Inspiroy Dial

The Inspiroy Dial offers a great combination of drawing area size, portability and the virtually essential dial feature.

This is one of the largest budget drawing tablets out there and it has a specific characteristic that sets it apart from almost all the other devices currently being sold: wireless connection.

Look, if there’s one thing we can all agree on is that wires, cables, cords (whatever you want to call them) are literally the one thing that technology still hasn’t managed to completely eradicate.

Think about it, our computers are super fast, our electronic devices are capable of things that most people couldn’t even imagine a few decades ago, but wires are still an omnipresent aspect of our lives.

Just yesterday I was writing a review about an awesome display drawing tablet (display tablets are the ones that have their own screen) that despite all of its great features has a lot of wires. While I was setting it up I started thinking:

“Why do I still have to do this?”

Let me tell you something, the Inspiroy Dial would be a great drawing tool even if it needed a wire, but the fact that it doesn’t simply puts it way ahead of all of its competitors.

Not only is this an award-winning drawing tablet, but it’s one of the best options out there if you are looking for a budget device.

Ispiroy Dial – The Box

I will always congratulate companies that work hard to improve their products, even when these improvements are small.

As I’ve mentioned in the Inspiroy Ink review, Huion has made some substantial progress in their packaging during the past couple of years.

The drawing tablets from the Inspiroy series come in a beautiful matte-black box that adds a lot to the way people perceive the product and the brand itself.

Instead of relying on a new package that was already miles ahead of their previous ones, Huion decided to push a little harder and improve a design that was already great.

What I’m about to mention may seem like a tiny detail, but the beauty of design and art in general lies exactly there, in the details.

At first glance, the Inspiroy Dial box looks almost exactly the same as the Inspiroy Ink one, but if you pay close attention to the sides, it’s easy to notice that the Inspiroy Dial has this light-blue line that goes around the whole box.

It looks great doesn’t it?

It does, but more than that, the blue area indicates the separation between the upper and lower part of the package, this is where the box can be opened.

Why is this important?

Because virtually every drawing tablet you can find comes in a box that is not particularly easy to open. I’m not saying that they’re hard to open, but their design is not optimized.

Huion went the extra mile to design a box that is better looking and at the same time more functional than everything else I’ve seen so far.

As artists, making our work more beautiful and at the same time more useful is something we should always strive for.

Advantages of the Inspiroy Dial

Writing about this particular drawing tablet is easy because it has almost every feature you could expect.

That said, I will try focus on the features that stand out the most and make this tablet different from most of what you will find out there.

The Dial

This feature is mentioned in the name of the device (Inspiroy Dial) for a reason.

I have mentioned the importance of the dial in many different articles across this website, but I must say this again because I need you, the reader, to truly grasp how much such a simple feature can have a positive impact in your work.

Any digital artist will tell you that zooming in an out of the image they’re working on is the single most repeated action right after actually drawing.

In order to produce anything remotely interesting, you, like all other artists, will have to use the zoom tool literally hundreds of times, if not thousands during the creation process.

While it’s perfectly possible to access the zoom tool in every industry-graded software (like Adobe Photoshop) through the keyboard or simply by using a mouse, this process may take a few seconds.

I’m sure you don’t think that a few seconds will impact your workflow, but it’s important to keep in mind that you will have to perform this action hundreds and sometimes thousands of times to get a single piece of artwork done.

One you start doing the math, seconds become minutes and minutes become hours. Precious time wasted simply because you needed to zoom.

How does the dial reduce time wasted on zooming?

The dial is a round button that when turned clockwise immediately zooms in and when turned anti-clockwise zooms out. The user doesn’t need to click anything, doesn’t need to configure anything, all it takes is that turning that button to get the desired outcome.

Once you start using the Inspiroy Dial, using the zoom tool will become second nature, you won’t even have to think about it.

Wireless Connection

As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this post, wireless drawing tablets are still unbelievably rare, but I firmly believe that within the next few years, they will become the rule in the industry, particularly when it comes to budget tablets.

While I think it’s completely understandable that feature-rich, large and complex drawing tablets may still need wires for the foreseeable future, cheaper ones will surely follow a different path due to customer preferences.

The Inspiroy Dial comes with a 2.4G USB wireless receiver that has a range from 5 to 10 meters, which is much greater than you will ever need.

Why is this range more than enough?

If you were to sit more than 5 meters away from your computer screen, you wouldn’t even be able to see it anyway. What I’m trying to say is, no matter where you choose to sit in your bedroom or office, the connection between the Inspiroy Dial and your computer will always be strong.

Why a wireless drawing tablet is simply better than a wired one?

To begin with, you don’t have to worry about carrying or untangling wires anymore. You don’t even have to worry about plugging anything. All you need to do is turn on your computer, choose your favorite software and start drawing right away.

Other than that, if you are like me and have to spend multiple hours a day facing a computer screen, it would be wise to take a break when you get home and stay away from screens as much as possible. Since this is not always possible, the second-best thing is to use screens at a longer distance, and this is precisely what I do with my Inspiroy Dial.

Instead of sitting just a few inches from my desktop’s monitor (which is quite large), I like to lie on my bed and create my drawings all the way from across the room. I can still get work done without having that blue-light screen piercing my eyes and without sitting down for more hours of my day.

Battery-Life

What’s the use of a great wireless device if it’s not coupled with decent battery-life, right?

The folks at Huion really thought this through because charging the Inspiroy Dial for one hour and a half to three hours is enough to keep the device working for 20 hours.

I have run 3 tests to make sure that these numbers were correct and here are my results:

From this data I came to the conclusion that charging the drawing tablet for 2 hours and a half is the optimum choice.

One more thing I must mention is that the Inspiroy Dial can stay on standby for up to 6 months.

Yes, you read that right, 6 entire months. Even though I haven’t been able to test the standby period, every single thing that Huion has been advertising in its products’ boxes has been consistent with my tests.

Android Compatibility

Recently Huion has decided that it simply could not ignore the obvious move that all of us have made towards a cellphone-based interaction with the digital world.

Most of our Google searches are now made through cellphones, the bulk of our conversations also happens in the small screen, it was only a matter of time until the art/design industry made its transition to cellphones.

With the advent of increasingly powerful drawing apps, it makes perfect sense to unite our innate need to draw to these devices that we all carry in our pockets. And although drawing directly on a cellphone screen with our fingers can be fun for a few minutes, it simply isn’t a feasible way to create anything truly great.

Now, combining a full-fledged professional drawing tablet with a cellphone can yield amazing results.

I know, I know…a cellphone screen is too small and it’s not that comfortable to use it as a primary output device, but you must agree with me that it’s better to have this option than simply not having it, right?

The Inspiroy Dial can be used with any Android device, it doesn’t matter if it’s a cellphone or a regular tablet. All you need to do is connecting the Inspiroy Dial to your Android device and you’re literally ready to start working.

Take a look at the picture below to see that adapters:

As you must have noticed, Huion was careful enough to ship the Inspiroy Dial with two different kinds of adapters, this way you can be sure that no matter which Android device you have, it will work just fine with your drawing tablet.

Pen Stand

This may look like a minor detail, but Huion has also made a significand design improvement in the pen-stand that comes with the Inspiroy Dial.

Most companies still develop pen stands that keep the stylus on a vertical position and I have always had a problem with this.

Their argument is this: “If the pen is in a vertical position, it’s easier for the artist to grab it faster”.

Take a look at the picture below to understand the issue:

Well, drawing tablet companies are actually right, it is easier to grab a pen when it’s positioned like the picture above. However, it is also much easier to knock it off the table at the slightest bump. And this is where my issue with this design choice arises.

I have broken multiple digital pens by knocking them off the table while trying to grab something else and for this reason I have decided to completely ban pen stands from my work area. I must have 15 to 20 different pen stands in my house (yes, I own that many drawing tablets), but staying away from them was the right choice. Until now.

Yes! I’ve changed my mind about pen-stands due to the new design introduced by Huion through the Inspiroy Dial.

Take a look at this picture and try to see if you can spot what’s so brilliant about this design:

It’s not that easy to see, but if you pay close attention you will realize that there’s a little gap on the borders of this round-shaped-donut-like pen stand. This little gap allows the user to place the stylus (digital pen) horizontally on the stand, thus dramatically reducing the chances of the pen being knocked off.

Check it out:

Important Core Features of the Inspiroy Dial

As we all know, innovation is awesome and whenever a a company brings something new to the table, users simply love it.

That said, it’s important to mention that these days simply adding new features is not enough. Companies also need to make sure that the basic, core functions are also perfectly aligned with customer expectations and needs.

Luckily, the Inspiroy Dial has excelled both in the innovations and the core-features departments. Since I have already discussed all the cool things about this drawing tablet, let me talk about two other extremely important aspects that make the Inspiroy Dial one of the best possible choices when it comes to budget tablets: active drawing area size and stylus quality.

Active Drawing Area

At 10.5 x 6.5 inches, the Inspiroy Dial is noticeable larger than the other budged tablets.

I would definitely place it in the medium-large drawing tablets category. While it’s not huge like those devices that are not meant to be moved around, it’s large enough to give the use the impression of drawing on printer-sized paper sheet.

Out of all the budget tablets I own, this one is the largest. It sits right in the line between usability and portability, meaning although it’s large, you can still fit it in a laptop backpack and carry it around.

It’s safe to say that you will not be able to find anything within these dimensions at the same price range (click here to see the price on Amazon).

Since I know every artist prefers to have more space to work with, I believe this is one of the strongest aspects of the Inspiroy Dial.

Digital Pen (Stylus)

The digital pen has everything you could hope for:

•  Battery-free

• Tilt-function (allows the user to draw without worrying about holding the pen in a specific way)

•  8192 levels of pressure sensitivity (able to capture the slightest hand movements for greater detail)

• Two programmable buttons (switch brushes easily)

• 266 PPS report rate (the lines you draw on the board appear on the screen almost in real-time)

Huion has been getting their digital pens right for quite a long time now and the Inspiroy Dial is just another example of this area in which the company has excelled.

Disadvantages of the Inspiroy Dial

I have to be honest; it was hard to find a disadvantage, especially when I compare this tablet to its counterparts.

The only comment I could make has to do with the dial itself. The fact that the button is slightly raised above the drawing board means that it can be easily damaged during transportation, especially if you’re carrying it with other items such as books and so on.

As long as you are careful while carrying it around, especially if you’re using a backpack, you should not have any problems with this particular drawing tablet.

Conclusion

Winner of the Taiwan Golden Pin Design Award under the Product Design Category, the Inspiroy Dial is an amalgamation of design and functionality.

Huion has been getting a lot of things right when launching their most recent drawing tablets and the Inspiroy Dial is a great example of this march to the very top of the drawing tablet industry.

This device is a clear evolution of the already great Inspiroy Ink and has the potential to become one of the most useful drawing tablets within its price range.

A large drawing area coupled with a highly responsive digital pen were enough reason for this device to be a success, but bringing in new features such as a dial, wireless connection, Android compatibility and a battery that lasts for up to 20 hours has definitely catapulted the Inspiroy Dial to new heights turning it into one of the smartest investments an artist can make.

If you analyze the products that are currently available in the market, feature by feature, and take into consideration their price tag, there is no competition, the Insiproy Dial is the winner.

Make sure to check Huion’s website, they have even more information about the Inspiroy Dial and are always releasing innovative solutions for digital artists.

Do you have any questions? Make sure to leave a comment. I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Keep on creating,

Bruno Santos.