Huion Kamvas 13 Pen Display Review

In for review, we are taking an in-depth look at the Kamvas 13 Pen Display. This is one of Huion’s latest in the Kamvas series, offering a generous 13″ drawing space for $199 USD – the most affordable in the line-up. This review will delve into the key features, performance, and overall value of the Kamvas 13 to assist you in deciding if it meets your requirements for a portable drawing solution.

Disclosure: Huion sent the Kamvas 13 (Cosmo Black) for the purpose of this review. Note that my opinions and observations are entirely of my own, and receiving the product has not influenced the content of this review in any way.

Technical Specifications

The Kamvas 13 is offered in 3 colorways: Violet Purple, Midnight Green, and Cosmo Black. As for technicalities, the Kamvas 13 comes with a 13.3-inch IPS panel with a Full HD resolution. Reported panel response time is rated at 25 ms, which is generous for its class. As for the pointing device, Huion equipped the Kamvas 13 with their PW517 pen, featuring 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity in a battery-free package.

Display
Panel Size	13.3 inches
Screen Technology	IPS
Surface Treatment	Anti-glare Matte Film
Resolution	1920 x 1080 (16:9)
Pixel Density	166 PPI
Refresh Rate	60 Hz
Variable Refresh Rate	N/A
Brightness	220 cd/m²
Contrast ‎Ratio	1000:1
Response Time‎	25 ms
Color Coverage	120% sRGB, 92% Adobe RGB, 88% NTSC
Color Depth	8-bit
Connectivity
Display Options‎	USB-C (HDMI), USB-C (DP)
USB	2x USB 3.0 (Type-C)
Audio‎	N/A
Pen
Pressure Sensitivity	8192
Retraction Distance	N/A
Tilt	±60°
Type	Battery-Free Electromagnetic Resonance
Dimensions
Length	366.5 mm
Width	217.4 mm
Height	11.8 mm
Weight	980 grams

Packaging and Accessories

The Kamvas 13 comes in a cardboard box along with its official retail packaging.

Scope of delivery are as follows:

• Kamvas 13 pen display
• Drawing pen (PW517)
• Three-in-one cable
• Power cable extension
• Pen holder (PH05A)
• 10x Pen nibs
• Pen nib clip
• Drawing glove
• Cleaning cloth
• Documentation(s)

The Kamvas 13 comes bundled with numerous items to kickstart your experience. You’ll even get a doughnut shaped pen and nib holder.

Design, Build and Connectivity

The Kamvas 13 boasts a sleek 16.7-inch frame with a simple, modern design. Our model comes in black, making it the ideal choice for those who prefer a more understated look over the more conspicuous purple and green options.

The back of the Kamvas 13 is understandably simple with rubber pads to keep it in place. I initially thought it might need another one right in the middle but it doesn’t flex so I will give Huion’s R&D a point considering that the Kamvas 13 is just around 11.8 mm thin.

The Kamvas 13 comes with a set of 8 buttons (complete with tactile marks) that could be configured with hotkeys via the software. Six of them could also be used to access the OSD which is surprising as I have not seen a $200 USD pen display offering such a feature.

You have two options for connectivity and power: a USB Type-C port with a smaller sleeve guide for the 3-in-1 cable, and a USB Type-C port with a larger guide for the optional single cable configuration. I wish the latter had a larger diameter sleeve guide, as my Thunderbolt cables do not fit in these ports.

Huion pairs the Kamvas 13 with the PW517 (PenTech 3.0), a battery-free electromagnetic resonance pen. This pen offer 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt support of ±60°, and a generous sensing height of 10 mm. The pen also includes a stand that doubles as a container for the nibs and a nib puller.

Ergonomics

The Huion Kamvas 13 boasts a 13.3-inch IPS display set in a 16.7-inch frame. It offers a resolution of 1920 x 1080, which results in a pixel density of 166 PPI, all things considered. Since it rocks an IPS panel, expect good viewing angles combined with its paper-like matte screen that doubles up as an anti-glare protection.

Now, parallax is unnoticeable, which is surprising for its price. The PW517 pen also feels natural like higher-end pens but has superior grip compared to those that I have tested – even the better ones, specification wise. I just wish it is a bit heavier (only weighs 14 grams) and comes with an eraser on its end.

Software

The Kamvas 13’s OSD could be accessed by pressing and holding buttons 4 and 5 simultaneously. From there, you will be greeted by 5 main menus: Picture, Color, Advance, Other, and Information. Brightness, contrast and sharpness for an instance could be adjusted via the Picture menu.

Color is where panel uniformity, gamma, temperature, and color adjustment settings are located.

Advanced is where you could adjust the aspect ratio, the panel’s overdrive mode, and a few more others. Now while I appreciate having an OSD to play with, the navigation itself is clunky and you are better off adjusting some of the settings using the software.

 

Speaking, the software from Huion offers what you should expect from a capable pen display. The Pen Display menu for example is in charge of the shortcut keys and work area configuration that should allow you to use the Kamva 13 like a traditional pen tablet.

The Digital Pen menu provides the same shortcut keys as for the pen, including a user-friendly sub-menu for adjusting the PW517’s pressure sensitivity.

Finally, we reach the settings area where the software’s On-Screen Display (OSD) interface is found. I use this instead of the traditional method to prepare the pen display for calibration.

OSD Presets

The Huion Kamvas 13 comes with 4 presets via its software. That being said, we chose Standard as our profile with a custom Color Temperature setting. Below are the initial measurements.

Spyder5 ELITE | OSD Settings
Settings	Brightness (cd/m²)	Black Level (%)	Contrast (:)	White Point (K)
Standard	102.9	0.21	500:1	8100
Motion	136.4	0.27	500:1	8100
Gaming	200.6	0.30	680:1	8400
Movie	228.3	0.31	750:1	9000

OSD settings are as follows:

• Preset = Standard
• Brightness = 100 (120 cd/m²)
• Contrast = 50
• Color Temperature = R106, G90, B85
• Gamma = N/A
• Color Space = N/A

Shoot me an email if you need the ICC/ICM profile for this particular pen display.

Gamut

The color space coverage of the Kamvas 13 is good across the tested ranges. It is however undoubtedly lower compared to the spec, with the possible exception of the sRGB color space. On another note, the DCI-P3 coverage is close to excellent.

Spyder5 ELITE | Gamut, Percent (%)
Color Space	sRGB	AdobeRGB	DCI-P3	NTSC
Measured	100	87	96	84

Tone Response

The Kamvas 13 offers a standard gamma level of 2.2. I have not tested other gamma levels as of yet. I will update this once I got the time to fiddle with the actual OSD.

Spyder5 ELITE | Tone Response, Gamma (γ)
Target	1.8	2.0	2.2	2.4	2.6
Measured	N/A	N/A	2.2	N/A	N/A

Brightness and Contrast

The Kamvas 13 has a peak brightness of 226.2 cd/m², which is higher than the rated specifications. For such a small drawing tablet, this is a win. Contrast on the other hand is middling, along with a rather cool white point across all tested levels. Regardless, calibrating the display should allow you to pretty much reach the color temperature of your liking.

Spyder5 ELITE | Brightness and Contrast (SDR)
Settings	Brightness (cd/m²)	Black Level (%)	Contrast (:)	White Point (K)
0%	5.9	0.00	1480:1	7800
25%	37.8	0.12	310:1	7900
50%	101.8	0.21	490:1	800
75%	179.9	0.26	700:1	8600
100%	226.2	0.30	840:1	9700

Screen Uniformity

The Kamvas 13 provides above-average color uniformity for its category, with an average Delta-E value of 2.21.

Spyder5 ELITE | Color Uniformity, Delta-E (ΔE)
2.6	1.1	4.7
0.7	0.0	1.6
3.6	3.2	2.4

As for luminance hotspots, Huion could definitely improve this area.

Spyder5 ELITE | Luminance Uniformity, Percent (%)
19	12	6
14	6	2
9	1	0

Color Accuracy

The color accuracy of the Kamvas 13 is decent, resulting at an average of 1.88 ΔE for the 12 color patches tested. At the 48 color patch test, this goes up at 2.18 ΔE.

Spyder5 ELITE | Color Accuracy, Delta-E (ΔE)
Patch ID	sRGB	Measured
1E	249, 242, 238	0.41
2E	202, 198, 195	1.03
3E	161, 154, 157	1.95
4E	122, 118, 116	3.31
5E	80, 80, 78	2.79
6E	43, 41, 43	2.81
1F	0, 127, 159	4.07
2F	192, 75, 145	2.06
3F	245, 205, 0	0.52
4F	186, 26, 51	0.33
5F	57, 146, 64	1.96
6F	25, 55, 135	1.34
	Minimum	0.33
	Maximum	4.07
	Average	1.88

Response Time

The Kamvas 13 is technically not meant for fast pace content consumption as seen with the perceived response time results below, averaging at 30.1 ms for the duration of the benchmark. For the pen display’s intended purposes, this is not something you should be concerned with.

OSRTT | Perceived Response Time, Millisecond (ms)
	0	51	102	153	204	255
0		20.7	40.8	42.5	39.8	30.8
51	6.4		27.7	40.4	38.1	29.2
102	15.1	32.5		26.4	28	27.1
153	21.1	35.8	32.8		24.8	24.4
204	25.8	49.3	34.7	20		20.1
255	28.3	50.3	39	33.7	19.9

RGB overshoot is almost perfect with minimal errors. You’d normally see overshoot anyway for panels with faster response times.

OSRTT | RGB Overshoot, Error
	0	51	102	153	204	255
0		0	0	0	0	0
51	0		0	1	0	0
102	0	0		1	0	0
153	0	0	1		0	1
204	0	0	0	2		0
255	0	0	0	1	1

Input Lag

The Kamvas 13 offers a 16.7 ms average display lag which is a standard result for 60 Hz panels.

As for the pointing device, the PW517 pen comes with an average input lag of 14.72 ms. Not bad!

Polling Rate

The PW517 pen’s polling rate averages around 2.602 ms which is about 384 Hz. I am not sure if the metric standards are comparable to Huion’s report rate (PPS) so let us leave this as is.

Actuation Force

The actuation force needed to register the left and right buttons of the PW517 is approximately around 64.9 cN which is rather light. The pen on the other hand activates at 3.67 cN via its default pressure settings.

Power

At maximum brightness, the Kamvas 13 outputs about 6.10 W. That said, it is a pretty efficient pen display.

Final Thoughts

The Huion Kamvas 13 Pen Display is a good option for those seeking a cost-effective, portable drawing tablet with robust features. It offers a solid 13.3-inch IPS panel with Full HD resolution, decent color accuracy, and a paper-like matte finish. The display’s color coverage is quite good for its price, meeting expectations in several color spaces. To add, the screen uniformity and brightness levels of the Kamvas 13 are also commendable for a device in its price range.

The accompanying PW517 pen is a personal highlight of the package, providing a comfortable grip that enhances the overall drawing experience. Although the pen lacks an eraser and feels slightly lightweight, it performs on par with more premium styluses, demonstrating minimal parallax in combination with the panel along with a smooth responsiveness. The input lag and polling rate are within acceptable ranges, ensuring precise and timely feedback for its purposes.

One of the key strengths of the Kamvas 13 is its design and build quality. It features a sleek and modern aesthetic, with a thin profile and solid construction that is enhanced by practical features like customizable hotkeys and dual connectivity options. The device supports both a traditional three-in-one cable and an optional single USB-C connection, although some might find the port design slightly restrictive for cables other than Huion’s.

The software suite provided by Huion allows for ample customization of the pen’s performance and screen settings, and I appreciate it more over the On-Screen Display (OSD) as it can be cumbersome to navigate. Nonetheless, the inclusion of an OSD for a device in this price bracket is a rare and welcome feature, enabling fine-tuning of various display attributes.

Overall, the Kamvas 13 offers an excellent value for its price; balancing performance, design, and affordability in a neat and portable package. It may not be without its quirks, such as the luminance uniformity and the clunkiness of its OSD, but these are relatively minor concerns compared to its strengths. For digital artists looking for a reliable and feature-rich drawing display that won’t break the bank, the Kamvas 13 is an impressive choice that punches above its weight.