XP-Pen has launched a new 27-inch display drawing tablet that competes with the visual performance of Wacom’s beloved Cintiq Pro series, but for a fraction of the cost. The Artist Pro 27 is available starting today for $1,899.99, providing a 4K resolution display with a 120Hz refresh rate and extreme color accuracy, according to XP-Pen’s webstore listing.
Those specifications are similar to Wacom’s much pricier Cintiq Pro 27, which launched four years ago for $3,499. Wacom has long established itself as the leading tablet manufacturer for creative professionals, but products released by more affordable competitors like XP-Pen and Huion have caught up in the last few years, making Wacom’s lofty prices harder for some consumers to justify.
Both of the 27-inch display tablets support ten-point multi-touch features. Color accuracy is also similar, with the Artist Pro 27 covering 99 percent of Adobe RGB, 99 percent of sRGB, and 97 percent of DCI-P3, but each otherwise has its own specification strengths.
The 5ms latency on the XP-Pen Artist Pro 27 is faster than the Cintiq Pro’s 10ms response time, for example, and the tablet supports 16,384 levels of pressure sensitivity compared to 8,192 on the Wacom (though I imagine most users won’t experience much difference between them). The Artist Pro 27 is also supported on more operating systems — Windows, macOS, Android, Chrome, and Linux — compared to just Windows and macOS for Wacom.
Unlike the Cintiq Pro 27, however, the Artist Pro 27 doesn’t support HDR, and Wacom’s offering has a brighter 400-nit display compared to the 350 nits available on XP-Pen’s new tablet. The pens are also distinct. While the Wacom Pro Pen 3 that ships with the Cintiq Pro 27 allows users to customize the grip thickness, weight, and buttons, the Artist Pro 27 includes two separate styluses — the skinny X3 Pro Slim and the more feature-packed X3 Pro Smart Chip stylus.
At almost $2,000, the Artist Pro 27 is hardly cheap, but for that, you’re getting a flagship drawing display for almost half the price of Wacom’s closest alternative. It’ll be up to creative professionals to decide how much their brand loyalty is really worth.
