We have tattoo artist Craig Sheets who's reviewing his Yiynova MVP22U V3 pen display tablet for us - Parka

I am a tattoo artist by trade and had been using a Wacom 12WX for a while and decided it was time to upgrade to a larger digitizer.

My drawing style lends itself to drawing large. Having a Wacom tablet previously made me inclined to search for a larger Wacom tablet. I bought the Wacom Cintiq 22HD first.

I also wanted another digitizer for work, but the price of 2 Wacom 22HD’s seemed excessive. I had been hearing about some of the UC Logic digitizers and decided to give Yiynova a shot after reading several reviews on Amazon of the Yiynova MVP22U V2 (yes you read that right). I received my MVP22U V2 and noticed a jitter issue with my tablet. The jitter issue was not bearable so I contacted the seller and they went through some troubleshooting with me. After exhausting all other possible problems, it was determined that I should send back my tablet for a new one. The seller was helpful and even offered an upgrade to the newer Version 3!

Setup

Set up was a snap. I will say I'm used to UC logic installs. A word of advice. If you used any Wacom products on your computer, make sure ALL drivers for Wacom are uninstalled before installing your UC Logic drivers. If you need help here is a link to help completely remove them, visit http://forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?t=7926

Before installing the hardware of your tablet, you must install the drivers. The drivers are available on Yiynova’s website. Installing the software is pretty straight forward.

Key specifications

The Yiynovas screen is a 1920x1080 resolution 21.5 inch IPS panel display with an LED backlight. The screen measures 10.55 inches in height by 18.77 inches in width. The display connection is DVI-I. The digitizer boast 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity with 4000 line per inch resolution.

Unboxing

The packaging is nice, everything was tightly secured and came well protected. There were no dings or scratches. Everything came in working order.

The box design is pretty bland, but that's not what we are paying for anyway. I actually think this is a smart idea. Packaging to me is for protection, and since most of the advertising is done online for this company. Why not save us a few dollars?

Inside the box:

• Yiynova MVP22U V3 Digitizer Tablet Monitor
• Power adapter
• P2H Stylus box with 2 extra nibs and nib remover
• P2X Stylus with 2 extra nibs and nib remover
• Stylus holder
• 3 display adapters DVI-I to displayport, VGA and HDMI
• Right and Left Artist gloves with yiynova logo
• Instruction manual and install Disk, and warranty and quick start leaflet.

The P2X (vertical) and P2H (horizontal) in the supplied stylus cradle.

Both feel solid and have a bit of weight to them. Not too much weight, but enough to feel solid. Both have no eraser. This is something I think is inherent in the technology used by UC Logic digitizers, because none of them have it.

Each stylus unscrews to reveal a battery compartment. They both require AAA batteries. My experience has been the batteries last quite a while. I personally enjoy the weight of the stylus in my hand.

The plastic case opens to reveal a compartment for a nib remover and extra nibs. The P2H is on top, and the P2X is on the bottom. I like the identifier ring at the bottom of the P2X. It reminds me of my Wacom stylus.

A look at the digitizer tablet

The chassis still says VGA I’m guessing as a leftover from the earlier incarnation, but it has been upgraded to DVI-I.

The cable is hard wired, something I am not fond of. There is a DC 12v insert for the power supply directly underneath. The rubber feet can be seen underneath, they offer great protection from bumping against the table as you set it down. They also help to prevent the digitizer tablet from pushing forward as you draw or rest your hand on the surface.

Display controls located on the bottom right corner include: Power, Menu, Up, Down and Enter.

I found the placement of them fine, but I wish there are labels for them on the front or side to aid in seeing which button I am pressing from the front viewing angle. I also found, when this tablet is on my monitor arm (Ergotron LX), I sometimes hit these buttons when placing the tablet down on the desk. A minor inconvenience, but I felt I should mention it.

The stand feels rigid and sturdy. The rubber feet help hold the tablet firmly in place wherever it rests.

The shortcut keys at the top of the screen feel well made. It takes a bit of force to actuate, so no accidental presses here. They give a nice audible click when pressed to let you know you have fully actuated. I also don’t see light leaking through the edges as has been mentioned in some reviews of earlier versions. Also, note the “lip” at the top, this with those tabs seen to the right and left of the shortcut keys, hold the glass surface in place. I wish the front face was a little more sleek, I didn’t find these to be an issue, just, cosmetically, I don’t find this to be attractive.

Overall I find the presentation to be adequate, I see a few area for improvement cosmetically. I find none of these to be deal breakers. The glass surface to me is very reflective, I prefer the matte finish of my Wacom 22HD to this surface. That is just for me. I know others like the slick surface, because colors seem more vibrant. This is absolutely true, colors are definitely more vibrant through a clear surface. The colors on this monitor are exceptional. I would say even better than my 22HD. The colors are very rich and precise. Right out of the box it was calibrated perfectly. There was almost no noticeable difference after I re-calibrated with my Spyder Pro. Which leads to…

Calibration and Color Spectrum

Place Spyder here! I so love this thing!

The color gamut is normal. I have seen a couple people mention that it was wide, it’s not. The colors are very crisp, the blacks are very black. The whites white and everything in between is beautiful! 96% sRGB

74% Adobe RGB

Yiynova MVP22U V3 vs Wacom Cintiq 22HD

A size comparison of the Yiynova MVP22U V3 to the Wacom 22HD. The Yiynova is considerably smaller and significantly lighter as well.

You can easily see the difference in reflectiveness of the drawing surfaces. I do like the drawing surface of the 22HD best. I also like that it has side mounted shortcut buttons, as well as a zoom strip on the back. I have seen some screen covers advertised online that might be cut to fit the Yiynova. I will be trying this in the future.

You can see the different approaches to the stand mechanism in the back as well. I like how light the MVP22U V3 is. I also like that it is firmly attached. One time I was holding my Wacom and the stand actually slipped off the tablet and split my toenail. That stand is extremely heavy! The Wacom stand has the ability to swivel the face of the tablet to allow better angles when drawing. This is nice, but not something that Control+R in most programs couldn’t handle.

Inside the center ring are 4 screws that reveal a compartment for switching out cables of the Wacom 22HD. This came in handy when my new puppy chewed through the DVI-I cable. I was happy I didn’t have to ship it back for a minor repair like that. Yiynova could take a cue from this. The top silver tab on the Yiynova releases the arm at the bottom to allow you to tilt the display back, or pull upright. The Wacom has the two side bars for this purpose.

Pressure sensitivity of the stylus

Overall the P2H requires more force to actuate all levels of pressure. The P2X seems softer. The best way I can describe the feel of the pressure curve is the P2H feels like a colored pencil in pressure sensitivity and the P2X feels like a brush.

Earlier renditions of this tablet allowed me to adjust the pressure curve. For some reason, in this newest incarnation V3, that feature has been removed. I am assuming that is why they now give me two styli. I find the two styli to be a perfect amalgam of the two predominant pressure curve camps. I personally prefer the pressure curve of the P2H.

This sketch was done with the MVP22U V3. This is a drawing for one of my clients. It is a half sleeve, shoulder blade and chest. Line work also done with the Yiynova in the image below.

The tablet tracks very well. I was able to get clean consistent lines throughout. I felt like the tablet tracked my hand no matter how slow or fast I drew. The earlier version 2 seemed to me to have trouble tracking at extremely slow speeds. I am led to believe this is an isolated incident. Version 3 tracks perfectly, so I think that rings true. In my field I need clean consistent lines, and as you can see that is exactly what I got.

Video review

Conclusion

Pros:

• This tablet does everything with just as much precision as my Cintiq 22HD. Slow lines now track perfectly. I did a ruler test even at slow speeds, the lines were perfect. I used a circle template to trace perfect circles, no jitter whatsoever. There is enough pressure curve to get use of all levels in the sensitivity. This tablet is at my place of work because it is smaller and requires less desk space, I took the Cintiq home.
• The size of this tablet monitor is much more compact which I love. It is also lighter which allows it to be attached to my Ergotron arm with no sag. I haven’t tried attaching my Wacom to the ergotron, but it is considerably heavier. I think it would sag.
• The colors on this monitor are even better than my Cintiq. Very rich and precise. I used a Spyder pro to calibrate, and it was spot on out of the box. My monitor had no light bleed.
• The stand is sturdy and feels solid
• The cables have been upgraded to DVI on this version so no more VGA (yay!) and I can connect it to my card now without adapters.
• It comes with 2 pens which have a slightly different pressure curve. both feel nice and sturdy. They require a battery, but the battery lasts a very long time. i didn't feel like that was an issue. In fact I kind of like the weight.
• The buttons at the top feel sturdier than my V2, the first one had a little play in it these are solid and feel well made. In fact the whole body of this device feels really well made.
• It worked with all of the software I use. Photoshop, Manga Studio mostly.
• The people at Panda City, the seller, did a great job helping me when I had a problem with the last tablet. They were attentive and helpful. So on the chance you get one that is defective you can contact them. They will definitely take care of you.
• The best thing of all is that for half the price I got a tablet that performs as well as my Cintiq. I wish I had gotten this before buying my Cintiq, I would have just bought another one.

Cons:

• I prefer a textured surface, I will get a textured screen protector anyway, so not a big deal.
• I wish the buttons were on the side, it would help with the work flow. Also a zoom strip or wheel would be a nice addition.
• I wish it had a full screen mapping at the push of a button, but this is UC Logics' fault not Yiynova. UC Logic, get with the program on this! Hopefully future driver updates will remedy this.
• Cosmetically I feel the face of this device could be a little more uniform, I am not a fan of the protruding lip on the sides.
• I also wish this tablet had ports to plug the cables in instead of hardwired cables. This is a big deal to me. This is something Yiynova could easily design into another version of this product, and I think they should. No one wants to have to send back their daily driver because it got a short in one of their cables.

At any rate none of these things are worth another $800, which all in all makes this a great tablet. Especially for those not willing to shell out the extra money for something like the Wacom 22HD. I was extremely disappointed after getting my Version 2. I can almost say I went into this expecting more disappointment, but they turned this franchise around for me. I would, and have recommended this to my colleagues who have also had no regrets. It’s definitely been a worthwhile investment for me. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would rate this product an 8.5. Mostly because of the cables being hardwired.

Craig Sheets

Availability

Check out more reviews on Amazon. Below are direct links to the Yiynova MVP22U V3 product pages:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de

This review is written by guest artist Iris Muddy

Hi! I’m Iris Muddy, and I’ve been using the Yiynova MSP19U+ for about a year and a half now.

I’ve had an extremely positive experience with this monitor tablet! Other than Wacom Graphire and Intuos, I have used a Wacom Cintiq for quite a few hours here and there, and I can say that the Yiynova really is comparable to its better-known competitor.

When I purchased the Yiynova, I was just finding out about Cintiq alternatives. I was really interested in the Yiynova because I saw reviews that said great things about it, and I had nowhere near enough funds to get a Cintiq. I assumed I’d have to wait years before getting a monitor tablet. I’m glad I was wrong! If the Yiynova happens to fit your budget range, I really recommend it. I think it’s pretty amazing that something so different in price range feels just as good to work with.

Let’s begin with a few important points, then I’ll say a bit about how my purchasing it a while ago went (late 2013).

The pressure levels in the pen are the same as the Wacom pen (2048) but it does not detect tilt, so certain brushes with that option won’t register tilt. That doesn’t bother me though. The monitor is vivid and is brightly backlit by LED. It also has calibration buttons and shortcut keys. I don’t use the keys, but they’re customizable and pretty comfortable to use.

Shown with monitor arm set-up- I no longer have the default stand.

It has a sleek glass covering, which I have noticed little or no parallax (glass thickness) weirdness with. I feel that the pen draws from where you expect it to, for me at least! The glass is different from the rougher Cintiq coated surface; it can feel a little bit slippery if you are not used to it, but it took no time to get used to for me and I don’t feel it gets in the way or makes drawing uncomfortable. It can also be a little bit too reflective in certain lighting, but this has rarely bothered me.

The colors and values are really the same. The camera makes the Yiynova look a little darker in this photo than in reality.

The Yiynova stays fairly cool all day (even after 5-10 hours of usage), whereas I have experienced a lot of heat coming off of Cintiqs while drawing. The MSP19U+ has well distributed heat spots that do not interfere with working for long periods of time. If my palms do get sweaty and start moving jaggedly, I use a small thin pantyhose sock with a hole in it for fingers to hold the pen as a drawing glove. You can also use the tablet gloves sold separately, but this cheap solution has worked well for me.

The Cintiq displays have quite a bit more definition/pixel density, but I’ve found, as most other Yiynova reviewers agree, that the vivid display and comfortable drawing experience compensates for this slight difference. I have never felt like I needed more definition on the screen. Maybe the larger Yiynova model would be fun because a bigger surface and more room to draw is nice, but yeah, the size or resolution has not been a drawback with the MSP19U+ for me.

I’ve had no jagged, weird looking lines when drawing on this tablet (as far as I can tell). I have heard of this happening to people using any tablet, even the Cintiq. So, I think this is just something that occasionally happens, maybe if you draw too slow, or at a certain zoom distance, or your computer is lagging. This hasn’t happened to me yet.

The pen uses a battery. Luckily, it really feels like it makes no difference whatsoever. The weight difference between the Wacom pen and the Yiynova one is indiscernible, maybe a couple of grams. It causes no discomfort at all. The battery it came with lasted me months, and I now use rechargeable ones that I change every few months, using the tablet for hours every day. So don’t worry about having to change it weekly or daily, as this will definitely not be the case. When it is starting to fail, you will notice the light on the pen has turned off and it registers very little. You’ll know when the time has come. Hahaha.

Also, the pen has two clicks you can change the function of. I use them for right and middle. It doesn’t have the eraser tip on the other end, but I doubt this is a big part of anyone’s Wacom routine.

I actually prefer this pen to the Wacom one because I have not had any nib troubles or need to replace anything (after over a year!). Any Wacom user will know about how the nibs wear down. They’re definitely awesome and comfortable to draw with, but need to be replaced a little too often. They also tend to scratch and wear out certain parts of the Wacom tablet, which the Yiynova pen does not do. The only thing on the Yiynova monitor is finger grease, mine doesn’t have any scratched up areas, even after extensive use.

The pen comes with two extra nibs, that I have not had to switch out yet. Yay!

I believe that if you experience brush lag, it has more to do with your canvas size, brush size, RAM, etc, than the pen or the Yiynova monitor itself. This has been my experience. Everything flows very smoothly, unless the brush is simply too much for my computer to take.

The MSP19U+ has no IPS panel, which means that the viewing angles providing the proper range of colors and values are limited. So you should draw with it at a comfortable viewing and drawing angle to see as intended. However, this has not need an issue for me, and I would not pay a few hundred dollars more simply for an IPS panel. I do however recommend that you have another monitor with IPS as it is a good thing for people concerned with accurately viewing/displaying something, like a painting or other graphics.

While I paint or draw in Photoshop, I always keep a second window of the current image open on a monitor behind the Yiynova, for accuracy and a look at the bigger picture.

I think that using the MSP19U+ with a monitor arm is essential. I found the basic stand very uncomfortable to use for long periods of time. I couldn’t conveniently place it on my legs or desk while using it, or while storing it away. It stands up just fine, but only at a restricted angle, making it not very versatile.

Image from the Yiynova website

I ordered the tablet in 2013 from Amazon with a HP monitor arm, as recommended by Ray Frenden. It might be a little bit expensive, but I think it is a necessary purchase/investment for using this tablet, or even another monitor later on if you put away the Yiynova, to their fullest potential. It provides flexibility (different angles for comfort), storage (you can push it to the side), stability (I would have been worried about the Yiynova falling on the ground otherwise), etc. You can also spin the Yiynova to draw your line at a different angle, with the monitor arm. You can even get the monitor to stand vertically (90 degree spin).

Here is a link to the model on Amazon: US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP

It is entirely possible that other monitor arms will work just fine, but I do not have any experience with that and cannot recommend something I haven’t used. This one has been perfect for me. I hope the same for you! I use it clamped. Make sure your desk allows for the arm you get. You can also drill it. But I feel safer clamping. If possible, please get someone else to help you set it up, as it can be quite difficult to balance. Don’t wanna hurt yourself, the monitor, or anything/anyone else!

Let’s go back a bit in the past if you’re curious about my purchasing experience. It was pretty simple and good!

When I bought these a while ago, both the Yiynova and the arm were delivered quite quickly, but as soon as I turned the tablet monitor on, I heard a constant buzzing noise. I was worried, and looked for any mention of this sound in other reviews, hoping it was a defect because it would drive anyone crazy. I e-mailed the reseller right away (Mag Digital Limited, in my case), describing the problem, and they arranged to receive the broken model and send me a new one right away. I’m grateful they were helpful, and I mention this so that anyone else who might receive a defective model is not too shy to contact their reseller and arrange to fix that.

I don’t want to write anything incorrect here, so just make sure that, if you are setting it up for the first time, you follow the simple steps in the manual. (and get the latest driver on the website, for your system) I no longer have this manual, but there is an order you are suggested to follow with the plugging and installing of things. Either the driver before the monitor or the other way around. It’s really simple, just make sure you do follow it for the best results. The monitor has a power adaptor/plug, and a VGA input with a usb wire connected to it. The wires are all quite long, shouldn’t be a problem for most desks.

The VGA input is not a problem, so long as you plan for it. I have not used an adaptor, and I do not know if they are reliable, but they should most likely work just fine. I have a VGA port onboard for my computer, but my video card does not have VGA ports. So I have two other monitors (DVI and HDMI) running on an NVidia card, seperately. This is fine and does not cause problems for my system, I’m just insisting on the importance of having the right basic set-up.

I was worried the VGA would mean low definition display, but honestly it is really crisp and poses no problem whatsoever. There is also a VGA out port, however I’ve never used it.

Color calibration is fine too. And you should always have another monitor to compare the colors anyways. (I would not use the Yiynova as a standalone monitor, just in case.)

Here’s my plug setup just to show you (minus the wall plug), sorry it’s a mess! I wanted to show how the USB attaches to the VGA input.

After the first few hours of using it when I first got it, all I could think about was that everything seemed to work just fine, but the thing was just too close to my face while painting or drawing. So, another reason to keep a second window of what you’re working on open on a second monitor. I’ve really enjoyed working like that, having a zoomed out view behind, and a more zoomed in view in front of me. However, this didn’t really apply in zbrush, which I felt just fine with seeing what I was working on only on the Yiynova. I found the MSP19U+ really fun and practical for sculpting. Really intuitive. For less sculptural 3D modeling, I like to use the Yiynova as a display for a mood/reference board while working on the further back monitor with a mouse. I also watch movies on it, sitting further from my desk on a sofa, with the monitor arm stretched out. Who knows, maybe you’ll find some random uses for it too! It just adds to the usefulness. :)

Here are, finally, the small downsides I have experiences with this tablet. There are very few.

In the first few weeks of using it, I had a few troubles with the pressure sensitivity. It seemed to be very responsive and have a wide range, except that the range was proportionally different to how I had set up my Wacom Intuos. I had become used to pressing very little to get a dark, almost fully opaque stroke. I did this to avoid straining my wrist.

The Yiynova had a lot of range like I said, so it detected varied amounts of pressure, but the ramp was different, it would only become fully opaque with more pressure than I was used to. So my brushes, at their old settings, were softer in general, and became slightly different to use. I played around with the pressure settings in the driver though, and now I also use brushes a little differently since time has passed, so I really hesitate to call this a downside. I don’t think it is. It’s just something to watch out for, and know that you might have a small readjustment period, and if it really bothers you a lot, you might have to change some brush default settings (minimum pressure/opacity, etc). I think that it does just work itself out over time though.

And there is one inactive pixel (pink, which I’ve been told can be fixed with a simple program that fixes those, so it’s not a dead pixel). This showed up a few months after using it. I almost never even see this thing unless I really look for it. It makes me laugh when I notice it again after forgetting about it.

Also, so far, I’ve used it just fine in Photoshop, Manga Studio and Zbrush. I wish I could list other softwares, but I have not tried many. I know that for me it just does not work in Sketchbook Pro. The lines I draw show up an inch or two to the left from where I draw, no matter what. This may have been fixed since I last tried, but I’m not sure.

I’ve been told that it works very well on Mac. I’m not sure about Mac or Windows versions (like windows 8 or something) so just be careful and look into that if it applies to you.

Conclusion

I think that after using this ‘knockoff’ monitor tablet for over a year, this small list of flaws and large range of great features is a good record for how great this product is. I would say it’s incredible for the price, and that I really appreciate Yiynova’s efforts in making this competing tablet. I can easily say that if I were to give my past self advice about whether to wait for a Cintiq or buy this tablet again, I’d buy the Yiynova MSP19U+ exactly as I did. I think it’s awesome, and has been really fun to use and has also helped me improve.

Just to clarify on a few things, I want to say that I’ve been using it on a fairly strong PC with Windows 7, with system updates turned off, and control panel settings edited for the most straightforward drawing experience (pen and touch flicks turned off). No Wacom drivers installed either (had to uninstall my old intuos one), as this conflicts with the Yiynova driver.

I believe that these things, as well as proper setup and calibration, have helped me have zero problems with this tablet. I have heard from a friend or two that they have had issues like the calibration resetting itself often, or the pressure simply not working. I think this might have to do with Operating System updates or settings conflicting with the tablet. However, I’ve heard of many more situations where people have had no problem with the tablet, than situations where they do have problems, so that is why I still think this is a great product. And my friends have later told me that they found their own solutions to those issues too after some experimenting (by changing their settings, sometimes even a screen resolution issue or unplugging the USB and re-plugging it when they reboot their computer), so I do not yet know of someone who feels this is a bad product. I don’t want to say it is perfect in case it does fail completely on someone, but this really does reassure me, and I can say that I think it’s a reliable product.

In case you want some extra help or have questions, there have been some awesome people answering questions I do not know enough about under my Youtube review video (about mac and various program compatibility, etc).

If you’d like more information about this tablet, I suggest checking out amazon, youtube reviews and other blog posts, especially Ray Frenden’s video and blog post about it, which really helped my decision to purchase it.

Plenty of details on their main site too!

Thanks so much, and I wish you luck in your tablet decisions! They’re becoming more available, and the market has more choices. Have fun and I hope you find the right one for you!

-Iris

Availability

Check out more reviews on Amazon at the product pages below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr

This review is written by a guest artist Griffnix (twitter)

Hi all. I’m Griffnix (aka John). This is a review of the latest tablet monitor from Yiynova, the MVP22U + RH (V4), the RH being remote hotkeys, which is something fairly new to the world of non-Wacom branded tablet monitors and this is the 4th iteration of Yiynova’s 21.5” product.

About me: I am not what I’d consider a pro artist but maybe an aspiring one. I’ve used an Intuos4 tablet for some time (years) and more recently an old model (DTZ) Cintiq 21UX for a couple of months plus a Monoprice 12x9 tablet.

I’m going to assume that if you’re looking at this review, you’ve already looked at others like Cintiqs or Huion and know what a tablet monitor is for the most part but I’m happy to answer questions if I’ve missed something important.

What’s in the box:
You get a nice bunch of goodies with the MVP22U+RH package:

• MVP22U+RH tablet display
• Remote HotKey
• P2X Pen set x 2
• Artist Gloves
• Pen Stand
• DVI-I Adapter Kit (VGA/HDMI/Mini DisplayPort)
• Power Supply
• Power cord
• Quick start guide
• Driver disc

I’m really glad they supply the DVI adapters since I have a PC and a Macbook. It just gives me options without forking out for extra cables.

The other thing worth noting is this version comes with 2 of the P2X pen, unlike the previous version being supplied with a P2H and a P2X pen. I’ll get into that in the hardware description.

The short:

Drivers can be a nightmare, but gorgeous display to look at and, when working correctly it’s great fun to draw with. A little parallax that made no difference to me, a slightly stiffer pressure curve compared to Wacom tablet pens. Good viewing angles and colours. The hotkey remote is a good improvement. The wheel has a soft click which helps precision and the buttons feel good although a little hard to press for me personally. Nice being able to place it where you want but more space on either side of the screen would be ideal else you cover up a small part of your viewing area unless you put the remote at the bottom. The pen is light and comfortable and I’ve had no problems with the pen buttons. I’d recommend this tablet to anyone just with a small warning to be careful with your drivers when installing on PC, though Mac was easy peasy.

The long:

HARDWARE: Oh it’s so pretty!

The monitor is light for it’s size and the IPS display looks really nice. It’s probably one of my favourite things about it. Since this new version has a hotkey remote, there are no longer hotkeys along the top of the monitor but otherwise it’s identical to the V3 version. Buttons on the back, a decent adjustable stand, cables come out the side so you don’t have to worry about bending them when you lay the tablet flat. There is a USB socket on the bottom right specifically for the hotkey remote and nothing else (they mention that on the packaging).

The hot key remote is really light (ignore my weird bendy thumbs). I like the wheel a lot: It’s easy to spin but has a soft click so you can use it for precise things like if you’ve set it to undo levels or switch layers. The hotkeys are good too, they’re fairly flush with the remote and they are pretty firm. I find them a little hard to click but maybe they’ll loosen up with more use. You won’t ever hit them by accident that’s for sure.

The remote sticks anywhere you want with some little suction cups. Sometimes they come loose but if you wet them a tiny bit they seem to stick firmly and the remote doesn’t wobble around like I actually expected so it’s all win.

This is the latest pen which requires a AAA battery. The previous Yiynova MVP22U V3 came supplied with a P2H and a P2X, but now they give you two P2X pens instead. I asked them about this on Twitter and they gave a nice reply explaining that the newest version (marked with the red ring) is phasing out both the old ones and is supposed to boast softer pressure sensitivity. I was originally worried the pen would slip and slide all over the smooth glass surface but the nib gives you some friction and it feels perfectly fine drawing on the glass. Some people may not be sure about it which is fair enough, but I like that there’s little chance of the glass getting scratched compared to my Intuos 4 tablet which is looking rough these days.

With the 2 pen packs you get spare nibs and nib removers plus a stand that I like a lot, with space inside to store the nibs and remover. In total you get 4 spare nibs (excluding the ones already in the pens), 2 nib removers and the stand:

SPECS

I will refrain from a mass of specs for this piece of hardware as they’re all on the Yiynova website in good detail.

Mainly it’s 2048 levels of pressure on an IPS panel display at 1920x1080 resolution. comparatively this is a smooth glass surface whereas the Wacom tablets have a matte surface that’s a little softer.

Also worth noting is the tablet’s display cable is DVI and can’t be unplugged from the monitor. Yiynova supply you with adapters for Mac, HDMI and some other that no one cares about (just kidding, it’s VGA). This is really helpful in my opinion.

DRIVERS AND SOFTWARE

I had a bit of a nightmare trying to get the drivers working with my PC. UC logic provide the drivers and there are currently two to choose from: The older 5.2f and the newer 8.1. I had been using a Monoprice tablet which go by the same drivers (5.2f) so I just plugged the new tablet in and I was away, but without hotkeys.

With UC logic drivers, you have to first uninstall all old tablet drivers (such as Wacom ones) and carefully go through the process of uninstall, reboot, install new drivers, reboot, THEN plug in the USB for the tablet monitor. Don’t ever plug it in beforehand. To be fair to Yiynova, they had these instructions plastered all over the packaging and leaflets for everything. If you mess up the order you can get stuck in a loop of reinstalling.

I tried the new drivers and they worked great… For 10 minutes before the drivers crashed and I lost pen detection and pressure. I emailed Yiynova after trying endless solutions to remedy this and they tried their best to help and were pleasant to deal with. Eventually I decided to do a fresh install of Windows and go through the driver installation slowly and carefully. This resulted in the same problem unfortunately but I would say this is because my PC is a bit of an old wreck. Yiynova explained that there should be no problems after asking me what my setup was as they’ve tested their drivers on much lower spec computers and laptops with success. I am 99% sure my problems were down to old hardware wearing out so all I’ll say to others is, don’t have an 8 year old machine that’s on it’s last legs! Yiynova actually said they are still working on this and trying to replicate the problem themselves so they can fix it, asking me to be patient. They’re genuinely helpful and won’t fob you off. They want you to enjoy the tablet.

Anyway, I had chance to look at all the shiny new options the hotkeys have while the drivers did work. Here’s some snaps:

You have the usual options for adjusting pressure and pen buttons. You’re limited with the pen buttons but there’s a cool option in there to set one to toggle between pen/brush and eraser which I’ve been enjoying a lot.

Hotkeys on the other hand, allow you to do almost anything you want with them. They give you a stock list of common functions or you can customise them to be specific keyboard shortcuts or even use other tools and programs. I don’t get why the default hotkeys are set to things like Page Up though, I mean who needs that noise?

Mac users: You can expect similar options though not quite as extensive. I tried out the tablet with my Macbook Pro Retina and was up and running in less than a minute. Uninstalled the Wacom drivers, installed the UC Logic drivers, rebooted, plugged in and I was away.

The wheel has set uses to jog through and I haven’t seen a way to customise them except for enabling or disabling the ones you prefer. The same goes for the other hotkeys as they give you a large list of options but you can’t set your own keyboard shortcuts. Here’s some screens for you:

Calibration in both is accurate from the get go or you can re-calibrate it yourself with the software. Tracking is smooth on both PC and Mac. I find the cursor only lags slightly behind your pen if you scribble fast. I’ve had the same with the Wacom Cintiq so I’m happy enough with that. There is a small amount of jitter when you get close to the edges of the screen, but not enough to ever cause me to miss a menu button or tool. As long as you’re not a weirdo who draws on the edges you’ll never notice.

To give you an idea, here’s some madman scrawls from Manga Studio (ruler test is the bottom left I can’t draw straight lines to save my life apparently):

I included a ruler test though I don’t believe it’s an accurate measure of anything personally. I did find that very slow movements were a little jagged when drawing diagonally (see top left). I hear people use Lazy Nezumi software to fix that and I generally try to draw with fast, fluid movements anyway so I didn’t actually notice it until the test. Pressure sensitivity is a little stiffer than Wacom pens. Having used a Monoprice for a while I find Wacom pressure almost too soft. I think both are fine and I quickly adapt to either, plus a lot of software lets you adjust the pressure curve further so you can have your cake and eat it.

Here’s some Photoshop scrawls too:

VALUE

At the time of writing, this costs €969 with free postage from Yiynova.eu. This is roughly £700 for you brits and only €20 more than the V3. I believe there is a $200 difference between these two models for my stateside friends which is a much bigger difference.

Delivery was rapid and they have a 14 day no-questions return policy plus a warranty for 2 years. Considering the Wacom equivalent of this is at least double the price, it doesn’t take much persuasion to go for other brands. Especially now that they seem to be catching up with Wacom in most areas. When purchasing, my choice was between this and the Huion GT-220. I haven’t seen one up close to compare fairly but they use the exact same drivers so I imagine them being close in quality. The drivers are the biggest thing but otherwise, using the MVP22U feels just as good, if not better than the old Cintiq I tried for a while. I can’t compare to the newer 22HD Wacom option but from what I know, they haven’t changed much in the driver area to make any difference to the drawing experience.

V3 & RH/V4 COMPARISON

If you’re in the USA and want to save $200 you may as well get the V3 and something like a Nostromo keypad for your own hotkeys. The V3 is out of stock on the Yiynova.eu website so I think they’ve just totally replaced the V3 and these cheaper units are just what’s left in stock in the US. Besides hotkeys and getting the newest version of the P2X pen I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between V3 and RH. Personally I’d go for the V4 because of the newer pen and the price difference was negligible for me. The new P2X isn’t available separately from Yiynova at the moment but hopefully it will be soon for you V3 users. I haven’t used the old pens so I can’t really give a comparison, I just know I like using the latest version of the P2X at least.

Pros:

• Cheap alternative to Wacom.
• Fully customisable hotkeys.
• Gorgeous IPS panel display.
• Supports multiple display setup.
• Hotkeys for lefties and righties alike.
• Supplied with cables to suit different platforms (and nice extras such as gloves and spare pen).
• Attentive customer service.

Cons:

• Still more expensive than some alternatives.
• Hotkey remote covers edge of display (if you put it there).
• Drivers can be a real pain. (Most users I’ve seen with problems have been fine with the old 5.02f drivers from what I’ve seen)
• I’m genuinely happy with the MVP22U+RH even though I’ve had problems with getting it running properly on my PC. I’ll be upgrading my machine and when that happens I’m fairly certain there won’t be any issues.

In the mean time, I’ve been enjoying using it with my Macbook a lot. I really don’t see much difference in pressure sensitivity or tracking between Mac and PC, the biggest thing being a few less options with the hotkeys on Mac. I recently purchased a Nostromo so I’ve been playing with that for hotkeys instead since they’re fully customisable (It wasn’t necessary mind you).

Conclusion

Overall, I highly recommend this product for any kind of digital artist who doesn’t have vast amounts of disposable income. Some people aren’t comfortable with tablet monitors compared to regular tablets so it’s always good to try one out first at least. If you’re a PC user, just make sure everything is up to date and you go through the driver installation carefully. If you’re a Mac user, you might miss a few things with the hotkeys but there’s plenty of options in there to help your workflow. This tablet shows no signs of struggling on my ancient PC and Yiynova claim to test on a lot of low spec machines which is helpful. For a few small sacrifices such as some hotkeys or needing the patience to set up the drivers properly, you can save yourself a lot of money compared to a Wacom Cintiq and you get a nice big display for it. If you purely want one for a new toy and hobby then you could go for cheaper options like the Huion GT-220 or 19” models as they use the same drivers and similar IPS panels and they were my personal next choice.

Availability

You can get the Yiynova MVP22U+RH at yiynova.eu and Amazon.co.uk

This review is written by a guest artist Dan Nelson.

Hi everyone, today I’ll be reviewing a new Yiynova tablet monitor, the MVP20U+RH.

Over the course of a few years, I’d been looking at a variety of digital tablet monitors. Having used a Wacom Graphire tablet for over a decade, and reading various reviews of other Wacom products, I knew that Wacom’s products generally had great reliability. However, I really wanted to lose the disconnect that comes from drawing on a tablet while looking up at a screen, and feel more connected to whatever artworks I was creating.

Before purchasing this tablet, the only drawing on a screen using a stylus experience I’d had was with my phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note3, using Sketchbook for Android. It works great, especially when traveling, but I really wanted more screen space and to be able to use a full version of a drawing program.

In looking at tablet monitors, the Wacom 22HD seemed a logical choice (screen larger than 13”, smaller than 24”, Wacom reliability), yet I could not justify spending that much on a tablet (reduced this year to $1799 USD). From researching various tablet monitors through several art and technology blogs, I observed that there were several Chinese companies making tablet monitors that performed the same functions as the Wacom Cintiq, for far less money.

Enter the new Yiynova MVP20U+RH. This monitor has a 19.5” diagonal SMVA panel under the front glass. I had considered the new MVP22U+RH with its 21.5” IPS panel, but after considering the size, where Yiynova’s tablet monitor technology is at the moment, and the pricing, decided on the MVP20U+RH.

The MVP20U+RH is $699.00 USD when I bought it, while the MVP22U(V3)+RH is $999.00 USD (both prices before $33 - $35 USD in shipping). This tablet monitor was bought online from The Panda City, Yiynova’s US distributor, via Amazon.com.

Included in the box are:

• The MVP20U +RH with undetachable 2-in-1 DVI IN and USB cable and detachable stand. USB plugs into laptop/computer, and the DVI connects to your choice of...
• HDMI to DVI Adaptor, VGA to DVI Adaptor, and MiniDisplayPort to DVI Adaptor
• AC power brick
• Cord from AC brick to outlet
• The USB 3.0 Remote Hotkey
• Two artist gloves
• Two P2X digital pens
• An ‘AAA’ battery for one of the pens
• The installation CD
• User Manual
• Panda City warranty
• Various documentation / quick guide
• Pen holder (snaps into back of monitor)

Key specifications

• Panel - SMVA
• Backlight - LED
• Native Resolution - 1920 x 1080
• Brightness - 250 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio (Typical) - 3000:1, Dynamic 50.000:1
• Response Time (Typical) - 20ms
• Number of Colors - 16.7 Million
• Tablet resolution - 4000 LPI
• Tracking Speed - 200 points per second
• Pen Pressure Sensitivity - 2048 levels
• Pen Detectable Tilt - ±45° (from vertical angle of pen)
• Pen Power - 1.5V AAA battery
• Video Input - DVI

My setup

The laptop I use is a 17” MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

Before installing the Yiynova tablet drivers, I deleted all Wacom drivers from my laptop, as is recommended in the Yiynova installation guide. Once done, I installed the driver for Mac onto my laptop and rebooted the system. After doing so, I went to Yiynova’s website and installed the latest Mac driver ( the drivers on the CD were already surpassed by newer driver versions) and restarted the computer again, just to be sure. Then, I plugged in the MVP20U+RH and turned on the monitor.

A look at the unremovable DVI IN cable, as well as the 12V connector from the power brick. Cables attach at the sides to keep them out of the way on a desk. One of the two rubber feet on the monitor base to keep it from sliding on a desk can be seen at bottom left

Calibrating the screen and pen was relatively straightforward. There was a screen test where one touched various targets on the screen to calibrate the pen, and a section where one could program the various buttons on the RemoteHotkey. I’ve kept the scroll wheel (for zooming in or out) and page up and down buttons active, as those are the ones I’ve found most useful.

The laptop didn’t automatically set the tablet monitor up as a second screen, just an extension of my laptops’s screen instead. Of course, you can drag your workspace palettes over from the laptop screen onto the Yiynova screen, but then if you have to find various files, you have to switch from the pen to the laptop trackpad to find anything in a folder on the desktop. The menu bar at the top can be dragged over to the Yiynova in the Apple System Preferences Displays section. However, it doesn’t go back to the laptop screen by default if the tablet monitor is turned off.

Tablet monitor being used as extension of current laptop screen, with program palettes and windows moved onto the Yiynova

Selecting “Mirror Displays” in the Apple System Preferences ‘Displays’ section turns the Yiynova into a second screen of your desktop, complete with files, folders, and dock. Doing this ensures that you don’t need to look at your laptop’s screen at all, everything you need is mirrored exactly on the tablet monitor. There’s a bit of an oddity, where since my laptop screen is 1900x1200 and the Yiynova is 1900x1080, the screen of the laptop shrinks by about an inch combined with empty space on the top and bottom of the screen to match the lower resolution of the tablet monitor. Not a major issue, just a bit of an inconvenience to have to go turn off the “Mirror Screen” option when I’m not using the Yiynova.

Used as a Mirrored Display - orange bars show how laptop screen has shrunk to match Yiynova display

The stand attached to the Yiynova appears to be the same stand used in the Huion, and Ugee tablet monitors as well. It works well enough to stand the monitor up on a desk, but since I planned on mounting it to a monitor arm, I took the stand off. The MVP20U+RH will fit the VESA 75 mounting points on a monitor arm. However, the screws supplied with the arm (mine’s by VIVO) while the right length, were too thick for the holes in the back of the monitor. I used the screws from the Yiynova stand to attach the tablet to the arm mount, as I didn’t want to drill larger holes in the back of the monitor.

You can see the pen holder, along with the VESA mount where the stand used to be. The buttons at left control the monitor and any menu specific functions. Power On/Off, Menu, Up, Down, Exit

Closer look at the RemoteHotKey, as well as that fantastic front screen

The surface is smooth glass, and the construction is similar to that of the MVP22U (all versions) i.e., a glass front set into a plastic base, with six visible molded clips holding the display in place. Like its larger twin, there’s an active/standby light in the middle of the panel, where there is no drawing screen. Visually, if the front was all white, instead of black with a white border, this tablet could easily be mistaken for the MVP22U+RH.

The drawing pens included are both the same model, so I’ve kept one as a spare. With the drawing glove, your hand slides over the glass screen without sticking, great for dramatic strokes. The pen’s pressure sensitivity results in brush strokes going from very light to heavy in a smooth manner, depending on how much pressure you are pressing down with on the pen’s point.

Test samples from various programs

Parallax - when drawing normally it’s not really noticeable - bring your face almost level with the edge of the glass and then it becomes apparent. Pen is touching glass in image on the right

There’s a bit of parallax, but that’s to be expected. For the majority of the time, the cursor lines up exactly with the pen’s point when it’s touching the screen. The only time it doesn’t is when one is either quickly covering a large surface area, or making a large amount of strokes very rapidly. Then, the cursor onscreen lags behind the physical pen’s point by a few millimeters. It’s a visual difference, but it doesn’t affect the actual onscreen drawing experience enough for me to not recommend this tablet.

The tablet’s SMVA panel maintains even color throughout the drawing process, whether one has the tablet almost flat infront of them, or, like I often do, stand and draw with the monitor at an almost 36 degree angle. The only time the panel changes color is if one has rotated the panel on its axis (via the VESA mount) from a flat horizontal position to about 45 degrees left or right, and at the same time has the monitor angled towards themselves at almost 90 degrees. Then, there’s a warm color shift. However, that’s the only extreme occurrence that seems to result in non accurate colors.

Pretty much the only extreme angle that will cause the SMVA panel to color shift- Draw while standing, have the monitor at nearly 90 degrees, and rotated up to 45 degrees

When drawing with virtual pens, paints, and various brushes, the Yiynova really shines. With some changes to the brush density/opacity within the drawing program, one can easily replicate actual drawing or painting materials with various drawing pressure with the pen. It’s simply amazing to observe, and the results for line art are often like drawing on paper with a pencil or pen. When painting digitally, with an oil brush, it’s like one really is painting in oils ( especially if you are putting multiple shades of color within the same layer) without the solvents, mess, and the option to undo mistakes with a simple command.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would recommend this tablet monitor to anyone who has seen or heard of Wacom’s Cintiq line, but balked at the enormous markup in price.

The Yiynova MVP20U+RH fills the gap that existed near the top of Yiynova’s tablet monitor range. Before, if one wanted a decent sized tablet monitor there was the MSP19U ( that uses older technology and a TFT screen) and the MVP22U+RH (using Yiynova’s latest technology and with an IPS panel screen) which while significantly less than a Wacom of equal size, might have been out of the price range for some. Now, one can sacrifice an inch and a half of screen space and save a decent amount of money, and still buy a tablet monitor that is fantastic to work off of, and view artwork on.

The Graphire? It’s being packed away for a well deserved retirement.

Availability

You can find the Yiynova MVP20U+RH on Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

This review is written by Lesleigh.

Hello there, My name is Lesleigh! Pleasure to meet you, this is my review on the MVP10U!

The Yiynova MP10U is a recent purchase of mine and it has been a learning experience so far. I have a lot of experience using Wacom tablets (Intuos and Bamboo) but this one is quite different. I have purchased several graphics tablets over the years and also used off-brand tablets that don’t withstand my use. I love the fact that I can see what I am drawing on my tablet instead of looking up at it compared to screen-less tablets. I am able to do with this tablet what I was doing with the older Lenovo X61 tablet PC that I was using.

The Yiynova MP10U is Windows/Mac compatible. I have been using it on the new Windows 10 technical preview.

The construction of the tablet is sturdy. Its dimensions are 12.8 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches (32.5 x 19.3 x 1.8 cm) ; It weighs at 1.6 pounds (0.72 kg). It's a convenient size to work with.

Be careful of the driver
I had difficulty installing the driver initially, but after installation it works great.

I had to download the software from the website. The disc did not come with the latest driver.

This only happens if you're on the new Windows 10. You have to let Windows 10 install the display driver itself through the update function or it will not let you install tablet drivers.

If you are using the older windows OS , You can install the tablet driver from the disc or from the one downloaded from website.

The disc comes with the Display and Tablet drivers, e.g. DisplayLink Driver and TabletDriver 5.02.

The Yiynova has a Mode Switch Between Digitizer and Monitor. The Monitor mode allows you to draw on it like a screen tablet. The Digitizer mode allows you to use it like a regular graphics tablet where you have to look at your computer screen. The screen turns black like a regular graphics tablet. You can switch between the modes easily with the switch.

The LED monitor is smooth to the touch and has a decent display area to work on. I was impressed with size of the 10.1-inch display area.

The backlight in the monitor does not have a glare as you would think.

The 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600(4000 LPI), colors are vivid, clear and beautiful. The colors do not change from different angles. Even from drawing at a comfortable point(3ft to 4ft ), it still has the colors and images very clear to see.

The unit as two micro-USB ports to connect to the computer for the graphics input. It does not have a VGA Input and does not require external power. It is powered by the USB cable, Type A to Mini 5-Pin Type B. The two ports make it easier for the user to choose from either the right or left side. This cable is replaceable if it is lost.

That's the USB to Micro cable, It comes in sets of two, two micro-ports and two USB connectors, though you only need one plugged in at a time to use this tablet if your port is a USB 3.0.

The two micro-ports are from left to right, each side has a wire holder, So you can plug the wire from the left or to the right side of the tablet, using either the left or the right micro-port.

This is the hot key panel with 8 shortcut keys. I use many of the shortcut keys. You can change the Express keys to any other buttons you need to.

The stylus is battery powered and can only be used with this tablet. It's not compatible with any other tablet. It uses one AAA small battery which are provided in the box.

Replacement pens are available for purchase if you lose or break the one you have.

The screen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and I do not have any problems with the pressure so far. It’s been responsive and smooth to the touch. I used to draw on a tablet with fewer levels of pressure sensitivity, so having more levels of pressure sensitivity to work with makes it easier on my wrist, as I can adjust the pressure, to how soft or hard i can press the pen.

I am currently using Clip Studio software. While using Clip, the screen resolution has enough room for me to draw comfortably, and i can draw with my tools and swatches. With Photoshop, depending on your workspace, it might be too cramped to draw with this tablet.

Pros

• It's affordable. For those who use Photoshop, Clip studio, Open Canvas, Krita, etc, this tablet is an alternative to the Wacom if you cannot afford one.
• It's convenient, small enough to carry around
• Easy to use without having to have a lot of extra software or attachments.

Cons

• The screen jitters at corners of the screen when using Photoshop 6. This can be easily remedied by adjusting the settings in it. It does take some calibrating with it.
• Sai users beware! If you do not have the full version of Sai, this tablet might not work for you!
  - There is a workaround but you must have it installed on your PC on the desktop, this tablet uses wintab settings.
  - But if you are a Sai user and want to get it anyway, I recommend getting Clip, as it is just a user friendly! I know of artists who use Sai but they have the full version and the installer and all the Setup files in MISC file.

The Yiynova MVP10U does work with Sai but only with the version or trail of 1.2.1.0 only and with the settings below. The Yiynova MVP10U does not work on Sai 1.1.1.

I've had this tablet for about a month and have gotten used to the pressure and screen. Drawing with it makes my life easier.

I'm still working with it and learning about it.

I recommend getting one if you want a tablet that's small and easy to carry around to work or on the go with your laptop. This is a tablet for those who want something at a decent price.

Check out their other tablets, they are worth a glance if your looking into getting one for a loved one or as a gift!

Availability

You can find the Yiynova MVP10U on Amazon at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MAPLSG8.

A newer model, the Yiynova MVP10UHD+IPS, is also available. It has a better resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. You can check it out at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRWOJF8

This review is written by guest artist Joel Watson.

BIG improvement over the previous version. Great for the traveling digital artist, but still has room for improvement.

About Yiynova and the MVP10UHD+IPS+IPS

Yiynova is a Chinese manufacturer of budget-minded tablet monitors. They are most know for their 19” model, the MSP19U which, in my opinion, was the first real competitor to the Wacom Cintiq line of products. The MVP10UHD+IPS is 4th version of Yiynova’s 10.1” USB powered, portable tablet monitor.

Specifications

• 10.1" USB Tablet Digitizer/LED Monitor
• IPS panel
• USB powered, no VGA Input, no DC Power
• Mode Switch Between Digitizer and Monitor
• Active display/drawing area (H x V): 216.96 (W)X135.6 (H) mm (10.1" diagonal)
• 8 Hot Key
• Digitizer:Tablet resolution at 4000 LPI
• Tracking speed at 200 PPS
• Pen pressure sensitivity at 2048 levels
• LCD:16.7M Colors,1280x800 Resolution, View angle: H:160°(80°/80°), V: 160°(80°/80°) ( CR >=10 ), 0.1695(H)X0.1695(V) mm Pixel pitch, 650:1 Contrast
• Warranty: 1 Year with The Panda City (Warranty will be voided if the prodcuts are used outside USA)
• Support OS:Win8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OS 10.4.x-10.10.x.

Initial Impressions and Build Quality

The MVP10UHD+IPS is a little longer than a full sized iPad and a little shorter. If you’re used to holding Apple, Android or Kindle tablets, it’s quite thick. Of course this device doesn’t do what those items do and isn’t intended to compete with them, but it does feel bulky by today’s electronics standards. It’s both powered and received its video/input signal from a dual ended USB Y cable. It has white bezel around it’s modest screen which hold 8 user programable hotkeys. There’s an adjustable stylus holder on the side opposite the buttons. The back of the unit has 3 flip out feet, controls for monitor brightness and a power switch.

Unfortunately, the overall build quality is sub par. It's very plastic-y and creaks and flexes when you hold it. The hotkey buttons do have a nice solid click, but the housing seems like it needs more bracing between the screen surface and the outer shell. There is nothing sleek or stylish about the utilitarian design. It’s well made, but not EXTREMELY well made. The MVP10UHD+IPS looks and feels like a prototype that was made from off the shelf components.

The detachable USB cable can be routed to either the left or the right of the device through channels in the back of the case which makes keeping it out of your way much easier than if it were in a fixed position. The fact that the cable is detachable is also nice, considering the USB cable is typically the first thing to go bad in a tablet from repeated bends, winding and being taken in and out of a carry bag.

The left and right flip out feet on the back allow the tablet to rest on a desk at a comfortable drawing angle. They're tall enough that I can get my left hand under the tablet while still operating the hot keys with my thumb. There's a 3rd flip out foot on the back of the device, in the center. If you try to use this to stand up the tablet while drawing, it will just fall over. Perhaps it's for displaying the tablet like a picture frame, or if you are just using it as a secondary monitor.

Connectivity and Driver Setup

As I mentioned, the MVP10UHD+IPS connects to your computer via a single USB Y cable. One end of the cable transmits video and tablet input signal, and the other supplies the unit with an extra 5v of power. On some of the computers I tested it with everything seemed to function fine with only one end of the cable plugged in. This was not the case on my primary testing computer, an 11” Macbook Air. Since that computer only has 1 USB port on each side, I had to purchase a 1ft USB extension cable to connect the tablet.

Two drivers are required to get the MVP10UHD+IPS up and running: one DisplayLink driver to run the USB video, and one from Yiynova for tablet functionality. I had no issues installing either driver (again, all of these tests were performed on a Mac under OSX and do not necessarily reflect what potential performance on a Windows PC would be like), and I was able to get the computer to recognize the tablet as a tablet and monitor relatively easily, save for occasionally having to unplug/replug the USB Y cable. It seemed like my Macbook Air was particular about which half of the device (tablet or monitor) was recognized first.

Video

I was using the earlier (non-IPS display) version of the MVP10UHD for a few months before I replaced it with this updated version. The difference in screen quality is astounding. This is less of a testament to the quality of the current version (which is high), and more of an admonishment of the previous version. The non IPS display had the most minimal viable viewing angle of any monitor of any size that I've ever used. You had to get exactly in the right spot when working on it. Any deviation to the right, left, top or bottom and the colors would shift until they became inverted. I was able to pencil and ink with the old one, but color work was impossible due to the color accuracy being non existent.

I am happy to say that the new IPS version has solved essentially all of these problems. The image and resolution is MUCH sharper, the viewing angles are respectable, and the color accuracy is workable. I can't speak for those that need custom color profiles, but I am able to do color work in my illustrations and comics using my predefined color palettes with no issues. The screen could be brighter, but I assume the brightness is a power limitation of the USB cable connection to provide sufficient power for a truly bright screen. I’m also happy to see there was little to no parallax effect when drawing.

The 1280x800px screen is about 2" to 3" too small to really make this a killer device. I would love to see a 12" or 13" version of this tablet in a 4:3 aspect ration instead of 16:9, so I didn't feel so cramped when I had all of my Photoshop tools and menus on the screen. Even compared to a full sized iPad, the 16x9 aspect ration makes the usable space feel minimal.

Stylus hardware

The MVP10UHD+IPS comes with a full sized stylus, comparably sized to a Wacom Cintiq or Intuos stylus. It’s glossy plastic, but has a rubber grip surrounding the two rocker switches. These switches can be programmed to perform right or left clicks and a few other predefined commands, but are not user assignable to any keyboard presses or macros. The stylus is battery powered, but the battery is said to last for 4 months. In the several months I was testing the unit, I never had to replace the battery. There is no eraser tip on the opposite end of the stylus, as this feature still seems to be a Wacom exclusive. It comes with a hard plastic tip and a couple of extra replacement tips.

Tablet Functions

Cursor tracking, lag, overall responsiveness are all on par with your typical Wacom tablet product. More accurately, they are identical to every Yiynova tablet I’ve ever used (or any other tablet that uses UC Logic internal hardware, such as Huion made tablets). If you are used to Wacom products, there is a difference in “feel” but not function. You will notice that the pressure curve is looser than expected, even after adjusting the brush firmness in the drivers. You blow past the first 50% of the pressure curve with little to no applied pressure, then the real variation is in the upper half of the curve. The specs claim 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, but that number is rather arbitrary when there seems to be a discrepancy between the settings you choose in the drivers and the actual performance of the device. It takes some getting used to, but didn’t impair my ability to get a decent range or brush stroke widths with varying pen pressure.

An unexpected and positive feature of the MVP10uHD+IPS was the dual tablet mode. With the power switch in the “on” position, it functions as a tablet monitor. With the switch in the “off” position, it functions as a stand drawing tablet where you draw on the blank screen and view your work on your laptop or computer monitor. I found this useful for color work since my laptop screen was a little bigger and I could see more of my image at once.

Hotkeys

The 8 hotkeys are great for speeding up your workflow. They are user assignable to basically any key or key combination you could think of. There is, however, some difficulty in setting them up. The hot keys are not "in numerical order" in the drivers. Going down the side of the device, from top to bottom, the keys are actually labeled 7,1,2,5,6,4,3,8 as far as the drivers and set up software are concerned. This means if you are in the drivers and you tell it to make button 1 perform an “undo,” you are actually assigning this function to the second button from the top. This issue is further complicated by the fact that the buttons are permanently labeled with little graphics of what they expect you to use them for (zoom in, zoom out, enter, etc.). I actually ran a strip of white electrical tape down the device next to the buttons so I could label their number and their intended function with a Sharpie.

There's also a driver issue that after you press a hotkey, you lose stylus connectivity for a half a second or longer. If you are someone like me who uses "space" and "undo" constantly while drawing, this requires a bit of an adjustment. I usually have to pick the stylus up from the monitor while pressing a hotkey to negate this effect. Yiynova confirmed both of these driver issues to me and said they hoped to fix them in a future release. Since I only tested on a Mac, I do not know if these issues exist when using the tablet on a PC.

The placement of the hotkeys at the very edge of the case was a bit of an issue for me. Holding the tablet in my left hand meant my thumb naturally fell about a half inch to the right of the buttons. I had to strain to both hold the tablet and keep my thumb above the buttons. After an hour or so, this caused some fatigue in my left hand.

Portability

I didn’t care for the included draw string carry bag. It's not form fitting, and the material is very rough to the touch. I replaced it with a neoprene generic tablet zip case with a pocket on the front to hold the stylus and cable. It had more padding, and storage and it holds the device much more securely. I paid about $20 for it.

In order to fit the tablet into the new case, I had to remove the stylus holder from the right side. It seemed like an unnecessary and bulky protrusion at first, but once I removed it I missed having somewhere easy and convenient to store the stylus.

Since the device is USB powered there’s no power brick required. This is a big plus for portability. Everything needed to use this tablet (the tablet itself, the stylus and the USB Y cable) fit in the iPad sized carrying case I bought.

Final Thoughts

If you are a traveling digital artist and you need a set up for working in a hotel, an airplane or a coffee shop (and you don't want to put up $1000-$2500 for a Surface Pro 3 or a Cintiq Companion... ESPECIALLY if you are a Mac user like me), it's hard to argue with the utility and capability of the MVP10UHD+IPS. I take my 11" Macbook pro and this tablet in a tiny bag and I can literally do my job from anywhere in the world. There is certainly room for improvement, but if you need a light, portable, very functional tablet monitor for digital art WITH MINIMAL CABLES, I can definitely recommend this tablet. When it’s available (it is almost always sold out on Amazon), it sells for $399.

I would note that if you are just looking for a digital tablet monitor for art and you DO NOT intend to travel, I do not consider this a stepping stone towards larger tablet monitors. Save your money for a Yiynova 19" or 22" stationary model. The MVP10uHD+IPS really only makes sense for the traveling artist, or someone that is more comfortable working in their lap as opposed to a desk.

Availability

You can read more reviews at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRWOJF8?tag=artprdus-20

This review is written by guest artist Joel Watson.

About Yiynova

Chinese tablet manufacturer Yiynova has been providing affordable and serviceable alternatives to the Wacom Cintiq line of tablet monitors for roughly 4 years. Since they released their popular 19 tablet monitor, the MSP19U, in 2012 artists looking to expand their digital tool set without breaking the bank have flocked to the brand. Most of their product line lacks the spit and polish of Wacoms offerings, but at 1/2 to 1/3 the price, its hard to argue with Yiynova's affordability and functionality.

Yiynova were the first to market with a portable 10.1 tablet monitor that received power, pen input and video from a single USB cable when they released the DP10 in 2012. The first version of this hardware suffered from a lackluster screen with a sub HD resolution, but subsequent versions have gradually improved on the screen and overall build quality. I recently reviewed the most recent Yiynova branded 10.1 tablet monitor, the MVP10UHD + IPS. It seems this may be the final version of this tablet to bare solely the Yiynova brand name, as the newest version released in March of 2015, the SP1001 Penates, is now branded as a joint venture between Yiynova and UC-Logic, the Chinese manufacturer that has long been providing the internal components for Yiynova’s tablets.

Specifications

• Digitizer: Tablet Resolution (5080 LPI), Tracking Speed (200 PPS), Pen Pressure Sensitivity (2048 levels)
• 6 User Assignable hot-keys; USB & HDMI 2-in-1 Cable; Battery-less Pen
• Support OS: Windows 8.1 / 8 / 7 (32/64bit); Mac: OS X 10.6.8 or later (Intel processor)
• 10 Interchangeable Soft and Hard Nibs
• Active display/drawing area (H x V): 216.96 (W)X135.6 (H) mm (10.1" diagonal).

Initial Impressions and Build Quality

Before you even plug the SP1001 in and switch it on, there are several, immediately apparent upgrades from the previous models. I say previous models because the SP1001 appears to have nearly identical internal components to the MVP10UHD +IPS. More on that later.

Right off bat, it's obvious the case and overall aesthetics of the SP1001 have been completely redesigned. The case is about half as thick as the previous version. It features smooth, tapered edges as opposed to the 10UHDs sharp corners, and the back is coated with a nonslip rubber, common in many Wacom products, that provides excellent grip and adds to the overall feel of the build quality. Speaking of build quality, the SP1001 is the first in this line of products that FEELS like a finished product. All of the previous Yiyova portable tablet monitors flexed and creaked in your hands. They felt like they were built from off the shelf products that didn’t quite fit together properly. The SP1001 is SOLID. Its well balanced and has a decent heft, but isn’t heavy or uncomfortable to hold.

Hotkeys

They have also completely redesigned the 6 hotkeys built into the face of the tablet. On the previous versions the buttons were hard plastic, had a very click feel and were placed right on the outer edge of the monitor bezel. This placement made it difficult to hold the tablet in your hand while drawing and also easily access the hotkey buttons without setting the tablet down. I tend to use it in my lap with my left hand holding the tablet (the buttons would be directly beneath my left hand palm) and drawing with my right hand. In order to access anything but the top two hotkey buttons with my left thumb, I had to contort it not a weird position which often left me with hand cramps after repeated undo or drag tool presses. The SP1001 has moved to the button placement about a half inch in towards the screen leaving a nice border between the buttons and the edge and allowing for much easier thumb access. They buttons are also spaced further apart and now made of raised rubberized plastic, instead of flat, hard plastic keys that are placed one immediately after the other. This makes finding the button you’re looking for without looking MUCH easier.

As I mentioned earlier, the internals of the SP1001 appear to be nearly identical to its predecessor. I don’t know specifics on the exact model of digitizer used, but the screen resolution and pixel density are identical (1280x800px, 5080 LPI), and the hotkey buttons are in the same configuration (and have some the same software problems which I will go into shortly). The only main difference in the hardware besides the look and feel of the case and buttons is the method of connecting the tablet to a computer. Previous Yiynova 10.1 tablets passed power, signal and video through a single (albeit double ended) usb cable. The SP1001 uses USB for power and signal, but is now equipped with a mini HDMI port for video. HDMI has much higher bandwidth for video throughput than USB 2.0, and this the video is much smoother. This is most prevalent when just using the SP1001 as a second monitor to play a video. With USB video, the host computer would typically fire up all the fans when playing video over a USB monitor due to the low bandwidth and increased processor power required. That said, just drawing in Photoshop there is little difference in the video experience over USB or HDMI. The screen is so small (think just a bit shorter, and a bit wider than a standard iPad), that you really don’t notice any sort of lag or refresh rate issues. Either way, my brain knows that the HDMI connection is much better for video, but my eyes don’t perceive it much at all. Still, my laptop’s fan and battery appreciate the new connection option.

Connectivity and Driver Setup

Here's where the SP1001 stops shining and need further refinement. I must point out that all tests were conducted on a Macbook Air, and I have no idea what the setup, driver configuration or overall performance are like on a Windows PC.

USB cable, display cable and the stylus

Previous Yiynova 10.1 tablet monitors needed a tablet driver as well as a DisplayLink video driver to handle the usb video connection. The SP1001 just needs a tablet driver, as video is handled by the internal video card of your computer just like any external monitor would be. If you install the driver without the tablet connected, then attempt the open the tablet monitor configuration app, you will be present with a blank screen that simple says “No Tablet Detected.” Upon connecting the SP1001 there are at least a dozen different things that might happen depending on what order you plug the cables in and what kind of mood the tablet and your computer are in on that particular day. Installing the drivers was painless (at this time there is a standard driver for this tablet monitor on both UC-Logics and Yiynova’s websites, but the UC-Logic website also have a beta driver for OS X). Getting the SP1001 hooked up and usable, however, was a frustrating mess.

If I plugged the USB cable in first (the pressed the power button just beneath the USB connection on the tablet), the tablet configuration appreciated would detect the tablet after a few seconds and allow me to see the various options for video calibration and hotkey and stylus settings. Sometimes, at this point, the tablet would function as a standard no-monitor drawing tablet. This was how the other Yiynova 10.1 tablet monitors worked as well, and the feature often came in handy, especially when connected to a computer with a much larger screen. Other times, when connection the USB cable, the tablet wouldn’t register the stylus at all, and still other times it would register the stylus but no matter where you placed the point, the cursor would jump to the bottom or the corner edges of the screen.

Plugging in the HDMI cable (the tablet has a dual cable with mini HDMI and micro USB on one end and standard HDMI and USB on the other end) which I was connection with an adapter to the mini DVI/Thunderbolt port on my Macbook Air, provided a similar bevy of undesirable and unpredictable results. Sometimes the screen on the SP1001 would come on and show digital snow. Other times it would come on and display a mirror of my laptop screen (per the display settings on my Macbook Air), but the stylus issues listed above would persist. I spent about 30 minutes installing and uninstalling the drivers, plugging and unplugging the tablet cables in different orders while pressing the power button at different times, and rebooting my laptop either with the tablet already plugged in or not yet plugged in. Eventually I ditched the beta OS X driver, reinstalled the current one, rebooted the laptop twice, then plugged in the usb cable followed by the HDMI cable. 13th to 14th time must have been the charm, because eventually I got it to work as it is intended.

Once I was at this point, I opened the configuration utility and tried to set up the hotkeys, and stylus. I first performed the monitor calibration, which takes you through the stand array of click the stylus tip on these various points tests. I should note that the first few times I tried to run the monitor calibration, the button in the application simply didn’t respond. I do not remember if this was with the beta driver or not.

Next I attempted to set up the monitor and stylus hotkeys. The options for the two buttons on the stylus are limited to a few presets like right-click, left-click, and none. It would be preferable to be able to set one of the stylus buttons to a macro like undo or the drag tool. The monitor hotkeys have more options, but this is difficult to realize if you don’t know what you’re looking for. You can select from a long drop-down list of preset key presses and macros for each button. All of the most common tool functions for Photoshop are included in this list. However, whereas they do offer an undo option, they do not have a step back or multi-undo (cmd+option+Z on a Mac or cntrl+alt+Z on a PC) option in the default list. There is a user defined item in the dropdown list, but selecting this does not lead to a logical next step. In Wacom tablet drivers, if you select user defined you are given a new dialog box to name the macro, press the key or keys for the hotkey to emulate and save. I assumed this feature was just broken in the drivers because it was not apparent what I was supposed to do in order to set up my own macro. After emailing back and forth with my contact at UC-Logic a few times (it took awhile to explain my issue due to a language barrier), I realized that I was just supposed to click inside an empty box that was not labeled and press the keys I wanted. I explained that this confusion could be easily solved by labeling the empty box and adding a single instruction like, click inside the box and press the key or keys you desire, etc. They indicated that they would consider this for future software revisions.

There is also a tab for setting up the stylus pressure curve. This tablet monitor is listed as 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. The pressure curve calibration is designed to allow the artist to choose how stiff they want their stylus to feel. With a soft setting, the stylus (using a brush size of 30 pixels, and the width set to pressure in the drawing application settings) should move very easily from 1 pixel wide to 30 pixels wide when drawing with little to no pressure. With a firm setting (still at a 30 pixel brush size), the artist should be able to comfortably sketch with a very small line of 1-10 pixels, then apply more pressure to achieve a larger line width of up to 30 pixels. I found the pressure curve settings in the setup application for the SP1001 to make almost no difference regardless of what I set them to. I was able to test the pressure curve in a small preview box in the setup application which simulates a drawing app like Photoshop. At the lowest or softest setting the brush blew through the pressure curve with little to no pressure from my hand at all (which is to be expected). At the highest or firmest setting, the performance was only slightly different. There should be a decent range of settings available in this tool, but it seems to only go from extremely soft to pretty soft. This doesn’t make it unusable, but it does differ so greatly from almost every other tablet I've tried that I suspect most artists will have a steep learning curve when applying pressure to achieve a desired line width.

Video

Video quality on the SP1001 is impressive for such a small screen. It’s no Retina iPad, but it’s bright and viewable from any angle. My opinion may be swayed by how terrible the viewing angles were on previous versions of this tablet, but it’s quite usable. If anything, I wish I had the option of making it a bit brighter, but I would assume this was a limitation of the unit being USB powered.

The resolution is lacking (again, comparing to a retina iPad for reference), and I found it difficult to fit Photoshop’s menus within the 1280X800 pixels and still have room to draw on my canvas. Eventually, I settled on leaving all of my tools and menus on the laptop’s screen and using the Penates just as a canvas. Switching from pen input back to my trackpad and keyboard to change layers or tools was a but frustrating at first, but I got used to the new workflow with time. I did not attempt to watch any videos on the monitor, but I would assume if you have a stand for it, or a way to prop it up, it would make a decent second screen for your laptop while on the go. There was nothing about its performance to indicate otherwise.

Stylus hardware

The included stylus is another area in which the SP1001 differs from previous Yiynova 10.1 tablets. The bundled stylus is, I believe, their first battery-less model. Previous models have required internal AAA batteries or USB rechargeable batteries. This one takes a cue from Wacom and requires no battery or recharging to function.

There are two rocker-style buttons for performing right click or pan/zoom features (these functions can be configured in the drivers, but options were limited to a few manufacturer’s presets) and decent overall ergonomics. It’s quite light. Adding a bit of heft wouldn’t hut it, but it seems to be about the same weight as my Wacom Cintiq stylus. It is coated in a similar soft touch rubber to that which coats the body of the tablet, so keeping a grip on it is not difficult. There is no eraser on the opposite tip. Wacom seems to still have a firm lock on this technology.

The stylus comes with a weighted, rubberized holder for keeping it vertical and out of the way on your desk, and a very nice rubber lined storage case for when you need to toss it in a bag or backpack. The storage case also stores 9 additional hard plastic stylus tips.

Tablet Functions

With all of my hotkeys set up to zoom, pan, undo, switch between pen and eraser and save my file, I was ready to go. I opened a new Photoshop document, picked my standard inking brush and got started sketching.

When you have used one particular digital tablet or tablet monitor for years and years, it’s impossible to not immediately compare any new hardware to whatever you are used to. The difficult part is distinguishing if the new hardware is LESS than your current set up or just DIFFERENT. The SP1001 does not feel like a Cintiq. Then again, I don’t think it’s supposed to. It does, however, feel exactly like a Huion tablet I reviewed a few years back (The GT-190), which also used UC Logic internals. The pressure curve was very soft and unlike what I was used to, but it only took a few minutes of doodling to adjust my stroke and my expectations. In almost no time I was able to sketch and ink with my standard brushes and get nearly identical results to those I would expect on my Cintiq. Cursor tracking was similar to every UC Logic based tablet I have ever used. The cursor APPEARS to lag behind the stylus tip about 1/4” as you move the stylus around the screen, but as soon as you make a mark it catches up immediately and the mark is where you intended it to be. If you can learn to ignore the position of the arrow/cursor and just draw where you want to draw, your results will be excellent. It took a bit of training to ignore the cursor position, but eventually it was hardly noticeable.

Wacom tablet users should be aware that the distance above the tablet at which it notices the stylus (how high above the tablet surface you can “hover” the pen and still register cursor movement or input) is much shorter than you are used to. I’d say it’s roughly an inch, maybe a little more. You have to keep your stylus very close to the tablet to register movement. I learned to just pick my hand up, move it where I wanted to place the cursor, then put it back down. The cursor always jumped immediately to where I wanted it. I just didn’t get to drag it along with my hand the way I was accustomed to.

My biggest disappointment with the SP1001 was in using the hotkeys. Having to move all of my tools to my other monitor to save drawing space meant being able to use frequent commands like undo, pan, zoom, etc. with the hotkeys was integral to my workflow. There is a flaw in either the hardware, the drivers or both where after repeated presses (think of pressing “undo” 5 or 6 times in a row) the buttons stop responding, and the stylus no longer registers on the tablet. The only way I found to “reset” normal function was to lift the stylus away from the screen, wait a few seconds, then put it back down. I encountered this exact same issue with both the MVP10UHD and the MVP10UHD+IPS, and I am surprised the manufacturers haven’t been able to fix it by now. With the previous tablets I emailed Yiynova back and forth several times about this issue and they admitted that it was a known bug, and they would attempt to fix it in the future. I wonder if this bug only occurs on Macs, and perhaps that is why they don’t receive enough complaints to take care of it.

Final Thoughts

Overall this tablet is a great alternative for the traveling digital artist.

Honestly, everything that is wrong with this tablet could and should be fixed with driver updates. The initial setup/connectivity issues and the hotkey problems make it difficult for me to recommend it as an artist’s primary tool, but as a backup, or travel-only device it gets the job done. It’s almost always sold out at Amazon, but when you can purchase it, it’s less than 1/4 the price of the cheapest Cintiq companion. It’s almost unfair to compare it to a device like the Companion that contains an entire Windows computer, have much larger, higher quality screen, and doesn’t suffer from buggy drivers, but there just aren’t really any other products on the market that the Penates SP1001 would compete with. If your goal is to draw on a digital tablet monitor on the couch, on a plane, in a hotel room or at a coffee shop and you don’t have $1600+ dollars to spend, this is pretty much it. Is that a resounding endorsement? Not really.

The SP1001 has a lot of room for improvement, but once you fight with the drivers, get it set up, ignore the hotkey problems and get to work, you can actually create finished production quality digital art with it. For $350 (assuming you have your own laptop to hook it up to) and a minimum of cables, you can take your art game on the road with relative ease.

A 13.3” version of this tablet is slated to be released later this year, but it will require a dedicated power supply. I’d be interested to see if Yiynova/UC Logic are able to iron out some of the wrinkles in their software by the time it is released.

Availability

You can check out more reviews of the Yiynova SP1001 at www.amazon.com/Yiynova-UC-logic-SP-1001-Digitizer-Tablet-Display/dp/B00P7J6NL4

Hi, I’m Chris and this is my review of the Yiynova MSP19U+V5 tablet monitor.

I came across this particular tablet while searching for a tablet monitor to replace my old Wacom Bamboo. Besides my Bamboo, I had some experience using various models of Wacom’s Cintiq. I was looking for a cheaper alternative to the Cintiq, which is probably the most well-known and widely used tablet monitor.

After doing extensive research of various alternative tablet monitors, I decided that the MSP19U+V5 was the best option from what I had seen. I bought it on Amazon for $479, with the original price listed as $699. Since then, at the time of writing this, the price has gone down to $449. After spending several hours drawing with it, I can say that it is definitely a great alternative to the Cintiq, especially for being about a quarter of the price of the Cintiq 22 HD and over $300 cheaper than the Cintiq 13 HD.

Tablet Details

The tablet itself is 17.9 by 14.2 inches and 9.7 pounds (4.4kg), so it is not too bulky and can fit on a fairly small desk.

The stand that it comes with is sturdy and has rubber grips on the bottom so that it doesn’t slide around. I don’t feel like I’m going to slide the tablet around or break the stand when I draw on it, even if I’m pushing down hard.

The screen is smooth glass, so it doesn’t have the same paper texture feel as the Cintiq, but after using both, I’ve found that I prefer the smoother screen of the Yiynova. The smoother screen also prevents scratching and the wearing down of the pen nibs. I don’t think a screen protector is necessary and I haven’t seen mention of any need for one in the reviews I have read. The smoother screen also has more potential for glare, but I haven’t had much of a problem with this since I don’t usually have mine close to a bright window.

There are programmable buttons for different commands on the left side of the monitor, but I haven’t really used these much. The labels for the default settings are printed on the front of the monitor, while the buttons are in the back. They seem to be in an easily accessible location, but they make loud clicks when you press them, which may be annoying to people who would use them frequently. The power button and settings buttons are on the lower right side and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to maneuver through the menus to change the colors and brightness. The menus can be difficult to navigate, but I only change display settings occasionally so I wouldn’t consider it a detraction from the tablet.

The default stand setup on the back of the monitor

The programmable buttons on the back left of the monitor and the power and settings buttons on the lower right side

Display

The 19-inch screen has a resolution of 1440x900 and 4000 LPI.

The colors were a bit weird with the default settings, but after playing with the color settings for a while, I managed to get them fairly close to the colors on my laptop. I usually keep another window open on my laptop so that I can check the colors and make sure they look the way I intend. This also helps with the differing resolutions, since the tablet is 1440x900, while my laptop is 1920x1080. Even though the resolution of the tablet is a bit lower than that of my laptop, I usually zoom in enough while I’m drawing that I don’t notice the lower resolution much. The only time that the resolution is noticeable is when working with really fine detail, but even in those instances, the lower resolution is not too much of a problem.

There is a small amount of parallax (where the glass thickness causes a difference in the location of the pen tip and the cursor), but it’s usually not noticeable. Occasionally, if I am sitting in a much different position than I was when I calibrated the screen, I’ll have to recalibrate, but usually that’s not necessary.

The viewing angle isn’t the best because there is no IPS panel, so sometimes if I’m looking at the very top or bottom of the screen, I need to move my head a bit to make sure I’m looking at the screen as close to perpendicularly as possible. However, this probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem for most people because the most comfortable drawing position is directly in front of the monitor.

Accessories

When I received the tablet, it came in a fairly sturdy box that I now use if I need to transport it somewhere. It came with the manual, a disk with the latest drivers, two drawing gloves, two pen kits, all of the necessary cords, and some adapters.

The drawing gloves are well-made and comfortable, as well as reversible, so they can be used whether you are right-handed or left-handed. Although one glove is sufficient, it is nice to have the second one as a backup in case the other gets lost or worn out. Since the tablet screen is a glossy glass, drawing with a glove can prevent smudging on the screen. It can also prevent your hand from sticking when trying to move across the screen while your hand is sweaty, but since the monitor doesn’t give off too much heat, this isn’t much of a problem anyway.

The power cord detaches from the tablet, while the DVI-I input cable does not. It comes with three adapters for HDMI, VGA, and DP++. Use of the tablet requires plugging the power cable into an outlet, one branch of the input cable into a USB port, and the other branch into an input of your choice (I use HDMI). The wires take up a lot of space, but I manage to fit my laptop and tablet on a fairly small desk along with a lamp and other desk clutter.

The box can be carried by the handle without it feeling like it’s going to fall apart.

Two of these reversible gloves came with the tablet

Starting from the left: DVI-I input, USB input, HDMI adapter (I use this one), VGA adapter, DP++ adapter

The Pens

The two pen kits each consist of a P2X pen, two extra nibs (for a total of six nibs including the ones that came in the pens), a nib-remover, and a plastic case for the pen.

The pen itself is comparable to any of the other tablet pens I have used, including those of the Bamboo and Cintiq. The P2X is Yiynova’s best pen model compared to the P2H and older models. The pen has 2048 levels of sensitivity (double what my Bamboo had, but equal to the Cintiq) and does not have tilt detection, but I don’t personally need or use tilt detection, so I don’t consider this a loss.

It is battery-powered and takes one AAA battery. So far I have not had to replace the battery, and from what I have read, the pen can be used regularly for a long time (at least several months) without needing a new battery. The battery doesn’t add a very noticeable amount of weight to the pen, and the weight feels similar to the Wacom pens I have used.

The pen does not have an “eraser” on the other end, but I have not really missed it too much.

There are two programmable buttons on the side which is really my only complaint about the pen. The buttons are positioned in such a way that they are too easy to press, and I often do that accidentally while drawing and end up interrupting my stroke or switching colors unintentionally. Due to this, I often try to position my fingers on the pen differently so that I am less likely to accidentally hit the buttons. However, the buttons can be disabled in the settings menu if you don’t use them. The pen case makes a nice pen holder since it has a hole that you can stand the pen up in. It doesn’t make the best case though because the pen fits a bit too snugly and it is also really hard to pry open. The case also has a transparent ruler on the side, but I haven’t had the need to use it.

The two P2X pens showing their structure and how they open for the battery

The pen cases with extra nibs and nib remover on left and right sides of the open case respectively

Use and Drawing Experience

I use the HDMI adapter with my Dell XPS L511Z laptop running Windows 7.

The software I have used for drawing with this tablet the most is Clip Studio Paint (same thing as Manga Studio), but I have also had a good experience using it with Photoshop.

Drawing is really smooth and natural and I don’t notice any lag or jitter at all.

The pressure sensitivity feels a bit different than Wacom pens, but I was able to easily get the pressure levels how I wanted them by adjusting some pen settings. There is a really nice pressure ramp and I don’t feel as though I need to press too softly or too hard in order to get the full range of pressure values that I want.

The color and resolution difference between the tablet and my laptop isn’t a problem either because I almost always have another window open on my laptop of the drawing so that I can check to make sure everything looks the way that I want it to. As I said before, as long as I calibrate the screen, I don’t have much noticeable parallax and even with a somewhat smaller viewing angle, as long as I stay close to perpendicular to the screen, I don’t need to worry about it affecting my drawing.

The tablet also stays cool for long periods of time and it hasn’t gotten uncomfortably warm, even after several hours of continual use. The tablet also makes a great second monitor, even if I’m not using it for drawing. I can have a window open for reference when using Autodesk Maya, or when using Unity, I can have the code up on one screen and the project window open on the other. Having the extra screen space can help speed things up and make things easier no matter what software I’m using. I also usually have a USB mouse plugged in when I’m using my tablet, so that I can quickly move windows between screens or just for software like Maya or Unity where a mouse is easier to use than a pen.

My setup with my laptop and the MSP19U+V5 with Clip Studio Paint open

Some of the tablet options including pen button settings and pressure sensitivity

Pen pressure sensitivity tests/demonstrations done using Clip Studio Paint

Driver Installation and Problems

I had read in some reviews that it was a good idea to make sure I had installed the tablet drivers before even plugging in the tablet, so I did so. However, I was hoping that I could at least leave my Wacom drivers on my computer so that I could use my Bamboo if I wanted to, but I was unable to get things working correctly until I uninstalled all of the Wacom drivers. This isn’t a big deal because the UC-Logic drivers for the Yiynova installed really quickly so I could uninstall and reinstall drivers in the future if for some reason I needed to use my Bamboo.

Everything was running smoothly, but when I drew with the tablet for long periods of time, the pen pressure would stop working after an hour or two and I would be unable to draw with it until I restarted my computer. This went on for a while, and I would just restart my computer every couple hours, until I finally contacted the seller, The Panda City (in the US), and emailed support. Their customer support was really helpful, responded within a day, and kept up communications until my problem was fixed.

Driver Solution

I will talk about how I solved the problem for reference for anyone else having the same issue. Part of the problem was due to the fact that I had overlooked which version of the drivers I was using. The disk that the tablet came with contained the newest version of the drivers, which were not recommended for use with Windows 7. I downloaded and installed version 5.02 from the Panda City website, but was still having problems. It turned out that my computer was using the default Windows tablet drivers instead of the UC-Logic drivers. I ended up having to create a new administrator account on my computer and reinstall the drivers, which finally solved all of my problems. This was partially my fault for not paying attention to which driver version I needed for my operating system.

I recommend that anyone getting this tablet makes sure they follow the installation instructions located on The Panda City’s Facebook page and uninstalls all other tablet drivers and installs the correct version for their operating system before even plugging in the tablet.

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend the Yiynova MSP19U+V5 to anyone who is looking for a good tablet monitor. It is a great and cost effective alternative to the Wacom Cintiq, and depending on your preference, could be an even better option than the Cintiq. As an upgrade from the Wacom Bamboo, this tablet has made drawing digitally feel much more natural and has drastically sped up my workflow. Here is a quick pros and cons list of what I feel are the most important details of the tablet:

Pros:

• Price (at the time of writing, $449 on Amazon)
• Very responsive and helpful customer service (at least with The Panda City)
• Minimal lag, jitter, and parallax
• Light but sturdy monitor and stand
• Stand is adjustable and doesn’t slide
• Lots of accessories: two gloves, two pens, adapters, nibs, etc.
• Programmable shortcut buttons on the side of the monitor
• Pen battery lasts a long time
• Good range of pen pressure sensitivity
• Glossy screen prevents scratching and nibs from wearing down
• Vivid colors once properly adjusted due to lack of anti-glare surface

Cons:

• Small viewing angle due to having no IPS panel
• Lower resolution
• Possible difficulties with driver installation
• No eraser on pen
• No tilt detection
• Wires take up a lot of space, adapters needed
• Glossy screen more likely to cause glare
• Colors and brightness need some adjustment out of the box

Hopefully this review has provided you with some useful information that will make your tablet-buying choice easier!

Thanks for reading,
Chris Phillips

Availability

Check out more reviews on the following product pages at
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr

We have tattoo artist Craig Sheets who's reviewing his Yiynova MVP22U V3 pen display tablet for us - Parka

I am a tattoo artist by trade and had been using a Wacom 12WX for a while and decided it was time to upgrade to a larger digitizer.

My drawing style lends itself to drawing large. Having a Wacom tablet previously made me inclined to search for a larger Wacom tablet. I bought the Wacom Cintiq 22HD first.

I also wanted another digitizer for work, but the price of 2 Wacom 22HD’s seemed excessive. I had been hearing about some of the UC Logic digitizers and decided to give Yiynova a shot after reading several reviews on Amazon of the Yiynova MVP22U V2 (yes you read that right). I received my MVP22U V2 and noticed a jitter issue with my tablet. The jitter issue was not bearable so I contacted the seller and they went through some troubleshooting with me. After exhausting all other possible problems, it was determined that I should send back my tablet for a new one. The seller was helpful and even offered an upgrade to the newer Version 3!

Setup

Set up was a snap. I will say I'm used to UC logic installs. A word of advice. If you used any Wacom products on your computer, make sure ALL drivers for Wacom are uninstalled before installing your UC Logic drivers. If you need help here is a link to help completely remove them, visit http://forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?t=7926

Before installing the hardware of your tablet, you must install the drivers. The drivers are available on Yiynova’s website. Installing the software is pretty straight forward.

Key specifications

The Yiynovas screen is a 1920x1080 resolution 21.5 inch IPS panel display with an LED backlight. The screen measures 10.55 inches in height by 18.77 inches in width. The display connection is DVI-I. The digitizer boast 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity with 4000 line per inch resolution.

Unboxing

The packaging is nice, everything was tightly secured and came well protected. There were no dings or scratches. Everything came in working order.

The box design is pretty bland, but that's not what we are paying for anyway. I actually think this is a smart idea. Packaging to me is for protection, and since most of the advertising is done online for this company. Why not save us a few dollars?

Inside the box:

• Yiynova MVP22U V3 Digitizer Tablet Monitor
• Power adapter
• P2H Stylus box with 2 extra nibs and nib remover
• P2X Stylus with 2 extra nibs and nib remover
• Stylus holder
• 3 display adapters DVI-I to displayport, VGA and HDMI
• Right and Left Artist gloves with yiynova logo
• Instruction manual and install Disk, and warranty and quick start leaflet.

The P2X (vertical) and P2H (horizontal) in the supplied stylus cradle.

Both feel solid and have a bit of weight to them. Not too much weight, but enough to feel solid. Both have no eraser. This is something I think is inherent in the technology used by UC Logic digitizers, because none of them have it.

Each stylus unscrews to reveal a battery compartment. They both require AAA batteries. My experience has been the batteries last quite a while. I personally enjoy the weight of the stylus in my hand.

The plastic case opens to reveal a compartment for a nib remover and extra nibs. The P2H is on top, and the P2X is on the bottom. I like the identifier ring at the bottom of the P2X. It reminds me of my Wacom stylus.

A look at the digitizer tablet

The chassis still says VGA I’m guessing as a leftover from the earlier incarnation, but it has been upgraded to DVI-I.

The cable is hard wired, something I am not fond of. There is a DC 12v insert for the power supply directly underneath. The rubber feet can be seen underneath, they offer great protection from bumping against the table as you set it down. They also help to prevent the digitizer tablet from pushing forward as you draw or rest your hand on the surface.

Display controls located on the bottom right corner include: Power, Menu, Up, Down and Enter.

I found the placement of them fine, but I wish there are labels for them on the front or side to aid in seeing which button I am pressing from the front viewing angle. I also found, when this tablet is on my monitor arm (Ergotron LX), I sometimes hit these buttons when placing the tablet down on the desk. A minor inconvenience, but I felt I should mention it.

The stand feels rigid and sturdy. The rubber feet help hold the tablet firmly in place wherever it rests.

The shortcut keys at the top of the screen feel well made. It takes a bit of force to actuate, so no accidental presses here. They give a nice audible click when pressed to let you know you have fully actuated. I also don’t see light leaking through the edges as has been mentioned in some reviews of earlier versions. Also, note the “lip” at the top, this with those tabs seen to the right and left of the shortcut keys, hold the glass surface in place. I wish the front face was a little more sleek, I didn’t find these to be an issue, just, cosmetically, I don’t find this to be attractive.

Overall I find the presentation to be adequate, I see a few area for improvement cosmetically. I find none of these to be deal breakers. The glass surface to me is very reflective, I prefer the matte finish of my Wacom 22HD to this surface. That is just for me. I know others like the slick surface, because colors seem more vibrant. This is absolutely true, colors are definitely more vibrant through a clear surface. The colors on this monitor are exceptional. I would say even better than my 22HD. The colors are very rich and precise. Right out of the box it was calibrated perfectly. There was almost no noticeable difference after I re-calibrated with my Spyder Pro. Which leads to…

Calibration and Color Spectrum

Place Spyder here! I so love this thing!

The color gamut is normal. I have seen a couple people mention that it was wide, it’s not. The colors are very crisp, the blacks are very black. The whites white and everything in between is beautiful! 96% sRGB

74% Adobe RGB

Yiynova MVP22U V3 vs Wacom Cintiq 22HD

A size comparison of the Yiynova MVP22U V3 to the Wacom 22HD. The Yiynova is considerably smaller and significantly lighter as well.

You can easily see the difference in reflectiveness of the drawing surfaces. I do like the drawing surface of the 22HD best. I also like that it has side mounted shortcut buttons, as well as a zoom strip on the back. I have seen some screen covers advertised online that might be cut to fit the Yiynova. I will be trying this in the future.

You can see the different approaches to the stand mechanism in the back as well. I like how light the MVP22U V3 is. I also like that it is firmly attached. One time I was holding my Wacom and the stand actually slipped off the tablet and split my toenail. That stand is extremely heavy! The Wacom stand has the ability to swivel the face of the tablet to allow better angles when drawing. This is nice, but not something that Control+R in most programs couldn’t handle.

Inside the center ring are 4 screws that reveal a compartment for switching out cables of the Wacom 22HD. This came in handy when my new puppy chewed through the DVI-I cable. I was happy I didn’t have to ship it back for a minor repair like that. Yiynova could take a cue from this. The top silver tab on the Yiynova releases the arm at the bottom to allow you to tilt the display back, or pull upright. The Wacom has the two side bars for this purpose.

Pressure sensitivity of the stylus

Overall the P2H requires more force to actuate all levels of pressure. The P2X seems softer. The best way I can describe the feel of the pressure curve is the P2H feels like a colored pencil in pressure sensitivity and the P2X feels like a brush.

Earlier renditions of this tablet allowed me to adjust the pressure curve. For some reason, in this newest incarnation V3, that feature has been removed. I am assuming that is why they now give me two styli. I find the two styli to be a perfect amalgam of the two predominant pressure curve camps. I personally prefer the pressure curve of the P2H.

This sketch was done with the MVP22U V3. This is a drawing for one of my clients. It is a half sleeve, shoulder blade and chest. Line work also done with the Yiynova in the image below.

The tablet tracks very well. I was able to get clean consistent lines throughout. I felt like the tablet tracked my hand no matter how slow or fast I drew. The earlier version 2 seemed to me to have trouble tracking at extremely slow speeds. I am led to believe this is an isolated incident. Version 3 tracks perfectly, so I think that rings true. In my field I need clean consistent lines, and as you can see that is exactly what I got.

Video review

Conclusion

Pros:

• This tablet does everything with just as much precision as my Cintiq 22HD. Slow lines now track perfectly. I did a ruler test even at slow speeds, the lines were perfect. I used a circle template to trace perfect circles, no jitter whatsoever. There is enough pressure curve to get use of all levels in the sensitivity. This tablet is at my place of work because it is smaller and requires less desk space, I took the Cintiq home.
• The size of this tablet monitor is much more compact which I love. It is also lighter which allows it to be attached to my Ergotron arm with no sag. I haven’t tried attaching my Wacom to the ergotron, but it is considerably heavier. I think it would sag.
• The colors on this monitor are even better than my Cintiq. Very rich and precise. I used a Spyder pro to calibrate, and it was spot on out of the box. My monitor had no light bleed.
• The stand is sturdy and feels solid
• The cables have been upgraded to DVI on this version so no more VGA (yay!) and I can connect it to my card now without adapters.
• It comes with 2 pens which have a slightly different pressure curve. both feel nice and sturdy. They require a battery, but the battery lasts a very long time. i didn't feel like that was an issue. In fact I kind of like the weight.
• The buttons at the top feel sturdier than my V2, the first one had a little play in it these are solid and feel well made. In fact the whole body of this device feels really well made.
• It worked with all of the software I use. Photoshop, Manga Studio mostly.
• The people at Panda City, the seller, did a great job helping me when I had a problem with the last tablet. They were attentive and helpful. So on the chance you get one that is defective you can contact them. They will definitely take care of you.
• The best thing of all is that for half the price I got a tablet that performs as well as my Cintiq. I wish I had gotten this before buying my Cintiq, I would have just bought another one.

Cons:

• I prefer a textured surface, I will get a textured screen protector anyway, so not a big deal.
• I wish the buttons were on the side, it would help with the work flow. Also a zoom strip or wheel would be a nice addition.
• I wish it had a full screen mapping at the push of a button, but this is UC Logics' fault not Yiynova. UC Logic, get with the program on this! Hopefully future driver updates will remedy this.
• Cosmetically I feel the face of this device could be a little more uniform, I am not a fan of the protruding lip on the sides.
• I also wish this tablet had ports to plug the cables in instead of hardwired cables. This is a big deal to me. This is something Yiynova could easily design into another version of this product, and I think they should. No one wants to have to send back their daily driver because it got a short in one of their cables.

At any rate none of these things are worth another $800, which all in all makes this a great tablet. Especially for those not willing to shell out the extra money for something like the Wacom 22HD. I was extremely disappointed after getting my Version 2. I can almost say I went into this expecting more disappointment, but they turned this franchise around for me. I would, and have recommended this to my colleagues who have also had no regrets. It’s definitely been a worthwhile investment for me. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would rate this product an 8.5. Mostly because of the cables being hardwired.

Craig Sheets

Availability

Check out more reviews on Amazon. Below are direct links to the Yiynova MVP22U V3 product pages:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de

This review is written by guest artist Iris Muddy

Hi! I’m Iris Muddy, and I’ve been using the Yiynova MSP19U+ for about a year and a half now.

I’ve had an extremely positive experience with this monitor tablet! Other than Wacom Graphire and Intuos, I have used a Wacom Cintiq for quite a few hours here and there, and I can say that the Yiynova really is comparable to its better-known competitor.

When I purchased the Yiynova, I was just finding out about Cintiq alternatives. I was really interested in the Yiynova because I saw reviews that said great things about it, and I had nowhere near enough funds to get a Cintiq. I assumed I’d have to wait years before getting a monitor tablet. I’m glad I was wrong! If the Yiynova happens to fit your budget range, I really recommend it. I think it’s pretty amazing that something so different in price range feels just as good to work with.

Let’s begin with a few important points, then I’ll say a bit about how my purchasing it a while ago went (late 2013).

The pressure levels in the pen are the same as the Wacom pen (2048) but it does not detect tilt, so certain brushes with that option won’t register tilt. That doesn’t bother me though. The monitor is vivid and is brightly backlit by LED. It also has calibration buttons and shortcut keys. I don’t use the keys, but they’re customizable and pretty comfortable to use.

Shown with monitor arm set-up- I no longer have the default stand.

It has a sleek glass covering, which I have noticed little or no parallax (glass thickness) weirdness with. I feel that the pen draws from where you expect it to, for me at least! The glass is different from the rougher Cintiq coated surface; it can feel a little bit slippery if you are not used to it, but it took no time to get used to for me and I don’t feel it gets in the way or makes drawing uncomfortable. It can also be a little bit too reflective in certain lighting, but this has rarely bothered me.

The colors and values are really the same. The camera makes the Yiynova look a little darker in this photo than in reality.

The Yiynova stays fairly cool all day (even after 5-10 hours of usage), whereas I have experienced a lot of heat coming off of Cintiqs while drawing. The MSP19U+ has well distributed heat spots that do not interfere with working for long periods of time. If my palms do get sweaty and start moving jaggedly, I use a small thin pantyhose sock with a hole in it for fingers to hold the pen as a drawing glove. You can also use the tablet gloves sold separately, but this cheap solution has worked well for me.

The Cintiq displays have quite a bit more definition/pixel density, but I’ve found, as most other Yiynova reviewers agree, that the vivid display and comfortable drawing experience compensates for this slight difference. I have never felt like I needed more definition on the screen. Maybe the larger Yiynova model would be fun because a bigger surface and more room to draw is nice, but yeah, the size or resolution has not been a drawback with the MSP19U+ for me.

I’ve had no jagged, weird looking lines when drawing on this tablet (as far as I can tell). I have heard of this happening to people using any tablet, even the Cintiq. So, I think this is just something that occasionally happens, maybe if you draw too slow, or at a certain zoom distance, or your computer is lagging. This hasn’t happened to me yet.

The pen uses a battery. Luckily, it really feels like it makes no difference whatsoever. The weight difference between the Wacom pen and the Yiynova one is indiscernible, maybe a couple of grams. It causes no discomfort at all. The battery it came with lasted me months, and I now use rechargeable ones that I change every few months, using the tablet for hours every day. So don’t worry about having to change it weekly or daily, as this will definitely not be the case. When it is starting to fail, you will notice the light on the pen has turned off and it registers very little. You’ll know when the time has come. Hahaha.

Also, the pen has two clicks you can change the function of. I use them for right and middle. It doesn’t have the eraser tip on the other end, but I doubt this is a big part of anyone’s Wacom routine.

I actually prefer this pen to the Wacom one because I have not had any nib troubles or need to replace anything (after over a year!). Any Wacom user will know about how the nibs wear down. They’re definitely awesome and comfortable to draw with, but need to be replaced a little too often. They also tend to scratch and wear out certain parts of the Wacom tablet, which the Yiynova pen does not do. The only thing on the Yiynova monitor is finger grease, mine doesn’t have any scratched up areas, even after extensive use.

The pen comes with two extra nibs, that I have not had to switch out yet. Yay!

I believe that if you experience brush lag, it has more to do with your canvas size, brush size, RAM, etc, than the pen or the Yiynova monitor itself. This has been my experience. Everything flows very smoothly, unless the brush is simply too much for my computer to take.

The MSP19U+ has no IPS panel, which means that the viewing angles providing the proper range of colors and values are limited. So you should draw with it at a comfortable viewing and drawing angle to see as intended. However, this has not need an issue for me, and I would not pay a few hundred dollars more simply for an IPS panel. I do however recommend that you have another monitor with IPS as it is a good thing for people concerned with accurately viewing/displaying something, like a painting or other graphics.

While I paint or draw in Photoshop, I always keep a second window of the current image open on a monitor behind the Yiynova, for accuracy and a look at the bigger picture.

I think that using the MSP19U+ with a monitor arm is essential. I found the basic stand very uncomfortable to use for long periods of time. I couldn’t conveniently place it on my legs or desk while using it, or while storing it away. It stands up just fine, but only at a restricted angle, making it not very versatile.

Image from the Yiynova website

I ordered the tablet in 2013 from Amazon with a HP monitor arm, as recommended by Ray Frenden. It might be a little bit expensive, but I think it is a necessary purchase/investment for using this tablet, or even another monitor later on if you put away the Yiynova, to their fullest potential. It provides flexibility (different angles for comfort), storage (you can push it to the side), stability (I would have been worried about the Yiynova falling on the ground otherwise), etc. You can also spin the Yiynova to draw your line at a different angle, with the monitor arm. You can even get the monitor to stand vertically (90 degree spin).

Here is a link to the model on Amazon: US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP

It is entirely possible that other monitor arms will work just fine, but I do not have any experience with that and cannot recommend something I haven’t used. This one has been perfect for me. I hope the same for you! I use it clamped. Make sure your desk allows for the arm you get. You can also drill it. But I feel safer clamping. If possible, please get someone else to help you set it up, as it can be quite difficult to balance. Don’t wanna hurt yourself, the monitor, or anything/anyone else!

Let’s go back a bit in the past if you’re curious about my purchasing experience. It was pretty simple and good!

When I bought these a while ago, both the Yiynova and the arm were delivered quite quickly, but as soon as I turned the tablet monitor on, I heard a constant buzzing noise. I was worried, and looked for any mention of this sound in other reviews, hoping it was a defect because it would drive anyone crazy. I e-mailed the reseller right away (Mag Digital Limited, in my case), describing the problem, and they arranged to receive the broken model and send me a new one right away. I’m grateful they were helpful, and I mention this so that anyone else who might receive a defective model is not too shy to contact their reseller and arrange to fix that.

I don’t want to write anything incorrect here, so just make sure that, if you are setting it up for the first time, you follow the simple steps in the manual. (and get the latest driver on the website, for your system) I no longer have this manual, but there is an order you are suggested to follow with the plugging and installing of things. Either the driver before the monitor or the other way around. It’s really simple, just make sure you do follow it for the best results. The monitor has a power adaptor/plug, and a VGA input with a usb wire connected to it. The wires are all quite long, shouldn’t be a problem for most desks.

The VGA input is not a problem, so long as you plan for it. I have not used an adaptor, and I do not know if they are reliable, but they should most likely work just fine. I have a VGA port onboard for my computer, but my video card does not have VGA ports. So I have two other monitors (DVI and HDMI) running on an NVidia card, seperately. This is fine and does not cause problems for my system, I’m just insisting on the importance of having the right basic set-up.

I was worried the VGA would mean low definition display, but honestly it is really crisp and poses no problem whatsoever. There is also a VGA out port, however I’ve never used it.

Color calibration is fine too. And you should always have another monitor to compare the colors anyways. (I would not use the Yiynova as a standalone monitor, just in case.)

Here’s my plug setup just to show you (minus the wall plug), sorry it’s a mess! I wanted to show how the USB attaches to the VGA input.

After the first few hours of using it when I first got it, all I could think about was that everything seemed to work just fine, but the thing was just too close to my face while painting or drawing. So, another reason to keep a second window of what you’re working on open on a second monitor. I’ve really enjoyed working like that, having a zoomed out view behind, and a more zoomed in view in front of me. However, this didn’t really apply in zbrush, which I felt just fine with seeing what I was working on only on the Yiynova. I found the MSP19U+ really fun and practical for sculpting. Really intuitive. For less sculptural 3D modeling, I like to use the Yiynova as a display for a mood/reference board while working on the further back monitor with a mouse. I also watch movies on it, sitting further from my desk on a sofa, with the monitor arm stretched out. Who knows, maybe you’ll find some random uses for it too! It just adds to the usefulness. :)

Here are, finally, the small downsides I have experiences with this tablet. There are very few.

In the first few weeks of using it, I had a few troubles with the pressure sensitivity. It seemed to be very responsive and have a wide range, except that the range was proportionally different to how I had set up my Wacom Intuos. I had become used to pressing very little to get a dark, almost fully opaque stroke. I did this to avoid straining my wrist.

The Yiynova had a lot of range like I said, so it detected varied amounts of pressure, but the ramp was different, it would only become fully opaque with more pressure than I was used to. So my brushes, at their old settings, were softer in general, and became slightly different to use. I played around with the pressure settings in the driver though, and now I also use brushes a little differently since time has passed, so I really hesitate to call this a downside. I don’t think it is. It’s just something to watch out for, and know that you might have a small readjustment period, and if it really bothers you a lot, you might have to change some brush default settings (minimum pressure/opacity, etc). I think that it does just work itself out over time though.

And there is one inactive pixel (pink, which I’ve been told can be fixed with a simple program that fixes those, so it’s not a dead pixel). This showed up a few months after using it. I almost never even see this thing unless I really look for it. It makes me laugh when I notice it again after forgetting about it.

Also, so far, I’ve used it just fine in Photoshop, Manga Studio and Zbrush. I wish I could list other softwares, but I have not tried many. I know that for me it just does not work in Sketchbook Pro. The lines I draw show up an inch or two to the left from where I draw, no matter what. This may have been fixed since I last tried, but I’m not sure.

I’ve been told that it works very well on Mac. I’m not sure about Mac or Windows versions (like windows 8 or something) so just be careful and look into that if it applies to you.

Conclusion

I think that after using this ‘knockoff’ monitor tablet for over a year, this small list of flaws and large range of great features is a good record for how great this product is. I would say it’s incredible for the price, and that I really appreciate Yiynova’s efforts in making this competing tablet. I can easily say that if I were to give my past self advice about whether to wait for a Cintiq or buy this tablet again, I’d buy the Yiynova MSP19U+ exactly as I did. I think it’s awesome, and has been really fun to use and has also helped me improve.

Just to clarify on a few things, I want to say that I’ve been using it on a fairly strong PC with Windows 7, with system updates turned off, and control panel settings edited for the most straightforward drawing experience (pen and touch flicks turned off). No Wacom drivers installed either (had to uninstall my old intuos one), as this conflicts with the Yiynova driver.

I believe that these things, as well as proper setup and calibration, have helped me have zero problems with this tablet. I have heard from a friend or two that they have had issues like the calibration resetting itself often, or the pressure simply not working. I think this might have to do with Operating System updates or settings conflicting with the tablet. However, I’ve heard of many more situations where people have had no problem with the tablet, than situations where they do have problems, so that is why I still think this is a great product. And my friends have later told me that they found their own solutions to those issues too after some experimenting (by changing their settings, sometimes even a screen resolution issue or unplugging the USB and re-plugging it when they reboot their computer), so I do not yet know of someone who feels this is a bad product. I don’t want to say it is perfect in case it does fail completely on someone, but this really does reassure me, and I can say that I think it’s a reliable product.

In case you want some extra help or have questions, there have been some awesome people answering questions I do not know enough about under my Youtube review video (about mac and various program compatibility, etc).

If you’d like more information about this tablet, I suggest checking out amazon, youtube reviews and other blog posts, especially Ray Frenden’s video and blog post about it, which really helped my decision to purchase it.

Plenty of details on their main site too!

Thanks so much, and I wish you luck in your tablet decisions! They’re becoming more available, and the market has more choices. Have fun and I hope you find the right one for you!

-Iris

Availability

Check out more reviews on Amazon at the product pages below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr

This review is written by a guest artist Griffnix (twitter)

Hi all. I’m Griffnix (aka John). This is a review of the latest tablet monitor from Yiynova, the MVP22U + RH (V4), the RH being remote hotkeys, which is something fairly new to the world of non-Wacom branded tablet monitors and this is the 4th iteration of Yiynova’s 21.5” product.

About me: I am not what I’d consider a pro artist but maybe an aspiring one. I’ve used an Intuos4 tablet for some time (years) and more recently an old model (DTZ) Cintiq 21UX for a couple of months plus a Monoprice 12x9 tablet.

I’m going to assume that if you’re looking at this review, you’ve already looked at others like Cintiqs or Huion and know what a tablet monitor is for the most part but I’m happy to answer questions if I’ve missed something important.

What’s in the box:
You get a nice bunch of goodies with the MVP22U+RH package:

• MVP22U+RH tablet display
• Remote HotKey
• P2X Pen set x 2
• Artist Gloves
• Pen Stand
• DVI-I Adapter Kit (VGA/HDMI/Mini DisplayPort)
• Power Supply
• Power cord
• Quick start guide
• Driver disc

I’m really glad they supply the DVI adapters since I have a PC and a Macbook. It just gives me options without forking out for extra cables.

The other thing worth noting is this version comes with 2 of the P2X pen, unlike the previous version being supplied with a P2H and a P2X pen. I’ll get into that in the hardware description.

The short:

Drivers can be a nightmare, but gorgeous display to look at and, when working correctly it’s great fun to draw with. A little parallax that made no difference to me, a slightly stiffer pressure curve compared to Wacom tablet pens. Good viewing angles and colours. The hotkey remote is a good improvement. The wheel has a soft click which helps precision and the buttons feel good although a little hard to press for me personally. Nice being able to place it where you want but more space on either side of the screen would be ideal else you cover up a small part of your viewing area unless you put the remote at the bottom. The pen is light and comfortable and I’ve had no problems with the pen buttons. I’d recommend this tablet to anyone just with a small warning to be careful with your drivers when installing on PC, though Mac was easy peasy.

The long:

HARDWARE: Oh it’s so pretty!

The monitor is light for it’s size and the IPS display looks really nice. It’s probably one of my favourite things about it. Since this new version has a hotkey remote, there are no longer hotkeys along the top of the monitor but otherwise it’s identical to the V3 version. Buttons on the back, a decent adjustable stand, cables come out the side so you don’t have to worry about bending them when you lay the tablet flat. There is a USB socket on the bottom right specifically for the hotkey remote and nothing else (they mention that on the packaging).

The hot key remote is really light (ignore my weird bendy thumbs). I like the wheel a lot: It’s easy to spin but has a soft click so you can use it for precise things like if you’ve set it to undo levels or switch layers. The hotkeys are good too, they’re fairly flush with the remote and they are pretty firm. I find them a little hard to click but maybe they’ll loosen up with more use. You won’t ever hit them by accident that’s for sure.

The remote sticks anywhere you want with some little suction cups. Sometimes they come loose but if you wet them a tiny bit they seem to stick firmly and the remote doesn’t wobble around like I actually expected so it’s all win.

This is the latest pen which requires a AAA battery. The previous Yiynova MVP22U V3 came supplied with a P2H and a P2X, but now they give you two P2X pens instead. I asked them about this on Twitter and they gave a nice reply explaining that the newest version (marked with the red ring) is phasing out both the old ones and is supposed to boast softer pressure sensitivity. I was originally worried the pen would slip and slide all over the smooth glass surface but the nib gives you some friction and it feels perfectly fine drawing on the glass. Some people may not be sure about it which is fair enough, but I like that there’s little chance of the glass getting scratched compared to my Intuos 4 tablet which is looking rough these days.

With the 2 pen packs you get spare nibs and nib removers plus a stand that I like a lot, with space inside to store the nibs and remover. In total you get 4 spare nibs (excluding the ones already in the pens), 2 nib removers and the stand:

SPECS

I will refrain from a mass of specs for this piece of hardware as they’re all on the Yiynova website in good detail.

Mainly it’s 2048 levels of pressure on an IPS panel display at 1920x1080 resolution. comparatively this is a smooth glass surface whereas the Wacom tablets have a matte surface that’s a little softer.

Also worth noting is the tablet’s display cable is DVI and can’t be unplugged from the monitor. Yiynova supply you with adapters for Mac, HDMI and some other that no one cares about (just kidding, it’s VGA). This is really helpful in my opinion.

DRIVERS AND SOFTWARE

I had a bit of a nightmare trying to get the drivers working with my PC. UC logic provide the drivers and there are currently two to choose from: The older 5.2f and the newer 8.1. I had been using a Monoprice tablet which go by the same drivers (5.2f) so I just plugged the new tablet in and I was away, but without hotkeys.

With UC logic drivers, you have to first uninstall all old tablet drivers (such as Wacom ones) and carefully go through the process of uninstall, reboot, install new drivers, reboot, THEN plug in the USB for the tablet monitor. Don’t ever plug it in beforehand. To be fair to Yiynova, they had these instructions plastered all over the packaging and leaflets for everything. If you mess up the order you can get stuck in a loop of reinstalling.

I tried the new drivers and they worked great… For 10 minutes before the drivers crashed and I lost pen detection and pressure. I emailed Yiynova after trying endless solutions to remedy this and they tried their best to help and were pleasant to deal with. Eventually I decided to do a fresh install of Windows and go through the driver installation slowly and carefully. This resulted in the same problem unfortunately but I would say this is because my PC is a bit of an old wreck. Yiynova explained that there should be no problems after asking me what my setup was as they’ve tested their drivers on much lower spec computers and laptops with success. I am 99% sure my problems were down to old hardware wearing out so all I’ll say to others is, don’t have an 8 year old machine that’s on it’s last legs! Yiynova actually said they are still working on this and trying to replicate the problem themselves so they can fix it, asking me to be patient. They’re genuinely helpful and won’t fob you off. They want you to enjoy the tablet.

Anyway, I had chance to look at all the shiny new options the hotkeys have while the drivers did work. Here’s some snaps:

You have the usual options for adjusting pressure and pen buttons. You’re limited with the pen buttons but there’s a cool option in there to set one to toggle between pen/brush and eraser which I’ve been enjoying a lot.

Hotkeys on the other hand, allow you to do almost anything you want with them. They give you a stock list of common functions or you can customise them to be specific keyboard shortcuts or even use other tools and programs. I don’t get why the default hotkeys are set to things like Page Up though, I mean who needs that noise?

Mac users: You can expect similar options though not quite as extensive. I tried out the tablet with my Macbook Pro Retina and was up and running in less than a minute. Uninstalled the Wacom drivers, installed the UC Logic drivers, rebooted, plugged in and I was away.

The wheel has set uses to jog through and I haven’t seen a way to customise them except for enabling or disabling the ones you prefer. The same goes for the other hotkeys as they give you a large list of options but you can’t set your own keyboard shortcuts. Here’s some screens for you:

Calibration in both is accurate from the get go or you can re-calibrate it yourself with the software. Tracking is smooth on both PC and Mac. I find the cursor only lags slightly behind your pen if you scribble fast. I’ve had the same with the Wacom Cintiq so I’m happy enough with that. There is a small amount of jitter when you get close to the edges of the screen, but not enough to ever cause me to miss a menu button or tool. As long as you’re not a weirdo who draws on the edges you’ll never notice.

To give you an idea, here’s some madman scrawls from Manga Studio (ruler test is the bottom left I can’t draw straight lines to save my life apparently):

I included a ruler test though I don’t believe it’s an accurate measure of anything personally. I did find that very slow movements were a little jagged when drawing diagonally (see top left). I hear people use Lazy Nezumi software to fix that and I generally try to draw with fast, fluid movements anyway so I didn’t actually notice it until the test. Pressure sensitivity is a little stiffer than Wacom pens. Having used a Monoprice for a while I find Wacom pressure almost too soft. I think both are fine and I quickly adapt to either, plus a lot of software lets you adjust the pressure curve further so you can have your cake and eat it.

Here’s some Photoshop scrawls too:

VALUE

At the time of writing, this costs €969 with free postage from Yiynova.eu. This is roughly £700 for you brits and only €20 more than the V3. I believe there is a $200 difference between these two models for my stateside friends which is a much bigger difference.

Delivery was rapid and they have a 14 day no-questions return policy plus a warranty for 2 years. Considering the Wacom equivalent of this is at least double the price, it doesn’t take much persuasion to go for other brands. Especially now that they seem to be catching up with Wacom in most areas. When purchasing, my choice was between this and the Huion GT-220. I haven’t seen one up close to compare fairly but they use the exact same drivers so I imagine them being close in quality. The drivers are the biggest thing but otherwise, using the MVP22U feels just as good, if not better than the old Cintiq I tried for a while. I can’t compare to the newer 22HD Wacom option but from what I know, they haven’t changed much in the driver area to make any difference to the drawing experience.

V3 & RH/V4 COMPARISON

If you’re in the USA and want to save $200 you may as well get the V3 and something like a Nostromo keypad for your own hotkeys. The V3 is out of stock on the Yiynova.eu website so I think they’ve just totally replaced the V3 and these cheaper units are just what’s left in stock in the US. Besides hotkeys and getting the newest version of the P2X pen I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between V3 and RH. Personally I’d go for the V4 because of the newer pen and the price difference was negligible for me. The new P2X isn’t available separately from Yiynova at the moment but hopefully it will be soon for you V3 users. I haven’t used the old pens so I can’t really give a comparison, I just know I like using the latest version of the P2X at least.

Pros:

• Cheap alternative to Wacom.
• Fully customisable hotkeys.
• Gorgeous IPS panel display.
• Supports multiple display setup.
• Hotkeys for lefties and righties alike.
• Supplied with cables to suit different platforms (and nice extras such as gloves and spare pen).
• Attentive customer service.

Cons:

• Still more expensive than some alternatives.
• Hotkey remote covers edge of display (if you put it there).
• Drivers can be a real pain. (Most users I’ve seen with problems have been fine with the old 5.02f drivers from what I’ve seen)
• I’m genuinely happy with the MVP22U+RH even though I’ve had problems with getting it running properly on my PC. I’ll be upgrading my machine and when that happens I’m fairly certain there won’t be any issues.

In the mean time, I’ve been enjoying using it with my Macbook a lot. I really don’t see much difference in pressure sensitivity or tracking between Mac and PC, the biggest thing being a few less options with the hotkeys on Mac. I recently purchased a Nostromo so I’ve been playing with that for hotkeys instead since they’re fully customisable (It wasn’t necessary mind you).

Conclusion

Overall, I highly recommend this product for any kind of digital artist who doesn’t have vast amounts of disposable income. Some people aren’t comfortable with tablet monitors compared to regular tablets so it’s always good to try one out first at least. If you’re a PC user, just make sure everything is up to date and you go through the driver installation carefully. If you’re a Mac user, you might miss a few things with the hotkeys but there’s plenty of options in there to help your workflow. This tablet shows no signs of struggling on my ancient PC and Yiynova claim to test on a lot of low spec machines which is helpful. For a few small sacrifices such as some hotkeys or needing the patience to set up the drivers properly, you can save yourself a lot of money compared to a Wacom Cintiq and you get a nice big display for it. If you purely want one for a new toy and hobby then you could go for cheaper options like the Huion GT-220 or 19” models as they use the same drivers and similar IPS panels and they were my personal next choice.

Availability

You can get the Yiynova MVP22U+RH at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk

If you want to save $300, you can get the Yiynova MVP20U+RH instead which has a 20 inch screen and 1920x1080 resolution.

This review is written by Lesleigh.

Hello there, My name is Lesleigh! Pleasure to meet you, this is my review on the MVP10U!

The Yiynova MP10U is a recent purchase of mine and it has been a learning experience so far. I have a lot of experience using Wacom tablets (Intuos and Bamboo) but this one is quite different. I have purchased several graphics tablets over the years and also used off-brand tablets that don’t withstand my use. I love the fact that I can see what I am drawing on my tablet instead of looking up at it compared to screen-less tablets. I am able to do with this tablet what I was doing with the older Lenovo X61 tablet PC that I was using.

The Yiynova MP10U is Windows/Mac compatible. I have been using it on the new Windows 10 technical preview.

The construction of the tablet is sturdy. Its dimensions are 12.8 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches (32.5 x 19.3 x 1.8 cm) ; It weighs at 1.6 pounds (0.72 kg). It's a convenient size to work with.

Be careful of the driver
I had difficulty installing the driver initially, but after installation it works great.

I had to download the software from the website. The disc did not come with the latest driver.

This only happens if you're on the new Windows 10. You have to let Windows 10 install the display driver itself through the update function or it will not let you install tablet drivers.

If you are using the older windows OS , You can install the tablet driver from the disc or from the one downloaded from website.

The disc comes with the Display and Tablet drivers, e.g. DisplayLink Driver and TabletDriver 5.02.

The Yiynova has a Mode Switch Between Digitizer and Monitor. The Monitor mode allows you to draw on it like a screen tablet. The Digitizer mode allows you to use it like a regular graphics tablet where you have to look at your computer screen. The screen turns black like a regular graphics tablet. You can switch between the modes easily with the switch.

The LED monitor is smooth to the touch and has a decent display area to work on. I was impressed with size of the 10.1-inch display area.

The backlight in the monitor does not have a glare as you would think.

The 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600(4000 LPI), colors are vivid, clear and beautiful. The colors do not change from different angles. Even from drawing at a comfortable point(3ft to 4ft ), it still has the colors and images very clear to see.

The unit as two micro-USB ports to connect to the computer for the graphics input. It does not have a VGA Input and does not require external power. It is powered by the USB cable, Type A to Mini 5-Pin Type B. The two ports make it easier for the user to choose from either the right or left side. This cable is replaceable if it is lost.

That's the USB to Micro cable, It comes in sets of two, two micro-ports and two USB connectors, though you only need one plugged in at a time to use this tablet if your port is a USB 3.0.

The two micro-ports are from left to right, each side has a wire holder, So you can plug the wire from the left or to the right side of the tablet, using either the left or the right micro-port.

This is the hot key panel with 8 shortcut keys. I use many of the shortcut keys. You can change the Express keys to any other buttons you need to.

The stylus is battery powered and can only be used with this tablet. It's not compatible with any other tablet. It uses one AAA small battery which are provided in the box.

Replacement pens are available for purchase if you lose or break the one you have.

The screen supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and I do not have any problems with the pressure so far. It’s been responsive and smooth to the touch. I used to draw on a tablet with fewer levels of pressure sensitivity, so having more levels of pressure sensitivity to work with makes it easier on my wrist, as I can adjust the pressure, to how soft or hard i can press the pen.

I am currently using Clip Studio software. While using Clip, the screen resolution has enough room for me to draw comfortably, and i can draw with my tools and swatches. With Photoshop, depending on your workspace, it might be too cramped to draw with this tablet.

Pros

• It's affordable. For those who use Photoshop, Clip studio, Open Canvas, Krita, etc, this tablet is an alternative to the Wacom if you cannot afford one.
• It's convenient, small enough to carry around
• Easy to use without having to have a lot of extra software or attachments.

Cons

• The screen jitters at corners of the screen when using Photoshop 6. This can be easily remedied by adjusting the settings in it. It does take some calibrating with it.
• Sai users beware! If you do not have the full version of Sai, this tablet might not work for you!
  - There is a workaround but you must have it installed on your PC on the desktop, this tablet uses wintab settings.
  - But if you are a Sai user and want to get it anyway, I recommend getting Clip, as it is just a user friendly! I know of artists who use Sai but they have the full version and the installer and all the Setup files in MISC file.

The Yiynova MVP10U does work with Sai but only with the version or trail of 1.2.1.0 only and with the settings below. The Yiynova MVP10U does not work on Sai 1.1.1.

I've had this tablet for about a month and have gotten used to the pressure and screen. Drawing with it makes my life easier.

I'm still working with it and learning about it.

I recommend getting one if you want a tablet that's small and easy to carry around to work or on the go with your laptop. This is a tablet for those who want something at a decent price.

Check out their other tablets, they are worth a glance if your looking into getting one for a loved one or as a gift!

Availability

You can find the Yiynova MVP10U on Amazon at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MAPLSG8.

A newer model, the Yiynova MVP10UHD+IPS, is also available. It has a better resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. You can check it out at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRWOJF8

This review is written by a guest artist Dan Nelson.

Hi everyone, today I’ll be reviewing a new Yiynova tablet monitor, the MVP20U+RH.

Over the course of a few years, I’d been looking at a variety of digital tablet monitors. Having used a Wacom Graphire tablet for over a decade, and reading various reviews of other Wacom products, I knew that Wacom’s products generally had great reliability. However, I really wanted to lose the disconnect that comes from drawing on a tablet while looking up at a screen, and feel more connected to whatever artworks I was creating.

Before purchasing this tablet, the only drawing on a screen using a stylus experience I’d had was with my phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note3, using Sketchbook for Android. It works great, especially when traveling, but I really wanted more screen space and to be able to use a full version of a drawing program.

In looking at tablet monitors, the Wacom 22HD seemed a logical choice (screen larger than 13”, smaller than 24”, Wacom reliability), yet I could not justify spending that much on a tablet (reduced this year to $1799 USD). From researching various tablet monitors through several art and technology blogs, I observed that there were several Chinese companies making tablet monitors that performed the same functions as the Wacom Cintiq, for far less money.

Enter the new Yiynova MVP20U+RH. This monitor has a 19.5” diagonal SMVA panel under the front glass. I had considered the new MVP22U+RH with its 21.5” IPS panel, but after considering the size, where Yiynova’s tablet monitor technology is at the moment, and the pricing, decided on the MVP20U+RH.

The MVP20U+RH is $699.00 USD when I bought it, while the MVP22U(V3)+RH is $999.00 USD (both prices before $33 - $35 USD in shipping). This tablet monitor was bought online from The Panda City, Yiynova’s US distributor, via Amazon.com.

Included in the box are:

• The MVP20U +RH with undetachable 2-in-1 DVI IN and USB cable and detachable stand. USB plugs into laptop/computer, and the DVI connects to your choice of...
• HDMI to DVI Adaptor, VGA to DVI Adaptor, and MiniDisplayPort to DVI Adaptor
• AC power brick
• Cord from AC brick to outlet
• The USB 3.0 Remote Hotkey
• Two artist gloves
• Two P2X digital pens
• An ‘AAA’ battery for one of the pens
• The installation CD
• User Manual
• Panda City warranty
• Various documentation / quick guide
• Pen holder (snaps into back of monitor)

Key specifications

• Panel - SMVA
• Backlight - LED
• Native Resolution - 1920 x 1080
• Brightness - 250 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio (Typical) - 3000:1, Dynamic 50.000:1
• Response Time (Typical) - 20ms
• Number of Colors - 16.7 Million
• Tablet resolution - 4000 LPI
• Tracking Speed - 200 points per second
• Pen Pressure Sensitivity - 2048 levels
• Pen Detectable Tilt - ±45° (from vertical angle of pen)
• Pen Power - 1.5V AAA battery
• Video Input - DVI

My setup

The laptop I use is a 17” MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

Before installing the Yiynova tablet drivers, I deleted all Wacom drivers from my laptop, as is recommended in the Yiynova installation guide. Once done, I installed the driver for Mac onto my laptop and rebooted the system. After doing so, I went to Yiynova’s website and installed the latest Mac driver ( the drivers on the CD were already surpassed by newer driver versions) and restarted the computer again, just to be sure. Then, I plugged in the MVP20U+RH and turned on the monitor.

A look at the unremovable DVI IN cable, as well as the 12V connector from the power brick. Cables attach at the sides to keep them out of the way on a desk. One of the two rubber feet on the monitor base to keep it from sliding on a desk can be seen at bottom left

Calibrating the screen and pen was relatively straightforward. There was a screen test where one touched various targets on the screen to calibrate the pen, and a section where one could program the various buttons on the RemoteHotkey. I’ve kept the scroll wheel (for zooming in or out) and page up and down buttons active, as those are the ones I’ve found most useful.

The laptop didn’t automatically set the tablet monitor up as a second screen, just an extension of my laptops’s screen instead. Of course, you can drag your workspace palettes over from the laptop screen onto the Yiynova screen, but then if you have to find various files, you have to switch from the pen to the laptop trackpad to find anything in a folder on the desktop. The menu bar at the top can be dragged over to the Yiynova in the Apple System Preferences Displays section. However, it doesn’t go back to the laptop screen by default if the tablet monitor is turned off.

Tablet monitor being used as extension of current laptop screen, with program palettes and windows moved onto the Yiynova

Selecting “Mirror Displays” in the Apple System Preferences ‘Displays’ section turns the Yiynova into a second screen of your desktop, complete with files, folders, and dock. Doing this ensures that you don’t need to look at your laptop’s screen at all, everything you need is mirrored exactly on the tablet monitor. There’s a bit of an oddity, where since my laptop screen is 1900x1200 and the Yiynova is 1900x1080, the screen of the laptop shrinks by about an inch combined with empty space on the top and bottom of the screen to match the lower resolution of the tablet monitor. Not a major issue, just a bit of an inconvenience to have to go turn off the “Mirror Screen” option when I’m not using the Yiynova.

Used as a Mirrored Display - orange bars show how laptop screen has shrunk to match Yiynova display

The stand attached to the Yiynova appears to be the same stand used in the Huion, and Ugee tablet monitors as well. It works well enough to stand the monitor up on a desk, but since I planned on mounting it to a monitor arm, I took the stand off. The MVP20U+RH will fit the VESA 75 mounting points on a monitor arm. However, the screws supplied with the arm (mine’s by VIVO) while the right length, were too thick for the holes in the back of the monitor. I used the screws from the Yiynova stand to attach the tablet to the arm mount, as I didn’t want to drill larger holes in the back of the monitor.

You can see the pen holder, along with the VESA mount where the stand used to be. The buttons at left control the monitor and any menu specific functions. Power On/Off, Menu, Up, Down, Exit

Closer look at the RemoteHotKey, as well as that fantastic front screen

The surface is smooth glass, and the construction is similar to that of the MVP22U (all versions) i.e., a glass front set into a plastic base, with six visible molded clips holding the display in place. Like its larger twin, there’s an active/standby light in the middle of the panel, where there is no drawing screen. Visually, if the front was all white, instead of black with a white border, this tablet could easily be mistaken for the MVP22U+RH.

The drawing pens included are both the same model, so I’ve kept one as a spare. With the drawing glove, your hand slides over the glass screen without sticking, great for dramatic strokes. The pen’s pressure sensitivity results in brush strokes going from very light to heavy in a smooth manner, depending on how much pressure you are pressing down with on the pen’s point.

Test samples from various programs

Parallax - when drawing normally it’s not really noticeable - bring your face almost level with the edge of the glass and then it becomes apparent. Pen is touching glass in image on the right

There’s a bit of parallax, but that’s to be expected. For the majority of the time, the cursor lines up exactly with the pen’s point when it’s touching the screen. The only time it doesn’t is when one is either quickly covering a large surface area, or making a large amount of strokes very rapidly. Then, the cursor onscreen lags behind the physical pen’s point by a few millimeters. It’s a visual difference, but it doesn’t affect the actual onscreen drawing experience enough for me to not recommend this tablet.

The tablet’s SMVA panel maintains even color throughout the drawing process, whether one has the tablet almost flat infront of them, or, like I often do, stand and draw with the monitor at an almost 36 degree angle. The only time the panel changes color is if one has rotated the panel on its axis (via the VESA mount) from a flat horizontal position to about 45 degrees left or right, and at the same time has the monitor angled towards themselves at almost 90 degrees. Then, there’s a warm color shift. However, that’s the only extreme occurrence that seems to result in non accurate colors.

Pretty much the only extreme angle that will cause the SMVA panel to color shift- Draw while standing, have the monitor at nearly 90 degrees, and rotated up to 45 degrees

When drawing with virtual pens, paints, and various brushes, the Yiynova really shines. With some changes to the brush density/opacity within the drawing program, one can easily replicate actual drawing or painting materials with various drawing pressure with the pen. It’s simply amazing to observe, and the results for line art are often like drawing on paper with a pencil or pen. When painting digitally, with an oil brush, it’s like one really is painting in oils ( especially if you are putting multiple shades of color within the same layer) without the solvents, mess, and the option to undo mistakes with a simple command.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would recommend this tablet monitor to anyone who has seen or heard of Wacom’s Cintiq line, but balked at the enormous markup in price.

The Yiynova MVP20U+RH fills the gap that existed near the top of Yiynova’s tablet monitor range. Before, if one wanted a decent sized tablet monitor there was the MSP19U ( that uses older technology and a TFT screen) and the MVP22U+RH (using Yiynova’s latest technology and with an IPS panel screen) which while significantly less than a Wacom of equal size, might have been out of the price range for some. Now, one can sacrifice an inch and a half of screen space and save a decent amount of money, and still buy a tablet monitor that is fantastic to work off of, and view artwork on.

The Graphire? It’s being packed away for a well deserved retirement.

Availability

You can find the Yiynova MVP20U+RH on Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

This review is written by guest artist Joel Watson.

BIG improvement over the previous version. Great for the traveling digital artist, but still has room for improvement.

About Yiynova and the MVP10UHD+IPS+IPS

Yiynova is a Chinese manufacturer of budget-minded tablet monitors. They are most know for their 19” model, the MSP19U which, in my opinion, was the first real competitor to the Wacom Cintiq line of products. The MVP10UHD+IPS is 4th version of Yiynova’s 10.1” USB powered, portable tablet monitor.

Specifications

• 10.1" USB Tablet Digitizer/LED Monitor
• IPS panel
• USB powered, no VGA Input, no DC Power
• Mode Switch Between Digitizer and Monitor
• Active display/drawing area (H x V): 216.96 (W)X135.6 (H) mm (10.1" diagonal)
• 8 Hot Key
• Digitizer:Tablet resolution at 4000 LPI
• Tracking speed at 200 PPS
• Pen pressure sensitivity at 2048 levels
• LCD:16.7M Colors,1280x800 Resolution, View angle: H:160°(80°/80°), V: 160°(80°/80°) ( CR >=10 ), 0.1695(H)X0.1695(V) mm Pixel pitch, 650:1 Contrast
• Warranty: 1 Year with The Panda City (Warranty will be voided if the prodcuts are used outside USA)
• Support OS:Win8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OS 10.4.x-10.10.x.

Initial Impressions and Build Quality

The MVP10UHD+IPS is a little longer than a full sized iPad and a little shorter. If you’re used to holding Apple, Android or Kindle tablets, it’s quite thick. Of course this device doesn’t do what those items do and isn’t intended to compete with them, but it does feel bulky by today’s electronics standards. It’s both powered and received its video/input signal from a dual ended USB Y cable. It has white bezel around it’s modest screen which hold 8 user programable hotkeys. There’s an adjustable stylus holder on the side opposite the buttons. The back of the unit has 3 flip out feet, controls for monitor brightness and a power switch.

Unfortunately, the overall build quality is sub par. It's very plastic-y and creaks and flexes when you hold it. The hotkey buttons do have a nice solid click, but the housing seems like it needs more bracing between the screen surface and the outer shell. There is nothing sleek or stylish about the utilitarian design. It’s well made, but not EXTREMELY well made. The MVP10UHD+IPS looks and feels like a prototype that was made from off the shelf components.

The detachable USB cable can be routed to either the left or the right of the device through channels in the back of the case which makes keeping it out of your way much easier than if it were in a fixed position. The fact that the cable is detachable is also nice, considering the USB cable is typically the first thing to go bad in a tablet from repeated bends, winding and being taken in and out of a carry bag.

The left and right flip out feet on the back allow the tablet to rest on a desk at a comfortable drawing angle. They're tall enough that I can get my left hand under the tablet while still operating the hot keys with my thumb. There's a 3rd flip out foot on the back of the device, in the center. If you try to use this to stand up the tablet while drawing, it will just fall over. Perhaps it's for displaying the tablet like a picture frame, or if you are just using it as a secondary monitor.

Connectivity and Driver Setup

As I mentioned, the MVP10UHD+IPS connects to your computer via a single USB Y cable. One end of the cable transmits video and tablet input signal, and the other supplies the unit with an extra 5v of power. On some of the computers I tested it with everything seemed to function fine with only one end of the cable plugged in. This was not the case on my primary testing computer, an 11” Macbook Air. Since that computer only has 1 USB port on each side, I had to purchase a 1ft USB extension cable to connect the tablet.

Two drivers are required to get the MVP10UHD+IPS up and running: one DisplayLink driver to run the USB video, and one from Yiynova for tablet functionality. I had no issues installing either driver (again, all of these tests were performed on a Mac under OSX and do not necessarily reflect what potential performance on a Windows PC would be like), and I was able to get the computer to recognize the tablet as a tablet and monitor relatively easily, save for occasionally having to unplug/replug the USB Y cable. It seemed like my Macbook Air was particular about which half of the device (tablet or monitor) was recognized first.

Video

I was using the earlier (non-IPS display) version of the MVP10UHD for a few months before I replaced it with this updated version. The difference in screen quality is astounding. This is less of a testament to the quality of the current version (which is high), and more of an admonishment of the previous version. The non IPS display had the most minimal viable viewing angle of any monitor of any size that I've ever used. You had to get exactly in the right spot when working on it. Any deviation to the right, left, top or bottom and the colors would shift until they became inverted. I was able to pencil and ink with the old one, but color work was impossible due to the color accuracy being non existent.

I am happy to say that the new IPS version has solved essentially all of these problems. The image and resolution is MUCH sharper, the viewing angles are respectable, and the color accuracy is workable. I can't speak for those that need custom color profiles, but I am able to do color work in my illustrations and comics using my predefined color palettes with no issues. The screen could be brighter, but I assume the brightness is a power limitation of the USB cable connection to provide sufficient power for a truly bright screen. I’m also happy to see there was little to no parallax effect when drawing.

The 1280x800px screen is about 2" to 3" too small to really make this a killer device. I would love to see a 12" or 13" version of this tablet in a 4:3 aspect ration instead of 16:9, so I didn't feel so cramped when I had all of my Photoshop tools and menus on the screen. Even compared to a full sized iPad, the 16x9 aspect ration makes the usable space feel minimal.

Stylus hardware

The MVP10UHD+IPS comes with a full sized stylus, comparably sized to a Wacom Cintiq or Intuos stylus. It’s glossy plastic, but has a rubber grip surrounding the two rocker switches. These switches can be programmed to perform right or left clicks and a few other predefined commands, but are not user assignable to any keyboard presses or macros. The stylus is battery powered, but the battery is said to last for 4 months. In the several months I was testing the unit, I never had to replace the battery. There is no eraser tip on the opposite end of the stylus, as this feature still seems to be a Wacom exclusive. It comes with a hard plastic tip and a couple of extra replacement tips.

Tablet Functions

Cursor tracking, lag, overall responsiveness are all on par with your typical Wacom tablet product. More accurately, they are identical to every Yiynova tablet I’ve ever used (or any other tablet that uses UC Logic internal hardware, such as Huion made tablets). If you are used to Wacom products, there is a difference in “feel” but not function. You will notice that the pressure curve is looser than expected, even after adjusting the brush firmness in the drivers. You blow past the first 50% of the pressure curve with little to no applied pressure, then the real variation is in the upper half of the curve. The specs claim 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, but that number is rather arbitrary when there seems to be a discrepancy between the settings you choose in the drivers and the actual performance of the device. It takes some getting used to, but didn’t impair my ability to get a decent range or brush stroke widths with varying pen pressure.

An unexpected and positive feature of the MVP10uHD+IPS was the dual tablet mode. With the power switch in the “on” position, it functions as a tablet monitor. With the switch in the “off” position, it functions as a stand drawing tablet where you draw on the blank screen and view your work on your laptop or computer monitor. I found this useful for color work since my laptop screen was a little bigger and I could see more of my image at once.

Hotkeys

The 8 hotkeys are great for speeding up your workflow. They are user assignable to basically any key or key combination you could think of. There is, however, some difficulty in setting them up. The hot keys are not "in numerical order" in the drivers. Going down the side of the device, from top to bottom, the keys are actually labeled 7,1,2,5,6,4,3,8 as far as the drivers and set up software are concerned. This means if you are in the drivers and you tell it to make button 1 perform an “undo,” you are actually assigning this function to the second button from the top. This issue is further complicated by the fact that the buttons are permanently labeled with little graphics of what they expect you to use them for (zoom in, zoom out, enter, etc.). I actually ran a strip of white electrical tape down the device next to the buttons so I could label their number and their intended function with a Sharpie.

There's also a driver issue that after you press a hotkey, you lose stylus connectivity for a half a second or longer. If you are someone like me who uses "space" and "undo" constantly while drawing, this requires a bit of an adjustment. I usually have to pick the stylus up from the monitor while pressing a hotkey to negate this effect. Yiynova confirmed both of these driver issues to me and said they hoped to fix them in a future release. Since I only tested on a Mac, I do not know if these issues exist when using the tablet on a PC.

The placement of the hotkeys at the very edge of the case was a bit of an issue for me. Holding the tablet in my left hand meant my thumb naturally fell about a half inch to the right of the buttons. I had to strain to both hold the tablet and keep my thumb above the buttons. After an hour or so, this caused some fatigue in my left hand.

Portability

I didn’t care for the included draw string carry bag. It's not form fitting, and the material is very rough to the touch. I replaced it with a neoprene generic tablet zip case with a pocket on the front to hold the stylus and cable. It had more padding, and storage and it holds the device much more securely. I paid about $20 for it.

In order to fit the tablet into the new case, I had to remove the stylus holder from the right side. It seemed like an unnecessary and bulky protrusion at first, but once I removed it I missed having somewhere easy and convenient to store the stylus.

Since the device is USB powered there’s no power brick required. This is a big plus for portability. Everything needed to use this tablet (the tablet itself, the stylus and the USB Y cable) fit in the iPad sized carrying case I bought.

Final Thoughts

If you are a traveling digital artist and you need a set up for working in a hotel, an airplane or a coffee shop (and you don't want to put up $1000-$2500 for a Surface Pro 3 or a Cintiq Companion... ESPECIALLY if you are a Mac user like me), it's hard to argue with the utility and capability of the MVP10UHD+IPS. I take my 11" Macbook pro and this tablet in a tiny bag and I can literally do my job from anywhere in the world. There is certainly room for improvement, but if you need a light, portable, very functional tablet monitor for digital art WITH MINIMAL CABLES, I can definitely recommend this tablet. When it’s available (it is almost always sold out on Amazon), it sells for $399.

I would note that if you are just looking for a digital tablet monitor for art and you DO NOT intend to travel, I do not consider this a stepping stone towards larger tablet monitors. Save your money for a Yiynova 19" or 22" stationary model. The MVP10uHD+IPS really only makes sense for the traveling artist, or someone that is more comfortable working in their lap as opposed to a desk.

Availability

Read more reviews at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRWOJF8?tag=artprdus-20

This review is written by guest artist Joel Watson.

About Yiynova

Chinese tablet manufacturer Yiynova has been providing affordable and serviceable alternatives to the Wacom Cintiq line of tablet monitors for roughly 4 years. Since they released their popular 19 tablet monitor, the MSP19U, in 2012 artists looking to expand their digital tool set without breaking the bank have flocked to the brand. Most of their product line lacks the spit and polish of Wacoms offerings, but at 1/2 to 1/3 the price, its hard to argue with Yiynova's affordability and functionality.

Yiynova were the first to market with a portable 10.1 tablet monitor that received power, pen input and video from a single USB cable when they released the DP10 in 2012. The first version of this hardware suffered from a lackluster screen with a sub HD resolution, but subsequent versions have gradually improved on the screen and overall build quality. I recently reviewed the most recent Yiynova branded 10.1 tablet monitor, the MVP10UHD + IPS. It seems this may be the final version of this tablet to bare solely the Yiynova brand name, as the newest version released in March of 2015, the SP1001 Penates, is now branded as a joint venture between Yiynova and UC-Logic, the Chinese manufacturer that has long been providing the internal components for Yiynova’s tablets.

Specifications

• Digitizer: Tablet Resolution (5080 LPI), Tracking Speed (200 PPS), Pen Pressure Sensitivity (2048 levels)
• 6 User Assignable hot-keys; USB & HDMI 2-in-1 Cable; Battery-less Pen
• Support OS: Windows 8.1 / 8 / 7 (32/64bit); Mac: OS X 10.6.8 or later (Intel processor)
• 10 Interchangeable Soft and Hard Nibs
• Active display/drawing area (H x V): 216.96 (W)X135.6 (H) mm (10.1" diagonal).

Initial Impressions and Build Quality

Before you even plug the SP1001 in and switch it on, there are several, immediately apparent upgrades from the previous models. I say previous models because the SP1001 appears to have nearly identical internal components to the MVP10UHD +IPS. More on that later.

Right off bat, it's obvious the case and overall aesthetics of the SP1001 have been completely redesigned. The case is about half as thick as the previous version. It features smooth, tapered edges as opposed to the 10UHDs sharp corners, and the back is coated with a nonslip rubber, common in many Wacom products, that provides excellent grip and adds to the overall feel of the build quality. Speaking of build quality, the SP1001 is the first in this line of products that FEELS like a finished product. All of the previous Yiyova portable tablet monitors flexed and creaked in your hands. They felt like they were built from off the shelf products that didn’t quite fit together properly. The SP1001 is SOLID. Its well balanced and has a decent heft, but isn’t heavy or uncomfortable to hold.

Hotkeys

They have also completely redesigned the 6 hotkeys built into the face of the tablet. On the previous versions the buttons were hard plastic, had a very click feel and were placed right on the outer edge of the monitor bezel. This placement made it difficult to hold the tablet in your hand while drawing and also easily access the hotkey buttons without setting the tablet down. I tend to use it in my lap with my left hand holding the tablet (the buttons would be directly beneath my left hand palm) and drawing with my right hand. In order to access anything but the top two hotkey buttons with my left thumb, I had to contort it not a weird position which often left me with hand cramps after repeated undo or drag tool presses. The SP1001 has moved to the button placement about a half inch in towards the screen leaving a nice border between the buttons and the edge and allowing for much easier thumb access. They buttons are also spaced further apart and now made of raised rubberized plastic, instead of flat, hard plastic keys that are placed one immediately after the other. This makes finding the button you’re looking for without looking MUCH easier.

As I mentioned earlier, the internals of the SP1001 appear to be nearly identical to its predecessor. I don’t know specifics on the exact model of digitizer used, but the screen resolution and pixel density are identical (1280x800px, 5080 LPI), and the hotkey buttons are in the same configuration (and have some the same software problems which I will go into shortly). The only main difference in the hardware besides the look and feel of the case and buttons is the method of connecting the tablet to a computer. Previous Yiynova 10.1 tablets passed power, signal and video through a single (albeit double ended) usb cable. The SP1001 uses USB for power and signal, but is now equipped with a mini HDMI port for video. HDMI has much higher bandwidth for video throughput than USB 2.0, and this the video is much smoother. This is most prevalent when just using the SP1001 as a second monitor to play a video. With USB video, the host computer would typically fire up all the fans when playing video over a USB monitor due to the low bandwidth and increased processor power required. That said, just drawing in Photoshop there is little difference in the video experience over USB or HDMI. The screen is so small (think just a bit shorter, and a bit wider than a standard iPad), that you really don’t notice any sort of lag or refresh rate issues. Either way, my brain knows that the HDMI connection is much better for video, but my eyes don’t perceive it much at all. Still, my laptop’s fan and battery appreciate the new connection option.

Connectivity and Driver Setup

Here's where the SP1001 stops shining and need further refinement. I must point out that all tests were conducted on a Macbook Air, and I have no idea what the setup, driver configuration or overall performance are like on a Windows PC.

USB cable, display cable and the stylus

Previous Yiynova 10.1 tablet monitors needed a tablet driver as well as a DisplayLink video driver to handle the usb video connection. The SP1001 just needs a tablet driver, as video is handled by the internal video card of your computer just like any external monitor would be. If you install the driver without the tablet connected, then attempt the open the tablet monitor configuration app, you will be present with a blank screen that simple says “No Tablet Detected.” Upon connecting the SP1001 there are at least a dozen different things that might happen depending on what order you plug the cables in and what kind of mood the tablet and your computer are in on that particular day. Installing the drivers was painless (at this time there is a standard driver for this tablet monitor on both UC-Logics and Yiynova’s websites, but the UC-Logic website also have a beta driver for OS X). Getting the SP1001 hooked up and usable, however, was a frustrating mess.

If I plugged the USB cable in first (the pressed the power button just beneath the USB connection on the tablet), the tablet configuration appreciated would detect the tablet after a few seconds and allow me to see the various options for video calibration and hotkey and stylus settings. Sometimes, at this point, the tablet would function as a standard no-monitor drawing tablet. This was how the other Yiynova 10.1 tablet monitors worked as well, and the feature often came in handy, especially when connected to a computer with a much larger screen. Other times, when connection the USB cable, the tablet wouldn’t register the stylus at all, and still other times it would register the stylus but no matter where you placed the point, the cursor would jump to the bottom or the corner edges of the screen.

Plugging in the HDMI cable (the tablet has a dual cable with mini HDMI and micro USB on one end and standard HDMI and USB on the other end) which I was connection with an adapter to the mini DVI/Thunderbolt port on my Macbook Air, provided a similar bevy of undesirable and unpredictable results. Sometimes the screen on the SP1001 would come on and show digital snow. Other times it would come on and display a mirror of my laptop screen (per the display settings on my Macbook Air), but the stylus issues listed above would persist. I spent about 30 minutes installing and uninstalling the drivers, plugging and unplugging the tablet cables in different orders while pressing the power button at different times, and rebooting my laptop either with the tablet already plugged in or not yet plugged in. Eventually I ditched the beta OS X driver, reinstalled the current one, rebooted the laptop twice, then plugged in the usb cable followed by the HDMI cable. 13th to 14th time must have been the charm, because eventually I got it to work as it is intended.

Once I was at this point, I opened the configuration utility and tried to set up the hotkeys, and stylus. I first performed the monitor calibration, which takes you through the stand array of click the stylus tip on these various points tests. I should note that the first few times I tried to run the monitor calibration, the button in the application simply didn’t respond. I do not remember if this was with the beta driver or not.

Next I attempted to set up the monitor and stylus hotkeys. The options for the two buttons on the stylus are limited to a few presets like right-click, left-click, and none. It would be preferable to be able to set one of the stylus buttons to a macro like undo or the drag tool. The monitor hotkeys have more options, but this is difficult to realize if you don’t know what you’re looking for. You can select from a long drop-down list of preset key presses and macros for each button. All of the most common tool functions for Photoshop are included in this list. However, whereas they do offer an undo option, they do not have a step back or multi-undo (cmd+option+Z on a Mac or cntrl+alt+Z on a PC) option in the default list. There is a user defined item in the dropdown list, but selecting this does not lead to a logical next step. In Wacom tablet drivers, if you select user defined you are given a new dialog box to name the macro, press the key or keys for the hotkey to emulate and save. I assumed this feature was just broken in the drivers because it was not apparent what I was supposed to do in order to set up my own macro. After emailing back and forth with my contact at UC-Logic a few times (it took awhile to explain my issue due to a language barrier), I realized that I was just supposed to click inside an empty box that was not labeled and press the keys I wanted. I explained that this confusion could be easily solved by labeling the empty box and adding a single instruction like, click inside the box and press the key or keys you desire, etc. They indicated that they would consider this for future software revisions.

There is also a tab for setting up the stylus pressure curve. This tablet monitor is listed as 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. The pressure curve calibration is designed to allow the artist to choose how stiff they want their stylus to feel. With a soft setting, the stylus (using a brush size of 30 pixels, and the width set to pressure in the drawing application settings) should move very easily from 1 pixel wide to 30 pixels wide when drawing with little to no pressure. With a firm setting (still at a 30 pixel brush size), the artist should be able to comfortably sketch with a very small line of 1-10 pixels, then apply more pressure to achieve a larger line width of up to 30 pixels. I found the pressure curve settings in the setup application for the SP1001 to make almost no difference regardless of what I set them to. I was able to test the pressure curve in a small preview box in the setup application which simulates a drawing app like Photoshop. At the lowest or softest setting the brush blew through the pressure curve with little to no pressure from my hand at all (which is to be expected). At the highest or firmest setting, the performance was only slightly different. There should be a decent range of settings available in this tool, but it seems to only go from extremely soft to pretty soft. This doesn’t make it unusable, but it does differ so greatly from almost every other tablet I've tried that I suspect most artists will have a steep learning curve when applying pressure to achieve a desired line width.

Video

Video quality on the SP1001 is impressive for such a small screen. It’s no Retina iPad, but it’s bright and viewable from any angle. My opinion may be swayed by how terrible the viewing angles were on previous versions of this tablet, but it’s quite usable. If anything, I wish I had the option of making it a bit brighter, but I would assume this was a limitation of the unit being USB powered.

The resolution is lacking (again, comparing to a retina iPad for reference), and I found it difficult to fit Photoshop’s menus within the 1280X800 pixels and still have room to draw on my canvas. Eventually, I settled on leaving all of my tools and menus on the laptop’s screen and using the Penates just as a canvas. Switching from pen input back to my trackpad and keyboard to change layers or tools was a but frustrating at first, but I got used to the new workflow with time. I did not attempt to watch any videos on the monitor, but I would assume if you have a stand for it, or a way to prop it up, it would make a decent second screen for your laptop while on the go. There was nothing about its performance to indicate otherwise.

Stylus hardware

The included stylus is another area in which the SP1001 differs from previous Yiynova 10.1 tablets. The bundled stylus is, I believe, their first battery-less model. Previous models have required internal AAA batteries or USB rechargeable batteries. This one takes a cue from Wacom and requires no battery or recharging to function.

There are two rocker-style buttons for performing right click or pan/zoom features (these functions can be configured in the drivers, but options were limited to a few manufacturer’s presets) and decent overall ergonomics. It’s quite light. Adding a bit of heft wouldn’t hut it, but it seems to be about the same weight as my Wacom Cintiq stylus. It is coated in a similar soft touch rubber to that which coats the body of the tablet, so keeping a grip on it is not difficult. There is no eraser on the opposite tip. Wacom seems to still have a firm lock on this technology.

The stylus comes with a weighted, rubberized holder for keeping it vertical and out of the way on your desk, and a very nice rubber lined storage case for when you need to toss it in a bag or backpack. The storage case also stores 9 additional hard plastic stylus tips.

Tablet Functions

With all of my hotkeys set up to zoom, pan, undo, switch between pen and eraser and save my file, I was ready to go. I opened a new Photoshop document, picked my standard inking brush and got started sketching.

When you have used one particular digital tablet or tablet monitor for years and years, it’s impossible to not immediately compare any new hardware to whatever you are used to. The difficult part is distinguishing if the new hardware is LESS than your current set up or just DIFFERENT. The SP1001 does not feel like a Cintiq. Then again, I don’t think it’s supposed to. It does, however, feel exactly like a Huion tablet I reviewed a few years back (The GT-190), which also used UC Logic internals. The pressure curve was very soft and unlike what I was used to, but it only took a few minutes of doodling to adjust my stroke and my expectations. In almost no time I was able to sketch and ink with my standard brushes and get nearly identical results to those I would expect on my Cintiq. Cursor tracking was similar to every UC Logic based tablet I have ever used. The cursor APPEARS to lag behind the stylus tip about 1/4” as you move the stylus around the screen, but as soon as you make a mark it catches up immediately and the mark is where you intended it to be. If you can learn to ignore the position of the arrow/cursor and just draw where you want to draw, your results will be excellent. It took a bit of training to ignore the cursor position, but eventually it was hardly noticeable.

Wacom tablet users should be aware that the distance above the tablet at which it notices the stylus (how high above the tablet surface you can “hover” the pen and still register cursor movement or input) is much shorter than you are used to. I’d say it’s roughly an inch, maybe a little more. You have to keep your stylus very close to the tablet to register movement. I learned to just pick my hand up, move it where I wanted to place the cursor, then put it back down. The cursor always jumped immediately to where I wanted it. I just didn’t get to drag it along with my hand the way I was accustomed to.

My biggest disappointment with the SP1001 was in using the hotkeys. Having to move all of my tools to my other monitor to save drawing space meant being able to use frequent commands like undo, pan, zoom, etc. with the hotkeys was integral to my workflow. There is a flaw in either the hardware, the drivers or both where after repeated presses (think of pressing “undo” 5 or 6 times in a row) the buttons stop responding, and the stylus no longer registers on the tablet. The only way I found to “reset” normal function was to lift the stylus away from the screen, wait a few seconds, then put it back down. I encountered this exact same issue with both the MVP10UHD and the MVP10UHD+IPS, and I am surprised the manufacturers haven’t been able to fix it by now. With the previous tablets I emailed Yiynova back and forth several times about this issue and they admitted that it was a known bug, and they would attempt to fix it in the future. I wonder if this bug only occurs on Macs, and perhaps that is why they don’t receive enough complaints to take care of it.

Final Thoughts

Overall this tablet is a great alternative for the traveling digital artist.

Honestly, everything that is wrong with this tablet could and should be fixed with driver updates. The initial setup/connectivity issues and the hotkey problems make it difficult for me to recommend it as an artist’s primary tool, but as a backup, or travel-only device it gets the job done. It’s almost always sold out at Amazon, but when you can purchase it, it’s less than 1/4 the price of the cheapest Cintiq companion. It’s almost unfair to compare it to a device like the Companion that contains an entire Windows computer, have much larger, higher quality screen, and doesn’t suffer from buggy drivers, but there just aren’t really any other products on the market that the Penates SP1001 would compete with. If your goal is to draw on a digital tablet monitor on the couch, on a plane, in a hotel room or at a coffee shop and you don’t have $1600+ dollars to spend, this is pretty much it. Is that a resounding endorsement? Not really.

The SP1001 has a lot of room for improvement, but once you fight with the drivers, get it set up, ignore the hotkey problems and get to work, you can actually create finished production quality digital art with it. For $350 (assuming you have your own laptop to hook it up to) and a minimum of cables, you can take your art game on the road with relative ease.

A 13.3” version of this tablet is slated to be released later this year, but it will require a dedicated power supply. I’d be interested to see if Yiynova/UC Logic are able to iron out some of the wrinkles in their software by the time it is released.

Availability

You can check out more reviews of the Yiynova SP1001 at www.amazon.com/Yiynova-UC-logic-SP-1001-Digitizer-Tablet-Display/dp/B00P7J6NL4

Hi, I’m Chris and this is my review of the Yiynova MSP19U+V5 tablet monitor.

I came across this particular tablet while searching for a tablet monitor to replace my old Wacom Bamboo. Besides my Bamboo, I had some experience using various models of Wacom’s Cintiq. I was looking for a cheaper alternative to the Cintiq, which is probably the most well-known and widely used tablet monitor.

After doing extensive research of various alternative tablet monitors, I decided that the MSP19U+V5 was the best option from what I had seen. I bought it on Amazon for $479, with the original price listed as $699. Since then, at the time of writing this, the price has gone down to $449. After spending several hours drawing with it, I can say that it is definitely a great alternative to the Cintiq, especially for being about a quarter of the price of the Cintiq 22 HD and over $300 cheaper than the Cintiq 13 HD.

Tablet Details

The tablet itself is 17.9 by 14.2 inches and 9.7 pounds (4.4kg), so it is not too bulky and can fit on a fairly small desk.

The stand that it comes with is sturdy and has rubber grips on the bottom so that it doesn’t slide around. I don’t feel like I’m going to slide the tablet around or break the stand when I draw on it, even if I’m pushing down hard.

The screen is smooth glass, so it doesn’t have the same paper texture feel as the Cintiq, but after using both, I’ve found that I prefer the smoother screen of the Yiynova. The smoother screen also prevents scratching and the wearing down of the pen nibs. I don’t think a screen protector is necessary and I haven’t seen mention of any need for one in the reviews I have read. The smoother screen also has more potential for glare, but I haven’t had much of a problem with this since I don’t usually have mine close to a bright window.

There are programmable buttons for different commands on the left side of the monitor, but I haven’t really used these much. The labels for the default settings are printed on the front of the monitor, while the buttons are in the back. They seem to be in an easily accessible location, but they make loud clicks when you press them, which may be annoying to people who would use them frequently. The power button and settings buttons are on the lower right side and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to maneuver through the menus to change the colors and brightness. The menus can be difficult to navigate, but I only change display settings occasionally so I wouldn’t consider it a detraction from the tablet.

The default stand setup on the back of the monitor

The programmable buttons on the back left of the monitor and the power and settings buttons on the lower right side

Display

The 19-inch screen has a resolution of 1440x900 and 4000 LPI.

The colors were a bit weird with the default settings, but after playing with the color settings for a while, I managed to get them fairly close to the colors on my laptop. I usually keep another window open on my laptop so that I can check the colors and make sure they look the way I intend. This also helps with the differing resolutions, since the tablet is 1440x900, while my laptop is 1920x1080. Even though the resolution of the tablet is a bit lower than that of my laptop, I usually zoom in enough while I’m drawing that I don’t notice the lower resolution much. The only time that the resolution is noticeable is when working with really fine detail, but even in those instances, the lower resolution is not too much of a problem.

There is a small amount of parallax (where the glass thickness causes a difference in the location of the pen tip and the cursor), but it’s usually not noticeable. Occasionally, if I am sitting in a much different position than I was when I calibrated the screen, I’ll have to recalibrate, but usually that’s not necessary.

The viewing angle isn’t the best because there is no IPS panel, so sometimes if I’m looking at the very top or bottom of the screen, I need to move my head a bit to make sure I’m looking at the screen as close to perpendicularly as possible. However, this probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem for most people because the most comfortable drawing position is directly in front of the monitor.

Accessories

When I received the tablet, it came in a fairly sturdy box that I now use if I need to transport it somewhere. It came with the manual, a disk with the latest drivers, two drawing gloves, two pen kits, all of the necessary cords, and some adapters.

The drawing gloves are well-made and comfortable, as well as reversible, so they can be used whether you are right-handed or left-handed. Although one glove is sufficient, it is nice to have the second one as a backup in case the other gets lost or worn out. Since the tablet screen is a glossy glass, drawing with a glove can prevent smudging on the screen. It can also prevent your hand from sticking when trying to move across the screen while your hand is sweaty, but since the monitor doesn’t give off too much heat, this isn’t much of a problem anyway.

The power cord detaches from the tablet, while the DVI-I input cable does not. It comes with three adapters for HDMI, VGA, and DP++. Use of the tablet requires plugging the power cable into an outlet, one branch of the input cable into a USB port, and the other branch into an input of your choice (I use HDMI). The wires take up a lot of space, but I manage to fit my laptop and tablet on a fairly small desk along with a lamp and other desk clutter.

The box can be carried by the handle without it feeling like it’s going to fall apart.

Two of these reversible gloves came with the tablet

Starting from the left: DVI-I input, USB input, HDMI adapter (I use this one), VGA adapter, DP++ adapter

The Pens

The two pen kits each consist of a P2X pen, two extra nibs (for a total of six nibs including the ones that came in the pens), a nib-remover, and a plastic case for the pen.

The pen itself is comparable to any of the other tablet pens I have used, including those of the Bamboo and Cintiq. The P2X is Yiynova’s best pen model compared to the P2H and older models. The pen has 2048 levels of sensitivity (double what my Bamboo had, but equal to the Cintiq) and does not have tilt detection, but I don’t personally need or use tilt detection, so I don’t consider this a loss.

It is battery-powered and takes one AAA battery. So far I have not had to replace the battery, and from what I have read, the pen can be used regularly for a long time (at least several months) without needing a new battery. The battery doesn’t add a very noticeable amount of weight to the pen, and the weight feels similar to the Wacom pens I have used.

The pen does not have an “eraser” on the other end, but I have not really missed it too much.

There are two programmable buttons on the side which is really my only complaint about the pen. The buttons are positioned in such a way that they are too easy to press, and I often do that accidentally while drawing and end up interrupting my stroke or switching colors unintentionally. Due to this, I often try to position my fingers on the pen differently so that I am less likely to accidentally hit the buttons. However, the buttons can be disabled in the settings menu if you don’t use them. The pen case makes a nice pen holder since it has a hole that you can stand the pen up in. It doesn’t make the best case though because the pen fits a bit too snugly and it is also really hard to pry open. The case also has a transparent ruler on the side, but I haven’t had the need to use it.

The two P2X pens showing their structure and how they open for the battery

The pen cases with extra nibs and nib remover on left and right sides of the open case respectively

Use and Drawing Experience

I use the HDMI adapter with my Dell XPS L511Z laptop running Windows 7.

The software I have used for drawing with this tablet the most is Clip Studio Paint (same thing as Manga Studio), but I have also had a good experience using it with Photoshop.

Drawing is really smooth and natural and I don’t notice any lag or jitter at all.

The pressure sensitivity feels a bit different than Wacom pens, but I was able to easily get the pressure levels how I wanted them by adjusting some pen settings. There is a really nice pressure ramp and I don’t feel as though I need to press too softly or too hard in order to get the full range of pressure values that I want.

The color and resolution difference between the tablet and my laptop isn’t a problem either because I almost always have another window open on my laptop of the drawing so that I can check to make sure everything looks the way that I want it to. As I said before, as long as I calibrate the screen, I don’t have much noticeable parallax and even with a somewhat smaller viewing angle, as long as I stay close to perpendicular to the screen, I don’t need to worry about it affecting my drawing.

The tablet also stays cool for long periods of time and it hasn’t gotten uncomfortably warm, even after several hours of continual use. The tablet also makes a great second monitor, even if I’m not using it for drawing. I can have a window open for reference when using Autodesk Maya, or when using Unity, I can have the code up on one screen and the project window open on the other. Having the extra screen space can help speed things up and make things easier no matter what software I’m using. I also usually have a USB mouse plugged in when I’m using my tablet, so that I can quickly move windows between screens or just for software like Maya or Unity where a mouse is easier to use than a pen.

My setup with my laptop and the MSP19U+V5 with Clip Studio Paint open

Some of the tablet options including pen button settings and pressure sensitivity

Pen pressure sensitivity tests/demonstrations done using Clip Studio Paint

Driver Installation and Problems

I had read in some reviews that it was a good idea to make sure I had installed the tablet drivers before even plugging in the tablet, so I did so. However, I was hoping that I could at least leave my Wacom drivers on my computer so that I could use my Bamboo if I wanted to, but I was unable to get things working correctly until I uninstalled all of the Wacom drivers. This isn’t a big deal because the UC-Logic drivers for the Yiynova installed really quickly so I could uninstall and reinstall drivers in the future if for some reason I needed to use my Bamboo.

Everything was running smoothly, but when I drew with the tablet for long periods of time, the pen pressure would stop working after an hour or two and I would be unable to draw with it until I restarted my computer. This went on for a while, and I would just restart my computer every couple hours, until I finally contacted the seller, The Panda City (in the US), and emailed support. Their customer support was really helpful, responded within a day, and kept up communications until my problem was fixed.

Driver Solution

I will talk about how I solved the problem for reference for anyone else having the same issue. Part of the problem was due to the fact that I had overlooked which version of the drivers I was using. The disk that the tablet came with contained the newest version of the drivers, which were not recommended for use with Windows 7. I downloaded and installed version 5.02 from the Panda City website, but was still having problems. It turned out that my computer was using the default Windows tablet drivers instead of the UC-Logic drivers. I ended up having to create a new administrator account on my computer and reinstall the drivers, which finally solved all of my problems. This was partially my fault for not paying attention to which driver version I needed for my operating system.

I recommend that anyone getting this tablet makes sure they follow the installation instructions located on The Panda City’s Facebook page and uninstalls all other tablet drivers and installs the correct version for their operating system before even plugging in the tablet.

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend the Yiynova MSP19U+V5 to anyone who is looking for a good tablet monitor. It is a great and cost effective alternative to the Wacom Cintiq, and depending on your preference, could be an even better option than the Cintiq. As an upgrade from the Wacom Bamboo, this tablet has made drawing digitally feel much more natural and has drastically sped up my workflow. Here is a quick pros and cons list of what I feel are the most important details of the tablet:

Pros:

• Price (at the time of writing, $449 on Amazon)
• Very responsive and helpful customer service (at least with The Panda City)
• Minimal lag, jitter, and parallax
• Light but sturdy monitor and stand
• Stand is adjustable and doesn’t slide
• Lots of accessories: two gloves, two pens, adapters, nibs, etc.
• Programmable shortcut buttons on the side of the monitor
• Pen battery lasts a long time
• Good range of pen pressure sensitivity
• Glossy screen prevents scratching and nibs from wearing down
• Vivid colors once properly adjusted due to lack of anti-glare surface

Cons:

• Small viewing angle due to having no IPS panel
• Lower resolution
• Possible difficulties with driver installation
• No eraser on pen
• No tilt detection
• Wires take up a lot of space, adapters needed
• Glossy screen more likely to cause glare
• Colors and brightness need some adjustment out of the box

Hopefully this review has provided you with some useful information that will make your tablet-buying choice easier!

Thanks for reading,
Chris Phillips

Availability

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