Review: Xencelabs Pen Display 16 (OLED)

Review united provided by Xencelabs

Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is the industry's first 15.6-inch 4K OLED pen display released in May 2024, just one year after the release of the huge Xencelabs Pen Display 24. I did not have the chance to review the 24-inch pen display so I'm thrilled to be able to review this smaller model and share my findings with your guys.

Official price listed on their website is USD 1199 for the Essentials set, and USD 1299 for the Bundle set with extra accessories. On Amazon, it's USD 999 and USD 1249 respectively.

Bottom line

Design of the pen display looks beautiful and built quality is top notch. The OLED display is vibrant, bright and sharp. Drawing surface is matte glass and laminated so drawing experience is satisfying. Pen is very sensitive. Driver works well.

It is difficult to find negative things to say. Lack of a touchscreen at this price point is probably a downside I guess. There are no buttons for brightness and OSD menu.

Yes the pen display is pricey, but you do get what you pay for and there's a lot going on.

Video review

Specifications

• Display: 15.6-inch OLED display with 3840 x 2160 resolution
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Brightness: 300 nits with power connected, 170 nits with one cable
• Color Depth: 10-bit, delivering 1.07 billion colors
• Color Gamut Coverage Ratio: 98% Adobe RGB, 99% sRGB, 98% P3-D65, 99% REC 709, 82% REC 2020
• Contrast Ratio: 100,000:1
• Dimensions: 410 x 259.4 x 12mm (16.1 x 10.2 x 0.47 in)
• Active Area: 13.5 x 7.75 inches
• Weight: 2.67 lbs (1.21 kg)
• Pen: Xencelabs 3 Button Pen v2 + eraser (PH35-A) and Xencelabs Thin Pen v2 + eraser (PH36-A), both with 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and ±60° tilt recognition
• Shortcut Keys: 8 buttons with 5 sets for up to 40 shortcuts per application
• Connectivity: USB-C with Alt mode enabled, compatible with USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort via included hub
• Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux
• Anti-Glare Screen: Edge-to-edge tempered glass with Super-AG etching

Things included

The things included will vary depending on which set you purchase.

All items included are also listed on the box's packaging.

The Essentials set will have all the necessary items needed for drawing.

The Bundle set will get you the video adapter that supports HDMI, DisplayPort and extra power. You also get the Quick Keys shortcut remote, a stand and all the extra cables to work with the video adapter. The price difference is just USD 100 on Xencelab's website so the bundle set is kinda worth getting.

The unboxing experience is multi-layered as there are so many things to take out. And the cover is so heavy because there's a carrying case hidden behind.

You can tell that the designers of this product has spent a lot of effort in the product design and how they want to present the product.

The Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote uses the included USB-A receiver (not Bluetooth) for wireless connection. This shortcut remote can be configured with up to 40 shortcuts. Check out the full review I wrote in 2021. The shortcut remote is sold separately for USD 109, lower on Amazon.

The well made matte textured pen case contains one slim pen (PH36-A) and one thicker pen (PH35-A). There are extra six plastic pen tips and four felt pen tips.

The slim pen has two side buttons and an eraser. The plastic grip is textured and comfortable to hold.

The thicker pen has three side buttons and an eraser. The silicone grip is comfortable to hold.

Both pens support tilt and 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. The pen tips have slight movement when in contact with drawing surface.

The stand is also very well made. You can get two angles with this stand. The stand is sized perfectly so you can move the pen display and stand together with two hands.

Connection

The pen display supports a single USB-C cable connection and I measured maximum brightness of 216 nits, higher than the advertised 170 nits for a single cable connection. I'm extremely impressed because most pen displays have real world brightness that's 10-20% less than advertised brightness.

If you need HDMI or DisplayPort connection, you will need the video adapter which is not sold separately, which means you'll have to buy the bundle set. With the video adapter connected to extra power, I measured maximum brightness of 277 nits out of the advertised 300 nits.

I usually use my pen displays at 150-200 nits at home so anything higher than 200 nits is sufficient for me.

Design

The pen display features a clean and simple design. Bezels are big but you can rest your palm on them comfortably. Corners are rounded off but not the OLED though. Build quality is solid and feels premium.

Weight is 1.21kg and the marketing says this is portable. It is portable in a sense but note that a pen display is still a monitor that has to be connected to a computer. Most people are just gonna leave this either at home or at the office and won't be bringing this to and fro that much. For me, I like the 16-inch form factor because after drawing, I can store it away with my laptop on my bookshelf. That's the type of portability I like.

There's only one USB-C video port at the top, and a power button on the other end.

There are no brightness buttons or OSD buttons. The driver is needed to adjust brightness, contrast and colour settings.

The back matte textured is quite susceptible to fingerprints. Those extra lines (grooves) are for installation of the two pen holders.

Installing the pen holders involves putting them at the back and pushing forward. You can have the pen holder at the top or side. Having the pen holder on the pen display is so convenient.

OLED display

Colour accuracy is good. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 95% AdobeRGB, 91% P3, 80% NTSC. Contrast ratio is 100,000:1 and contrast looks amazing. Blacks are deep.

The resolution of 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) makes everything looks sharp. Refresh rate is 60Hz. This is not a touchscreen.

Anti-glare on the matte glass surface is not that aggressive. Even with diffused reflections, I can still see what's on the screen, and the brightness is high enough to go through the display. This is OLED so there's no IPS glow.

The matte surface provides a subtle tactile drawing experience. Pen tip glides smoothly on it, and so does my palm, and pen can be controlled easily. If you have sweaty palms, you can wear the included artist glove.

All matte surfaces will introduce some grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle to affect image quality or sharpness. There is slight colour noise from this matte surface but it's not really an issue. Overall image quality still looks great.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and the pen tip.

Viewing angles are great. There's no noticeable colour shift or drop in brightness from extreme angles.

This is a terrific looking quality display.

Downsides? Since this is an OLED display, there will be pulse wave modulation (PWM). People with sensitive eyes may be affected by the flickering. If you're not sure whether you're affected by PWM, I recommend you go to an electronics store and look at OLED displays, laptops or TVs to find out how you feel after staring at the screens for minutes.

Another thing to note about OLED is there may be burn-in issues. Unfortunately this is not something I am able to test with my short duration with the review unit.

Driver

Drivers are available for Mac, Windows, Windows ARM64 and Linux.

The driver has many features and works well.

There are no mapping function and instead you're recommended to use the "Virtual Tablet" for mapping.

Virtual Tablet is basically Switch Display that allows you to move the cursor from one display to the other. Xencelabs has provided a very clear UI that lets you know whether you can move the cursor on another screen, or across both screens.

Virtual Tablet (Switch Display) works well and is essential for artists who have a dual display setup.

All the pen buttons, including the eraser, can be customised.

The two pens can be customised individually.

Pen and shortcut remote buttons can be customised with

• Mouse clicks
• Keystroke
• Modifier
• Tablet/display: Switch Display, Virtual Tablet, Pressure Hold, Launch Settings, Adjust Pressure, Mouse/Pen Toggle, Rotate Display 90 degrees
• Navigation: Back, Forward, Scroll Up/Down, Zoom In/Out, Tumble, Switch Application, Show Desktop,
• LaunchPad, Undo, Redo
• Application: Open/Run, Finder
• Eraser
• Disable

Pressure curve can be adjusted with a slider or manually by moving three control points. Eraser's pressure sensitivity can also be adjusted.

This is where the brightness, contrast, colour settings can be adjusted. If there's cursor misalignment, you can calibrate the pen under Display Controls.

Once the Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote is connected, you can customise the buttons with the same driver. For a more detailed review of the shortcut remote, please read this review. The summary is this shortcut remote can be configured with up to 40 shortcuts, and 4 functions for the wheel. And you can create shortcut groups for specific apps that will automatically load depending on the active app. There's a lot you can do with this shortcut remote.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro on Mac.

1. Pen has very low initial activation force. A thin line can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. There is slight diagonal line wobble or jitter with slow diagonal lines. You can see this in the test but it's not really visible when actually drawing (at normal speed).

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. Medibang Paint (Mac) has this split second lag when drawing a long line and affects the line's direction. This problem does not happen with Medibang Paint on Windows, and does not happen with other apps.

4. Line width can be maintained consistently by maintaining consistent pressure. Tests #3 and #4 are also diagonal lines and I don't see noticeable line wobble or jitter.

5. Dots sometimes do not appear so the workaround is to tap and drag the pen tip. This problem does not happen with other apps.

6. This is the cursor misalignment test where I join separate lines by looking at the pen tip instead of the cursor. I was able to join the lines without overshooting or gaps. There's no cursor misalignment.

There's also no cursor misalignment when the pen is held at different angles. The cursor tracking is also quite accurate up to the edges of the display.

Tilt sensitivity works fine. Tilt and pressure can work together.

Even though there's slight wobble or jitter with the slow diagonal line tests, I would still consider this pen to be accurate because when drawing (as you shall see later), I don't notice the wobble or jitter. Pen performance is consistent and predictable. This pen performance is definitely good enough for professional art.

Drawing experience

Having a stand is a must to prop up the pen display to a more comfortable or ergonomic drawing angle. The stand can only be deployed at two heights which means the company did not design the pen display to be used as a main display, e.g. watching a movie would be better with a vertical display.

If you want to deploy the pen display almost vertically, get the Parblo PR100 stand.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro on Mac. Workflow is smooth without issues. Lines are able to come out the way I expect them to.

Having a sensitive pen means you can use a thick brush for the whole drawing. Thin lines can be used for details and you can press down hard to use broad strokes for quick filling of large areas.

I actually do not use shortcut remote as my other hand is always on the keyboard which gives me access to all keyboard shortcuts.

Working on the matte glass surface and looking at such a beautiful display is a wonderful experience.

Conclusion

After using the Xencelabs Pen Display 16, I finally understand why it's priced the way it is, high. This is an extremely well made product with thought that went into the design and packaging to create an experience for the artist. The OLED display is obviously the biggest selling point. Colour accuracy is another. The matte glass surface feels satisfying to work on. Pen performance is fantastic.

Say what you want about the high price but the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is an exquisite tool. There are artists who value the intangible aspects of a tool and Xencelabs has made this product for them. And of course this pen display is very technically capable.

There are many 16-inch pen displays in the market, but if you want a truly high end one, the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is definitely one you should consider.

Pros and cons at glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Multi-layered unboxing experience
+ OLED display is vibrant, bright and sharp
+ Matte glass feels great to draw on
+ Laminated display
+ Two pens included
+ Driver has many features
+ Single USB-C cable
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Fantastic pen performance
- Essentials set does not include the stand
- OLED burn-in possibility is unknown
- OLED has PWM
- Not a touchscreen
- No buttons for brightness or OSD
- Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote does not use Bluetooth
- More expensive compared to other similar sized pen displays

Availability

The Xencelabs Pen Display 16 can be purchased from Xencelabs online store and...

Amazon
US - https://amzn.to/3OgQmry
CA - https://amzn.to/41kbswF
UK - https://amzn.to/4gkXLln
DE - https://amzn.to/4fYdnvl
FR - https://amzn.to/41lBHTw
ES - https://amzn.to/3Znn27H
IT - https://amzn.to/3BilXGf
JP - https://amzn.to/3VrWMbg

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