7P notes: Xencelabs

Overview

Xencelabs (https://www.xencelabs.com/) is trying to position itself as a direct competitor to Wacom - as you can see from the pricing of their products.

They are a very new brand and have a small product line as of Jan 2024:

  • Xencelabs Pen Display 23

  • Xencelabs Pen Tablet Medium

  • Xencelabs Pen Tablet Small

I used a Xencelabs Medium tablet (BPH1212W-A) for about six months. I was very satisfied with it for doing artwork. But that was before I started learning more about how tablets worked, so I'm sure I missed evaluating it completely.

What Xencelabs does well

  • They are very thoughtful about the design of their products. You can see small touches that make a difference. For example:

    • Their pen tablets are exactly 16x9 aspect ratio

    • The front edge of their pen tablets are slightly slopped so there's less of a hard edge hitting your wrist

  • The "feel" and quality of materials is excellent - Wacom tier.

  • Their driver experience is easily the most well thought-out, user-friendly and attractive of any tablet brand.

  • Their tablets come with 2 pens. This is great because if you are having difficulties you se if switching pens helps.

  • I don't have any direct experience with their support. I haven't needed to contact them for any issue. But from what I have seen Xencelabs support is extremely good.

How Xencelabs could do better

  • Their EMR tech is the same place as XP-Pen. If they are going to challenge Wacom at the same price point this should improve.

  • There aren't that many Xencelabs users out there - so if you need community help there are very few people in the community who can help and you'll need to rely Xencelab's customer support.

  • As of September 2023, their Windows driver does not support connecting multiple Xencelabs tablets being connected at the same time. In my observation, their driver becomes extremely confused when multiple Xencelabs tablets are plugged in and it requires a driver restart to get it back to normal. All of Wacom, Huion, XP-pens drivers handle multiple tablets at the same time.

  • As of Jan 2024, they have some portfolio gaps

    • They don't have a LARGE pen tablet model - something comparable to the Wacom Intuos Pro Large.

    • They don't have a pen display in the 16" size.

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