{"id":4142,"date":"2014-08-14T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T02:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/?p=4142"},"modified":"2014-08-14T23:06:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T03:06:02","slug":"huion-gt-220-drawing-tablet-owners-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/huion-gt-220-drawing-tablet-owners-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Huion GT-220 drawing tablet: Owner’s review"},"content":{"rendered":"

After roughly seven years of using a Wacom Cintiq 12WX<\/strong>, it was time to upgrade.<\/p>\n

Two options were available: stick with Wacom and fork out $2,000 for the Cintiq 22HD<\/strong><\/a> or go with an alternative tablet from the emerging Chinese market.<\/p>\n

As an Adobe Suite user, the issue of drivers steered me further away from the Wacom touch-enabled versions, once I read reviews of no such thing happening for Windows users. Essentially, Wacom points the finger to Adobe that points the finger to Microsoft. It’s the unholy triad.<\/p>\n

After some research I came across Huion<\/strong><\/a>, with an impressive presence in the drawing tablet market. I found this hands-on video review<\/strong><\/a> of the newly released 21.5″ Huion GT-220 drawing tablet<\/strong>, which from an artist’s point of view matched my every need and requirement, not to mention price.<\/p>\n

I took advantage of an early pre-order deal that took $100 off the price and added some hardware gizmos to the standard box; for a total of $830<\/strong> with express shipping included from mainland China, that was an unbeatable deal.<\/p>\n

But would the Huion GT-220 perform?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m being brutally honest: a lot of Chinese electronics suffer from quality control and I was taking a risk, placing only my 3rd order from China ever, via Amazon.<\/p>\n

The box was delivered by DHL today, in just four days; the initial estimate was a week to ten days. Nice!<\/p>\n

At this point, I will describe my hardware setup, in case it defines how the Huion GT-220 functions for others that might order the same product.<\/p>\n

I work with a custom made PC running Windows 7, 64bit, and a dual monitor set up. Despite the hardware being very capable of working with graphics applications, this is a computer system I put together 3 1\/2 years ago; by today’s standards, it’s almost obsolete. That being said, it displayed no performance issues with the Huion GT-220 whatsoever.<\/p>\n

After unpacking the Huion GT-220 that came with an extra stylus – more on that later<\/em> – I downloaded the drivers from the company’s web site. An email note sent to me yesterday, stated that the Chinese customs policy on software did not allow for the inclusion of a CD with the box<\/strong>. No comments.<\/p>\n

Installing the drivers was simple. Then I plugged in the Huion GT-220 as a secondary monitor with the DVI connector, powered it up and inserted the USB connector; Windows found and installed the USB drivers in seconds.<\/p>\n

The Huion GT-220 has a software utility with a rather ‘spartan’ amount of options; calibrating the screen by pointing on five crosshairs was easy to complete. I had a working “screen” that responded to the stylus very accurately.<\/p>\n

I launched three programs I regularly use for design, and began experimenting: Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and Sketchbook Pro.<\/p>\n

The latter responded remarkably well. The Huion GT-220 has 2048 levels of sensitivity, just like the Wacom Cintiq range of tablets. Lines were smooth, accurate, without any jitter or loss of connectivity. Huion created a new stylus just for the GT-220 so older models are not compatible.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the stylus, it comes with a USB pluggable charging cable, that connects to a pinhole in the back. Despite a sticker that urged “Please don’t unscrew!” I assumed they meant the back point where the plug goes, so I twisted it open. Unfortunately, that popped the stylus open, pulling the recharging cables off the back. It’s a good thing they included two as part of the gift promotion.<\/p>\n

The Huion GT-220 has an angling stand attached, allowing for the positioning of the tablet from flat to vertical. It’s easy to adjust per one’s liking, but there are a couple of issues depending on the connector of choice. There is a VGA, a DVI and an HDMI port, along wih the power plug and the USB port, all right at the bottom. If one uses the DVI or the VGA, these are hard plugs that do not allow for the tablet to sit vertically, so the angle has to be very low to horizontal.<\/p>\n

I decided to use the HDMI port instead and bought a converter, which goes from a male DVI plug to a female HDMI; the Huion GT-220 box came with an HDMI cable, which I connected to the converter and the tablet.<\/p>\n

That seemingly innocent change created some problems: drawing accuracy was gone, and although the stylus pointed accurately, drawing was off by almost two inches. I uninstalled the drivers and rebooted, then installed them again.<\/p>\n

While testing the Photoshop setup, I noticed the brush strokes made no use of pressure sensitivity at all. Every line came out flat. There is a solution for users of Photoshop CC<\/strong><\/a> and Wacom tablets; after following the instructions and restarting Photoshop, pressure sensitivity was established.<\/p>\n

Illustrator is functioning extremely accurately as well. It will be a real pleasure once I put it to actual use past these initial tests.<\/p>\n

The Huion GT-220 when used flat or slightly angled, gets quite hot at its bottom third. It’s beyond warm, and the power supply warms up as well. When angled higher or vertically, temperature drops to less noticeable levels. Then again, I’m known to have sensitivity to heat.<\/p>\n

Aside from the impromptu damaging of the stylus due to not grasping the severity of the warning, I consider this to have been a very exciting purchase. The Huion GT-220 currently costs $100 more on Amazon<\/strong><\/a>, and it’s still a great bargain, costing less than half the amount of its matching Wacom competitor.<\/p>\n

After using it for a day, I’m very pleased and I definitely recommend the product for its excellent performance and unbeatable price.<\/p>\n

I hope this owner’s review of the Huion GT-220 will help others decide whether this is a drawing tablet worth buying, and to help troubleshoot any issues that matched mine.<\/p>\n

For more info, visit Huion<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After roughly seven years of using a Wacom Cintiq 12WX, it was time to upgrade. Two options were available: stick with Wacom and fork out $2,000 for the Cintiq 22HD or go with an alternative tablet from the emerging Chinese market. 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