Thank you for this video. One little niggle… not everyone who might choose a lesser priced tablet is a hobbyist or a non-serious artist. Some of us are serious artists but not digital graphic artists. For myself, I’m a ceramic artist and a painter with 8 years at university and 40+ years working as a fine artist after that. My main interest in digital art is preparatory work for my "real art." It saves me having to devote irl resources to sketching and trials. Cataloging sketches, supporting images, ideas for the future, notes, etc is easier and doesn’t require physical space in my studio. I can easily travel with my Surface Pro and the mobile studio I put together, bringing everything home to work in my main digital studio. However, the money I spend is not in the digital equipment, it’s in the ceramic studio. Sorry for being so long-winded but I thought it might help to provide an illustration of why fine artists might have different needs than graphic artists without being lumped in with hobbyists.
I highly recommend anyone getting serious with Blender start with the tools they mean to go on with. I started learning Blender last year and struggled between my Intuos Pro and all the hot keys. This summer I got more serious with daily practice and added a 27 Cintiq to my set up and it's completely changed my workflow and I'm making so much more progress. I'm using a Tourbox as a controller and it's amazing to me how quickly things are sticking. I used credit card cashback saved over 4 years to get the screen and I'm so very glad I did. I thought it would be best for sculpting but find the whole process, even doing your courses so much more intuitive on the screen. I considered the Xence but I'm familiar with the Wacom settings on my computer and they weren't sure when they would be shipping. Thanks for all your content, I'm off to try to figure out why a shrinkwrap modifier isn't working 🤦🏻♀
I haven’t tried the Xencelabs display tablet yet, but I replaced my Wacom Intuos with a Xencelabs medium tablet bundle and couldn’t happier. Xencelabs is a fantastic value for pro tablets. Everything you could possibly need is in the box and the quality is every bit as good as Wacom, maybe better.
Nice review. It is a bit high for my budget. Out of huion an 5:36 d xp pen. Which 24 och would you recommend? I already have a innovator 16 but it's quite small for me to use as a daily driver.
I still have a Wacom Intuos 4 and I bought a titanium nib. Works great never have to buy a new nib again. I do not like the plastic it titanium nibs making that horrible sound when drawing on the Intuos, so I placed a thick card on the Wacom and it actually give a much nicer feel to drawing.
I currently use an XP Pen Artists 22 2nd Generation. The price tag for the xencelab is why I haven't made an immediate switch. Plus, who knows what the technology can do in a year from now. But hey, if you ever were to get a refferral link from Xencelab I would probably do a swap faster 😄
This is definitely becoming my dream tablet the more reviews I watch on it. Although i was wondering how good the display itself is? I bought a Gaomon PD1161 a few years back, and despite being 1080x1920, it still felt very dim and low resolution. I'm kinda nervous about the screen quality, considering my experience with my first screen tablet's screen was a major downgrade from my phone screen. I've heard awesome things about the screen on this one though!
Thanks for this video review, and thanks also for such a calm and collected presentation. I have two questions for you that weren't covered in the video. The first is about cable management. I've XP-Pen 22 Pro, and the 3 cables actually bother me quite a bit as I find it quite messy, especially when I've gone through the effort of making sure my PC and Monitor set up has flawless cable management. How many cables, and roughly how long are they on the Xencelabs? And finally, the 3 buttons for changing monitor are super cool, I actually love this idea. However, the RGB colour wave might be a tad distracting when it's right in front of you all the time. Is there a way to control this? Either by setting 1 colour or making them just be White or something not so intrusive? I think £1850 is a lot of money, but being 4K, 24" and all the accessories you get with it, I think it's close to be quite reasonable. Might wait to see if there is a slight price drop before getting it.
Great review, thank you Grant! Im probably gonna pick this up soonish, however i have one final question, do you notice any line wobble when drawing ? Ive heard some claim that is the case but there are only very few reviews out there so its hard to tell but i trust you greatly :)
A few things. Budget does not mean cheap. The most expensive tablet will not make you draw better. Also, given how long these can last, you can use a tablet for over a decade easy,paying a few hundred to a thousand actually works out quite affordable in that context. But it's good to see wacom is not the only game in town these days, a bit of healthy competition ups everyone's game and reduces prices.
I just set mine up and running into an annoying behavior quirk. It appears that the pen button "clicks" only register reliably if the tip of your stylus is a few mm off the surface of the screen, MUCH closer than the range needed for the pen's cursor to activate. This makes is almost impossible to do navigation in programs that rely on holding RMB or MMB to pan/zoom/rotate the view. My hope is that I've received a bad unit that can be replaced since I LOVE this thing aside from this deal-breaker problem. I've made a couple of videos that demonstrate the issue but it appears any comment with vimeo links gets deleted.
@@grabbitt I tried for a few days to get used to it, but the fact that I rely heavily on continuous holding of the pen buttons while navigating the viewports in Zbrush, Mari, Substance, etc.. just ends up being too much of a challenge. I can see if someone was simply "clicking" to evoke menus or actions that it would be possible to work around the issue, but unfortunately I find fast and fluid use of the pen buttons impossible due to the tiny standoff threshold. According to Xencelabs, this behavior was a REQUEST by some users during early design phase, but I can't wrap my head around why anyone would want the buttons to not work when the pen is actively moving the cursor. I was told it was to prevent accidental clicking of buttons, but why hamstring everyone else to accommodate people who inadvertently mash the buttons sometimes?!?
Hey Grant, I have read a few reddit threads all mentioning that this display is a bit blurry due to the anti-glare glass coating. Can you speak to whether or not this is true/was at all noticeable during your time with it?
I have the QuickKeys device already and found it great to use at first and then after second or third software update it stop working reliably. It just randomly shuts itself off even if I am in the middle of using it! So right now it's just sitting in its nice travel case doing nothing. 😒
@@grabbitt Yep, I tried that and uninstalled the software/drivers after they failed to respond. I should try getting hold of the latest version and see if they fixed the issue.
Here are the spex for Grants tee 👕 Thickness Outer: 0.00001 Quality Steps: 99999999 Self Collision: 0.000001 m Object Collection: 0.00001 m Shrink Factor: -0000001 🤣❤️💪
I asked support, and they said that their driver was good so it could be installed together with the Wacom driver. But the way they answered seemed doubtful. In my experience, drivers from different brands do not work well together, for example no pen pressure, pen not detected, jagged lines, crashes, etc. I don't have a xencelabs tablet so can't try it. To be safe, if you have a Wacom tablet, it's better to buy another Wacom product, so both can definitely work with one driver.
OK but, looks like they're milking EU and UK customers. Prices are £286.74 and €292.67 more expense than the US price. US$1899.00 = £1,563.26 or €1,806.33 (14th Oct. 2023), not £1,850.00 not €2,099,00 as listed on their website.
Very expensive, in other countries it is $3000 with TAX etc, And no multitouch and no 120 hrz screen , what's the point? if I have to shred several thousand then I would buy Wacom and not any alternative . Huion is still better cheaper option.
Thank you for this video. One little niggle… not everyone who might choose a lesser priced tablet is a hobbyist or a non-serious artist. Some of us are serious artists but not digital graphic artists. For myself, I’m a ceramic artist and a painter with 8 years at university and 40+ years working as a fine artist after that. My main interest in digital art is preparatory work for my "real art." It saves me having to devote irl resources to sketching and trials. Cataloging sketches, supporting images, ideas for the future, notes, etc is easier and doesn’t require physical space in my studio. I can easily travel with my Surface Pro and the mobile studio I put together, bringing everything home to work in my main digital studio. However, the money I spend is not in the digital equipment, it’s in the ceramic studio.
Sorry for being so long-winded but I thought it might help to provide an illustration of why fine artists might have different needs than graphic artists without being lumped in with hobbyists.
I got one too, works like a charm on adobe painter, zbrush, blender, maya, krita, photoshop ,toolbag, etc...definitely a top choice!!
Thank you! This is exactly the information I was looking for.
I don't care if it's a Wacom killer or not. The most important thing is whether or not it's Grant Abbitt's favourite.
😀
I highly recommend anyone getting serious with Blender start with the tools they mean to go on with. I started learning Blender last year and struggled between my Intuos Pro and all the hot keys. This summer I got more serious with daily practice and added a 27 Cintiq to my set up and it's completely changed my workflow and I'm making so much more progress. I'm using a Tourbox as a controller and it's amazing to me how quickly things are sticking. I used credit card cashback saved over 4 years to get the screen and I'm so very glad I did. I thought it would be best for sculpting but find the whole process, even doing your courses so much more intuitive on the screen. I considered the Xence but I'm familiar with the Wacom settings on my computer and they weren't sure when they would be shipping. Thanks for all your content, I'm off to try to figure out why a shrinkwrap modifier isn't working 🤦🏻♀
I haven’t tried the Xencelabs display tablet yet, but I replaced my Wacom Intuos with a Xencelabs medium tablet bundle and couldn’t happier. Xencelabs is a fantastic value for pro tablets. Everything you could possibly need is in the box and the quality is every bit as good as Wacom, maybe better.
Nice review. It is a bit high for my budget. Out of huion an 5:36 d xp pen. Which 24 och would you recommend? I already have a innovator 16 but it's quite small for me to use as a daily driver.
i alwyas go xp pen over huion as the drivers seem to work better for me
@@grabbitt do you know which one of the 24 inch ones is the newest model? Standard vs pro but the pro seems older? Kinda confusing
@@jinxatronas far as i know a newer pro xp pen one is releasing soon, though i cannot remember if it was a 16 or 24
I still have a Wacom Intuos 4 and I bought a titanium nib. Works great never have to buy a new nib again.
I do not like the plastic it titanium nibs making that horrible sound when drawing on the Intuos, so I placed a thick card on the Wacom and it actually give a much nicer feel to drawing.
I currently use an XP Pen Artists 22 2nd Generation. The price tag for the xencelab is why I haven't made an immediate switch. Plus, who knows what the technology can do in a year from now. But hey, if you ever were to get a refferral link from Xencelab I would probably do a swap faster 😄
This is definitely becoming my dream tablet the more reviews I watch on it.
Although i was wondering how good the display itself is? I bought a Gaomon PD1161 a few years back, and despite being 1080x1920, it still felt very dim and low resolution.
I'm kinda nervous about the screen quality, considering my experience with my first screen tablet's screen was a major downgrade from my phone screen.
I've heard awesome things about the screen on this one though!
Screen quality is good. Nice and bright with good colours
Xen from CN and Wac from Japan. I see longevity being a problem with Xen, and future parts issues.
Nice my bro
Thanks for this video review, and thanks also for such a calm and collected presentation. I have two questions for you that weren't covered in the video.
The first is about cable management. I've XP-Pen 22 Pro, and the 3 cables actually bother me quite a bit as I find it quite messy, especially when I've gone through the effort of making sure my PC and Monitor set up has flawless cable management. How many cables, and roughly how long are they on the Xencelabs?
And finally, the 3 buttons for changing monitor are super cool, I actually love this idea. However, the RGB colour wave might be a tad distracting when it's right in front of you all the time. Is there a way to control this? Either by setting 1 colour or making them just be White or something not so intrusive?
I think £1850 is a lot of money, but being 4K, 24" and all the accessories you get with it, I think it's close to be quite reasonable. Might wait to see if there is a slight price drop before getting it.
It's wonderful that we have so many other choices other than wacom these days.
whats the refresh rate on the panel?
Great review, thank you Grant! Im probably gonna pick this up soonish, however i have one final question, do you notice any line wobble when drawing ? Ive heard some claim that is the case but there are only very few reviews out there so its hard to tell but i trust you greatly :)
It's something that I have not experienced
@@grabbitt Thank you! That settles it then :)
A few things. Budget does not mean cheap. The most expensive tablet will not make you draw better. Also, given how long these can last, you can use a tablet for over a decade easy,paying a few hundred to a thousand actually works out quite affordable in that context. But it's good to see wacom is not the only game in town these days, a bit of healthy competition ups everyone's game and reduces prices.
I just set mine up and running into an annoying behavior quirk. It appears that the pen button "clicks" only register reliably if the tip of your stylus is a few mm off the surface of the screen, MUCH closer than the range needed for the pen's cursor to activate. This makes is almost impossible to do navigation in programs that rely on holding RMB or MMB to pan/zoom/rotate the view. My hope is that I've received a bad unit that can be replaced since I LOVE this thing aside from this deal-breaker problem. I've made a couple of videos that demonstrate the issue but it appears any comment with vimeo links gets deleted.
That 8s also something I noticed when I first started using it but soon got used to having my pen close to the screen
@@grabbitt I tried for a few days to get used to it, but the fact that I rely heavily on continuous holding of the pen buttons while navigating the viewports in Zbrush, Mari, Substance, etc.. just ends up being too much of a challenge. I can see if someone was simply "clicking" to evoke menus or actions that it would be possible to work around the issue, but unfortunately I find fast and fluid use of the pen buttons impossible due to the tiny standoff threshold. According to Xencelabs, this behavior was a REQUEST by some users during early design phase, but I can't wrap my head around why anyone would want the buttons to not work when the pen is actively moving the cursor. I was told it was to prevent accidental clicking of buttons, but why hamstring everyone else to accommodate people who inadvertently mash the buttons sometimes?!?
Hey Grant, I have read a few reddit threads all mentioning that this display is a bit blurry due to the anti-glare glass coating. Can you speak to whether or not this is true/was at all noticeable during your time with it?
No, I find its really nice personally. But I was used to a lower res tablet before so this was a nice step up
Appreciate the feedback & review, liked & subbed!@@grabbitt
Have they reduced the wobble? Saw they were working on it a while back.
I didn't get any wobble myself
Hello! I couldn't find any information about the reaction time (ms) of this Pen Display. Do you know it by any chance?
I can't remember but it's a great drawing experience so it must be very good
@@grabbitt Thank you! :)
I have the QuickKeys device already and found it great to use at first and then after second or third software update it stop working reliably. It just randomly shuts itself off even if I am in the middle of using it! So right now it's just sitting in its nice travel case doing nothing. 😒
It's worth contacting them to see if you can trouble shoot
@@grabbitt Yep, I tried that and uninstalled the software/drivers after they failed to respond. I should try getting hold of the latest version and see if they fixed the issue.
Here are the spex for Grants tee 👕
Thickness Outer: 0.00001
Quality Steps: 99999999
Self Collision: 0.000001 m
Object Collection: 0.00001 m
Shrink Factor: -0000001
🤣❤️💪
perhaps its a little tight :)
Great review!
Can it co-exist with Wacom drivers? Like if you use this at the office and a Wacom on the go.
Not sure about that one
I asked support, and they said that their driver was good so it could be installed together with the Wacom driver. But the way they answered seemed doubtful.
In my experience, drivers from different brands do not work well together, for example no pen pressure, pen not detected, jagged lines, crashes, etc. I don't have a xencelabs tablet so can't try it.
To be safe, if you have a Wacom tablet, it's better to buy another Wacom product, so both can definitely work with one driver.
When you click Buy on their site it says Page Not Found. Great!
i'll let them know
@@grabbitt I bet it's just a region thing, I'm in UK. Too pricey for me anyway 😂
Where are you located?
For $400 more, why not just get the better Wacom 24 pro? Why settle for second best?
If you feel wacom is actually better
The most important thing is now I know how to pronounce Xencelabs
OK but, looks like they're milking EU and UK customers. Prices are £286.74 and €292.67 more expense than the US price. US$1899.00 = £1,563.26 or €1,806.33 (14th Oct. 2023), not £1,850.00 not €2,099,00 as listed on their website.
*looks at website, sees linux listed as compatible* hallelujah!
Xp artist deluxe
Cool.
Very expensive, in other countries it is $3000 with TAX etc, And no multitouch and no 120 hrz screen , what's the point? if I have to shred several thousand then I would buy Wacom and not any alternative .
Huion is still better cheaper option.
good video bro
also i just checked wacom 24 touch and its 2600 USD..... so, this one aint that bad. ^^