Having tried out a bunch of mid-range drawing tablets over the last year, I’ve loved what a game-changer they’ve proven for my art creation. Giving me direct control over the strokes I make, as well as rendering my artwork in gorgeous, detailed color, they’re a fantastic way to create. However, despite this, there’s only one that’s found its way into my regular workflow.
That drawing tablet is the Xencelabs Pen Display 16. Not only do its superb specs firmly merit its inclusion on the list of the best drawing tablets but I’ve always found its drawing experience seriously compelling, especially for a mid-market device that retails for $999 / £969. Partly that’s because it accurately recreates the feel of creating artwork freehand but there’s also something about it that has kept drawing me back time and time again.
This has been a serious revelation. As one of life’s great procrastinators, I’ll… well, I’ll probably come back and finish this sentence when I can be bothered. But I do find it hard to get started with artistic endeavors, at least until I’ve formed a regular habit. So any gadget that can coax me almost by stealth into regularly creating is pure witchcraft as far as I’m concerned.
So what is it that I’ve found so compelling about Xencelabs’ drawing tablet? Well, it’s something I think is far too often overlooked when it comes to creating sketching slates.
A whole heap of high-end features
Don’t get me wrong: as I explored in my Xencelabs Pen Display 16 review, this drawing tablet has a lot of strong features to choose from.
First off, its display is utterly gorgeous. Not only is it a full 4K but spread across its 16-inch screen that resolution gives it a pinpoint precise 275ppi pixel density, which gives you near print quality results. On top of this, its color gamut is extensive, covering 1.07 billion colors, 98% Adobe RGB, 98% P3-D65 and 99% sRGB – every pigment I’ve used in digital paintings or hue in my holiday snaps has always looked scrupulously realistic, not to mention rich and enticing.
It’s also pretty handy, in the sense it’s both helpful and skillful. Using it is super easy, thanks to all of the programmable shortcuts it offers: the three buttons on the stylus (including the eraser) can be set to pretty much every function you could imagine. Pay a little bit more money and you’ll also get the wireless Quick Keys accessory, which offers even more shortcut buttons as well as a programmable dial, which allows you to change brush size, zoom, scroll or rotate the canvas, among other things.
As well as being helpful, it’s a proficient little slate, capable of genuinely impressive precision. Every time I sketch on it, it replicates every curl and loop of the stylus with painstaking accuracy – there isn’t a single hint of jitter or parallax on show here – and its pressure curves follow the weight of my hand exactly. This makes it feel incredibly natural to draw on, even compared to other drawing tablets in this mid-market price range.
Admittedly, there are absolutely some areas it’s topped by the competition. For example, it doesn’t have the largest screen on the market by any measure. Not only does Xencelabs offer the larger Pen Display 24 but other rivals offer screens at least as immense, including the XPPen Artist Pro 24 Gen 2, Huion Kamvas Pro 27 and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27. Undeniably, the Pen Display 16 gives you a much less substantial sketching area in comparison.
Another significant-sounding difference you’ll see on specs tables is the fact that this drawing tablet only offers 8K pressure levels, compared to the 16K offered even by some cheaper devices. However impressive this sounds though, it’s worth noting there’s a limit to how accurately human beings can perceive pressure differences themselves – I’ve tested multiple devices with 16K pressure levels and I honestly have never been able to discern a difference. As with high-res audio, a spec can sound impressive on paper without necessarily improving your subjective experience.
Flexible sketching
Despite all of this, there’s one feature more than any of these that I’ve found spells the difference between a drawing tablet I return to time and time again and one that sits gathering dust on the shelf. And that’s the build of the device itself.
When engaging in lengthy sketching sessions at my desk, it’s essential that my drawing tablet feels comfortable to use. Ergonomics like an appropriately angled stand and a decent width bezel to rest your wrists are vital in terms of comfort and can prevent cramps or even worse injuries like a repetitive strain injury. But they also make a huge difference in how natural a tablet feels to sketch on: tracing wide arcs and utilizing the full range of pressure curves all depend on considered design.
There’s something even more fundamental though. For me, the drawing tablets that slip best into my daily life are those that are portable and flexible. Sure, a massive 27-inch display gives you an enormous amount of screen real estate to work on huge artworks. But they also tend to require a colossal five-lane interchange of cables to hook them up and are so bulky that they tether you permanently to a desk.
That’s why I’ve found the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 so compelling: its light, 2.67 lb / 1.21kg build and simple cable setup lends itself so well to other ways of working. With the Xencelabs, I’ve spent many an evening sketching on the sofa in front of the TV and this flexibility to work the way I want makes a huge difference in how often I work on art. When the mood strikes, I want to make the most of that inspiration, no matter where I happen to be, and the Pen Display 16 works with that impulse.
But this streamlined approach doesn’t just make it easier to scribble at home – it also makes it much easier for me to sketch wherever I go. Xencelabs’ drawing tablet is highly portable and comes with a capacious carrying case, so I’ve never found it particularly hard to haul it where I’m going. Whether you’re heading to a pitch meeting or you’re going to spend a week at your in-laws’, it’s easy to take with you and be prepared for when you next have a bit of sketching time.
So while its colorful, high pixel-density screen, responsive stylus and flexible shortcut options are what drew me in, this adaptability is what’s kept me coming back to the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 again and again.
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josh.russell@futurenet.com (Josh Russell)
