip Studio Paint and Krita.

I've tried sketching on the train while commuting to work and I find the tablet heavy to hold when standing. Weight of 665g is alright for a 12.2-inch tablet but the weight, size and thickness makes it more unwieldy to hold. The train was shaking and I was still able to draw so I don't have anything unusual to report.

It's definitely more comfortable to set the tablet down on a surface for drawing. I've brought it to a cafe to draw and it was a good experience.

The anti-glare of the matte surface was able to diffuse the reflections of the many overhead lights.

Here's the sketch drawn at the cafe.

Click for a larger view.

And here's a sketch drawn at another cafe.

Click for a larger view.

My overall drawing experience is very positive.

Battery life

Battery life is around 8 hours and will vary depending on the brightness.

Conclusion

The Huion Kamvas Pad 12 is an Android tablet that provides a wonderful drawing experience. It's also portable so you can bring it anywhere. Colour quality of the display is also pretty good.

If you're selling a drawing tablet, the pen better work well and thankfully the pen does work well here with good support for pressure sensitivity. This is a significant and noticeable upgrade over the previous Huion Slate tablets.

Main downsides or limitations would the lack of info regarding whether the tablet will get any OS updates. I don't think this is a big issue but it could be for others.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean simple design
+ Auto-brightness works well
+ Display is sharp, vibrant and bright (350 nits) enough
+ Matte glass surface is wonderful to draw on
+ 3:2 aspect ratio
+ 90Hz refresh rate
+ Display is laminated
+ Pen has good pressure but tilt performance varies
+ Pen does not require charging and pairing
+ 8 hours battery life with auto brightness
+ Android 16 with Google Play Store
- Case does not prop up the tablet for drawing
- No biometric unlock
- Speakers sound flat, but loud enough
- USB-C port has only USB 2 transfer speed
- No info on future Android OS updates

Availability

The Huion Kamvas Pad 12 can be purchased from Huion online store and Amazon USA.

If you have intention to buy this, consider using the affiliate link to make your purchase. I earn some commission at no extra cost to you. And your support helps me put out more reviews such as the one you just read.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 08 Sep 2026 - 22:00

Tags

drawing tablet reviews

tech reviews

huion

android

Add new comment

Book Review: Set Sail: The Art and Making of One Piece

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Set Sail: The Art and Making of One Piece

Fun and outrageous

Let me start by saying that I've not read the One Piece Japanese manga before, and I've not watch the Netflix adaptation. So I may not be the best person to review this book as I cannot tell you the differences with the manga vs live-action adaptation. Having said that, after going through the book, I can tell it's a great book for fans of the show.

This book is a 208-page hardcover published by Viz Media.

The book covers the making of the show and has all the things fans will enjoy, namely plenty of behind the scenes photography, wonderful character and set designs and a lot of commentary. This book is packed with insights and beautiful images. Fawn Lau and Jenny Haru Kim have done a terrific job with the layout of the book, and the author is Mike Avila

The characters are just incredibly fun to look at. The designs are so wild but still work. Having guns pointing out from the magistrate wig? The art direction is over the top and there is so much style.

If you like the show, you'll love this book.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

Teoh Yi Chie Sat, 05 Sep 2026 - 11:00

Tags

viz media

art book reviews

making of

one piece

basheer sponsored

netflix

Add new comment

Karl Kopinski's Studio Tour

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 02:40:20 +0000

Karl Kopinski's Studio Tour

Have a look at Karl Kopinski's workspace.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 30 Aug 2026 - 10:40

Tags

video

karl kopinski

workspace

Add new comment

Aug 2026 sketchwalk at Zion Road Riverside with Urban Sketchers Singapore

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 04:44:18 +0000

Aug 2026 sketchwalk at Zion Road Riverside with Urban Sketchers Singapore

This month's sketchwalk will be located at Zion Riverside Food Centre.

Date and time: 29 Aug 2026, 930am. More details at: https://www.facebook.com/events/980612108376739

I invite you to join us to sketch together, make friends, even if you're a beginner (just go buy a sketchbook and pen).

Giveaway contest

Listed below are the prizes sponsored by Etchr Lab that I'm giving away:

I have reviewed many of their products before and you can find the reviews here.

Criteria for winning the prizes

Prizes are given out at the end of the sketchwalk
Post a comment on the prize you want. If you select more than one prize, order by preference
Only comments here count.
Leave your real name if you're using nickname.
You have to introduce yourself and your sketch that day.

Good luck!

Comments posted will not appear immediately. But fear not, they are received.

Oh, support me on Patreon if you can.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 12:44

Tags

urban sketchers singapore

Comments

Etchr accordion sketchbook

Regina (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 13:42

Etchr accordion sketchbook

Ooh.. Llamated edition…

Stephanie Ng (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 13:57

Ooh.. Llamated edition accordion sketchbook 🦙

😬

Thanks the accordian…

Seokart06 (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 16:35

Thanks the accordian sketchbook book please

First choice: 2. ETCHR…

Judy Yip (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 19:45

First choice: 2. ETCHR Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook
Second choice: 1. ETCHR 4x8in 100% cotton panoramic watercolour sketchbook

Interested in the Llama…

Pat Ng (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 19:57

Interested in the Llama Accordion S/book… thanks Parka! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🫶🏻🥹

accordion sketchbook please!…

Benedict (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 21:16

accordion sketchbook please!! thanks parka!

A4 size Watercolor block…

Karen Kong (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 21:28

A4 size Watercolor block. Thank you.

I like the etchr a4…

Clara Sophia (not verified) Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 21:37

I like the etchr a4 watercolour block!

Thank you!

So nice of you. Keen on the…

Karen Lim (not verified) Thu, 27 Aug 2026 - 01:19

So nice of you. Keen on the 4x8in 100% cotton panoramic watercolour sketchbook. Thank you

Etchr Llamated edition…

Edric (not verified) Thu, 27 Aug 2026 - 13:04

Etchr Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook, please! 😊

Accordion sketchbook

Ai Lin (not verified) Thu, 27 Aug 2026 - 20:50

Accordion sketchbook

Etchr 4x8 inch panoramic…

Sangmi Lee (not verified) Fri, 28 Aug 2026 - 13:30

Etchr 4x8 inch panoramic watercolour sketchbook Please! Gamsahamnida!!🤗

First choice: 2. ETCHR…

Martha Morales… (not verified) Fri, 28 Aug 2026 - 14:47

First choice: 2. ETCHR Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook
Second choice: 1. ETCHR 4x8in 100% cotton panoramic watercolour sketchbook

2. Etchr Llamated edition…

Youjin Oh (not verified) Fri, 28 Aug 2026 - 17:41

2. Etchr Llamated edition accordion 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook, see you!! 👩👶🏻

Add new comment

Review: Bigme F7 Pro e-ink photo frame

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Review: Bigme F7 Pro e-ink photo frame

Review sample provide by Bigme

The Bigme F7 Pro is a 7.5-inch photo frame that uses a colour e-ink display. This is the upgraded model of the Bigme F7 that I've reviewed almost a year ago. The main upgrade seems to be in the app which has added more options for displaying pictures.

Price of the Bigme F7 Pro at time of review is USD 99.

That's the default photo loaded onto the photo frame. The frame is made of real wood and is available in two colours: dark walnut or light beech. Build quality is good.

The colour e-ink technology hasn't evolved much so there are the usual limitations which I will talk more about later.

There's a detachable leg included to prop up the photo frame vertically or horizontally. Or you can use the holes behind to hang the photo frame.

An app is needed to transfer photos to the photo frame. The Bigme Photo Frame app is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

To connect the phone to the photo frame, you can follow the instructions on the back of the photo frame. 2.4Ghz wifi is needed. It took me a few tries to get the phone paired.

With the app, you can

Upload a photo
Create an AI image
Beautify your photo
Create a slideshow
Show calendar
Show memo
Show art gallery

After selecting your photo, you have to press the power button behind the photo frame to transfer. It will take a few seconds before the display shows any activity, and the e-ink display will flicker for a few seconds as it draws the image.

You can crop, flip and rotate the photo in the app, but there's no option to crop a vertical photo into a horizontal one.

For the slideshow, you can set the interval for 10 min, 1hr, 6hr, 12hr, 1 day, 1 week. Battery life will vary depending on the option. Battery life of the photo frame is rated for 1 year before you have to charge it with the USB-C port.

Showing the calendar requires syncing with your Google or Outlook account.

The Art Gallery has selected old masters paintings. I wasn't able to add the paintings to the photo frame though so I suspect there's some bug. Alternative workaround is to screenshot and upload manually.

Colour e-ink displays are usually darker, so white will not be as white or bright. The white colour e-ink is not as white compared to the photo frame's white framing as you can see above.

Colour e-ink would also show grain, noticeable when you look close but not a big issue from normal viewing distance away. Resolution of the display is just 1024 by 600.

Having the colour wheel on the e-ink canvas shows its limitations. The blue appears green and there's difficulty showing variations of red. Colour accuracy is obviously not as good as LCD or OLED displays, but the main advantage of e-ink is battery life.

I've reviewed many e-ink devices over the years so I know what to expect with colour e-ink so those limitations do not surprise me. The colour accuracy is still acceptable and the photos look alright to me.

The Bigme F7 Pro photo frame is pretty cool product. Pricing is quite reasonable.

Availability

The Bigme F7 Pro is available from the Bigme online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 24 Aug 2026 - 12:00

Tags

bigme

tech reviews

Add new comment

USk Symposium Toronto 2027 – Call for Correspondents

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 08:52:59 +0000

USk Symposium Toronto 2027 – Call for Correspondents

The call for correspondents is up for the 15th International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toronto, happening on 4-7 August 2027. Application deadline is 14 September, 2026.

If you can go, you should definitely apply. Canada's too far for me so I won't be applying.

More info on this page.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 23 Aug 2026 - 16:52

Tags

urban sketchers symposium

Add new comment

Review: Arrtx 90-colour Alcohol Sketch Marker (Brush & Fine Tip)

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Review: Arrtx 90-colour Alcohol Sketch Marker (Brush & Fine Tip)

Review sample provided by Arrtx

Arrtx has released new alcohol markers called Sketch Markers and these come with brush and bullet tips.

FYI, Arrtx ALP markers have chisel and fine tips, Arrtx OROS markers have brush and chisel tips.

At the time of review, I do not have the USD pricing yet but based on other Arrtx alcohol markers I've reviewed, the price should be below USD 1 per marker.

This is the 90-colour box set I received. I like getting free art supplies from Arrtx because I can give them out as lucky draw prizes at our monthly Urban Sketchers Singapore sketchwalks.

This box also comes with a carrying strap but I won't be bringing this outdoors with me because it's a bulky heavy box.

The cover can be folded to prop up the box. The markers in the box are not arranged in any order so it's best to arrange them yourself to make it easier to pick colours.

The markers are triangular in shape and won't roll off the table. The cap cannot be posted. There are colour codes on the cap.

Brush tip is good for creating varied line widths, blocking big areas and drawing details. The bullet tip is good for drawing lines.

Ink flow is good.

These markers are juicy. They overlap well. Note that the ink is dye-based so colours will fade when exposed to light for long periods of time. They are alright for use in sketchbooks but even so colours will still fade eventually.

I tried blending to create a gradation but wasn't able to do so easily. Maybe the marker paper that I used was too absorbent, or the ink dried too fast before I could blend.

I do recommend swatching out the colours on the paper provided because it makes picking colours easier.

It's difficult to comment on the colour choices in the box. The darker colours certainly look vibrant and rich. The lighter colours are kinda difficult to see sometimes. And there isn't a nice skin tone colour that I like.

The markers are not sold individually and there are no refills. So each marker is single use.

As these markers are so affordable, they are great for beginners, for kids to mess around. The quality is good enough for professionals too, as long as there are colours that you need.

Arrtx is having an anniversary sale from 24 - 31 August 2026 on their online store and Amazon. There will be a 15% discount storewide on those dates. That would be the best time to buy the markers if you want to try them.

Where to buy:
Amazon | Official store | AliExpress | Amazon US

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 21 Aug 2026 - 22:00

Tags

arrtx

alcohol markers

art product reviews