Xencelabs: Pen Tablets, Pen Displays and Quick Keys Guide

Xencelabs makes drawing hardware — pen tablets and pen displays — and the catalog is small enough that you can hold the whole thing in your head. That is unusual, and it makes the buying decision more manageable than it looks. The range is aimed at people who already know roughly what they want from a drawing surface rather than at first-time buyers working out whether they like drawing on glass at all.

This guide covers the two product families, what separates them, the one accessory that genuinely changes the buying decision, and the things worth checking before you order. Prices move, so treat every figure here as directional and confirm the current numbers on the Xencelabs store page or at the brand's own site.

The Two Families, and Which One You Need

Everything Xencelabs sells splits into two groups, and getting this decision right matters more than any other choice in the range.

Pen displays are screens you draw directly onto. Your hand sits on the artwork, which is the closest digital equivalent to paper. Xencelabs offers the Pen Display 24 and the Pen Display 24 Plus for a studio desk, and the Pen Display 16, Pen Display 16 Bundle and Pen Display 16 Lite where space or budget is tighter.

Pen tablets have no screen. You draw on the tablet while looking up at your own monitor, which sounds awkward and is largely a matter of a few hours of practice. Xencelabs offers a Medium and a Small, plus a Medium Bundle and a Medium Bundle SE.

The useful thing to know is that a pen tablet typically costs considerably less than a display of comparable generation, and that plenty of working illustrators actively prefer one. Drawing while watching a separate monitor means you can use a properly calibrated screen for color work, your hand never covers the canvas, and nothing on your desk gets warm. If you are choosing between the two on price alone, it is worth asking whether you actually want a screen or have simply assumed you do.

What the Quick Keys Remote Adds

The Quick Keys remote is the piece of the range most likely to be new to you if you are coming from another brand. It is a standalone programmable controller with a small display of its own and a dial, and it ships inside several bundles as well as being sold separately.

The idea is straightforward: your shortcut keys come off the tablet body and sit on a unit you can put wherever your other hand naturally falls. The drawing surface stays uncluttered, and because the controller is not physically attached to the tablet, the company describes it as usable from either side. For anyone whose software leans hard on brush, layer and undo shortcuts, that is a real workflow difference rather than a specification-sheet one.

It also happens to be the thing that usually separates a bundle from a bare tablet, which makes the bundle decision easier than it first appears.

Working Out Whether a Bundle Is Worth It

Do the arithmetic rather than assuming a bundle is automatically better value. Find the price gap between the bundle and the equivalent bare tablet, then look up what the Quick Keys remote costs on its own at time of writing. If the gap is smaller than the standalone price, the bundle is simply a cheaper way to buy the same two items. If it is not, or if you already run shortcuts from a keyboard or a third-party controller, the bare tablet is the better buy and you keep the difference.

One caution: the Medium Bundle and the Medium Bundle SE are different packages, as are the Pen Display 16 and the Pen Display 16 Bundle. Read the contents list for the exact model you are looking at rather than assuming the naming tells you everything.

Nibs, Pens and the Rest of the Accessories

The accessory range runs to spare pens, replacement nibs, pen holders, stands, cables and power supplies. Most of that is occasional, but nibs are not — they are a genuine consumable that wears down with use, and how fast depends on your pressure and the surface texture you draw on.

The practical habit is to add a nib pack to your hardware order rather than ordering one later by itself. A pack of nibs is a low-value item, and paying to ship one on its own tends to cost a meaningful fraction of the pack price. The same logic applies to a spare pen or a pen holder if you already know you want one.

The Education Pack

Xencelabs offers an Education Pack aimed at students and institutions. What it contains, who qualifies and how eligibility is checked are all set by the company, so read the current terms on their site before counting on it. If you are a student, this is the route to check first, because it sits away from the main product listings and is easy to overlook entirely.

Before You Order

A few things worth confirming, none of which take long:

• Check the software you use is supported on your operating system and version, since a drawing tablet is only as good as its driver.
• Measure your desk before committing to a 24-inch display. Screen size is the main price lever in the range, and the largest options assume a permanent setup rather than a shared or shifting one.
• Confirm current pricing at the source. Figures in guides like this one go stale, and Xencelabs prices its US store in dollars while selling into a lot of other markets.
• Read the returns terms before ordering, particularly if you are buying a display and are not certain about the size.

Xencelabs sits in a narrow part of the market, and the range reflects that: a handful of tablets, a handful of displays, one distinctive controller and a short list of consumables. If you already know whether you want to draw on a screen or on a surface, the rest of the decision is mostly arithmetic. Browse more hardware in the electronics category, or see current availability on the Xencelabs store page.

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