Xencelabs Pen Display 24 is available for pre-order + my thoughts

Xencelabs (pronounced as "sense") has announced the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 on 22 March 2023.

This is a 24-inch pen display with matte glass, 4K UHD resolution and 99% AdobeRGB coverage targeted at digital artists, photographers and creative professionals. The price is US $1899 and is currently available for pre-order with an estimated waiting time of 30 to 60 days.

For some reason, there's also a page with a form that invites interested buyers to contact Xencelabs for pre-orders.

I have reviewed the Xencelabs Pen Tablet Medium in 2021 and it's definitely one of the best pen tablets out there, and even today, for digital artists.

It's quite obvious Xencelabs is competing in the high-end market given the high pricing of their products. If you think $1899 is expensive, it is, but the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 is US $2199.

And because this product is so expensive, it's unlikely for me to get a sponsored review unit, and even more unlikely for me to buy one just to review.

Specs

Here's a comparison with other pen displays.

Promo videos

Here's the launch promotion video:

And here's Michael Thompson, Head of Product from Xencelabs, talking about the features:

Unboxing the Xencelabs Pen Display 24

Things included are:

• Pen Display 24 (XMPD24US)
• Tilt stand
• Rubber feet
• Pen case
• 3-button pen + eraser V2 (XMCPH35)
• 3 button pen clip
• Thin pen + eraser (XMCPH36)
• Thin pen clip
• USB-A to USB-C adapter
• 6x standard nibs (XMCMN10)
• 4x felt nibs (XMCMN20)
• Nib extracting ring
• Quick Keys remote (XCQKFRES)
• Quick Keys holder
• Wireless dongle for Quick Keys (XMCDG)
• Drawing glove, medium (XMCLGM)
• Sticker
• Cleaning cloth
• 2m USB-C to USB-C (L-shaped) cable
• 0.6m USB-C to USB-A 3.0 (standard) cable
• 2m USB-C to USB-A 3.0 (L-shaped) cable
• 2m DisplayPort to DisplayPort (L-shaped) cable
• 2m HDMI 2 to HDMI 2 (L-shaped) cable
• AC power adapter (L-shaped) connector
• Power cords

Features

The IPS LCD display is 24-inch and supports 4K UHD resolution (3840 x 2160) at 60Hz.

Colour support is up to 99% AdobeRGB and 93% DCI P3. There's no mention of bit-depth but the number of colours displayable is 1.07 billion. The display is also said to be Pantone and Pantone Skintone validated.

Brightness is listed as 330 nits. Real world brightness is probably 20% less so I'm expecting 250 nits instead, which is still bright enough for a bright room environment.

The glass is anti-glare etched glass. The surface is said to have fingerprint resistance and enhanced anti-glare which has minimal grain/colour noise/sparkling effect.

Since the company claims minimal sparkling effect from the matte textured drawing surface, my guess is the surface is going to be smoother than typical matter screen protectors. In other words if you use a plastic nib, the pen is likely to be slippery on the glass.

The display is laminated so there should be minimal gap between the glass and pen tip. The display is not a touchscreen.

Two pens with different thickness are included together with a pen case. The pens support 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt. The pens are not powered by battery so no charging is required.

The included stand can be operated with one hand with the latch behind, but you'll probably want to use two hands since the pen display is 6kg, or 6.9kg with the stand.

The VESA mount dimensions are 10 x 10cm.

Design of the included stand uses the base of the display with rubber feet as pivot.

Xencelabs is also selling a separate stand that faciliates rotation of the pen display to portrait orientation. Price for this optional stand is not listed.

It's unknown how the stand is able to "float" in the product photo above when the two legs are obviously not on the table.

The US $99 Xencelabs Quick Keys keyboard shortcut remote is included. There's also a holder that you can attach to the pen display on the top or either sides.

There are also pen holders that you can attached to the sides of the pen display.

One really cool and useful feature if the Virtual Table Mode that allows you to move the mouse cursor over several displays when the pen is on the pen display.

The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 definitely looks like a high-end product for digital artists and creative professionals. It's not a touchscreen though which to me isn't a huge missing feature unless your main drawing app is one that's designed around finger gestures in addition to just pan, zoom and rotate.

The pricing of US $1899 is certainly high. The Xencelabs seems like a better deal than the $2199 Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 (touchscreen) since the price difference is a whopping $800 that you can use to buy yourself a new computer.

The US $1299 Huion Kamvas Pro 24 is probably a better competitor since that doesn't have a touchscreen too. The price difference is $600 in favour of the Huion which also has a gorgeous relatively colour accurate display. And it's easy to find the Huion on discount.

So the question is do you really see the value to pay $600 more over the Huion for Xencelabs?

Personally as someone who is price conscious, I will go with the Huion. $600 is a lot of savings. The Huion tablet also looks great and has fantastic drawing performance. The Huion's flip-out legs is quite short though so perhaps you can use the savings to buy the Xencelabs 360 stand (should be 10 x 10cm VESA standard).

Let me know what you think of this product in the comments section.

Availability

If you're interested to get the Xencelabs Pen Display 24, you can get it from the Xencelabs product page.

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