Xencelab pen tablet medium bundle review: Art doesn’t have to be pain

Have you ever drawn an amazing sketch that you are just so proud of, and then when you go to scan it to show it off online it loses its pizazz? The lines look murky, the angles suddenly seem off, it just doesn’t hold up. It’s frustrating.

Pen Tablets help to cut out the middleman by mimicking that quintessential experience of putting pen to paper while allowing you to draw directly onto your PC. Rather than using your mouse and cursor to make marks on photoshop, these tablets allow you to use a pencil and the tablet to do it instead - kind of like a big mousepad with a pen for a mouse. 

Xencelab’s Pen Tablet Medium Bundle is among the best value pen tablets available, offering great precision and control, and some thoughtful extras, at a cheaper price than other brands.

Xencelab Pen Tablet Medium costs $469.99, while the bundle that includes two pens and 10 extra pen nibs costs $599.99.

For comparison Wacom’s Intuos Pro Medium comes in at $549, and pens cost $139 each.

Anyone that has used a dodgy pen knows how infuriating it can be, and it's the same case when you substitute physical pens for digital ones.

For the most part the Xencelabs pens have excellent accuracy and precision, but there is room for a couple of minor improvements. There is a small amount of jitter, particularly at the beginning of a line stroke - it isn’t too noticeable for larger pieces but if you’re getting into fine detail it starts to become more apparent. While the pens support over 8000 points of pressure, the lighter the pressure the more prevalent this jitter becomes. In the scheme of things it is very minor, but may be a pain point for some artists.

You’ll also get 60° tilt support on the pens so you’ll be able to play with the angle of your pen quite a bit. It isn’t enough to be able to do thick shading however, but there are plenty of digital brush types that will let you get a similar effect using the Xencelab pens.

The Medium Bundle comes with two pens, one in the classic narrow style and the other with a diamond shaped pen grip built in. Both pens are well balanced, and relatively comfortable in hand although I personally would have preferred a slightly softer grip on the later. Xencelab pens also come with an eraser on the back end of the pencil, making the whole process incredibly intuitive. Within the bundle you’ll get 10 additional pen nibs, including two felt nibs for shading and colouring, and a nib remover which makes switching them out easy.

Part of the joy of drawing comes from how simple and accessible it can be. Everyone has the capacity to draw something - toddlers make marks on paper, teens etch phallic symbology anywhere they can, and every brainstorm ends up with someone doodling a stick figure on a whiteboard.

While a pen tablet is never going to be quite as simple as absentmindedly sketching in the margins of a workbook, the Xencelab pen tablet is pretty close. Set up only takes a few clicks before it's ready to go. While you can play with your taper settings for your pen during setup, even the factory settings make the device ready to use straight out of the box.

The active space is enormous, especially compared to similar products like the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium, so there is plenty of room to sketch without cramping your hand up. Having the space is a double edged sword though - if you’ve got a small workspace then it may be too large but if that's the case you could always go for the smaller model.

For people who use the pen tablet in collaboration with other tools, it is easy to switch between your gadgets. There is no boot-up or reconnection time when you switch on the Xencelab tablet, so you can flick it on to work for a few minutes without sacrificing your flow.

There is also the option of going wireless using the bluetooth dongle included in the bundle, or just keeping it wired up. I for one am sick of cords, so opted for bluetooth which took a little over two hours to fully charge and lives up to its 16 hour battery life claim. 

The Xencelab Pen Tablet Medium Bundle is a great value drawing tablet that packs in more than others for the price. It mirrors the feel of drawing on paper with great accuracy apart from some minor pen jitter, and comes with thoughtful inclusions like bluetooth and a sleek pencil box.

Offering more active space, and more variety in drawing tools for an overall lower cost than similar products, the Xencelab Pen Tablet Medium Bundle is worth considering for beginners and professionals alike.