7P notes: Huion Kamvas Pro 19 (GT1902)

Summary

I do recommend this tablet. The drawing experience is the best Huion's ever had.

Is it as good as a Wacom Cintiq Pro? No. But it is VERY GOOD overall with only a few limitations and minor issues you should be aware of.

Companion video

This companion video covers many but not all of the topics described in these notes: https://youtu.be/CnTBrhUhciM

Basics

Resolution: 4K (3840x2160)
PenTech 4.0
New AG glass
Multi-touch
- Support for Windows
- Support for MacOS (after a firmware update)
Comes with 2 pens: PW600 and PW600S
Diagonal size: 19"
- Actually 18.57"
Released: Jan 2024

PenTech 4.0

Definitely an improvement over PenTech 3.0. Especially noticable in how pressure is handled.

Pens

Comes with 2 pens: PW600 and PW600S. More manufacturers should do this!

Pens behave exactly the same in terms of drawing, pressure, etc.
Both pens are PenTech 4.0 pens
Both pens have erasers

Compatibility across different PenTech versions

Older Huion PenTech 3.0 pens DO NOT work with this tablet
The newer PenTech 4.0 pens DO NOT work with older tablets

Notes on backwards compatibility with the older PW517 pen - not compatible. Or at least not completely compatible. The PW517 pen will move the pointer, but not there is no pressure detected so drawing is useless.

Nibs - The pre-installed nibs are both felt. The felt nibs feel good draw with and add an additional amount of texture. In the month I used the felt nibs I saw no appreciable wear - but I don't draw very heavily so your experience may differ. The tablet comes with replacement felt and plastic nibs.

NOTE: I damaged one of the felt nibs - On the third day of using the tablet the PW600 pen would click or draw even when it was hovering. I did drop the pen at some point during the third day and that may have triggered something. I removed the nib, saw the nib was bent and replaced it with a fresh nib and the problem went away.

Drawing Experience

Corner/Edge accuracy - NORMAL. This is only visible in the last 2mm and did not affect my normal usage of the tablet. It was so minor, I didn't even bother performing any calibration to address it.
Pointer lag - NORMAL - standard for modern pen displays.
Parallax - NORMAL - standard for modern pen displays.
Pen IAF and Max pressure - See Huion PW600 and PW600S
Pressure Transition Instability - VERY GOOD. You may remember the issues I pointed out with the Huion Inspiroy 2 L and the Wacom One M. That the problem is not visible with this tablet and pen. Remember: All tablets have some amount of it. Desirable tablets just have a very small amount of it and you have to construct situations to reveal it. This tablet so far seems comparable to what I see with the Wacom Intuos Pro & Cintiq Pro tablets. more here: pressure transition stability
Pen button stroke interruptions - While drawing with older Huion pens the buttons would might interrupt the drawing - even if you disabled the buttons in the driver. With the new pens, the buttons do not interfere with the stroke.
Pen tilt compensation - VERY GOOD. The pointer stays where the nib is during normal ranges of tilt with some deviation only at extreme angles. more here: pen tilt compensation.

Display

OSD - to get to the OSD Hold the power button for a few seconds and the OSD can appear

Color gamuts supported (as stated by Huion)

Native
sRGB – 99%
AdobeRGB – 96%
DCI-P3 – 98%
There is also a "User" mode

I use the sRGB mode exclusively because it most closely matches my other displays.

Refresh rate - NORMAL. Up to 60Hz which is standard for pen displays in 2024. Does not support 120Hz.

Anti-glare treatment - the display uses an etched glass surface which does a good job dispersing light that hits the surface of the tablet. It reduces more glare even than the Cintiq Pro 22.

Anti-Glare sparkle - OK. This is a BIG IMPROVEMENT over some older Huion models. Slightly noticeable at 6 inches. At normal drawing distance for me not noticeable. I am very happy with the outcome. In comparison the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 (DTK-167) has a little less AG sparkle. More here: Anti-glare sparkle

How the AG sparkle of this tablet compares to other tablets

Very close to Wacom Cintiq Pro 22
Very close to Wacom Cintiq Pro 16
Noticeably more than the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27
Noticeably less than Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K
Noticeably less than Huion Kamvas 13
Noticeably less than Huion Kamvas 13 2.5K
MUCH LESS than Kamvas Pro 16 4K Plus
It SHOULD have less than the Kamvas Pro 27 which has a lower density display panel (lower PPI)

Sharpness - OK. the anti-glare treatment diffuses the light coming from the display. The result is that the pixels on the display are "soft" and not as crisp as on comparable 16" or 22" displays. Several other people with this tablet have commented on the same thing. For me this is not a problem. In comparison, even the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 (DTK-167) and Cintiq Pro 22 have a slightly soft experience, this Huion has a little more softness than that.

Brightness - seems as advertised. I thought it was fine. It's not especially bright - but I thought it was bright enough at 100%. In comparison I use the Cintiq Pro 22 at 50% (I would use it at 70% but don't like the additional fan noise it creates).

Parallax - VERY GOOD. It has very little parallax. As good as - maybe even a little better than the Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 in my observation. As is typical even for Cintiq Pro tablets, the parallax is not as good as an Apple iPad. More here: Parallax

Connections and cabling

Single USB-C cable connection?

Official Answer: NO. Huion's documentation is explicit on thjis point (see this doc).

I tried testing it with an appropriate cable and could not get a single cable configuration to work with a Microsoft Surface Pro 8 or a M3 MacBook Pro.

However ... this user got it to work with by plugging the single cable into a ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 expansion card: https://www.reddit.com/r/huion/comments/1b22sia/huion_kamvas_pro_19_usbc_cables/

Using third party USB-C cables for display signal & data

I tried a Cable Matters USB-C Thunderbolt cable. It did work, however sometimes slight movements of the cable cause the tablet to lose the display signal and data.

Upon closer examination, the Huion USB-C cable plug is slightly longer than the CableMatters cable. So there is a slight difference on how some third party cables can connect.

For this reason I recommend using the supplied Huion USB-C cable.

Touch

Touch on MacOS -
- At time of launch. This tablet did not support touch on MacOS.
- On 2024/08/01 Huion released a firmware update firmware to enable touch on MacOS.
  - Video: See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D0_OpPIgC8
  - I haven't gotten as chance to try this update out yet. But I will soon.
Touch on Windows - Still under evaluation.
- By default, touch on the tablet will normally map to whichever display is your "main monitor".
- You can map touch back to the tablet when it is not the main monitor. See this document from Huion: How to make finger gestures control Kamvas Studio 16/Kamvas Pro 19/Kamvas Pro 27 instead of the external monitor. When I first tried this, it fixed the touch problem, but it had an odd interaction with the pen - when I used the pen on the tablet, the pointer always stayed near the top border. After I uninstalled the driver, restarted the computer, and reinstalled the driver, the problem went away and the pen worked normally.
Palm rejection: OK. Very TYPICAL for Touch on pen displays.
- Touch support is not comparable to an iPad's touch support which is EXCELLENT. Too often I accidentally pressed something on the screen because of my palm.
- I would say it's very on par with the Cintiq Pro 22 and Cintiq Pro 27. I didn't try to use a drawing glove yet.
- Brad Colbow in his review of the Kamvas Pro 27 noticed that the palm rejection didn't seem to result in accidental drawing, but rather accidental clicks. I had the same experience.
- Note: I used the tablet without using any drawing glove. In theory a drawing glove would help with the palm-rejection.

Ergonomics

Weight - lighter than I expected. I noticed it immediately when I picked up the box.

VESA mounting - YES. There are 75 mm × 75 mm VESA holes for mounting on the back.

Legs - YES. Two legs. Seemed sturdy. No complaints.

Noise - EXCELLENT. No noise because no fans

Heat - EXCELLENT. After running at 100% brightness for one month days without turning off the tablet, the tablet stays cool. Roughly the same temperature as the Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 - maybe very very slightly warmer. Just very slightly warmer on the right than the left side.

Stand - It does not come with a stand. Instead, I used separately-purchased Huion ST100A stand which attaches to this pen display using the VESA mounting holes.

Surface texture - it feels slightly more textured than the Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K

Pens and Pressure

Pens - comes with the PW600 and PW600S pens.

Driver & Pens - the driver knows that there are two different pen models and has separate button settings for each. However settings like the driver pressure curve are the shared across both pens.

These pens are very good in terms of pressure. Much more here: Huion PW600 and PW600S

Diagonal wobble

GOOD. LOW amounts of wobble in stroke.

Compared to the Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K (GT2401)

The Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K (GT2401) was Huion's flagship pen display for a few years. And now the the Kamvas Pro 19 and Kamvas Pro 27 tablets represent the new flagship tablets.

The new tablets have clear improvements in these areas.

Pressure handling through the new PenTech 4.0 is clearly better.
The new pens have an eraser and that night be important for you
The new tablets have less AG sparkle
The new tablets have touch

There are a few areas that might not compare as well though

The new anti-glare treatment gives a slightly soft look to the pixels in the Kamvas Pro 19 at least. I didn't test the Kamvas Pro 27 so not sure how much the softness is present in that model.
Currently there is no exact match in terms of size to the 24". Drawing on 19" feels very different than 24".
The new tablets are a bit more expensive for their size.

But for other areas, the Kamvas Pro 24 4K was already a good pen display. So for this reason, if you already have a Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K (GT2401) then these new tablets are NOT an immediate "MUST BUY". If you are happy with how your Kamvas Pro 24 4K is working, then keep it. I would suggest at least waiting to see if Huion releases something closer to a 24" size.