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 July 2024 they have a wider product portfolio . The only gap i see is that they don't have a LARGE pen tablet model - something comparable to the Wacom Intuos Pro Large.