Review: XP-Pen AC-19 Shortcut Remote

The XP-Pen AC19 Shortcut Remote is designed as a compact portable keyboard shortcut device to be used with illustration and graphic design apps.

The selling point here is you can map keyboard shortcuts to any of the 9 buttons. It's actually a rather convenient shortcut remote for those using Windows tablets.

The US $36 price tag is significantly cheaper compared to the Wacom Express Remote which is over US $80. But the Wacom Express Remote has more buttons though.

The box.

The product comes with 18 months of warranty.

The design looks alright. It's definitely function over form. Build quality is plasticky which is probably not surprising considering the affordable price.

On the back there's a power switch toggle, two large pieces of rubber feet, and a slot that houses the USB (type A) receiver.

Battery used is AAA.

This remote feels rather lightweight. Anyway, this is to be placed on the table.

Button feels spongy to press, very similar to normal sized keys on an actual keyboard.

At the top is a scroll wheel with a button in the middle.

The driver I've tested is XP-PenMac_2.1.6.200316.

I've tested the 2.1.7 Mac driver and wasn't able to customise the shortcuts. I could only use the default shortcuts that were already pre-programmed.

The 9 pre-programmed shortcuts for the 9 buttons are

• Marquee Tool
• Pen Tool
• Rectangle Tool
• Brush Tool
• Eraser Tool
• Undo
• Track Tool
• Eyedropper Tool
• Hand

And when you click "Reset Customer Defined"...

You'll get this dialogue box where you can set the button to launch apps, webpages, be used as mouse clicks or assign more keyboard shortcuts.

This is the full set of pre-defined tools and shortcuts you can choose from, or you can just enter your own keyboard shortcuts.

The driver allows you to create different sets of shortcuts for different apps you use. So when you use the certain app, the set of shortcuts will automatically apply.

6 shortcuts can be assigned to the scroll wheel.

These are the shortcuts you can assign to the scroll wheel. Pressing the button in the middle of the scroll wheel will switch between these shortcuts. When you press the button, there will be an onscreen label to tell you which shortcut you're using.

For me, I just remove all except for the brush size change.

The XP-Pen AC19 shortcut remote works well, predictably and consistently.

This shortcut remote is best used with drawing apps on Windows tablets because sometimes you may not want to bring the whole wireless keyboard with your. I do prefer using an actual keyboard for shortcuts because you will have access to all keyboard shortcuts. The alternative is this shortcut remote which can give you at least 10 shortcuts.

Build quality quality could certainly be better but I do appreciate the lower price tag. The other downside is, personally I feel that, 9 buttons is still kinda limited. Maybe an extra row of 3 to bring it up to 12 shortcuts would be better. More is always better, but not at the expense of making this much bigger. But that's just me.

This remote only has Mac and Windows driver, so you can't use it with Android tablets or iPads. That's kinda unfortunate because I really wanted a remote to use with Clip Studio Paint.

XP-Pen AC19 Shortcut Remote is available from XP-Pen online store.

Price US $36. Shipping charges are calculated separately.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Reasonable build quality
+ Compact, portable and convenient
+ Specific keyboard shortcuts can be assigned
+ Works as advertised
+ Affordable
- More buttons are welcome
- Doesn't work with Android tablets and iPads