XENCELABS Quick Keys for PC, MacBook, Desktop, Drawing Tablet, Pen Display, OLED Display, 44 Customizable Shortcuts Keydail for Digital Drawing, Video Editing, Photo Retouching, Windows/macOS

Ordered this, expecting another plastic "toy", but after reading the reviews, decided to give this a chance. I'm glad I did! It's everything it's advertised to be. From the ergonomics, to the included extras, I feel I received real value for my money.There was a minor annoyance during my registration for the warranty. When I went to their customer support page, the answer was right up front, the company owned up to their error, and the solution was clearly presented. I didn't have to go online to forums, etc. like I have had to with other products.So, let's move to the pros and cons, nothing is perfect, though this comes close.Pros:Build quality. The unit is plastic, but it feels solid in the hand, and the rubberized backing really does have a grip to it.Programmability. You aren't going to be stuck with an art app only device, this thing is a full blown macro pad, similar to a stream deck at a much lower price.Ergonomics. I can easily reach all the buttons and the wheel while holding it in my left hand.Versatility of connection. Between the cable, dongle, and included USB adapter, I can connect this to any PC device in my house. The included cable has more than enough length, almost too much. A nice change of pace these days.Charging: It can be charged from any phone charger as well as through the computer itself, or a powered USB hub. The USB adapter will work for charging as well if you have an older charger.Legibility. The LCD screen is easily readable, even in bright light.Extras. The unit I received also included everything I would need to use it, and a very nice carrying case to protect and organize it in my laptop case when traveling. They didn't make me buy even the little things I would want or need to get more money out of me.Cons: (Sort of)No bluetooth. (But I can live with that at this price)The scroll wheel could be a bit stiffer, but at least it's infinite, making it great for controlling brush size, etc without having to jump in steps. It holds it's position, but could be easily nudged unintentionally if you're a bit of a klutz like me. :)The rubberized backing loves to collect lint and debris. As mentioned before, it's really grippy!

I love this device! Yes there are other similar devices but this one by far is superior. I had ordered one by Huion and XP- Pen has one as well but the build quality and the functionality of this device exceeds the capabilities of the other brands. The ability to use it in landscape or portrait modes with the dial to the left, right, up or down is very innovative as I'm left-handed. I also use a Logitech MX Master 3S to navigate but I'm not fond of using shortcut keys on the keyboard as I have limited space to work with.The packaging was top notch and included was everything needed to setup flawlessly. After connecting the dongle to my laptop and plugging in the USB cable all I needed to do was to download the driver and the app set me up for use immediately. After trying it out with Gimp, Sketchbook Pro and Clip Studio paint I saw how this can greatly improve my workflow. It is rather comfortable to use and it responds well. The ability to rotate my artwork helps a great deal as I'm working on artwork that I had drawn freehand and scanned. I'm using a Huion Kamvas 12 but I'm planning on purchasing a Xence labs tablet small as I have purchased a monitor to improve my posture as I often have to use my pen display on my lap which puts a strain on my neck. I got this on sale so it was a great value but at it's regular price it is a necessary piece of hardware for serious artists!

The build quality is excellent. The battery is between good, but not excellent if you use it without the cable. The minimum device sleep setting I found in the software was 30 minutes which I think is way too high. There should be one for 5, 10, or 15 minutes, so this probably a key factor. This brings me to software. The problem with this device is the software interoperability, not the quality of the software itself. In other words, the quality of the software is very good, stable, and very polished, however the functionality it offers you is somewhat flawed in its design. The biggest gripe is that you cannot quickly move macro buttons around in your layout easily. You currently have to set them up individually each time you want to move them to a different button. I reached out to the company and they said that this is already in the works to be addressed. I was very glad to hear this because there are 5 button layouts you can have for any application for a total 40, and you can have any number of app settings in addition to your main OS default settings. There are few other design issues I found but they are much less annoying, but you should know they have a Feedback forum and their support was also prompt and helpful with my complaints. That being said, there are other nice features, like adjusting not just the color of the dial ring but also its brightness for each individual setting, which is very useful for example making red or yellow extra bright while turning a white or blue dial on the dimm side will help you a lot when switching quickly between your dial modes. One last thing I want to say about the software is that you can rename your 5 macro sets for each application. By default they are called Set A, Set B, Set C, up to E, and when you switch applications the device will automatically update the screen to show the last used set for the application. When pressing the set switch button the device, the current app name and the set name will show. You can also disable sets altogether. All these things are very useful to know! You're welcome.Now let me share some experience as a MacOS user. The reasons I wanted a macro pad was because I copy and paste a lot of content and I need to do a lot of "raw pasting" which strips formatting from copied text and the keystroke for this is Command+Option+Shift+V. After doing this hundreds of times I had to find something like this. When I received this product, first was that the default macros that were programmed in had CTRL as the keystroke for buttons like Copy and Paste. On Mac you know that CTRL is not correct, so you have to change them to Command. Not sure why but look out for that. Something important, there are some macros which, if they are also used by macOS must be disabled in System Preferences Keyboard>Shortcuts before applying in Quick Keys because they might get activated while trying to apply them. For example, I was trying to set up a Space Left and Space Right macro for moving between Spaces in macOS which use CTRL+Arrow Left / Right. However, since these activate while trying to add them to the Quick Keys, the software could not add them. Once you disable the macOS shortcuts, you add them in Quick Keys and once you do that, you can go back to System Preferences and re-enable them in shortcuts to work with your regular keyboard. This might not happen for all shortcuts but just something else to look out for.Final thoughts. I definitely recommend this product. The pictures do not show the build quality this device really has, it's definitely premium. The software is a worthy product on all of its own, even with its somewhat inadequate design feature are more of a flaw in human logic than in the quality of the programming used to build the application. It could be that they did not expect this product to be as successful as they thought. Well, the fact that this company maintains a feedback forum, and the support was friendly and responsive, speaks highly of the company behind this fine product. I'm a satisfied customer!