Upgrading from Huion PW517 to Huion PW550 pens

Overview

If your tablet came with the PW517 pen, consider upgrading to the PW550 or PW550S pens. The PW550 series of pens are backward compatible with tablets designed for the PW517 pen. And offer a superior pressure range which will help when drawing strokes with pressure sensitivity. I recommend that if you are currently using the PW517 pen with your tablet that you consider buying the PW550 pen.

Backwards compatibility

The PW550 series pens are backwards compatible with tablets that use the PW517 pen, and these PW500 pens offer superior pressure handling.

Maximum pressure and Pressure range

The key advantage of the PW550 series pens are that generally they offer a better maximum pressure and thus A wider pressure range than the PW 517 pens. This wider pressure range is very useful for getting a more smooth and more controlled use of pressure in your strokes.

While there is no guarantee that every PW 550 unit is better than every PW 517 unit, based on my measurements this is something that seems to be typically true.

The pressure range improvements with the PW550 pen rival that of the more modern PW600 series of pens from Huion.

IAF

It is very difficult for me to measure IAF with my equipment. So I have to rely on a subjective evaluation. Based on my extensive usage of both pence they seem very similar to me in terms of IAF.

The PW550 series does not seem to offer a consistent improvement in IAF compared to the PW517.

If you're going to upgrade from the PWM 5117 to the PWM 550 series do not do it with the assumption that the IAAF is any better.

Community thoughts - I have seen varying opinions in the online community concerning the IAF comparison. Some find that the PW550 pens have a lower IAF and some find that the PW 550 pens have a higher IAF. No broad consensus has developed. And no one has published any data on the IAF of these pens.

Maximum pressure

Here are my measurements for maximum pressure for the pens in my collection.

Pen
My inventory ID
Approx. Maximum pressure

PW550

HUP.0006

560 gf

PW550

HUP.0008

223.6 gf

PW550

HUP.0009

850 gf

PW550S

HUP.0007

735 gf

PW517

HUP.0001

462.6 gf

PW517

HUP.0002

164.4 gf

PW517

HUP.0003

  1. 7 gf

PW517

HUP.0004

202.3 gf

PW517

HUP.0005

152.2 gf

W517P

HUP.0019

229.5 gf

Pressure response charts

These charts show the generally higher maximum pressure of the PW550 series and the overall general consistency of the PW550 series compared to the PW517.

THe PW515 pens areconsistent at lower pressure but diver

Video

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