MacDirectory Magazine

Visionary Fusion

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

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• Laminated • Contrast: 1000:1 • Pressure Sensitivity: 8192 levels • Tilt: 60° Design and features If you are familiar with drawing tablets, the following info will be unnecessary. Even when drawing tablets look like iPads or other smart tablets, there are important differences, Tablets like the U1600 require a computer to work—they are not standalone devices. The U1600 is like any other monitor, only you can draw on it with the included pen—like an iPad. Some prefer using tablets over iPads for art because the surface is more like paper and less like glass. Plus, any app can be used—if it runs on your computer, it shows on the U1600. The U1600 has a 1920 x 1080 resolution screen. Any larger tablet at this resolution will be too low for professional work but 1920 x 1080 works well on a 16-inch-sized tablet. The tablet is plastic but has a nice weight and balance. It feels more premium than its cost. The U1600 is designed to lie flat on a table. Even though there is a photo on their website showing the U1600 propped up on a stand, Ugee offers no stand for sale. And there is no VESA connection available for aftermarket stands. So the user is required to come up with an alternative stand without Ugee’s help. Plus, using a display monitor while flat is not great for one’s posture. Besides the On/off button at the top of the U1600, there is a physical brightness switch. Connections come out of the top center. I am not a fan of any cable sticking out of the top of a monitor. The screen is covered by a matte plastic film. This adds “tooth” to the screen making it more of an organic drawing experience. The issue I have is that a plastic film can wear down over time. I prefer the permanency of etched glass, but that costs extra. Screen colors are bright and accurate—again a minor miracle at this price. 94% Adobe RGB, 127% sRGB and 90% NTSC. Even if these numbers don’t make sense to you, this matters. Many tablets costing more are less accurate than the U1600. Many tablets get tripped up by their driver software. Drivers are necessary apps that tell the computer to recognize the tablet. While I’ve had issues with XP Pen’s drivers (owned by Ugee), the Ugee driver installation was one of the easiest I’ve used. It was not as user-friendly as Xencelabs driver, but easy enough to figure out. Hopefully, in the future, the three Ugee divisions can share driver info. Once set up, the U1600 acts like any other connected monitor. Its laminated screen prevents any parallax—that annoying disconnect between where the pen tip touches the surface and the cursor viewed underneath. When the screen is laminated, the tip and cursor line up precisely—every time. Drawing on the U1600 is pleasant enough, but I’m not a fan of the thin pen. I prefer a thicker, more contoured pen for the hand. The Ugee pen has an eraser on the other end much like a pencil. It works as advertised, but I’m more comfortable with selecting the eraser function already in the app (usually Photoshop). The pen also has two buttons that can be customized to perform shortcuts. I Laminated Contrast: 1000:1 Pressure Sensitivity: 8192 levels Tilt: 60° Design and features If you are familiar with drawing tablets, the following info will be unnecessary. Even when drawing tablets look like iPads or other smart tablets, there are important differences, Tablets like the U1600 require a computer to work—they are not standalone devices. The U1600 is like any other monitor, only you can draw on it with the included pen—like an iPad. Some prefer using tablets over iPads for art because the surface is more like paper and less like glass. Plus, any app can be used—if it runs on your computer, it shows on the U1600. The U1600 has a 1920 x 1080 resolution screen. Any larger tablet at this resolution will be too low for professional work but 1920 x 1080 works well on a 16-inch-sized tablet. The tablet is plastic but has a nice weight and balance. It feels more premium than its cost. The U1600 is designed to lie flat on a table. Even though there is a photo on their website showing the U1600 propped up on a stand, Ugee offers no stand for sale. And there is no VESA connection available for aftermarket stands. So the user is required to come up with an alternative stand without Ugee’s help. Plus, using a display monitor while flat is not great for one’s posture. Besides the On/off button at the top of the U1600, there is a physical brightness switch. Connections come out of the top center. I am not a fan of any cable sticking out of the top of a monitor. The screen is covered by a matte plastic film. This adds “tooth” to the screen making it more of an organic drawing experience. The issue I have is that a plastic film can wear down over time. I prefer the permanency of etched glass, but that costs extra. Screen colors are bright and accurate—again a minor miracle at this price. 94% Adobe RGB, 127% sRGB and 90% NTSC. Even if these numbers don’t make sense to you, this matters. Many tablets costing more are less accurate than the U1600. Many tablets get tripped up by their driver software. Drivers are necessary apps that tell the computer to recognize the tablet. While I’ve had issues with XP Pen’s drivers (owned by Ugee), the Ugee driver installation was one of the easiest I’ve used. It was not as user-friendly as Xencelabs driver, but easy enough to figure out. Hopefully, in the future, the three Ugee divisions can share driver info. Once set up, the U1600 acts like any other connected monitor. Its laminated screen prevents any parallax—that annoying disconnect between where the pen tip touches the surface and the cursor viewed underneath. When the screen is laminated, the tip and cursor line up precisely—every time. Drawing on the U1600 is pleasant enough, but I’m not a fan of the thin pen. I prefer a thicker, more contoured pen for the hand. The Ugee pen has an eraser on the other end much like a pencil. It works as advertised, but I’m more comfortable with selecting the eraser function already in the app (usually Photoshop). The pen also has two buttons that can be customized to perform shortcuts. I

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