Parka Blogs - Art books, art products, art tech

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

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

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

Tags

arrtx

alcohol markers

art product reviews

Add new comment

Review: XPPen Artist Ultra 14 OLED pen display

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Review: XPPen Artist Ultra 14 OLED pen display

Review sample provided by XPPen

XPPen has just released the Artist Ultra 14 OLED pen display on 17 Aug 2026. This is a pen display with a 14-inch touchscreen OLED panel with 2880 x 1800 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio and 90Hz refresh rate. This is the smaller version of the Artist Ultra 16 OLED released almost a year ago.

Price of the Artist Ultra 14 OLED at time of review is USD 699 and the special launch offer price is USD 592.99 (15% off) until mid-September.

Video review

Specifications

Category	Details
Product	Artist Ultra 14
Model	MD140QH
Color	Frost Silver
Dimensions	330.4 x 221.6 x 8.0 mm
Net Weight	720g
Work Area	301.8 x 188.6 mm
Display Type	AMOLED
Display Size	14 Inch
Aspect Ratio	16:10
Resolution	2880 x 1800 Pixels (2.8K)
Refresh Rate	90 Hz
Color Gamut Coverage Ratio (Typical)	99% Adobe RGB, 99% sRGB, 99% Display P3
Display Color (Typical)	1.07 Billion
Brightness (Typical)	350 nit
Viewing Angle	178°
Full Lamination	Yes
Touch Screen	10-point touch, Anti-glare glass, Anti-fingerprint coating
Stylus Models	X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus PD21D, X3 Pro Slim Stylus PD51B
Stylus Technology	Chip-powered & EMR
Pressure Levels	16384
Initial Activation Force	3 g
Accuracy	±0.4 mm (center)
Reading Height	10 mm (center)
Resolution (Stylus)	5080 LPI
Power Input	100-240V
Power Output	12V⎓2.5A
Ports	Full-featured USB-C x 2
Compatibility	Windows 7 or later (Touch function supports only on Windows 10 or later), macOS 12 or later, Android 10.0 or later (USB3.1 DP1.2 required), ChromeOS 88 or later, Linux (Touch function supports only on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later)

Things included

Artist Ultra 14 Drawing Display x 1
X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus x 1
X3 Pro Slim Stylus x 1
Pen Case with Nibs (X3 Pro Slim Stylus nibs x 4, X3 Pro Stylus felt nibs x 4)
ACK05 Shortcut Remote x 1
Bluetooth Receiver x 1
USB-C to USB-C Cables x 2
Power Adapter x 1
3-in-1 Cable x 1
X3 Pro Slim Stylus Nibs x 10
X3 Pro Stylus Standard Nibs x 10
ACS20 Stand x 1
Cleaning Cloth x 1
Glove x 1

This is the better stand compared to the one that has to stick to the back of the Artist Pro 16. Main limitation is the stand has only one angle.

The XPPen ACK05 Bluetooth shortcut remote works fine. I'lll not talk too much about this shortcut remote as I've reviewed this in detail years ago. I don't use this because I prefer a keyboard that has access to all keyboard shortcuts instead.

Design

Design of the pen display is clean and simple. It definitely looks like a portable tablet when there no cable is attached.

Dimensions are 330.4 x 221.6 x 8.0 mm. Weight is just 720g. Work area is 301.8 x 188.6mm so that's smaller than A4-sized paper.

If you have the budget, I recommend getting the 16-inch model (above right) where the bigger display will work better with drawing apps that have many UI elements.

The body of the 14-inch is almost the same size as the drawing area of the 16-inch pen display. And the drawing area of the 16-inch is almost A4 size.

Thickness is just 8mm.

At the top are buttons for power, brightness control, two USB-C video ports, touch control (enable/disable).

The softkey on the left will show the customisable Floating Menu with 8 shortcuts. The Floating Menu actually takes up a good amount of space so XPPen should find a way to make it smaller.

Softkey on the right will show the UI that lets you control the mouse cursor on one or two desktops.

The display size is almost similar to the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 (above) and the Samsung Tab S11 Ultra. The XPPen has a bigger body because of the thicker bezels.

The XPPen has a wider body compared to the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro.

Even though the form factor of the XPPen Artist Ultra 14 OLED is comparable to portable tablets, it is still a pen display which has to be connected to a computer. XPPen markets this as portable and technically it is but it also means you have to bring a laptop around if you want to draw outdoors. It is portable in the sense that you can easily store this away on a bookshelf after use.

The advantage of a pen display over true portable tablets is you can use desktop software.

Antiglare of the matte glass surface is more reflective than the one on the 16-inch. The surface texture is smooth matte, similar to screen-less pen tablets. Pen glides smoothly on it but you can still get good control over the pen.

The pen display supports USB-C and HDMI video connection.

For USB-C, a single cable connection is needed, and is able to power the pen display to maximum brightness. When connected to a laptop, this will drain the laptop battery much faster.

For HDMI connection, you'll need the 2-to-1 cable. HDMI and USB-A (for data) goes to the computer. Another USB cable is needed to provide power to the pen display.

By the way, it is not possible to control the brightness of the pen display from the OS. You have to use the physical brightness buttons or XPPen driver for brightness adjustment.

Display

Visual quality of the OLED display looks amazing. My colour calibrator measured 100% sRGB, 92% AdobeRGB, 90% NTSC, 100% P3 and a maximum brightness of 322 nits. I find it interesting the AdobeRGB is not higher, but the overall measures are good. The display is reasonably colour accurate.

According to the colour report, average Delta E for AdobeRGB is 0.68. Average delta E is the variance between the input colour and measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic.

The display does look bright enough and the brightness is high enough to go through the diffused reflections. Contrast looks good, amazing actually when compared to LCDs.

I don't see brightness or colour shift when display is viewed from the side.

The display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the pen tip and cursor. The glass has some thickness but it's not too thick, and parallax is not really an issue on a 14-inch display.

All matte textured surfaces will introduce some colour noise, grain or anti-glare sparkle. I do not notice any colour noise is visible when working from normal distance away, but if I'm looking for colour noise yes I can see that. Resolution of 2880 x 1800 looks sharp and pixelation is not noticeable. If I look real close, I can see a hint of softness but from working distance away the visuals look sharp.

OLED displays have pulse wave modulation which can affect people with sensitive eyes. If you are not sure whether you are affected by PWM, I recommend going to an electronics store to look at OLED displays, eg OLED TVs or laptops, to experience it yourself.

OLED pen displays are still quite new so the risk of burn-in is unknown at the moment. The Wacom Movink 13.3 was released in mid 2024 and the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 OLED was released in May 2024. XPPen Artist Ultra 16 OLED was from September 2026. There isn't much data available yet to let us know how durable OLED displays will be.

Touchscreen

Having a touchscreen is a bonus, but in my opinion not a must have, at least for me as someone who always have the other hand on a keyboard.

The touchscreen works well with most drawing apps on Windows since Windows has support for touchscreen tablets and laptops for more than a decade.

Touchscreen also works with most drawing apps on Mac but not as well. Many drawing apps on Windows actually have support for touchscreen features, e.g. pan, zoom and rotate, but that's not the case with MacOS. Below are my findings for how touch behaves with drawing apps on MacOS:

Clip Studio Paint (v2): Pan does not work
Sketchbook: Pan, zoom, rotate does not work consistently
Photoshop: Pan, zoom, rotate works
Affinity Photo: Pan and rotate works. Zoom does not work
Medibang Paint: Pan, zoom, rotate works
Krita: Pan does not work

Three other Mac-only issues are:

The rotation or zoom pivot points are usually in the middle of the display and not between the fingers. Krita's rotate/zoom pivot is usually between the fingers.
When panning with two fingers to move the canvas, the canvas usually moves away from the fingers rather than remain underneath the finger like it does on iPads and Android tablets.
Palm rejection usually does not work properly unless the pen is near the display.
Scrolling webpages on a Mac requires a two finger screen. Using the pen would select text. Scrolling webpages on Windows can be done with one finger or the pen.

Pan, zoom, rotate and palm rejection works more predictably and consistently with drawing apps on Windows.

So when drawing on Mac, you'll have to remember which touch shortcuts work, and those that don't.

Driver

I've tested Mac driver v4.0.17_260611, Windows driver v4.0.17_260612.

The driver has similar features to the one for the Artist Ultra 16 so I'll just duplicate the driver portion of the review here.

This is the home screen of the driver.

Look at the top left area and you can see a target icon which is actually the Calibration button to correct cursor misalignment, and the hand icon is for configuring finger gesture shortcuts.

Up to eight shortcuts can be configured for Floating Menu, and you can input your own keyboard shortcuts.

It is possible to set mouse controls to shortcuts for the Floating Menu, pen buttons and XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote.

You can also choose from pre-programmed shortcuts provided by XPPen.

Precision mode makes the cursor move more slowly. Switch touch state lets you enable/disable touch, or set touch to work in a specific area (as configured in the driver)

These are the basic gestures supported, e.g. pan, zoom, rotate. Note that for MacOS, pan/scroll for webpages requires two fingers.

The driver provides advance gesture shortcuts for 3, 4 and 5-finger gestures. For 3 fingers, there's tap, swipe up, swipe down. For 4 fingers, there's swipe left or right. For 5 fingers, there's tap or swipe down. These shortcuts may interfere with gesture shortcuts from the OS or from the drawing apps. If there are conflicts with the gesture shortcuts, you'll have to disable the gesture shortcuts from the OS or from the drawing apps you use.

The default setting for 3-finger tap would call up the Floating Menu, which can be configured to be horizontal (above) or vertical. You can pin the Floating Menu permanently, or configure the shortcuts with the settings button.

Touch area should be left as default so that the whole display can be used as a touchscreen.

Mapping area should be left as default. If the pen is only working specific areas of the display, or the cursor is moving away too much from the pen tip, you may have to configure the mapping area.

The pen display does not have an OSD menu, so to adjust colour settings manually you'll have to do that with the driver. Settings you can adjust include changing the brightness, contrast, colour space (sRGB, AdobeRGB, P3, user), colour temperature and RGB sliders.

Pressure curve can be adjusted using three control points, or pre-programmed pressure curves. Pressure, tilt and mouse mode can be enabled or disabled.

The XPPen ACK05 shortcut remote uses the same driver. From the dropdown menu, you choose either Artist Ultra 16 or Shortcut Remote. The shortcut remote obviously has to be connected first before it will appear, and you have to use the USB-A wireless receiver for wireless connection.

A total of 36 shortcuts can be set to the hotkeys. That's 9 shortcuts per page/group with 1 for switching between different page/group.

It is possible to create groups of shortcuts for specific apps. So different groups of shortcuts will load depending on which app is active.

All the programmed shortcuts can be backed up into a configuration file.

Pens

The two pens included with the pen display are the XPPen X3 Pro Stylus PD21 and X3 Pro Slim Stylus PD51. There are only a few felt nibs included and I do recommend getting the felt nibs as they provide slightly more texture when drawing.

Both pens support tilt, 16K levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. The pens are not powered by battery so no charging is required.

The thicker pen has a big comfortable silicone grip and comes with two side buttons and an eraser.

The thinner pen has two side buttons and no eraser.

The side buttons can actually be replaced with a cover that's provided. If you use the pen display with an Android device, the side buttons may not be necessary, but those buttons are definitely necessary for use with Windows and Mac.

Line tests

1. Initial activation force is very low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. There's slight wobble with slow diagonal lines but not really noticeable unless you're looking for it. Diagonal line wobble isn't really an issue when drawing.

Red lines were drawn with a ruler and are perfectly straight.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick, and back to thin is smooth. The pen is able to draw thin lines after thick lines suggesting the pen has good control over the pressure curve regardless of whether it's heavy or light pressure. This is also a diagonal line and I can see slight diagonal wobble but it's not a pattern that's very noticeable.

4. Line width can be maintain consistently while maintaining consistent pressure.

5. No issues with drawing dots.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test where lines are drawn separately, then joined to check for gaps and overshooting lines. There are no gaps and overshooting lines, which means cursor misalignment is not as issue.

Cursor does not stray away from the pen tip when the pen is held vertical then switched to an angle.

Tilt works well, at least with Krita. Cursor can follow the direction of the pen. Tilt did not work with Concepts app on Windows unfortunately, which is actually one of my main drawing apps.

The pen is quite accurate and sensitive. Performance is consistent and predictable. There's slight wobble with diagonal lines but they don't show up when actually drawing.

Drawing experience

Pen performance is fantastic and I don't have negative things to say about that. But drawing experience can be negatively affected by touch gestures and palm rejection.

Palm rejection is not as perfect compared to iPads and Samsung tablets. I even have to mention specifically Samsung tablets because there are many Android tablets with pen support that have lousy palm rejection.

Switching from drawing on an iPad or Android tablet to a touchscreen pen display will feel off. Shortcuts activating when they should not is frustrating and really breaks the workflow.

To improve palm rejection, you can

Wear the artist glove provided
Disable the touchscreen using the top right button
Disable touch from certain areas on the screen using the driver
Enable pen-only mode in the drawing app

Touch support not working well is a long-time Windows problem. Even the Microsoft Surface Pro does not have flawless touchscreen support.

It is not surprising that Windows has better touch support than Mac. What's surprising to me is many of the drawing apps on Mac actually support touch, although there are many issues. XPPen's touchscreen support with Mac is better than the Huion Kamvas Pro 19.

The pen display does not generate much heat since it does not use that much power. I measured 16W power transfer when the pen display is connected to power outlet.

The display is certainly smoother compared to matte screen protectors so that will take time to get used to. Controlling the pen accurately is not difficult. Get the felt pen tips if you want more a more tactile drawing experience.

I don't really use the ACK05 shortcut remote as I prefer my keyboard which gives me access to all keyboard shortcuts.

This was drawn with Concepts. Workflow was mostly smooth except for the unintentional undos due to palm rejection.

Tilt did not work well with Concepts but that's a problem specific to Concepts.

The best drawing apps to use with a touchscreen are Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Sketchbook, perhaps Concepts.

Pen tip is considered firm with minor lateral movement, but no in-out movement. Cursor tracking is accurate. Cursor is always directly beneath the pen tip even when pen is tilted at different angles, unless at really low angles.

Even though the stand only has one angle, it's still a good and comfortable angle to work with.

If you use drawing apps with many UI elements such as CSP and Krita, I highly recommend getting the XPPEN Artist Ultra 16 OLED instead for the larger display.

Android support

This pen display can work with Android devices that can output video signal, but the pen display has to be connected to power.

Support for Android is not good.

Medibang can click, but cannot draw
Concepts, Sketchbook, Infinite Painter and CSP treat the pen no different from a finger
IbisPaintX and Krita works with pressure and palm rejection

And you cannot swipe up on the pen display to go back to the home screen.

Conclusion

The XPPen Artist Ultra 14 has a wonderful OLED display with good pen performance.

User experience with touchscreen is a mixed bag. For Mac users, you're better off getting a (cheaper) pen display without touch since MacOS does not work well with touch. Windows has better support for touch but even so palm rejection is not perfect, at least not as perfect as iPads and Samsung tablets.

This pen display is a good product. Just note the pros and cons, strengths and limitations.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Good build quality
+ Stand included
+ Can be powered by a single USB-C cable
+ Softkeys for extra shortcuts
+ Bright, vibrant, sharp display
+ Matte glass has good antiglare
+ Good colour accuracy
+ OLED has much better contrast than LCD
+ Good pen performance
- OLED may not work with certain colour calibrators
- Palm rejection not perfect compared to iPad and Samsung tablets
- OLED has PWM which may affect people with sensitive eyes
- Support for drawing apps on Android is not good

Availability

The XPPen Artist Ultra 14 is available from XPPen online store.

Remember to get extra felt nibs.

By the way, if you have intention to buy this pen display, considering using the affiliate links above. I get to make some commission for each sale but at not extra cost to you. Your support helps me put out more reviews like the one you've just read.

And if my review is inaccurate in any way, let me know in the comments section below.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 19 Aug 2026 - 09:30

Tags

xp pen

pen display

tech reviews

oled

Add new comment

Review: Chiara Di Francia sketchbook vol 2

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Review: Chiara Di Francia sketchbook vol 2

Chiara Di Francia is an Italian illustrator and comic artist who started her career in 2010. Some companies she has worked for includes Hachette Livre, Sigil Entertainment Group, Kymera Press, Maverick Arts, and Arancia Studio.

Almost 10 years ago, I featured her book Drawing Recipes (Drawing Recipes Collection) (Volume 1).

She has recently launched her Sketchbook Vol 2, a 52-page paperback published in August 2026, and she has shared with me some images to show you guys.

The sketchbook features preliminary studies, concept art, maps, and illustrations for editorial projects, role-playing games, and independent productions, with a particular focus on fantasy, horror and tabletop RPG projects.

Much of the material comes from her Patreon archive, now conveniently packaged into a book.

Price of the book is €11.44 at the time of review, and currently available from Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | AU | JP)

Shown below are some page previews from her sketchbook.

To see more art from her, check out her Instagram page.

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 14 Aug 2026 - 11:00

Tags

chiara di francia

sketchbooks

art book reviews

Add new comment

Artist Review: 13.2" Huawei MatePad Pro Max (2026)

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 03:50:00 +0000

Artist Review: 13.2" Huawei MatePad Pro Max (2026)

Review unit on loan from Huawei Singapore

Huawei released the Huawei MatePad Pro Max in May 2026, and now the tablet is finally available in Singapore one month later.

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is the flagship tablet with a 13.2-inch 144Hz PaperMatte OLED with peak brightness up to 1600 nits. Processor is the Kirin T93 Pro (9-core chipset), and this review unit has 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Price

Price at the time of review is SGD 1898, and that includes the Huawei M-Pencil Pro, Huawei Glide Keyboard, 1-year WPS AI membership and a 1-year warranty, 2-year free battery replacement service.

And that price is before any discount which you may find on Shopee SG or Lazada SG. So you could get SGD 100-200 off depending on the promotional period.

Just for comparison purposes, the Apple M5 iPad Pro is SGD 2299 (and was SGD 1999 before the June 2026 price hike), and that does not include the Apple Pencil Pro which is SGD 199, and there's no keyboard case. We're looking at a SGD 600 price different before applying any discount to the Huawei tablet.

The increase in RAM prices due to the AI bubble is likely to have made the Huawei tablet more expensive.

Specifications

Design & Build
- Dimensions: 289.3 x 196.3 x 4.7 mm
- Weight: 499 g (Standard) / 509 g (PaperMatte Edition)
- Build Material: Aluminum unibody back and frame, glass front
- Colors: Blue, Space Gray
Display
- Size & Type: 13.2-inch Flexible OLED (Available with anti-glare PaperMatte finish)
- Resolution: 3000 × 2000 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio, ~273 ppi)
- Refresh Rate: 144 Hz
- Brightness: 1600 nits peak brightness
- Contrast Ratio: 2,000,000:1
- Screen-to-Body Ratio: 94%
Hardware & Performance
- Processor: Kirin T93 Pro (9-core chipset)
- RAM: 12 GB / 16 GB / 20 GB
- Storage Options: 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
- Expansion: No microSD card slot
- Cooling System: Dual-layer VC cooling with 100% larger heat dissipation area
Software
- Operating System: HarmonyOS 4.3
- Productivity Features: PC-level WPS Office AI, Live Multitask (up to 3 simultaneous apps), HUAWEI Notes with AI handwriting recognition, GoPaint app
Cameras
- Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.8 aperture, Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF)
  - Video: Up to 4K @ 30fps
- Front Camera: 12 MP, f/2.4 aperture
  - Video: Up to 1080p @ 30fps
Battery & Charging
- Capacity: 10,400 mAh (Global model) / 9,760 mAh (EU/UK regional model)
- Wired Charging: 66W Huawei SuperCharge
- Reverse Charging: 40W reverse wired charging
Audio & Connectivity
- Speakers: 6-speaker stereo system with HUAWEI SOUND tuning
- Headphone Jack: No 3.5mm jack
- Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6/7, dual-band)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 6.0 (A2DP, LE, L2HC HD Audio)
- NearLink Support: Yes (for low-latency stylus & accessory connectivity)
- USB: USB Type-C 3.1, DisplayPort 1.2 support, OTG
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Proximity sensor
Accessory Compatibility
- HUAWEI M-Pencil: NearLink connectivity, 10,000+ levels of pressure sensitivity, magnetic charging
- HUAWEI Glide Keyboard: Full-size keyboard with integrated touchpad, stylus charging slot, and multi-angle adjustment

Things included

Tablet
Polishing cloth
USB-C charging cable
Huawei SuperCharge charger (100W)
Quickstart guide
Huawei M-Pencil Pro (Singapore bundle)
Huawei Glide Keyboard (Singapore bundle)

Keyboard

The Huawei Glide Keyboard is 439g and Huawei M-Pencil Pro is 47g. Total weight of the three items is 995g. This is lighter than most similar sized laptops out there.

The keyboard case is well made and looks sleek.

There's a NearLink logo on the keyboard but the keyboard does not seem to work wirelessly away from the tablet. This is a downgrade from previous keyboards that can work wirelessly.

The storage area on the keyboard case for the M-Pencil Pro also charges the pen.

This is a full-sized keyboard. Layout of the keys is pretty standard and easy to get used to. There are shortcut keys at the top row. Keys have good travel and feedback. Typing experience is good. It's a good quality keyboard.

Touchpad works well and support gestures.

Design

The tablet is real thin at just 4.7mm. Weight of 509 is considered lightweight for a tablet with a 13.2-inch display.

Bezels are 3.5mm thin. Impressive.

But on numerous occasions while drawing, my thumb holding the side would affect my drawing experience because of touch issues. Palm rejection works well in the sense that you can rest your writing/drawing hand on the display and there won't be any issues. But there would be issues if the tablet detects the thumb on the side and your other hand on the display, e.g. Are you trying to pan, zoom, rotate?

If you're just gonna be holding the tablet for reading, web browsing, watching shows, there won't be any issues with the thin bezels.

The front landscape 12MP camera is so small that Huawei can afford to not have a notch. There's face unlock and fingerprint unlock.

There's this sheen on the back which will change its look based on the angle.

There's no card slot for 5G and microSD card.

The 13.2-inch OLED display looks terrific.

Resolution is 3000 x 2000, 1.5 aspect ratio, 273 PPI and refresh rate is adaptive 144Hz. Screen to body ratio is 94%. Contrast ratio is 2 million to 1.

Huawei is not using tandem OLED here but it's still a bright display. Peak brightness is up to 1600 but there's no mention of standard brightness.

The PaperMate anti-glare surface is effective at reducing glare.

The matte surface also provides a wonderful reading experience. The large display is great for reading PDFs, magazine and comics.

The aspect ratio works well for reading taller pages compared to the iPad Pro.

The display is laminated so when writing, there's almost no gap between the pen tip and line beneath.

Performance

Overall performance is smooth and responsive. There's plenty of compute power and 12GB of RAM for multi-tasking. Of course the tablet can be used for gaming.

I don't have any benchmarks for you though but nowadays with mid and high-end Android tablets you can expect fantastic performance that will last for years. The battery will probably deteriorate first before the performance slows down.

OS and software

Seems like the Chinese version of the tablet is running HarmonyOS 6.1 and the global version runs HarmonyOS 4.3.

This is not the typical Android OS so there's no official support for Google Play Store. However, installing Google Play Store is easy. Just go look for GBox or GSpace and install them from Huawei AppGallery (Huawei app store), and you'll get Google Play Store.

With Google Play Store install, you can install Google apps and other apps. All Google apps work well for me, but some third party apps have issues.

The downside or limitation of installing Google Play Store this way is not all Google features may work. For example, with certain apps, you may not be able sign in using Google authentication, may not be able to restore past Google Store purchases, or some apps are not available.

Here are some issues I found with apps I use:

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
Notein can be signed in manually, but only Microsoft OneDrive sync works
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

Clip Studio Paint can be installed from APK file. But there's a warning saying that future versions of CSP are not going to be compatible with the tablet, which I'm not sure how accurate that will be.

HarmonyOS has many useful features, e.g. sidebar, multi-window mode, split-screen, lift to wake, etc. The tablet can output video from its USB-C port but there's no external display PC desktop mode.

One thing I don't like about HarmonyOS is there's too much adware. There are many pre-installed bookmarks for apps that can install. All those can be removed, thankfully. And when you have not opened Huawei AppGallery for a while, there's always a full-page ad that appears.

Many people put perhaps too much emphasis on ecosystem, like when you get devices you should always get the same company. Sure devices from the same company may work well together, but with Android you can often duplicate ecosystem features with apps you install.

If you use other Huawei devices, there are of course Huawei Super Device features such as screen, file sharing, pairing wireless speakers, earphones, laptops, more.

As someone who reviews so many products from so many companies, having some ecosystem is nice but it's not a huge deal. E.g. I can still wirelessly transfer files from Huawei tablet to my Macbook Pro with the LocalSend app. For external display mode, I use Duet Display, but there are many third party external display apps out there.

Backup process lacks some clarity. You can choose to backup to external storage or to a computer using HiSuite, but there's no mention what exactly will go to backup. Some apps save data within the app itself, and that data goes into the Android data folder which is usually does not get backed up.

So for backup, I highly recommend you use apps that save to the cloud, or apps that save files into the local folders where sync them yourself for backup manually. It's good practice too. If you want to switch to a tablet from a different company in the future, you can do so easily. E.g. Imagine saving your Clip Studio files to Google Drive, it doesn't matter what device you're using for drawing.

Huawei M-Pencil Pro

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. Just note that 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.

This is big tablet for drawing so it will work well with drawing apps that have many UI elements such as Krita and Clip Studio Paint.

The app I've used for drawing is Huawei's GoPaint, which is a free and full-featured drawing app. This app has no ads which is surprising considering many Huawei apps have some form of ads.

Huawei GoPaint has many features and is definitely a very capable drawing app. The main downside is I'm not exactly sure how to backup the artworks. Because of that, I'm hesitate to use GoPaint as my main drawing app.

And this was drawn with Concepts app. I had to disable tilt sensitivity because tilt would sometimes activate unintentionally. The overall drawing process or workflow was uneventful except for the issue with tilt.

I was able to get the lines to appear the way I expect them to. No issues with diagonal line wobble. Line tapers well when needed.

The pen's shortcut for pinch and double tap are not supported by the drawing apps I've tested. But some of the note taking apps are able to use the pen shortcuts though.

Sometimes I would hold the pen too tight when drawing so I had to disable the pinch shortcut.

Conclusion

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max definitely 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 and 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 but USB-C can output video
- Pen tilt sensitivity not perfect
- Pen shortcuts are not supported by drawing apps

Availability

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max 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.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 11 Aug 2026 - 11:50

Tags

huawei

huawei matepad

drawing tablet reviews

tech reviews

Add new comment

Book Review: The Art of Daniel Warren Johnson

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Book Review: The Art of Daniel Warren Johnson

Amazing energy

Daniel Warren Johnson is an amazing comic book artist and writer based in Chicago.

His art, the characters, are just filled with energy, life, that you feel like the next scene can move. His storytelling and composition feel so immersive. The style is gritty and detailed. There are a few scenes that remind me of Katsuhiro Otomo because of the staging and world building.

You can pause at almost every page in this large 288-page hardcover just to admire the art, the craft of making comics.

This book has art from Space-Mullet, Extremity, Murder Falcon, Do A Powerbomb! and The Moon Is Following Us, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, Beta Ray Bill: Argent Star, Transformers, The Ghost Fleet and more.

There are also a few private commissions and those are incredible. I mean the people who commissioned those pieces definitely got a great deal.

This is easily one of the best artbooks from 2026. If you have not seen work from DWJ before, you'll probably be a fan after you do. The art is that good.

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 Fri, 31 Jul 2026 - 10:00

Tags

art book reviews

daniel warren johnson

basheer sponsored

flesk publications

2026 favourite

Add new comment

Book Review: The Fantastic Art of Roy G. Krenkel

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Book Review: The Fantastic Art of Roy G. Krenkel

Roy Gerald Krenkel is an American illustrator who specialized in fantasy and historical drawings and paintings for books, magazines and comic books.

Before World War II he studied with George Bridgman at the Art Students League of New York. After the War, Krenkel attended Burne Hogarth's classes at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, and met Joe Orlando, Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson.

I met Roy Krenkel back in 1949 or 1950, and he has never ceased to be a constant source of inspiration to me—a truly conscientious artist who will not tolerate incompetence. - Frazetta

This 256-page hardcover artbook collects mostly sketches and some full illustrations. My first impression is the style looks like Frazetta's but it's not the same. So it's not surprising to read that RGK and Frazetta are friends and they are probably inspiration for each other.

The artworks are of dinosaurs, barbarians, cavemen and women from ancient civilizations. I love seeing the different types of line art, techniques, how the characters pose, how the scenes are staged. There's always a strong storytelling element around.

This is a nice book for those who like Frazetta, sketchbooks, fantasy art and anatomy.

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 Tue, 28 Jul 2026 - 12:00

Tags

dark horse

art book reviews

basheer sponsored

roy g krenkel

fantasy art

anatomy

Add new comment

Review: Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi e-ink tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Review: Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi e-ink tablet

Review unit provided by Onyx

Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi is a lightweight 10.3‑inch 300‑ppi e-Ink tablet with front light, Android 15, Google Play Store and pen support. It's a portable device most suited for reading and light note taking.

There are two versions for this tablet and the main difference is one has front light (Lumi) and the other does not. Having front light is useful but the trade-off is there's a gap between the surface of the display and the e-ink canvas, which I will talk more about later.

Specifications

Spec	Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi	Go 10.3 (Gen II)	Go 10.3
Screen	Monochrome	Monochrome	Monochrome
PPI	300	300	300
Processor	Advanced Octa-core	Advanced Octa-core	Octa-core
Front Light	Dual-tone	N/A	N/A
Sunlight Readable	Yes	Yes	Yes
Speakers	Dual Speakers	Dual Speakers	Dual Speakers
Auto-rotation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Memory and storage	4GB + 64GB	4GB + 64GB	4GB + 64GB
Battery capacity	3700 mAh	3700 mAh	3700 mAh
Supported Accessories	InkSense Plus pen, magnetic case	InkSense Plus pen, magnetic case	Magnetic stylus, magnetic case
OS	Android 15	Android 15	Android 12
Google Play Store	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thickness	Approx. 4.8 mm	Approx. 4.8 mm	Approx. 4.6 mm
Weight	Approx. 364g	Approx. 350g	Approx. 375g
Price (USD)	$429.99	$399.99	$359.99

Things included

Tablet
InkSense Plus pen
Flip case
USB charging cable
User manual
Warranty card

The flip case is well made and looks great.

The case is thicker than the tablet, but overall still considered thin as the tablet is really thin.

I'm not sure what material is used to make the case but it feels like a combination of felt and leather, and you can get a very good grip on it. There's no visible leather grain. The inner cover is much smoother.

On the side is removable flap that keeps the pen attached by the side.

The tablet supports auto-wake and sleep. The case cannot be folded to prop up the tablet. The case is magnetic so the tablet can be removed easily.

Design

The power button has no fingerprint scanner, and there's no camera for face unlock. You'll always need to type your pin to unlock, which can be inconvenient if you are used to biometric unlock.

There are no volume buttons, no microSD card slot.

Corners and sides of the tablet are rounded off. Finishing looks good. The metal frame feels solid and is matte textured.

The USB-C port only has USB 2 transfer speed. Audio quality from the two speakers is so-so, loud enough but does not have surround since it's not stereo and there's no bass so everything just sounds flat. The speakers are still very usable though because they don't sound hollow.

Back of the tablet has a nice leather-like texture. This tablet has no cameras on the front and back.

Display quality

The matte surface display looks good by diffused reflection can still be glaring under strong light source.

The tablet has a resolution of 2480 × 1860 at 300 ppi. Text looks sharp.

10.3-inch is big enough for reading comics but bigger would be better, except heavier. Words from comics may be small but still readable.

If you read PDFs or magazines often, I recommend a larger display as PDFs of A4-sized paper usually have much smaller text when scaled down to a 10.3-inch display.

The tablet supports auto-rotate, so you can hold the tablet comfortably by the thicker bezel.

The BW e-ink canvas looks light, not dark, so contrast is good. Colour conversion to black and white looks good.

Whether the text can displayed as one or two columns in landscape mode depends on the app.

This magazine shows a 2-col layout in landscape mode and text is too small. Constant zooming in to read the text and panning the page is not good user experience.

Reading experience is excellent if you're just reading text. If you just want to read text, getting a smaller tablet is good enough. The advantage of this 10.3-inch tablet is for reading comics.

Most webpages will be displayed with tablet mode instead of desktop mode.

Ghosting or image retention is not really an issue. You can choose different refresh mode or customise your own settings to achieve your preferred look.

The Lumi version of this tablet has cool and warm light.

I find the orange warm glow of the light to look pleasing. There are 32 levels of adjustment for the cool and warm light so you can get very precise adjustment.

The Lumi version of the tablet is USD 30 more which isn't much.

The front light is useful for those who read in dimly lit rooms. If your rooms are always well lit, and you're fine reading physical books or newspaper with whatever lighting environment you have currently, then front light is not necessary.

Performance

The firmware I'm using is v4.2-rel.

Overall performance feels smooth enough as an e-ink tablet.

4GB RAM is limited so don't expect to multi-task much. My main usage for an e-ink tablet is mostly just for reading, maybe some note taking, so 4GB RAM is sufficient.

64GB storage is not much. That's a downside for those who like to store huge files on internal storage, and there's no microSD card support. My e-books are all streamed from the cloud, from Amazon Kindle and Libby so I'm fine with 64GB storage.

The tablet runs on Android 15 and there's the Boox UI on top.

The UI has six tabs by the side for Library, Store, Notes, Storage, Apps, Settings. You can add more shortcuts under Settings-SystemD Display-Homescreen Navigation Bar.

Library tab has all the e-books downloaded or synced. You can sync your e-books from Readwise, Zotero, WebDAV, OneDrive, Google Drive, OneNote, Dropbox, Youdao Notes, EverNote, AllYun Driver, Baidu Cloud and NutStore.

Store tab has all the copyright-free books.

Notes tab has all your notes.

Storage tab shows you local files and folders.

Apps tab shows installed apps, and you can find Google Play Store here too.

Settings tab is self explanatory.

If you have Boox account, you get 10GB online storage.

You can show Android navigation bar at the bottom, and customise the shortcuts. I prefer the navigation bar over using gestures and it's convenient and on a large display the bar does not take up much space.

You can set Wifi, Bluetooth and audio to disable when tablet is asleep. This helps to prevent battery drain.

The wallpaper shows time, date, battery level and calendar. There's no way to customise the lock screen wallpaper.

Pen

The InkSense Plus pen is made with metal and has excellent build quality. The pen supports 4048+ levels of pressure sensitivity, palm rejection and has one side eraser button.

This pen has an internal battery and charges through USB-C. The pen does not support magnetic charging. Battery capacity in this pen is small so the battery should not be left discharged completely for long periods of time as that will damage the pen. If you don't use the pen often, at least set an alarm to charge the pen monthly.

Writing experience

I'll only be talking about the writing experience with the default note taking app from Boox. Third party note taking apps do not work well as there's more latency and their UI aren't designed for BW displays.

Overall writing experience is positive. Palm rejection works well.

The pen is able to capture my handwriting style quite accurately. The tactile writing experience on the matte surface is good, almost like paper and there's audible feedback.

Writing has noticeable latency so you can see the line chasing the pen tip when writing. It doesn't affect the accuracy of my handwriting so it's not a big issue for me.

I'm not sure how durable the pen nib is with usage and there are no replacement pen nibs included. Extra pen nibs cost USD 15 and you get five pieces in a set.

The Lumi version of the tablet has a gap between the surface and e-ink canvas. From the side, you can see the gap between the line and the pen tip. The parallax isn't that noticeable unless you're looking for it. I don't think this is big issue here or maybe I'm not too picky or critical.

The default note taking app does not have many features compared to paid note taking apps but it's still sufficient for light note taking.

You can create notebooks with multiple page, or an infinite page. Notes saved are sync to Boox cloud.

Overall note taking experience is good, affected only by the visible latency.

Conclusion

The Boox Go 10.3 (gen 2) is a decent BW e-ink tablet with good visual quality for reading and can be used for light note taking. There are pros and cons but no serious deal breakers.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Pen and case included
+ Well made case
+ Beautiful tablet design
+ Lightweight despite having a medium-big display
+ Pen has good support for palm rejection, pressure
+ Good tactile writing experience
+ Good e-ink quality. Text is sharp
+ E-ink canvas is light gray, has good contrast
+ Smooth overall performance
+ Has setting to disable all wireless connection in sleep mode
+ Has Google Play Store
- No biometric unlock
- 4GB RAM and 64GB storage
- No microSD card support
- Speakers sound flat, but at least not hollow
- No physical page flip buttons
- Lumi model has parallax gap below display surface
- Writing has latency

Availability

The tablet is available from Boox online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 27 Jul 2026 - 13:00

Tags

e reader

tech reviews

onyx