XP-Pen has unveiled a new 27-inch drawing tablet that rivals the visual performance of Wacom 's beloved Cintiq Pro series , but at a fraction of the cost. The Artist Pro 27 is available today for $1,899.99 , offering a 4K resolution display with a 120Hz refresh rate and excellent color accuracy, according to the XP-Pen store listing.
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These specs are similar to Wacom's much more expensive Cintiq Pro 27, which launched four years ago at $3,499. Wacom has long established itself as the leading maker of tablets for creative professionals, but products released by more affordable competitors like XP-Pen and Huion have caught up in recent years, making Wacom's high prices harder to justify for some consumers.
Both 27‑inch tablets support ten‑point multi‑touch capabilities. Color accuracy is also similar, with the Artist Pro 27 covering 99% of Adobe RGB, 99% of sRGB, and 97% of DCI‑P3, but each has its own strong specifications.
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The 5ms latency on the XP-Pen Artist Pro 27 is faster than the 10ms response time of the Cintiq Pro, for example, and the tablet supports 16.384 pressure sensitivity levels compared to 8.192 of Wacom (although most users probably will not notice a large difference between them). The Artist Pro 27 is also supported on more operating systems — Windows, macOS, Android, Chrome and Linux — compared to only Windows and macOS for Wacom.
However, unlike the Cintiq Pro 27, the Artist Pro 27 does not support HDR, and Wacom's offering has a brighter 400 nit screen compared to the 350 nit available on the new XP-Pen tablet. The pens are also different. While the Wacom Pro Pen 3 that comes with the Cintiq Pro 27 allows users to adjust grip thickness, weight and buttons, the Artist Pro 27 includes two separate styluses — the slim X3 Pro Slim and the X3 Pro Smart Chip stylus with more features.
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With almost $2,000, the Artist Pro 27 is not cheap, but for that money you get a top-tier drawing screen for almost half the price of the closest Wacom alternative. It will be up to creative professionals to decide how much they truly value their loyalty to the brand.
