Review: Wacom Intuos Pro Medium

Wed, 22nd Jan 2014

FYI, this story is more than a year old

I was excited to have a go with the Wacom Pro graphics tablet.

I'd had a small version when I used to work in photo editing and I wanted to see the progression they'd made. Using tablets made my creativity so much easier to transfer to the image. Did it deliver?

Samsung have made an investment in Wacom purchasing a 5% share earlier this year so I was expecting good things. I wasn't disappointed!

The graphics tablet is big at 15"x 10" but the active area is 8.8"x 5.5" so it takes up a lot of desk real estate.

But for a graphics designer, it can really make a difference. the Wacom Pro has touch sensitivity so becomes a massive touchpad as well. With its 8 programmable keys, the flexibility it brings to using is fantastic.

My bug bear was the handwriting recognition. On a Windows machine, the Wacom installed program meant the handwriting recognition was brilliant. On a Mac, I was confined to Ink, the OS X provided application that sucked.

After its excellent performance on Windows, I was hoping that it was going to be indispensable to working on a Mac.

Unfortunately it didn't live up to the Windows performance. I imagined Wacom was going to have difficulty getting it back from me, but through no fault of Wacom's, I was happy to give it back.

I'm sure that in time the Mac application will live up to the Windows application, but frustrating that it's semi crippled by Apple. Macs are the Graphic Designer's staple machine. It's an industry standard and Apple's walled garden seems to be getting smaller.

Pros:

Maximises productivity
Increases skill levels of GDs
Wireless connectivity and rechargeable battery

Cons:

Apple hampers functionality
Inexperienced users have to learn disconnect between tablet and what occurs on screen
Unable to mount drawing on tablet for tracing

Summary:

On the usual apps that GDs use, it's indispensable. If your Graphic Designer doesn't have one, then you're probably not maximizing their creativity. Unlock their skill with one and see what they can create.

Score: 8/10

Distributor details - please contact Jason Lau at Ingram Micro for more information