Small is always beautiful and size doesn’t matter. These are some expressions that we usually use commonly on a day-to-day basis. But what if we join both with something like “big is beautiful and it does matter”?
This seems to be the case of the big Huion Inspiroy Giano, which could easily be renamed as Giant as well. With an overall size of 429mm x 260,9mm x 9mm and a working area of 345.4mm x 215.9mm, when you open the stylish box it really impacts your eye.
I got to admit that when I opened it in my studio I got really impressed by the Giano’s size. My first thought was that by any chance I would be accustomed to it. I use professional tablets for many years, though I never even thought of buying a medium size because I believed that it would be simply cumbersome. And I use 95% of the time a 27’ iMac… the reality would say the opposite.
What’s in the Box, Design and Build Quality
Like we said earlier, on the nice box we can find beside the Giano, a battery-free pen, USB-C cable, a pen holder, five standard nibs, another five felt nibs, the nib clip, a handy glove, and finally the quick start guide. So everything that you need is there.
The design is really pleasant to the eye. Details like the handy LCD screen, round corners, the matte surface (that handles very well the scratching), or the carbon fiber look help create the idea that you’re using something special.
The tablet itself is really well built, that’s a fact. Nothing feels cheap or flimsy, even the small rubber feet give the proper resistance when using the Giano on slippery surfaces.
The same goes for the large pen, with a comfy and secure grip. It also includes a stand that allows the pen to sit vertically or horizontally. You even have a stylish glove at your disposal.
Connection/Pairing To connect this tablet you have two options - using a speedy 5.0 Bluetooth or a USB cable that is also used to charge the 2500 mAH battery that will last around 18 hours of use. In our tests, the charging time was around 3 hours, and it could be done while using the table so you’ll never run out of juice on your tool.
In terms of compatibility, the Giano has a direct connection via BT if you use Windows 10 64 bits or later, by wire with Windows 7, macOS 10.12 or later, ChromeOS 88 or later, Android 6.0 or later. Our test was on an iMac 5k 27´ running macOS Big Sur Version 11.6.8, the most recent of all. The pairing wasn’t smooth as we wished because the tablet wasn’t recognized by the iMAC BT. The Huion Driver Version was the Driver_15.6.1.34. After a couple of attempts in which we uninstalled the driver and restart the computer, the pairing was done. Since that minute we didn’t have any issues at all without glitches or losing even the customized buttons. After it, we just long pressed the left side button and in a couple of seconds, it was connected.
LCD Status Screen The Giano did a step further over the competition because of details like this. You can think that there’s no use in having a little LCD there, yet when you get used to it you understand how clever was to include it.
We can manage at a glance how our battery level is, the connection status, and also whether it’s time to leave the working station to rest or even get the sleep mode active.
The left corner position is perfect because it's above the shortcut buttons and the eye naturally gets to that area. What a neat feature. Well done Huion! Usage and Drawing First of all, we need to address that this particular tablet should be used with large screens. Otherwise, you will not experience the true advantage of it. Since we have a large area to be covered by the cursor, the biggest screen you have the better will be to manage the usual hand-to-eye coordination.
We’ve used during many years a small pro version from another brand, so at a first glance, it wasn’t obvious if the extra room on the desk will make a true difference. We are glad to say that it really does since the available area allows the user to have a more natural gesture while drawing.
If you dig into the software there are plenty of customizable features and buttons. In our case we’ve used the first two shortcuts of the six available, to zoom in and out, the next one to create a new layer. The level of personalization is huge and we’re positive that you’ll find whatever you need in your workflow.
We’ve also enjoyed how flush the matte surface is. If you add to it a very accurate and also sensitive pen the experience is really good. In this particular, the 8192 pressure levels, the 60° tilt recognition, or the 5080 LPI pen resolution has a big importance.
If you’re a retoucher or a drawing artist you’ll definitely be pleased with how easy it is to maintain the thickness of your lines and still maintain the pressure you need. Those features help the user to experience what a true professional drawing tablet should be. You can also set the effective area and the fraction of the page that you want to use. The rotation of 90, 180, and 270 degrees are totally doable since you have no cables attached.
Final Thoughts and Score We have to admit that we felt a little intimidated when we saw the Huion Giano G930L for the first time. How would someone need this monster tablet? Would it perform as a true professional tablet should? Will we become familiar with this large area? After 20 or 30 minutes of usage, all the doubts fade away! We realized how nonsense those questions were because the Giano felt like was here on our desk ever. That’s the best way we can put things in perspective. Despite costing around 200 euros it really worth it, no doubt about it.
Like we said earlier, the progression on Giano´s surface creates a truly enjoyable experience with the pen sliding smoothly on the big tablet. The pen works also flawlessly and only lacks a feature - the eraser.
Despite having some errors while pairing it, when they got solved the overall experience with the driver was flawless. We think that it must be due to the fact that we were using the very latest MAC OS version. The automatic Bluetooth connection was always stable. Even the battery lasted more than we expected. Retouching our images on Photoshop and Lightroom was a neat experience, due to the Giano well-thought button placement and working area available. So definitely worth the financial effort if you take editing and drawing really seriously. Also, a must-have for those like us that use large screens. After all, it seems that size really matters and in this case, the Huion Giano it's also very good-looking equipment!
Overall Score: 4,85/5
You can buy the Huion Giano