Thursday, March 23rd 2023
Xencelabs Unveils New Pen Display 24 Studio Series
Xencelabs Technologies Ltd. is giving artists a new creative choice with its Pen Display 24 Studio Series. The new drawing display joins the company's full line of professional digital design tools including its Pen Tablet Medium, Pen Tablet Small, and the Quick Keys customizable remote - creating a comprehensive portfolio of professional drawing tools available for creative communities worldwide.
The new drawing display will make its public debut in Xencelabs booth N2722 at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 22 to 24, 2023 in San Francisco.
The Pen Display 24 offers a range of features and capabilities compared to competitive offerings, including enhanced glare reduction and fingerprint resistance, an edge-to-edge drawing surface, a natural drawing experience, Pantone Color and SkinTone validation, the included Tilt Stand, VESA mount flexibility, silent and fanless operation and a security slot for the Kensington MicroSaver 2.0 lock.
"Since we launched our first product, we've constantly looked for new ways to improve the creative workflow," said Michael Thompson, Head of Product at Xencelabs. "We listened to artists and their input is reflected in the Pen Display's design: stunning display fidelity, an excellent drawing experience, superior ergonomics and more. This device is designed for maximum productivity, adapting to the user's preferences, not the other way around."
The Pen Display 24 comes with all key accessories, including a Tilt Stand, to let users start working immediately after downloading their preferred driver (Mac, PC or Linux) and plugging in the display. The Linux driver works similarly to the Windows and Mac drivers and has full functionality.
Key Features and Benefits of the Xencelabs Pen Display 24
Studio Quality Drawing Experience: The display features edge-to-edge tempered glass with Xencelabs' Super-AG Etching for exceptional glare and reflection reduction, delivering clarity even in bright rooms with overhead lighting. The continuous surface is uninterrupted by buttons or seams. An anti-fingerprint coating reduces streaking and smudges caused by everyday use. The etched glass screen provides the right amount of friction for a natural drawing feel.
Two pen sizes are provided to fit different sized hands and preferences. One pen comes with three buttons, while the other has two buttons, and each has an eraser. The three-button pen is particularly useful for 3D work or for artists who prefer more pen buttons. Pens can match users' preferred sensitivity and initial activation pressure is adjustable to as low as 3 g.
The display's pressure curve has been meticulously tuned for optimal responsiveness and stroke-to-stroke accuracy, with the pen response adjustable to each user's drawing style.
Brilliant Imagery and Color Performance: The Pen Display delivers 1.07 billion colors for accurate color reproduction. Its 4K Ultra-high definition resolution (up to 3840 x 2160) contributes to an improved workflow, as images that are enlarged several times still retain clarity and sharpness, helpful when sketching details. The display supports six industry-standard color spaces.
The new display meets key performance criteria from Pantone, recognized globally as a trusted and familiar color system used across many applications well-suited to the new display. The Pen Display 24 is Pantone Validated, assuring users of the product's ability to faithfully simulate the full range of Pantone Colors. It is also Pantone SkinTone Validated, which means the Pen Display 24 meets Pantone's testing criteria (a patent-pending process) and can authentically reproduce the diverse set of skin tones found in the Pantone SkinTone Guide.
The screen is optically bonded to minimize parallax and produce a bright, clear image with no "sparkling" effect to cause distraction or eye fatigue.
Increased Productivity: The included Xencelabs Quick Keys can be attached to anywhere on the side of the Pen Display 24 making it easy to find a comfortable location. The Xencelabs Quick Keys allows artists to incorporate shortcut keys into their workflow through an easy-to-use interface. The integrated OLED display lets users see button assignments at a glance. There can be up to 40 shortcuts per application using the set button which allows users to group eight keys into five different sets. The physical dial offers four function modes for zoom, rotation, brush size, and other functions. Button settings switch automatically when a new application is activated with the pen.
Users can quickly access settings via three programable LED buttons on the top of the Pen Display. By changing color, these buttons also provide a reminder that the pen buttons or Quick Key button assignments may have changed when a different application is in use.
A Virtual Tablet Mode allows pen control of multiple displays. Users can drag or manipulate objects from one display to the other using just the pen.
Ergonomics
The included Tilt Stand enables the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 to be tilted comfortably at any angle between 16 and 72 degrees and is easily adjusted with one hand. A standard VESA mount (100X100mm) allows the lightweight (5.8 kg / 12.8 lbs) Pen Display 24 to be easily used with additional stand options, such as an arm, with no adapter needed.
An adjustable clip holds the Quick Keys in place and allows it to be attached anywhere along the four sides of the display for maximum comfort and usefulness.
The Pen Display is designed for silent and fanless operation, with a magnesium alloy rear housing that dissipates heat and eliminates the need for a fan.
Pricing and Availability
The Pen Display 24 will be available in the second quarter of 2023, at the following prices: $1,899, £1,850, and €2,099.
Pre-Order is available now on the Xencelabs website here. Actual shipping time will be varied by countries. For more information, visit the product page.
The new drawing display will make its public debut in Xencelabs booth N2722 at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 22 to 24, 2023 in San Francisco.
The Pen Display 24 offers a range of features and capabilities compared to competitive offerings, including enhanced glare reduction and fingerprint resistance, an edge-to-edge drawing surface, a natural drawing experience, Pantone Color and SkinTone validation, the included Tilt Stand, VESA mount flexibility, silent and fanless operation and a security slot for the Kensington MicroSaver 2.0 lock.
The Pen Display 24 comes with all key accessories, including a Tilt Stand, to let users start working immediately after downloading their preferred driver (Mac, PC or Linux) and plugging in the display. The Linux driver works similarly to the Windows and Mac drivers and has full functionality.
Key Features and Benefits of the Xencelabs Pen Display 24
Studio Quality Drawing Experience: The display features edge-to-edge tempered glass with Xencelabs' Super-AG Etching for exceptional glare and reflection reduction, delivering clarity even in bright rooms with overhead lighting. The continuous surface is uninterrupted by buttons or seams. An anti-fingerprint coating reduces streaking and smudges caused by everyday use. The etched glass screen provides the right amount of friction for a natural drawing feel.
Two pen sizes are provided to fit different sized hands and preferences. One pen comes with three buttons, while the other has two buttons, and each has an eraser. The three-button pen is particularly useful for 3D work or for artists who prefer more pen buttons. Pens can match users' preferred sensitivity and initial activation pressure is adjustable to as low as 3 g.
The display's pressure curve has been meticulously tuned for optimal responsiveness and stroke-to-stroke accuracy, with the pen response adjustable to each user's drawing style.
Brilliant Imagery and Color Performance: The Pen Display delivers 1.07 billion colors for accurate color reproduction. Its 4K Ultra-high definition resolution (up to 3840 x 2160) contributes to an improved workflow, as images that are enlarged several times still retain clarity and sharpness, helpful when sketching details. The display supports six industry-standard color spaces.
The new display meets key performance criteria from Pantone, recognized globally as a trusted and familiar color system used across many applications well-suited to the new display. The Pen Display 24 is Pantone Validated, assuring users of the product's ability to faithfully simulate the full range of Pantone Colors. It is also Pantone SkinTone Validated, which means the Pen Display 24 meets Pantone's testing criteria (a patent-pending process) and can authentically reproduce the diverse set of skin tones found in the Pantone SkinTone Guide.
The screen is optically bonded to minimize parallax and produce a bright, clear image with no "sparkling" effect to cause distraction or eye fatigue.
Increased Productivity: The included Xencelabs Quick Keys can be attached to anywhere on the side of the Pen Display 24 making it easy to find a comfortable location. The Xencelabs Quick Keys allows artists to incorporate shortcut keys into their workflow through an easy-to-use interface. The integrated OLED display lets users see button assignments at a glance. There can be up to 40 shortcuts per application using the set button which allows users to group eight keys into five different sets. The physical dial offers four function modes for zoom, rotation, brush size, and other functions. Button settings switch automatically when a new application is activated with the pen.
Users can quickly access settings via three programable LED buttons on the top of the Pen Display. By changing color, these buttons also provide a reminder that the pen buttons or Quick Key button assignments may have changed when a different application is in use.
A Virtual Tablet Mode allows pen control of multiple displays. Users can drag or manipulate objects from one display to the other using just the pen.
Ergonomics
The included Tilt Stand enables the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 to be tilted comfortably at any angle between 16 and 72 degrees and is easily adjusted with one hand. A standard VESA mount (100X100mm) allows the lightweight (5.8 kg / 12.8 lbs) Pen Display 24 to be easily used with additional stand options, such as an arm, with no adapter needed.
An adjustable clip holds the Quick Keys in place and allows it to be attached anywhere along the four sides of the display for maximum comfort and usefulness.
The Pen Display is designed for silent and fanless operation, with a magnesium alloy rear housing that dissipates heat and eliminates the need for a fan.
Pricing and Availability
The Pen Display 24 will be available in the second quarter of 2023, at the following prices: $1,899, £1,850, and €2,099.
Pre-Order is available now on the Xencelabs website here. Actual shipping time will be varied by countries. For more information, visit the product page.
4 Comments on Xencelabs Unveils New Pen Display 24 Studio Series
At that price this looks much affordable and better than Wacom's. But driver's stability is another matter.
The size of the tablet has to be chosen thinking of the graphic user interface of the programs that you intend to use. Zbrush has a busy interface, that takes space from the actual sculpting area. Same goes for other 3D modeling programs like Blender and 3DS Max. For these sort of programs a 15.6" tablet is tight. Photoshop instead has more drawing area.
A very important thing to look at is the presence of a knob on the side of the tablet, or in the control device that comes with it. Avoid the ones that have only keys: they are a pain when zooming and changing brush/tool size. Prefer the knob. This one described in the article has the right kind of controls.
An other important thing is the lag of the input. Read reviews and pick one that has minimum or zero lag. This depends also on the hardware of the computer.
A problem that also appears in graphic tablets is the parallax, that is the offset between the point of the pen and the mouse cursor placement on the screen. This problem can appear near the corners of one side of the tablet and can be annoying. Again, read reviews for this.
Drivers weren't an issue with the XP-Pen. Windows 10 and 11 are out since so many time that the developers have no problems making good drivers.
Heard about Huion and XP Pen few years back, theirs were far inferior compared to Wacom's.
BUT, recently they are making a very good progress that their tablets are like 90-95% close to Wacom's, and much much cheaper. I'm also looking to swap my Wacom for Huion's Kamvas 16 Pro + or 22 P.
If you want a pen display, Huion's Kamvas 13", 16", or 22" are good choices. Find one with battery-less pen.
I recommend below 16", as anything bigger will be MASSIVE in terms of size. For a 9 yo 13-16" should be fine.
store.huion.com/collections/pen-display
Wacom has only 16" Cintiq (non pro) for $500 and Wacom One DTC-133.
I recommend watching Brad Colbow on Youtube. He's an artist who reviews every gadgets that have pen, from cheap for starter to professional artist.
His recommendation is actually good.