#pen&touch

Inspired by this article, from David Revoy: http://www.davidrevoy.com/article332/tablet-history-log

As I decided that I’ll try to post a weekly article on my tumblr each sunday with the intention to share you some news as a form of self-motivation and as I didn’t have anything constructive to tell you today, I got the idea to tell you my story with graphic tablets when I read the article linked above from David Revoy, a great French artist who’s using only open-source software in Linux OS.

Also, one thing that can be interesting is that I got in April a new Cintiq model from Wacom: The Wacom Cintiq Pro 16, which, I think, doesn’t have a lot of review yet and you could learn here that this tablet is really terrible, in the good sense of the term, but also have some terrible... choices that we can reproach Wacom, in my point of view.

As I intend to tell you about my tablets in a chronological order, this review will be left at the end of this article.

SUMMARY:

- Genius G-Pen M712 (2009 - Windows XP and Seven)

- Wacom Cintiq 12wx (December 2010 - Windows 7 and 8.1 and Linux Debian-based)

- Wacom bamboo pen & touch (2012-2013 - Windows 7)

- Wacom Cintiq 13hd (December 2016 and January 2017 - Windows 8.1)

- Wacom Cintiq pro 16 (April 2017 - Windows 8.1)

Genius G-Pen M712 - Bought in 2009, used between 2009 and December 2010 - tested in Windows XP and 7

(I was too inexperienced to judge the stylus pressure)

PRO: A big amount of shortcuts buttons, usable for left-handed and right-handed persons (probably too much I’d even say): 34 shortcuts buttons, 2 scrolls with 1 button in the middle of each scroll and 5 buttons to edit some parameters for the tablet. A good format to draw (A4). Love the design.

CON: The stylus needs battery, on the contrary of the Wacom stylus. Though, I never changed it even after 1 year of frequent use. No eraser on the stylus.

Initial price: around 120 - 140 € if I remember well.

Still in my possession and still working (didn’t try it on my latest computer in Windows 8.1 though).

Wacom Cintiq 12wx - Bought in December 2010, used between December 2010 and April 2017 - tested in Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Linux Debian-based (Ubuntu, Crunchbang (RIP), Debian, Mint)

PRO: This is a monitor tablet. The screen is really strong, in high quality and soft enough to avoid the nib of the stylus to get worn out (I didn’t change the nib even after 6 years of use and there’s no scratch on the screen). 5 shortcut buttons and a scroll bar on the left and on the right of the tablet (for left-handed and right-handed persons). Tablet of high quality with a high life expectancy (6 YEARS!). Plinth very useful to put the tablet in a tablet position OR in a screen position. Eraser on the stylus. No battery needed for the stylus.

CON: Screen too small and in a too small resolution. Screen too dark, it is impossible to color calibrate it correctly. Cables very bulky (with a big box to change the screen parameters). The frame around the screen is very large.

Initial price: ~ 900 €

Still in my possession and ready to be plugged in and used.

Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch - Bought between the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, used only at my 3D arts school or when I travel - tested in Windows 7

PRO: Very light and easy to carry when I’m traveling. 4 shortcut buttons. Love the design. Pen & Touch functions. Eraser on the stylus. No battery needed for the stylus.

CON: A bit too small to draw (A5 format). The nib is worn out really fast compared to the ones used on Cintiq tablets (had to change it after 6 months of use).

Initial price: 80 or 90 €

Still in my possession.

Wacom Cintiq 13hd - First one bought in December 2016 and Second one in January 2017, used less than 1 month each and sent back - tested in Windows 8.1

PRO: This is a monitor tablet. Light. 1080p resolution. Cables not bulky at all. 9 shortcuts buttons. Eraser on the stylus. No battery needed for the stylus. Love the design.

PRO and CON (in-between): Still a bit small, but it’s clearly better than the Cintiq 12wx screen size. The plinth propose 3 position, in addition of the flat position, but the most vertical position is not vertical enough to allow us to use the tablet as a second screen when we’re not drawing, on the contrary of the Cintiq 12wx screen. Plus, the plinth is made in a plastic material which looks and sounds... really not strong.

CON: 2 tablets bought, 2 tablets received with a problem of white light escaping from the low part of the screen. Damn! I sent the 2 tablets back almost immediatly. The screen feels more granular than the screen of the Cintiq 12wx, which made me worried to have to change the nib of the stylus as regularly as with the Bamboo pen&touch to avoid to get some scratches on my screen with the time.

Initial price: ~ 900 €

Sent it back almost immediatly (x 2)

Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 - Bought in April 2017, used once received and once I bought a cable Mini-display port <-> Display port and still used - tested in Windows 8.1

PRO: This is a monitor tablet. Perfect screen size to draw and work on a normal desk. 1440p (used in 1080p though because I prefere). Parallax problem resolved: I didn’t have to calibrate the stylus on the screen, on the contrary of the Cintiq 12wx and 13hd. It’s still possible to do it if for you the problem is not resolved enough, but I didn’t feel the need to. Screen really strong and soft (not granular as the Cintiq 13hd). Pen & touch function. Perfect screen quality. Eraser on the stylus. No battery needed for the stylus. Love the simplicity of the design.

CON: No more shortcut buttons. The plinth now allows us only to draw with the tablet in a flat position, or in a lightly slanting position only (though, it definitely looks stronger than the cintiq 13hd’s plinth). To use it as a second screen when I’m not drawing, I have to use a book holder, which is not very... practical.

BIG MISTAKE: In the French amazon store, they made the mistake to add this line: “The wacom expresskey remote allows you to[...]”. Oh really? What a shame this remote is not included and costs around 100 € then. Especially that it makes us think that it’s not a problem then if there is no more shortcut buttons on the tablet. At least, we’ll have the remote. LOL! ... Unless we don’t have the remote when we pay the tablet in the wacom website 1612 € but that we get it when we pay the same tablet in amazon fr 1507 € instead of 1600 €. o.O (Well, OK, we have the “contents of the box” discretely written below, but though, this is still misleading.)

BIGGEST MISTAKE: You bought your computer some years ago? It’s a bit old, but still young enough and it’s extremely powerful? Oh, and you thought about buying this model of Cintiq? Well, you can. You’ll just have to add 15 € for the cable mini-display port <-> display port + 65 € for the adapter display port <-> HDMI Wacom recommends you and you have to cross the fingers to hope that the adapter will work because... not all the adapters are working, or not always correctly. After all, we all know it. The HDMI is definitely done. One year before, everyone was using this but now, in 2017, it’s so old-fashioned! ... No, seriously, wacom, there, I don’t understand this choice. For Mac users, there should be no problems apparently. There is a special port for Mac. But for PC users, there is just ONE port for the screen! And this is not a HDMI one. This is a mini-display port. A port which is all fresh and almost unused. I mean... WHY? When I talked by phone with one of the Wacom staff about it, I really thought to myself: “But this is crazy! What a stupid choice! This tablet is awesome and I’m sure that this choice will disappoint A LOT of customers.” And I was definitely right. That’s simple, on the French amazon store, there are 4 reviews. 1 is rated 5/5 (the person noticed however a problem with the fan in the tablet if you work in Windows 10, but it can be solved in the control panel). 1 is rated 4/5 (it’s me). And the 2 others... Well, they all say that this tablet is, I quote, “extremely disappointing” and “should not be recommended”. For both of them, the problem is due to this port choice. Soooooo... maybe I wasn’t this wrong when I felt that this choice could have some bad consequences...

POSSIBLE EXPLANATION: I am not really good in term of hardware / electronic / informatic knowledges yet. But recently, I was wondering: Wacom did a HUGE improvement with the parallax problem with this Cintiq Pro 16. I ever heard from an artist on YouTube (probably one of the first persons whom let a review about this model) that this Cintiq is the first one in that case. True or not, I can’t say that the difference is not huge and enjoyable. But WHAT IF this improvement was the price to force Wacom to stop using the HDMI port and use instead the new ones, to know the “mini-display” port. Of course, it’s just an hypothesis and it still needs an answer from Wacom services to be confirmed or not, but... in my point of view, that could be an explanation which could explain the choice of Wacom.

Initial price: ~ 1600 €

Favorite tablet I am using actually (Happily, I have a recent computer from March 2016)

And you? What kind of tablets did you get / are you using? What do you think about them?

Don’t hesitate to share your opinion and story... and to share them with David Revoy in his article I linked above as well, because he was the first to ask and my article is heavily inspired from his one.

Kind regards.