Hi everyone, today I’m going to talk about the XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro. This is a requested review of my current drawing tablet and it’s my first time doing something like this 😆

But anyways..

Starting off with the specifications of the tablet.

	XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro Specifications
Screen:	11.6-inch diagonal, 25.6 x 14.4cm
Display Resolution:	1920 x 1080
Display Type:	IPS, 178-degree viewing angle
Color Gamut:	72% NTSC, 100% sRGB
Shortcut Keys:	8 buttons and 1 dial wheel (Customizable)
Pen:	Battery-free with 2 side buttons
Pen Pressure:	8192 levels
Pen Tilt:	60 Degrees
OS Compatibility	Windows® 10/8/7 (32/64bit), Mac OS X® 10.10 and higher

This is one of XP-Pen’s Artist series display tablets and an upgraded model of the previous XP-Pen Artist 12.

What’s inside the box

It comes in a clean white box showing a preview of the tablet with a nice artwork.

• Artist 12 Pro tablet
• Tablet Stand
• Battery-free PA2 Pen
• Pen Case
• 8 Pen nib replacements
• 3-in-1 Cable
• USB extension cable
• Power Adapter
• 3 Outlet adapters for international power outlets
• Drawing Glove
• Cleaning Cloth
• Quick Guide

What I like about the package is that it includes a few extra stuff, like the stand and drawing glove, compared to some other tablets.

The included tablet stand is angled at about 20º, I think it’s okay for most people but for my setup, I added a small carton box below it to increase its angle a bit more so I don’t need to bend and look down that much when drawing.

The pen has 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, 2 customizable side buttons, has a rubber grip, and a nice red accent ring. It weighs slightly lighter than my Wacom Intuos Pro’s pen (1st ver.) It’s also battery-free and supports tilt.

The pen doesn’t have an eraser though compared to my Intuos Pro’s pen, that’s not really a big deal for me personally, as I’m more used to switching to the eraser using a shortcut key than to flip my pen.

Overall, The pen looks nice and feels good in the hand.

The package also includes a sleek looking pen case.

Inside the pen case holds 8 extra nibs, that is a lot for me! cause I don’t think I’ll be needing to use those anytime soon.

You can also use the tiny hole in the middle of the case to detach the nibs on your pen instead of using a nail clipper or something 😆

The other end of the case can also be detached and used as a pen stand if you don’t want to put the pen back in the case every time you’re done working.

Now for the tablet itself.

The XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro looks the same as the Artist 13.3 and the Artist 15.6 pro versions, with just the smaller screen being the difference.

It has a thin, high-quality plastic body and a matte finish. I think it looks great for its price range.

There are 3 physical buttons on the right side (If you are using it in right-handed mode), The power button, brightness down, and brightness up. The power button glows up a blue color when the tablet is powered on.

You can also find the USB Type-C port on this side, and the tablet can be powered by your computer directly via USB. This is really great when you want to use it on the go with a laptop. And personally, I actually never use the included wall plug adapter.

On the front side of the tablet sits 8 customizable shortcut keys and a red dial wheel to improve the user’s workflow.

I really like the feel of the red dial wheel and I mostly use it to quickly change my brush size. I can also easily set the tools that I commonly use on the shortcut keys like undo, pan, color picker, and switch between the eraser and the brush tool.

The screen is a 1920×1080, 11.6-inch IPS display and has a scratch-resistance, anti-glare film. It is also fully laminated, which is used to reduce the distance between the pen tip and the screen. I don’t really notice any parallax when using it, the cursor aligns well with the pen’s tip. (You can calibrate this on the tablet’s driver settings if you feel that the pen and cursor does not+

accurately align)

If you are used to working on a 24″ or bigger monitor like me, things might look small while working on this 12″ display tablet for the first time. Because for me, the icons and buttons on Adobe Photoshop look small so what I did was I changed the scale on the window’s display setting to 125%. But of course, this will depend on your personal preference.

Tablet driver and settings

You can download the latest driver version on XP-Pen’s website. Once installed, it will appear on your PC’s system tray.

Here you can adjust and customize your tablet and pen’s settings like pressure sensitivity, express keys, dial wheel, pen side buttons, display, and calibration.

You can also rotate the display here if you are a left handed.

Free software

You can choose to get ArtRage 5, openCanvas, or Cartoon Animator 4 Pipeline Version by certifying your tablet’s serial number on XP-Pen’s website.

I personally don’t use any of those software but it’s a nice addition for anyone interested in using one of those 🙂

Conclusion:

XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro has an affordable price compared to other brands’ entry level display tablet lineup, without sacrificing quality. And after using this tablet for almost a year now, It still works perfectly and still gets the job done. The screen size might not suit everyone at first, especially someone who’s used to working on large display monitors like me, but I eventually got used to it after working on it for several days.

Overall, It’s a great tool for digital artists and a value for money. It looks good and the quality is great. I think It’s a perfect display tablet for both newbies and pros with a tight budget but wants the experience of drawing directly on the screen. If you are a traditional artist who is used to sketch on a notebook or paint on a canvas and wants to try digital art for the first time, the learning curve will be much easier than a standard drawing tablet since where you put the pen is where you draw. It’s also compact and lightweight so it’s perfect for artists who travel a lot.

You can even use it as a second monitor for coding or something if you’re not drawing 😆

Well, that’s my review of the XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro. Thanks for reading it~! 🙂