Review: Xencelabs Pen Display 24+

Review unit provided by Xencelabs

The Xencelabs PD24+ is a professional pen display released in August 2025 designed for professional digital artists and visual content creators. The earlier model Xencelabs Pen Display 24 was released in March 2023.

The main update is the Xencelabs PD24+ is now Calman Ready and can be used with Calman software together with your (supported) colour calibrator to colour calibrate the display.

The price is USD 1899 and a 2-year warranty is included.

Video review

BOTTOM LINE

The Xencelabs PD24+ is a massive pen display. The design is beautiful and functional. The 4K UHD display is bright and reasonably colour accurate. I measured 97% AdobeRGB and maximum brightness of 398 nits so One main selling feature is this is one of those rare pen displays that can work directly with Calman colour calibration software.

The etched glass with the matte surface feels nice to draw on, and anti-glare is quite effective.

Pen performance is fantastic, and even better than the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 OLED I've also tested. The pen is accurate and sensitive, so the drawing experience is therefore wonderful.

The main downside is the glass for the display is thick so there's parallax, but parallax is not a big issue as it can be removed through software calibration. The driver supports Windows, Mac and Linux, and works well.

There are no major deal breakers to report. The display is not a touchscreen which I think is a feature worth adding to the future model.

Specifications

Things included

All the things included in the box are listed on the exterior of the box.

• Pen display
• Quick Keys shortcut remote
• Quick Keys holder
• Pen case (with standard and felt nibs, Quick Keys USB-A receiver, USB-C to USB-A adapter)
• 3-button Pen + Eraser v2
• Thin Pen + Eraser v2
• 3-button pen clip
• Thin pen clip
• USB-C to USB-A cable (0.6m)
• USB-C to USB-A cable (long)
• USB-C to USB-C video cable (long)
• Full-size HDMI to full-size HDMI cable (long)
• Full-size DisplayPort to full-size DisplayPort cable (long)
• Power cable
• 60W power adapter
• Artist glove
• Microfiber cleaning cloth
• Warranty info
• Welcome card with setup guide

Design

This is a massive and heavy (6kg) pen display. The design looks good and the build quality is extremely solid. There's definitely a premium feel to it.

The bezels are quite thick and provide space for your palm to rest by the side. The corners are rounded off, but not for the LCD.

This is not a touchscreen and does not support finger gestures. The three lighted softkeys are touch sensitive though, but cannot be activated with the pen.

The matte textured metal back has a smooth finishing. This pen display has a fan-less design. There's a Kensington Security Slot somewhere on the back.

Ports available are for power, USB-C video, HDMI and DisplayPort.

The metal stand is already attached and can be removed to use a 100 x 100mm VESA mount instead.

Angle of the display can be adjusted easily by lifting the metal latch behind. Rollers below the stand will roll and won't scratch your table.

The highest angle is not completely vertical but will look alright when viewing from the front. I appreciate the extra big rubber feet beneath the pen display that makes the display higher which is more ergonomic.

At the top you'll find the power button, two USB 2 type A ports and two holes for the pen holders.

There are also two holes on both sides of the pen display for the pen holders, a total of six holes on all sides. The pen holders are quite convenient as you can store your pens away quickly and pick them up again.

The two USB 2 type-A ports have slow transfer speed and can used for the USB-A receiver for the Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote, or for your mouse or keyboard.

I notice a small layer of cushion between the glass and the body. The glass is about 1.5mm thick and will contribute to parallax even though the display is actually laminated.

The Xencelabs Quick Keys holder can be placed the left, right or top of the pen display.

I've already written a dedicated review for the Xencelabs Quick Keys before so I'll just mention the key features here. This shortcut remote does not use Bluetooth but requires the USB-A receiver for wireless connection. There's a dial, and the 8 hotkeys can be configured with up to 40 shortcuts. The OLED display lets you know what shortcuts are assigned.

The pen case is well made. Cover closes with magnets. Exterior is matte textured. Items inside the pen case are:

• 3 button pen + Eraser v2
• Thin pen + Eraser v2
• 6 standard pen nibs
• 4 felt pen nibs
• Nib remover
• USB-A receiver for Xencelabs Quick Keys
• USB-C to USB-A adapter for the receiver

The thicker pen with the silicone grip has three side buttons and an eraser. It's a comfortable pen to hold and build quality is good.

The slim pen has two side buttons and an eraser. The body is matte textured plastic with a good grip. It's a lighter pen for people who prefer something lighter.

Both pens support tilt, 8K levels of pressure sensitivity. Initial activation force is rated to be 3g.

Display

This is a 23.8-inch ADS LCD display with 4K UHD resolution (3840 x 2160) and 60Hz refresh rate. Display aspect ratio is 16:9. ADS is a variation of IPS and has good colour reproduction and wide viewing angles.

The anti-glare of the matte glass is quite effective. Reflections can be diffused without creating a glaring white haze and content on the display can still be seen easily thanks to the anti-glare and high brightness.

Cursor tracking is accurate so cursor is always directly beneath the pen tip, even at the extreme left and right edges of the display. But because the glass is thick, there will be parallax when the pen is at the extreme left or right edges. The Xencelabs driver has pen calibration that can remove the parallax, so parallax is not really an issue.

Matte textured surface may introduce grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle and all that is kept to a minimum on this pen display. I do notice the visuals are slightly softer, but overall it's still sharp when working from one arm distance away. Not an issue.

The company advertised a paper-like texture for the etched glass but it's actually smoother than paper. The texture is very similar to the many other pen displays or tablets with matte glass that I've tested. The only surfaces that are rougher are the matte screen protectors and those can be scratched eventually.

The smooth matte glass surface provides slight tactile drawing experience but it's not considered slippery. It's a surface that's easy to get used to.

When compared to an A3-size paper, this 24-inch display is slightly shorter and wider. The active area is 527.04 × 296.46mm (20.75 x 11.7 in).

Colour calibration

This display has already been colour calibrated at the factory, but of course you should always do your own colour calibration again.

Colour accuracy is one of the main features and this is the first drawing pen display that is Calman Ready and can work directly with the Calman software for colour calibration. The company even told me that the colour calibration software from other companies are not going to work here, but I did get my SpyderX2 software to work though.

Calman software is Windows only. From what I can see, the Calman software does provide more settings than other colour calibration software. And Calman has created a colour calibration workflow in their software specifically for the PD24+.

Note that the Calman software license is not included with the purchase of the pen display, and has to be purchased separately. If you don't already have a Calman software license, that represents an extra cost. And if you don't know whether you need the Calman software, then you should just get the normal PD24 which the company will still be selling alongside the PD24+.

The colour calibration process is guided step by step. The calibration process seems more elaborate and it took around 20 minutes for colour calibration to complete. After calibration, the calibration data will be saved into the firmware of the pen display, which means if you switch systems, you won't have to colour calibrate the display again.

Colour coverage is advertised to be 99% Adobe RGB (CIE 1931) (typ) 93% DCI-P3 (CIE 1931) (typ). I measured 97% AdobeRGB, 100% sRGB, 88% NTSC, 89% P3 and a maximum brightness of 398 nits, higher than the advertised 330 nits.

DRIVER

Drivers are available for Mac, Windows, Windows ARM64 and Linux. The driver I've tested is Mac driver v1.3.5.88 and Windows driver 1.3.5.90 both from 23 June 2025.

The driver has many features and works well. Both the pen display and shortcut remote uses the same driver.

This page lets you change the colours of the three shortcut keys on the top right of the display. The three shortcut keys can be configured with the following shortcuts:

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Modifiers and mouse clicks
• Tablet/Display: Precision Mode, Switch Display, Virtual Tablet On/Off, Pressure Hold, Launch Settings, Adjust Pressure, Mouse/Pen Mode Toggle, Rotate Display 90 degrees, Cursor Offset On/Off
• Navigation: Forward, Pan/Scroll, Scroll Up, Scroll Down, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Tumble, Switch Application, Show Desktop, Launchpad
• Application: Open/Run, Siri, Finder
• Mouse clicks: Left Click, Right Click, Middle Click, Double Click, Click Lock
• Eraser
• Disable

Here's where you can customise the pen pressure, the three side buttons and eraser.

Under More Settings, you can tweak the pressure curve using three control points, and also tweak the pressure curve for the eraser.

Other pen features includes Click-Action Mode, Pen Tilt Sensitivity and Pen Double-Click Distance.

The thin pen also has the same settings available for adjustment.

There's many things to customise for the Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote. For more detail, read this review. You can customise up to 40 shortcuts with the 8 hotkeys.

The driver also allows you to create shortcuts for specific apps, and have those shortcuts load whenever the app you use is active. To do that, just click the + icon at the top right of the driver.

Under Device Settings, you can adjust the visual attributes of the display.

Brightness and contrast can be adjusted. There are no physical buttons on the pen display to adjust brightness. For MacOS users, you can use the keyboard shortcut buttons to adjust brightness by moving the cursor to the display you want to adjust.

Under Color Settings, you can choose the different colour spaces:

• AdobeRGB
• sRGB
• REC 709
• DCI-P3
• REC 2020
• User Mode: Brightness, contrast, Gamma, RGB, colour temperature can be set
• Calman Calibration: Once you use Calman's colour calibration process, the calibration data will be saved onto the pen display, and you can use the driver to apply the calibration.

Calman Ready calibration

This is a new featured added to this model. The Xencelabs PD24+ is the first pen display with Calman Ready integration. This is a rather niche feature but if you happen to need it, then that's great.

Calman Ready integration lets your perform advanced display calibration through a guided process. Listed below are the colour calibrators that can work with the Calman software.

• Portrait Displays Calman Simulated
• Dell UltraSharp UP-Q (USB)
• Sencore ColorPro V
• Colorimetry Research CR-100
• Colorimetry Research CR-250
• Colorimetry Research CR-300
• X-Rite Chroma5
• X-Rite i1Pro
• SpectraCal i1 Pro Enhanced
• X-Rite 11 Pro 2
• SpectraCal i1Pro 2 Enhanced
• X-Rite i1 Pro 3
• Gretag Macbeth EyeOne Monitor
• X-Rite ColorMunki Spectro
• SpectraCal ColorMunki Enhanced
• Datacolor Spyder 3
• Datacolor Spyder 4
• Datacolor Spyder 5
• DataColor Spyder X
• X-Rite Hubble
• Sencore OTC1000
• X-Rite i1 Display Pro
• X-Rite i1 Display Pro (HP)
• X-Rite i1 Display Pro (NEC)
• X-Rite i1 Display Pro/Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus (Retail)
• X-Rite SpectraCal C6
• X-Rite Portrait Displays C6
• basICColor basICColor Discus
• Konica Minolta CS-100A
• Konica Minolta LS-100
• Konica Minolta CL-200
• Konica Minolta CL-200A
• Konica Minolta CS-200
• Konica Minolta CS-150
• Konica Minolta CA-210, CA-310
• Konica Minolta CA-410
• Konica Minolta MYIRO
• Topcon BM-Series
• Topcon SR-Series
• Konica Minolta CS-1000
• Konica Minolta CS-2000
• Photo Research PR-525
• Photo Research PR-650
• Photo Research PR-653 (Cinebrate)
• Photo Research PR-655
• Photo Research PR-670
• Photo Research PR-680
• Photo Research PR-6AQL
• Photo Research PR-701
• Photo Research PR-705
• Photo Research PR-715
• Photo Research PR-730/735
• Photo Research PR-740/745/788
• Klein Instruments K-10
• Orb Optronix SP-100
• Orb Optronix SP-200
• UPRtek MK550T/MD100N
• Gamma Scientific GS-1160B
• Jeti Specbos 1201
• Jeti Specbos 1211
• Jeti Specbos 2501
• Jeti SpectraVal 15xx
• UDT Instruments SLS9400 Series
• Qalif Spectro

I've two colour calibrators. One is supported and one is not.

After calibration, Calman software will save the calibration data into the pen display. When you connect the pen display to another computer, you can open the Xencelabs driver and go to Device Settings - Color Settings - Apply Calman Calibration to load the colour settings without having to calibrate the display again.

Xencelabs also advertised HP Anyware and Parsec for remote working but I did not test those software features.

Line tests

Line tests were created with Medibang Paint.

1. Initial activation force is advertised to be 3g, and the pen does have very low initial activation force. A thin line can be drawn easily even with a thick brush. There is minimal diagonal line wobble or jitter with slow diagonal lines. The pen performance is better than the Xencelabs PD16 (OLED) I've tested.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. The thin and thick line variation is very obvious. Thin lines can be drawn easily even after drawing thick lines. This means the pen is capable of detecting minor changes in pressure when drawing with minimal pressure.

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 can be drawn by tapping the pen.

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 after calibration.

Tilt sensitivity works well with Sketchbook, Clip Studio Paint and Krita. Tilt sensitivity doesn't really work with Concepts app, more specifically the tilt effect is not obvious and this is likely an issues specific to Concepts. There is almost no cursor offset when shifting the angle of the pen from vertical to tilt.

The pen is sensitive and accurate. Performance is consistent and predictable.

There is latency when drawing, and it's the usual amount of latency that I see with most pen displays. It's not something I would think about when drawing.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is fantastic since the pen performance is fantastic.

The pen is more accurate than the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 OLED for some reason even though both pen displays use the same pen.

The large display is useful for multi-tasking, such as when you want to use split screen mode, or when working with a reference photo. The large display does mean my hands have to travel much further to reach the menus and tools.

Since the display has 4K UHD resolution (3840 x 2160), I feel like the A4 300 DPI canvas (3508 x 2480) resolution I usually work with is no longer sufficient. When I zoom pass 100%, I start to see pixelation with my artwork. And all those low resolution wallpapers that you have may start to look pixelated on this display.

The matte glass surface provides subtle tactile experience when drawing. The pen is able to glide on it smoothly but can still be controlled easily. Another nice advantage of the matte surface is it's easily to wipe and clean.

The display does get warm, probably as warm as or less warm than a phone or tablet that's charging.

This was drawn with Clip Studio Paint.

Pressure support is amazing. I was able to use a thick brush and still draw thin lines, which makes the brush more versatile, and hence I did not have to adjust the brush size manually that often. There's no diagonal line wobble or jitter. This pen display is great for creating line art.

Initial activation force is very low, which means you can sketch with a very light touch.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro.

Even though I mentioned the display has slightly soft visuals but overall the visuals still look quite sharp and detailed. I do not have any major complaints on the display sharpness.

The Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote works well, but I still prefer to use my keyboard shortcut because when drawing, my other hand is always on the keyboard anyway, and it's a hassle to switch my hand from the keyboard to the shortcut remote and back constantly. While you can configure up to 40 shortcuts with the shortcut remote, to access shortcuts #9 to #40 would require pressing a shortcut before you can access other pages of shortcuts. When I do use the shortcut remote, I only use 8 shortcuts and the dial.

Compared to other brands

Below's a table compare the specifications of several 24-inch pen displays.

Companies that send me products to review rarely tell me to compare their products with those from other companies. But Xencelabs actually told me to make a comparison review so here's what I think.

All the pen displays listed above have good drawing performance, so let's just talk about the differences with user experience.

Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 (2018)
This was released in 2018 and is a rather old pen display 7 years later today. One major downside is the pen display uses a fan to cool the body, and the fan noise is loud. Do a search online for "wacom cintiq fan noise" and you can see that it's an issue that people are not happy with.

Wacom Cintiq 24 (2025)
This was released in June 2025. Pricing seems reasonable at USD 1299, and there's a touchscreen model for USD 1499. Display resolution is just 1440P though, and colour support is 100% sRGB instead of AdobeRGB. Note that 100% AdobeRGB displays are always noticeably more expensive for a reason. There's also no shortcut remote which isn't a big deal because you can buy that separately if needed.

XPPen Artist Pro 24 (4K) gen 2
This is probably the only real competitor to the Xencelabs PD24+. Specifications are almost evenly match. From my own testing, the Xencelabs has higher measured 398 nits brightness compared to the Xppen's 216 nits. Colour accuracy is also pretty good at 97% AdobeRGB (measured).

Differences? Xencelab's build quality seems to be slightly better, display is brighter and is Calman Ready. The shortcut remote can be placed on the display to give you more shortcuts.

So which to get really comes down to personal preference, your workflow, and also your budget.

Conclusion

The Xencelabs Pen Display 24+ is a high quality product for professionals. The design looks beautiful and is functional. Display is bright, colour accurate and sharp enough. The pen performance is fantastic and drawing experience is wonderful.

The main downside is the glass of the display is quite thick and that contributes to parallax, but thankfully parallax is something that can be corrected through software calibration.

Making this display Calman Ready is interesting. I am not sure how useful or valuable this feature is but Xencelabs must have known that there are professionals who would need or want the Calman colour calibration process. As a graphic designer working with print, I'm actually fine with just using the calibration software from Calibrite and Datacolour.

This is a great pen display. Price is high but it's a great pen display.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Display is vibrant, bright and sharp (enough)
+ Display is factory colour calibrated
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Display supports Calman software for colour calibration
+ Stand can be easily adjusted to different angles
+ Matte glass feels great to draw on
+ Laminated display
+ Has three shortcut buttons at the top right
+ Fan-less design
+ Two pens included
+ Shortcut remote included
+ Pens and shortcut remote can be stored on the pen display
+ Driver supports Windows, Mac and Linux.
+ Driver has many features, works well
+ Supports USB-C video, HDMI and DisplayPort
+ Fantastic pen performance
- Thick glass contributes to parallax (which can be removed with calibration)
- Not a touchscreen
- No buttons for brightness or OSD
- Xencelabs Quick Keys shortcut remote does not use Bluetooth
- Calman calibration software does not support MacOS
- Calman calibration software license is not included

Availability

The Xencelabs Pen Display 24+ is available for purchase from Xencelabs online store and Amazon US