Huion Firmware Version 1.0

Current sub-version: 1.0.0

This page takes a deep dive into the firmware that is pre-installed on Huion e-ink tablets to help potential customers decide if Huion tablets have the software functionality that they need.

Operating system

The Huion Ink tablets run on a customised build of Android, which immediately gives them a degree of versatility that many closed-ecosystem E-Ink devices simply cannot match. In principle, this means that third-party applications can be installed and used alongside the native software. Huion facilitate this by including the Google Play Store, allowing users to download additional applications directly onto the tablet.

That said, Huion appear to be relying on relatively mature (one might say somewhat antiquated) versions of Android. The device I tested shipped with Android 11, which is now several generations behind the current Android release cycle. In practical terms this is unlikely to affect the core functionality of the tablet itself. The native note-taking and reading applications run smoothly and respond with reasonable alacrity. Where the older Android base may become problematic is with long-term compatibility for certain third-party apps, some of which increasingly require more recent Android versions.

The home screen, or launcher, has been extensively customised and simplified. Rather than presenting the typical Android grid of icons, Huion have opted for a deliberately minimal interface. Along the top edge sits the familiar status bar displaying the time, notifications, battery percentage, Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth status, and other standard system indicators.

Across the bottom of the screen are three primary icons representing the tablet’s core functions. The first opens the Notes section, where all notebooks can be viewed, searched, sorted, and organised. Creating a new notebook is simply a matter of tapping the appropriate button. The second icon leads to the Library, which houses PDFs and ebooks. Here again you can browse, filter, and organise your documents, as well as import new reading material. The reading interface also keeps track of any handwritten annotations or highlights you have made within those documents, making it relatively easy to revisit marked passages.

The third tab provides access to installed applications. This is essentially the tablet’s app drawer, containing icons for any third-party applications you have installed. The Play Store icon is located here as well, allowing additional apps to be downloaded and installed. Once installed, these applications appear in the same area and can be launched with a simple tap.

There is also a dedicated shortcut to the system settings menu, which provides access to the usual configuration options and device settings.

Navigation is largely gesture-based and will feel familiar to anyone accustomed to modern Android eink devices. Swiping down from the top left corner opens the notifications, while swiping down from the top right reveals the Control Center. From here you can toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with long-pressing either option opening their respective configuration menus.

Additional controls include toggles for Airplane mode, screenshots, full screen refresh, screen recording, and screencasting. You can enable or disable auto-rotate, activate Do Not Disturb, and adjust the refresh behaviour of the E-Ink display. Huion provides four refresh modes: Automatic, Normal, Fast, and Top Speed. As is typical for E-Ink devices, the faster modes offer improved responsiveness at the expense of increased ghosting and slightly reduced visual clarity.

Brightness controls for both the front light and the warm light are also present, along with preset lighting profiles for Day, Night, and Bedtime use. Finally, a volume slider allows quick adjustment of the internal speakers.

Interestingly, anyone familiar with devices from Meebook will likely experience a strong sense of déjà vu when using the Huion interface. The launcher layout, system structure, and even the native note-taking and reading applications appear almost identical. This strongly suggests that Huion and Meebook are drawing from the same underlying software platform or supply chain.

The on-screen virtual keyboard appears whenever text input is required, but it is rather rudimentary. The default keyboard is heavily oriented toward Chinese input methods. In my case, it persistently auto-corrected English text into Chinese characters, which made it effectively unusable. Fortunately this can be remedied fairly easily by switching the keyboard in the settings menu to the standard AOSP keyboard.

Even after doing so, however, the keyboard remains extremely basic. It lacks several advanced input methods that are now commonplace on competing E-Ink tablets. Features such as handwriting-to-text input directly within the keyboard, or voice-to-text dictation, are absent here. These capabilities can be remarkably useful on devices designed for reading and writing, and their omission is noticeable.

Finally, the system supports the usual Android gesture shortcuts. Swiping right from the left edge performs a back action, swiping up from the bottom left opens the task switcher, swiping up from the bottom centre returns to the home screen, and swiping up from the bottom right performs a manual screen refresh.

Overall, the operating system feels functional and straightforward, if somewhat austere. It lacks the refinement and feature depth found on some competing E-Ink platforms, yet it remains perfectly serviceable for the tablet’s primary roles of reading and note-taking.

Native note-taking software

The native note-taking application on the Huion Ink tablets occupies an interesting middle ground. It is not inherently bad, but neither would I describe it as exceptional. In practical day-to-day use it performs its primary function perfectly adequately, and it includes many of the core tools one would reasonably expect from a digital notebook. However, when placed alongside the most sophisticated note-taking environments currently available on competing E-Ink tablets, it does feel somewhat limited in both scope and refinement.

When creating a new notebook, the process begins by assigning it a name and selecting a template. The device ships with more than forty-five templates preinstalled, covering the usual assortment of lined pages, grids, dotted layouts, planners, and other organisational formats. If these are insufficient, it is also possible to add custom templates by manually placing files into the system’s template directory. Unfortunately, there is one notable limitation: PDF files cannot be imported as multi-page notebook templates with functional hyperlinks. For users who rely on structured PDF planners or complex linked notebooks, this restriction may prove frustrating.

Once inside a notebook, the majority of the screen is occupied by the writing canvas itself. A horizontal toolbar runs along the top edge of the display, while two quick-access icons in the bottom-left corner allow you to toggle between the pen and eraser tools.

The application provides five different pen types. These include a fountain pen and a paintbrush, both of which support pressure sensitivity, along with a ballpoint pen and a pencil that do not respond to pressure. There is also a marker-style highlighter. Each pen tool offers a selection of ten colours and twenty levels of line thickness. Naturally, on a monochrome E-Ink display these colours cannot be viewed directly, but they do become visible if the notebook is exported and opened on a colour-capable device. None of the pens/brushes appear to have tilt-sensitivity.

A number of eraser options are available as well, including an area eraser, stroke eraser, and selection eraser. There is also the option to clear the entire canvas if required. Undo and redo buttons are present on the toolbar, making it easy to correct mistakes without disrupting the flow of writing.

Also located on the toolbar is a page indicator showing two numbers: the current page you are viewing and the total number of pages within the notebook. Arrows on either side of this indicator allow you to move to the next or previous page. Alternatively, you can simply swipe left or right across the canvas to navigate through the notebook. Tapping on the page indicator opens a page overview screen displaying thumbnails of every page within the notebook. From here you can jump directly to a specific page, or select multiple pages to move or delete them.

Another tool on the toolbar transforms the stylus into a lasso-style selection tool. Once elements are selected they can be moved, resized, rotated, or duplicated. This is particularly useful for rearranging diagrams or repositioning handwritten content.

The plus icon on the toolbar provides options for inserting additional content. From here you can add new pages, geometric shapes, text boxes, or images. The shape tool supports basic figures including straight lines, rectangles or squares, circles or ellipses, and triangles.

When inserting text, a resizable text box appears on the canvas and the on-screen keyboard can be used to input characters. The text box itself can be repositioned, resized, and duplicated. Basic formatting controls are available, including font size, colour selection, and simple bullet-point lists.

Images stored locally on the tablet can also be inserted into a notebook. Before placing the image on the canvas, the software allows you to crop it. Once inserted, the image behaves much like other elements on the page and can be moved, resized, rotated, or copied.

Selecting the hamburger menu icon in the top-right corner of the toolbar reveals several additional options. One of these is a handwriting search function that attempts to locate words written within your notebooks. In my experience this feature worked reasonably well, but it also felt somewhat clunky and inconsistent. For instance, searches appeared to be case sensitive. If I searched for the word “pencil,” it would fail to locate instances where I had written “Pencil” with a capital letter. In practice, search tools are rarely expected to behave this way, and it undermines the usefulness of the feature.

The same menu also includes handwriting-to-text conversion. This function works surprisingly well and can convert handwritten notes into editable text. The converted text can then be exported as either a text file or a PDF. Files can be saved locally on the tablet or temporarily uploaded to a proprietary cloud server, which can then be shared with others via a generated QR code.

Entire notebook pages can also be exported, either locally, to a configured third-party cloud storage service, or to the tablet’s built-in cloud platform. Export formats include PDF, HTML, and PNG. Interestingly, the cloud destination used by default is hosted at haoqingtech.com, which happens to belong to Meebook’s parent company, further reinforcing the idea that Huion and Meebook are utilising the same underlying software ecosystem.

As for the writing experience itself, it is perfectly respectable. Latency is low, stroke tracking is accurate, and the stylus feels responsive on the screen. At the same time, it does not quite achieve the level of polish found in the best E-Ink writing systems. It works well, certainly, but it does not leave a particularly strong impression either.

Overall, the Huion note-taking application delivers the fundamental tools required for digital handwriting and notebook management. It is competent, functional, and reliable. However, it also feels somewhat like the baseline feature set one would expect from an E-Ink tablet, rather than a system that pushes the boundaries of what digital note-taking software can offer.

Native reading & annotation software

The native reading application on the Huion Ink tablets is, once again, something of a familiar experience. This is because Huion are using the same software found on devices from Meebook. The application itself is called HQReader, and in broad terms it is a reasonably competent reading environment.

Overall, I would describe it as fairly good. It provides most of the features that readers tend to expect from a modern E-Ink reading platform, and in general it performs reliably enough during everyday use.

One of the more useful features is support for local dictionaries. These can be used to look up unfamiliar words directly within a book while reading. However, the dictionary that comes preinstalled on the device is rather underwhelming. In practice, I found it far more effective to download and install a more comprehensive dictionary manually.

Text-to-speech functionality is also included, allowing you to convert an ebook into a kind of improvised audiobook. As with most built-in text-to-speech engines, the resulting narration is rather mechanical and robotic, so it will not replace a professionally narrated audiobook. Nevertheless, the option is there should you wish to listen rather than read.

The reader also includes the usual assortment of typographical and visual configuration options. Font size, font style, and font colour can be adjusted, along with contrast and various typesetting controls. These options allow you to tailor the reading experience to suit your own preferences, which is particularly important on an E-Ink display where legibility and comfort are paramount.

A particularly useful feature is the ability to configure a split-screen view. This allows you to read a book alongside a notebook page, or even display two books simultaneously. For users who like to take notes while reading—particularly students or researchers—this can be extremely convenient.

Standard navigation tools are present as well. You can search within a document, add bookmarks to important pages, and quickly jump between sections of a book.

Annotations are handled in a fairly straightforward manner. By long-pressing on a passage of text you can highlight or underline it. Once a passage has been marked, you also have the option of attaching a note to it. These notes are entered as typed text using the on-screen keyboard rather than handwritten input.

If you prefer handwriting, there are other ways to accomplish this. You can simply write directly in the margins or any available white space on the page. Alternatively, you can open a dedicated notebook page for handwritten notes while reading. This works particularly well when combined with the split-screen mode, allowing the book to remain visible while you jot down thoughts or summaries.

In day-to-day use, the reading application proves to be perfectly serviceable. It provides the essential tools needed for comfortable reading and annotation without introducing unnecessary complexity.

That said, much like the note-taking software, it does not quite reach the level of sophistication found in the very best E-Ink reading environments currently available. It is a solid and dependable application, but not necessarily a standout one.

Ecosystem

The ecosystem surrounding the Huion Ink tablets is perhaps the area where the company diverges most noticeably from many other E-Ink tablet manufacturers. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that there is very little ecosystem at all. Whether this is viewed as a strength or a weakness will depend largely on your own expectations and priorities.

In recent years it has become increasingly common for E-Ink tablet brands to build elaborate software ecosystems around their devices. Many manufacturers now require users to create an account and log in before certain features become available. In some cases, if you are not signed in to the manufacturer’s servers, particular capabilities simply cannot be used.

Some brands even go a step further by placing certain functions behind subscription paywalls. Features such as handwriting search, advanced OCR tools, or cloud synchronisation may only remain accessible so long as the user maintains an active subscription. Once the subscription expires, those capabilities can disappear.

Cloud storage has also become a standard component of many tablet ecosystems. Manufacturers frequently provide a limited amount of cloud space where notebooks and documents can be backed up and synchronised across multiple devices.

Huion take a very different approach.

With the Huion Ink tablets there is no mandatory account system and no proprietary cloud storage service. Every feature on the device functions locally without requiring a login or even an internet connection. The tablet can be used completely offline if you wish.

From a privacy and security standpoint this may actually be quite appealing to some users. There is no requirement to upload personal notebooks or documents to a company server, and there is no reliance on remote infrastructure for core functionality.

The system does include a utility for creating a full backup file of the tablet. This backup can then be copied to other devices using several different methods, including Wi-Fi transfer, a USB cable, or even a third-party cloud storage service if you choose to use one.

In addition, the software allows you to connect the tablet to various external cloud storage providers. Supported services include Google Drive, Baidu, Dropbox, OneDrive, JianGuoYun, Aliyun, and WebDAV servers. Once connected, you can browse the contents of these drives and download files directly onto the tablet. Similarly, files stored locally on the device can be uploaded to these services.

However, it is important to note that this is not a synchronisation system in the usual sense. There is no automatic syncing between the tablet and your cloud storage. Instead, the interface behaves more like a file browser: you manually copy files back and forth between the device and your chosen cloud service.

As a result, the Huion platform lacks the kind of tightly integrated ecosystem that many competing E-Ink tablets have developed. Everything remains fundamentally local and self-contained.

For some users this absence of a broader ecosystem may feel limiting, particularly if they rely on seamless multi-device synchronisation. For others, however, the simplicity and independence of a fully local system may be seen as a welcome departure from the increasingly account-driven approach adopted by many modern devices.

Other native software

Beyond the core note-taking and reading software, Huion tablets come with a small collection of additional native applications and utilities. These are not particularly extensive, but they do provide some useful supplementary functionality that supports the tablet’s primary workflows.

One of these utilities is the cloud binding tool mentioned earlier, which allows the tablet to connect to various third-party cloud storage providers such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive. As described previously, this does not function as an automatic synchronisation system, but rather as a manual file transfer interface that allows you to browse and move documents between the tablet and your cloud storage.

There is also a basic file manager included with the system. This allows you to browse the device’s storage and perform simple file operations such as copying, moving, and organising documents. It is a fairly straightforward implementation, but perfectly adequate for handling ebooks, PDFs, and exported notebook files.

Another utility allows you to import ebooks over Wi-Fi from other devices. This is a convenient way of transferring documents without needing to physically connect the tablet to a computer via USB cable. The process is relatively simple and works reliably enough in my experience.

A standalone dictionary application is also included. However, much like the dictionary support within the reading app, the preinstalled dictionary itself is rather limited. In practice, it is far more useful once you install a more comprehensive dictionary manually.

The tablet also ships with the Google Chrome web browser installed. This allows you to browse websites directly from the device. It functions reasonably well, but, as with most E-Ink devices, the experience is somewhat clunky compared to browsing on a traditional LCD or OLED tablet.

This is not really a fault of the browser itself, but rather a limitation of E-Ink display technology. E-Ink panels are fundamentally designed for displaying relatively static content such as text and images. When scrolling through web pages, which involves constant screen updates, the display inevitably feels less fluid than on conventional screens. It remains usable, but it is not particularly elegant.

Perhaps the most unusual application included on the tablet is one called Digitizer Tablet. This utility allows the Huion device to connect to another computer, such as a desktop or laptop, via USB and function as an input device. In effect, the tablet can be used as a drawing tablet, allowing you to control the cursor and create drawings on your computer using the stylus.

This is a rather interesting feature, and one that is not commonly found on E-Ink tablets. Off the top of my head, the only other manufacturer that offers something similar out of the box is Supernote.

Finally, the presence of the Google Play Store means that additional third-party Android applications can be installed if desired. In theory this greatly expands the capabilities of the device.

In practice, however, the experience with third-party apps can be quite variable. E-Ink displays already impose certain constraints due to their slower refresh rates and visual characteristics. On top of this, the Huion tablet’s relatively modest hardware specifications and its older Android version further limit performance in some cases.

As a result, third-party applications tend to be somewhat hit-and-miss. Simpler apps that rely primarily on static text or basic interfaces often work reasonably well. More demanding applications, particularly those that expect fast animations or heavy graphical processing, can struggle.

This is true to some extent on almost all E-Ink tablets, but it is somewhat more noticeable here due to the comparatively modest specifications of the device itself.

Overall Verdict

After spending a considerable amount of time with the Huion firmware, the overriding impression I was left with was one of mild indifference. That is not necessarily meant as harsh criticism, but rather an honest reflection of the experience. Individually, there is very little here that is outright bad. The note-taking application works perfectly adequately, the reading app is fairly competent, and the overall system functions reliably enough for everyday tasks. Yet at the same time, there is very little that truly stands out.

The general user experience is serviceable. Navigation is straightforward, the core applications run reasonably smoothly, and most of the functionality behaves exactly as one would expect. There are, however, occasional moments where the interface feels slightly less intuitive than it could be, and from time to time you are reminded of the software’s Chinese origins through certain interface quirks or translation oddities.

The reading application is a good example of this. It is perfectly capable and includes most of the features one would expect from an E-Ink reading platform. But while using it, I often found myself thinking that I would probably prefer the reading environment available on devices from Boox. Likewise, the note-taking application works well enough for basic handwriting and organisation, yet it lacks some of the more sophisticated tools and refinements that I have come to appreciate on tablets from Supernote.

Third-party apps present a similar situation. The presence of the Google Play Store certainly expands the device’s potential, but the combination of E-Ink display limitations and relatively modest hardware means that performance can vary quite a bit. When using external applications, I occasionally found myself wishing for the additional processing power and display optimisation technologies found on devices from companies such as Bigme or Boox, which tend to invest more heavily in hardware and software layers designed to mitigate the inherent constraints of E-Ink screens.

As a result, there is no dramatic “wow factor” here. The firmware does its job competently, but it rarely surprises you. Essentially, it is a white-label implementation of the software ecosystem developed by Meebook.

That said, there is one genuinely interesting feature: the ability to use the tablet as a digitiser connected to a computer. Being able to plug the device into a desktop or laptop and use it as a drawing tablet is a thoughtful addition, and one that relatively few E-Ink tablets offer out of the box.

Ultimately, the Huion firmware delivers a functional and dependable experience. It may not be the most feature-rich or sophisticated platform available, but it provides the essential tools for reading, writing, and document management without unnecessary complexity. In many ways it feels pragmatic rather than ambitious. It does what it claims to do, and while it may not always be the most polished or intuitive system, it remains perfectly capable for its intended purpose.

In short, it is a straightforward, utilitarian platform. Perhaps not the most exciting one on the market, but certainly a workable one.

Firmware Overview

Reviews of Older Versions of Huion Firmware

My rating	Firmware version	Tablets using this firmware
	1.0 (current version) Oct 2025	Huion Ink EB1011

Huion E-Ink Tablets

My rating	Item	Description
	Huion Ink EB1011*	10.3" monochrome