Using the Ugee 2150 for Work - Part 1 of 5
A review of the UGEE 2150 21-inch digital display
Speeding Up the Drawing Process
It’s been a good six years since I transitioned from pen and
ink illustration to digital. It took me
three months to get used to working on a Wacom Bamboo Touch tablet---which I
still love dearly. And in those six
years, I’ve had two books published and several artworks that have gone to
print.
As I began working on two new books earlier this year, I
realized that I needed to speed up the process.
And the best way to do that was to work direct-pen-to-screen. So, the Cintiq seemed like the obvious
choice. I’ve been exposed to tons of Wacom
tablets (seeing them being used and occasionally testing them) due to my many
years in the advertising field and it was clear that Wacom was and still is
king. But price is such a big
thing. Wacom Cintiqs are a big
investment.
Identifying my
artistic needs
My budget could have gotten me a Cintiq 13HD. But the screen real estate was a
problem. I needed something bigger for
zooming in on bigger images---and something that I could rest my palm and part
of my arm on. That’s the way I’ve always
drawn on paper. The bigger Cintiqs were
just way out of my budget.
I needed something that worked well with black and white,
the occasional color work, Manga Studio EX, and Photoshop. I searched online and found quite a number of
Cintiq alternatives---most of them from China (one is from Taiwan, I think).
Huion was the most popular brand, but for some reason I found that reviews of
the UGEE brand of pen displays more compelling.
After weeks of research I contacted a Ugee representative and placed my
order for a UGEE 2150. It took almost
two weeks shipping from China to the Philippines. The unit cost less than half the Cintiq 13
HD. Unbelievable.
Dispelling the Clone Myth
Many reviewers refer to the Cintiq alternatives as Wacom
“clones.” I know that Ugee and most
Chinese brands are not. Some, if not most,
of the clones are from other respectable
name brands and they use Wacom tech.
Majority of chinese
brands like UGEE use UC-Logic drivers that were developed independently from
Wacom drivers. On that note, UC-Logic
(from Taiwan) has also gotten into making their own pen display tablets called
Artisul (Looks like Artisul will be a serious Cintiq contender in the next
three to five years---the build quality of their tablets are pretty solid
according to most reviewers).
Out of the Box
There are a bunch of unboxings of the UGEE 2150 on youtube so I’m not doing
that. My unit came in a very sturdy box
with ample protection. The contents
included the full HD IPS monitor with built-in stand, two rechargable active pens, two pen charging
cables, a pen holder with extra nibs, an
hdmi cable, a usb cable, a VGA cable, and a power supply .
Professional Work
After watching and reading so many reviews, I wanted to see
if the UGEE 2150 could be used for pro work (againg, I made sure that it
matched my needs). Most reviewers have
generalized their statements saying that the UGEE is something for serious
hobbyists. I couldn’t understand
why. I think they arrived at this
conclusion due to their longer experiences with Cintiqs. And because of this, I had to try it out myself.
How does the unit perform with real work? I’ll be posting the answers on part 2 of this
review! Tune in next week!
