Before trying out the Huion Inspiroy Giano tablet, I was using a Wacom Intuos Pro for the past several years. It had served me well, with its smooth scrolling and easy-to-customize interface. But the tablet was getting worn out, and I encountered a bug every so often that would cause my laptop to freeze.

So needless to say, I was ready to try something different and see if it would work for me. After using the Huion Inspiroy Giano for a few weeks, I’m happy to say that this tablet exceeds my expectations. While it’s not perfect, it performs better than other tablets I’ve tested out.

Pros

  • Press keys are large and indented; easy to press but not easy to press accidentally
  • The pen is easy to use, with good tactile feedback on the buttons
  • The tablet is very responsive
  • Pressure sensitivity and tilt make it easy to make fine-tune adjustments
  • The price is right

Cons

  • Clicking on small elements like a website or interface buttons can sometimes be a challenge, as it senses pen movement
  • Pan and scroll functionality is not as smooth as Wacom’s, but the closest I’ve seen
  • Might be too large for some users; it’d be great if Huion offered a smaller version with the same design

Huion Inspiroy Giano— Technical specifications

All technical specifications for the Huion Inspiroy Giano have been taken from the Huion website:

  • Color: Black
  • Dimensions: 429 × 260.9 × 9mm
  • Working area: 345.4 x 215.9mm
  • Net weight: 1145g
  • Interface: USB-C
  • Pen technology: Battery-Free Electromagnetic Resonance
  • Pen resolution: 5080 LPI
  • Pressure sensitivity: 8192 Levels
  • Tilt support: ±60°
  • Sensing height: 10mm
  • Report rate: >300PPS
  • Press keys: 6 Programmable Press Keys
  • Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
  • Battery life: About 18 hours (2500mAh)

Huion Inspiroy Giano — Ergonomics and build quality

When I first took the Inspiroy Giano out of the box, I was surprised at how sleek the tablet looked. The tablet features a large work surface of 354.4 x 215.9mm (roughly 13.6 x 8.5 inches) and has a glossy black side panel with six programmable buttons and a small LCD display. The buttons are pressed in, meaning that they won’t be accidentally pressed, which is one of my biggest complaints with other tablets I’ve tried.

On the left side of the tablet are a USB-C port and a “wake” button. The tablet automatically sleeps after 15 minutes to preserve battery life (which can be customized), and this button allows you to wake it up.

The build quality here is stellar. It’s a premium tablet with all the features you’d expect, at a lower price than the competition. Simply put, in terms of build quality, the Inspiroy Giano can’t be beaten.

Huion Inspiroy Giano — Setup and customization

Like other tablets, the Huion Inspiroy Giano comes with its own software. This lets you customize the working area, pressure sensitivity, press keys, pen buttons and more. This interface is incredibly easy to use and configure.

Customization offers a wide variety of options, with everything from using a keyboard or mouse key to running a program or panning and scrolling. The press keys and pen buttons have the same options in terms of customization, so you’re not limited one way or another.

You can also create customizations for specific programs, which is super handy if you use multiple creative programs like Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. This lets you use different keyboard shortcuts or commands for the press keys or the buttons on your pen.

In the settings tab, there’s an option to increase the sleep time or simply turn it off if you’re not using a Bluetooth connection. There are also options to create a backup or restore the default settings, along with things like checking for updates.

Huion Inspiroy Giano — Usage and performance

For me, the base performance test has always been to see how it compares to my current Wacom tablet. And in terms of the Inspiroy Giano, it definitely compares well. So much so that I’d consider switching to it permanently.

The pressure sensitivity and tilt support is spot-on. The tablet is also incredibly responsive; I found no slowdowns or delays when doing some pretty intensive editing in Photoshop.

There are two qualms I have that probably won’t be a deal breaker for most readers. First, the pan and scroll performance is good, but when browsing long Web pages, it can jump you back up slightly if you don’t constantly have your pen button held down. I contacted Huion about this and after some troubleshooting, was told that it was expected performance and that the pen button needed to be held down throughout scrolling of the page (which can be a pain when you’re trying to read something).

Secondly, I found that clicking certain small interface elements, like buttons, was sometimes hard to click, as the tablet would register movement if you didn’t have the pen perfectly still. It seems like both issues could easily be fixed in a software update.

All that said, I’m one of the weird ones who use their pen tablet for everything, and not just while editing. If you use a pen tablet for just editing, I can’t recommend the Huion Inspiroy Giano enough.