XP-Pen vs Huion? This is a question that any creative on a budget may well ask themselves, as they hunt for a great drawing tablet that doesn’t require paying the price for a Wacom or a top-end iPad Pro.

Whereas once Wacom was the only real name in drawing tablets, these days there’s a lot more competition out there. Manufacturers like XP-Pen and Huion have ably stepped in to fill the gap, offering tablets that are not only well-priced but also offer a competitive drawing experience to the big dogs of the industry.

Speaking of competitive prices, take a look at our Black Friday drawing tablet deals page where we've been rounding up the very best early deals and discounts on an array of drawing tablets and pen displays – which includes $50 off the Huion Kamvas Pro 16, and further price cuts predicted as we get closer to the event.

Our full guide to the best drawing tablets includes a few models from XP-Pen and Huion, and they thoroughly earned their place on that list. But which is better – or, to ask a better question, which is better for you? Everyone is different after all, so we’ve put together this guide to help you answer this question for yourself.

Before we start, we’ve divided this guide up into sections for the two different types of tablets that XP-Pen and Huion make – graphics tablets and pen displays. Essentially, the main difference between the two is that graphics tablets do not have a screen, so need to be hooked up to an external monitor or other display device. Pen displays, meanwhile, do have their own screen, which provides a much more immediate and intuitive drawing experience, but also adds to the bulk and cost of the tablet.

While we don't have room to go through every single product each brand offers, we’ll compare a few similar tablets and their pros and cons to give you a sense of what might be right for you. So let’s get started – it’s time to pitch XP-Pen vs Huion.

XP-Pen vs Huion: Graphics tablets

Both manufacturers offer a number of small, cheap graphics tablets. Highly portable, these are great for those who like to draw on the go, or just want something simple that isn’t going to need a lot of technical know-how to draw on (graphics tablets tend to be some of the best drawing tablets for kids for this reason).

Let’s look at some examples from Huion and XP-Pen. Both firms offer quite a few graphics tablets at various sizes – you can go as small as 4 to 5 inches in display size, with options like the XP-Pen Deco Fun XS and the Huion H430P. These tend to be similarly priced and offer very similar functionality, with at least 4,096 pressure sensitivity levels. If you’re going for these absolute smallest tablets, we’d say the Huion H430P maybe has the edge, as it comes at about the same price but has the advantage of two customisable function buttons.

But let’s say you want quite a bit more drawing space, and skip up a few levels to the 10-inch graphics tablets. Both firms offer quite a bit of choice here, with options like the Huion Inspiroy H1060P, the XP-Pen Deco Pro, and the XP-Pen Deco 03. Again you’ll find a lot of similarity – all these tablets will tend to give you 8,192 pressure sensitivity levels, a number of customisable function keys and so on.

XP-Pen’s stable of cheap graphics tablets is larger – there are overall more options with the firm at low price points. However, Huion tends to make products with slightly more robust build quality, and is also coming out with some innovative ideas in this sector, like the Huion Inspiroy Keydial KD200, which combines a graphics tablet and a keyboard.

XP-Pen vs Huion: Pen Displays

Once we get into pen displays, prices start going up and we start seeing serious artistic tools. These are products essentially designed for those who want a Wacom Cintiq (or an iPad Pro) but can’t afford one – and they’re getting better and better.

Let’s compare the firm’s 16-inch offerings. XP-Pen fairly recently debuted the XP-Pen Artist Pro 16, an update on its Innovator 16, with a new chip in its stylus pen that allows it to respond to the absolute lightest touch. It provides a beautifully natural-feeling drawing experience, with a well-pitched level of “bite” against the drawing surface. It’s also well-priced at the moment – you can get it for $449 or so.

Huion has a somewhat confusing 16-inch tablet offering, with the Kamvas 16, the Kamvas Pro 16 (2.5K) and the Kamvas Pro 16 (4K), which cost about $399, $599 and $829 respectively, the main difference being the resolution of their screens. While these are more expensive, and don’t have the fancy pen-sensitivity technology of XP-Pen’s offering, having this level of choice is very welcome.

Finally, let’s look at the flagship offerings – the 24-inch tablets. The Huion Kamvas Pro 24 and the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro. Both are hugely impressive tablets, offering functionality close to that of a flagship Wacom Cintiq 24, at a fraction of the price. Both Pro 24 models have displays with 2560 x 1440 (2K QHD) resolution – though the Kamvas Pro 24 does come in a 4K version if you don’t mind spending $1,299 rather than $899. XP-Pen’s plucky version also costs $899.

XP-Pen vs Huion: Our verdict

Ultimately, the main thing to remember is that both XP-Pen and Huion produce fantastic drawing tablets with great styluses. There’s no wrong answer in the question of XP-Pen vs Huion – it’s just about figuring out your preferences and what will best suit your art.

Our recommendations would be as follows: if you’re on a strict budget and looking for a cheap graphics tablet without a display, start by looking at XP-Pen. It has a broad selection of cheaper graphics tablets, and provides tremendous value for money if you’re just getting started.

However, if you’re looking for a higher quality pen display or graphics tablet – a Wacom Cintiq or Wacom Intuos equivalent without the knock-me-down price tags – then we’d say Huion is your best bet. You’ll get a higher quality product, still at a better price than you’d pay for the bigger brands.

Read more:

• Huion Inspiroy H430P review

• Huion Kamvas 24 Series review

• Why is my tablet so slow? Consider these 4 reasons

Although coverage in some areas still remains patchy, the improving state of the U.S. charging network is helping to ease range anxiety for EV owners planning longer trips. However, outside the country, charging still remains a real challenge in less well-traveled areas. YouTuber Everyday Sandro found that out the hard way in the Atacama Desert in Chile, when he became stranded after his Tesla Model X ran out of charge.

Sandro, whose full name is Sandro van Kuijck, is attempting to drive across the entire length of the Pan-American highway, from northern Canada right down to the southern tip of Argentina. Chile is the fourteenth country he has visited on his journey, and it has proved to be particularly tricky to traverse.

The YouTuber equipped his Tesla with a long list of modifications to help make the journey easier, including food preparation and sleeping facilities. Its hood is also fitted with a custom solar panel, which usually feeds a battery that powered van Kuijck's in-car equipment.

Until his trip across Chile, he hadn't needed to use it to power the Tesla's high voltage battery, but in an attempt to claw back some range, he connected his solar setup to the car's charging port. Unfortunately, the panel only delivered a charge equivalent to around one kilometer per hour. That wasn't much help considering the car was stuck around 30 kilometers away from the nearest charger.

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Solar panels aren't a substitute for EV chargers

Van Kuijck attempted to call a tow truck to take his car back into town, but initially had no luck, and eventually the solar panel setup couldn't juice up the car any further. Luckily, he encountered a highway construction crew who let him borrow their generator. That saved the car from shutting down completely, and van Kuijck was eventually able to find a tow truck company to rescue him from the roadside.

While the YouTuber got out of trouble with little more than a dent in his wallet and a good story to tell, it's a good reminder that solar panels aren't a substitute for a good public charging network. Several modern EVs feature factory-installed solar panels on their roofs, but most of them don't add a significant amount of range, even if they're larger and more powerful than the custom setup on van Kuijck's Tesla.

That said, the YouTuber could provide at least a minimal amount of power for his car using only solar power, which is still a step above what any combustion-powered car could manage. While EVs still have plenty of problems that need solving before they become the default mode of transport for American drivers, the fact that van Kuijck could even reach the Chilean desert before he needed to test out his roadside solar charging setup speaks volumes as to how much the EV charging network has improved in recent years.

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Read the original article on SlashGear.

Investors have paid a lot of attention to Elon Musk's pay package at Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), but they might want to look at a few of the incentives he has at SpaceX as well.

Ahead of the rocket ship (and AI) company's initial public offering, details of its confidential registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission are leaking out (1). Among those? Should Musk succeed in establishing a colony on Mars with at least 1 million people, along with building SpaceX's market value to $7.5 trillion, he would be in line to receive 200 million super-voting restricted shares in the company, according to Reuters, which viewed the filing.

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SpaceX is expected to IPO with a valuation of $1.75 trillion.

Musk would also be eligible for 60.4 million restricted shares if SpaceX reaches a different valuation and begins operating data centers in space that generate at least 100 terawatts of compute capacity.

(Musk, by the way, doesn't need those shares to be firmly in command of directing SpaceX's trajectory. The IPO will introduce a dual-class share structure. Musk will hold Class B shares with 10 votes each, ensuring he retains approximately 79% of the voting power (2).)

Occupy Mars

Musk has long evangelized building a colony on Mars – and he has an aggressive, if somewhat unrealistic, timeline to make it happen. Initially, he talked of having this done by 2050, by building a fleet of 1,000 Starships and launching three per day (3) to send people on their way. And once you get there, he said, there would be plenty of jobs (4) waiting for you.

However, he warned in an April 2022 interview (5) with TED curator Chris Anderson, life on Mars will be "dangerous, cramped, difficult, hard work," and "you might not make it back … But it'll be glorious."

NASA is less optimistic about the timeline Musk has given, saying it hopes to land the first humans on Mars by the late 2030s (6) (or possibly early 2040s), but it intentionally plans to keep the numbers small for some time.

It's worth noting that the Starship spacecraft is still in development at SpaceX, so the chances of building 1,000 of them and launching three per day in the next 2.5 decades is low.

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A more realistic timeline

While Musk has made big claims about his Mars timeline, the terms of his compensation goals ignore those. None of the bonuses is tied to a specific time frame and will remain in effect for as long as Musk is employed by SpaceX.

Like his pay package at Tesla, he will only receive the shares if he completes all of the results for each tier. (So, for instance, if the company's valuation hits $7.5 trillion, but there are only 750,000 people who can call themselves Martians, he will not receive the bonus.)

It's a familiar pattern for Musk. In 2018, he set ambitious goals at Tesla, tying his pay package to those milestones (7). In April, he registered roughly 304 million shares after hitting those goals (8). Last November, the company approved a new pay plan for its CEO with a possible total value of $1 trillion for goals such as the deployment of robotaxis and humanoid robots, and raising the company's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion (9).

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Article Sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.

Reuters (1),(7); Wealth Management (2); X (3),(4); YouTube (5); ABC News (6); Barron's (8); The Guardian (9)

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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: SpaceX will pay Elon Musk a bonus if he gets at least 1 million people to live on Mars — here's the plan

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

Jerry Seinfeld has built a career on finding the absurdity in everyday life, so it probably should not surprise anyone that he has plenty to say about electric vehicles. In a recent interview with AirMail, the 72-year-old comedian did not mince words when asked about the EV movement, calling it a "big, stupid virtue signal" and questioning the environmental logic behind lithium-ion batteries. For a guy whose car collection is, by his own admission, sized at a level that "would not make sense" to most people, Seinfeld has clearly given this topic more thought than your average car owner.

The comedian is best known for obsessing over Porsches, both on television and in real life. His very first was a 1958 356 Speedster, purchased right after he cashed his paycheck from the first four episodes of the show that made him a household name. He did not buy it as a showpiece either. He drove it as a daily car in Los Angeles for years, which tells you a lot about the man's relationship with automobiles. For Seinfeld, cars are not status symbols. They are something closer to a personal philosophy.

So when someone who genuinely loves cars at that level tells you he is "not interested in electric cars at all," it lands a little differently than the usual gas-versus-electric debate. This is not someone who cannot tell a carburetor from a coffee maker. This is a collector with an encyclopedic knowledge of automotive history, and his skepticism about EVs comes from a real place, even if his delivery is pure Seinfeld.

Of course, the EV debate is more complicated than any one celebrity's take. Automakers, environmentalists, and ordinary drivers are all wrestling with the real trade-offs involved in transitioning away from combustion engines. Seinfeld's comments about lithium mining are not entirely without basis, even if his conclusion is more colorful than a policy white paper. The conversation he is wading into is one that the entire industry is still figuring out.

What Seinfeld Actually Said, and Why It Is Funnier Than It Sounds

Seinfeld's exact quote was this: "I think it's a big, stupid virtue signal. 'Look at me. I'm saving the planet, yeah.' What about the lithium? It's all BS." Now, delivered in that unmistakable Seinfeld cadence, that line basically writes its own laugh track. But underneath the comedy is a real critique that a lot of people share quietly, even if they would not phrase it quite so directly.

He also took a swipe at self-driving cars, joking that future generations will be baffled that humans were ever trusted behind the wheel at all. "That their kids will say to them, 'You mean, when you grew up, they would let people just drive at any speed and steer the car themselves? Didn't they just crash and kill themselves constantly?'" It is a great bit, and it also tells you that Seinfeld's issue is not just with electric motors. He is broadly suspicious of the tech industry's creeping takeover of the driving experience.

The environmental argument behind EVs is real, and it is worth noting that while lithium mining does carry environmental costs, most research suggests that electric vehicles offset those costs over time with lower emissions during operation. That context matters. But so does the fact that plenty of consumers feel lectured at by the marketing around electric cars, and Seinfeld is tapping into that frustration with his characteristic precision.

His Issues With Modern Car Design Go Much Deeper

The EV commentary is really just one piece of a larger Seinfeld worldview about cars. In a separate interview on "Spike's Car Radio" last December, he went after modern car design in general, and he was not gentle about it. His complaint was that today's cars lack confidence, which is a fascinating word choice from someone who has spent decades studying what makes things work.

He pointed to older BMWs from the 1970s and 1980s as examples of design done right, cars that had a clear sense of identity. Today's versions, he argued, have swapped that confidence for something loud and cartoonish. "There's nothing sadder," he said, describing the shift. He praised cars like the Pagani as exceptions, but his overall assessment of the industry's design direction was pretty grim: "Is there anything cool anymore?"

That question might sound like nostalgia, but it is actually a sharp observation about how brands can lose their visual identity when they chase trends instead of leading them. Seinfeld's critique resonates because it is specific. He is not just saying "they don't make them like they used to." He is identifying a particular quality, confidence, that he sees missing from the showroom floor.

What the Rest of Us Can Learn From Seinfeld's EV Take

Whether you drive a Tesla or a 1958 Speedster, there is something worth sitting with in Seinfeld's comments. First, the lithium point is not wrong, even if it is overstated. The extraction of lithium and other materials used in EV batteries does have significant environmental consequences, particularly in regions where mining operations are less regulated. It is a genuine tension in the clean energy conversation, and dismissing it entirely is as intellectually lazy as dismissing EVs entirely.

Second, Seinfeld is identifying something real about how certain products get marketed in ways that feel more like social pressure than genuine choice. When buying a car becomes a statement about your values rather than a practical decision, it can create exactly the kind of backlash he is expressing. Consumers, even very wealthy ones with impractical numbers of vintage Porsches, do not love being told what to care about.

Third, and maybe most importantly, the guy had a pretty great early response to electric cars back in an interview with former baseball star Keith Hernandez. Asked whether EVs were "something or nothing," a nod to the famous "Seinfeld" bit, he answered: "Uh, it's fine." The caption on the video read "nothing." That was six years ago, and his position has clearly not warmed. When Hernandez pointed out how fast electric cars are, Seinfeld replied simply: "I know they're fast." He just does not care. And sometimes, not caring is its own kind of statement.

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