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Xencelabs, a relatively new company (circa 2019) founded by some expats from Wacom, debuted as a follow-up to its 24-inch display with 24 penA 16-inch tablet with a professional graphics display designed to be a lightweight, compact alternative to Wacom’s Cintiqs and 13-inch Movink. As a second display for your PC, Mac or Linux system, tablets like these benefit from the increased power and more seamless cross-app file support you get when connected to a full system compared to the iPad. Plus, Wacom-compatible (EMR) styluses have a more flexible set of stylus options than Apple Pencils, for those of us who like a little more friction than Apple’s. And the etched surface, for the better a tooth and less glare, is built-in.
Pen Display 16 is available in two versions. Essentials includes a USB-C cable, a cleaning cloth, two pens with spare nibs and accessories, a glove and a carrying case. The kitchen sink package adds an external, programmable remote, a hub and multiple cables for other connection types (such as HDMI and DisplayPort), a charging adapter, and a dual-angle stand (18.3 and 32 degrees). They’re aggressively priced compared to Wacom’s offerings — the Cintiq Pro 16 is $1,600 — but they’re not cheap — $999 for the Essentials and $1,249 for the bundle.
The bundle ships first — in late May — followed by Essentials in late June, and you’ll be able to purchase Xencelabs Desktop Easel on its own this summer. The hotkey remote is the same as the one offered on the 24-inch model, and the stand has a built-in VESA quick-release mount, a nice touch.
Like The iPad Pro launches on May 7, Xencelabs (and Movink) include OLED displays; Xencelabs is the largest of all, which may make it a more practical second display for some people. It’s not extremely light, weighing in at 2.7 pounds (1.2 kilograms), about the same as a light business laptop; for reference, this is roughly the same as a 13-inch M3 MacBook Air. Xencelabs also has the highest resolution screen of the bunch, 4K, with a pixel density of 275ppi. High pixel density is more important for graphics than for many other applications because you usually need to zoom in a lot.
Other specifications include:
- Five calibrated spaces: Adobe RGB (98% coverage), P3 (98%), sRGB (99%), Rec 2020 (82%) and Rec 709 (99%).
- Two pens (thin and fat) with a similar design and feel to Wacom’s muscle memory adaptations, as well as compatibility with third-party styluses.
- The hotkey remote supports up to 40 app shortcuts with context-sensitive labels and runs up to 53 hours on a single charge (supports quick charge).
- Two USB-C ports, one on the short end and one on the long end, for more flexibility.
- Battery-free pen, 8192 levels of sensitivity and other typical specifications for EMR styluses
The Pen Display 16 has some potential drawbacks, depending on your needs. It doesn’t support ChromeOS and Android, nor does it support touch, both of which Wacom’s mobile-focused Movink offers. I have mixed feelings about the latter; it can be very comfortable, but it can also introduce palm rejection instability.
I have a review of it in the works so stay tuned for more details.
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