Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet Review

Nowadays any designer serious about their work will most probably have a pen tablet and to any upcoming designer should really think about investing in one. Pen tablets were once thought after as commercial piece of equipment, however companies such as Wacom have made them very affordable for ‘personal’ use. Here I have Wacoms’ Intuos4 Large model sent out for to me to review.

Now the Intuos4 is packed with new intuitive features which makes the usability and productivity of the tablet outstanding. The tablet comes in 4 different sizes; S, M, L, XL The features of the tablet include:

First to talk about is the tablet itself, this is a thing of beauty, from its design to usability everything has been thought of. The ‘function’ strip that contains the express keys and touch wheel sits either to your left of right depending on what hand you hold the pen with, this is a great feature as many other tablets cater for the dominate right handed users which makes it easier for you ‘lefties’. The reason for this is that everything regarding the physical buttons are OLED’s (Organic Light Emitting Diode). So basically this means the text that you set for the express keys can be switched to be read either way without being upside down regarding what side you set the ‘function’ strip – The tablet itself unfortunately is not motion sensitive, which is a shame because that would of been a great little feature – all this means is that you have to indicate whether you are left or right hand in the driver software.

The tablet surface itself has a matte finish and is very nice to glide your hand across while working with the pen and on this large version the tablet real estate is unreal – I can cover my two 22″ screens in one movement across the tablet. The strip where the express keys sit has a glossy finish which finishes off its sleek design. One thing that may annoy some of you is that it is very fingerprint prone, what I mean by this is that fingerprints show very easily however they do wipe off very easily. By all means this is no reason to out rule this tablet as this is really the only thing I can pick out as a “con” about this tablet.

The customizable express keys are program sensitive, this means that you can set different functions for each applications due to again the OLED displays. These are the unique intuitive feature of this tablet and in my experience with it makes my increases productivity in programs such as Photoshop and cuts down the time of a given task by at least half. The reason for this is that they are right the next to your left or right hand that is doing nothing while using the pen in your dominant hand, therefore when you set your express keys to do a common task such as “switch to the select tool in Photoshop” it takes you less than a second just to tap the button – rather than moving to your keyboard for the ‘shortcut’ or finding it in the palette tools. Given you may think that you are only saving yourself a few seconds – for every 2-3 seconds you save for each function if you multiply that up in terms of minutes or hours in a days work you may find you save yourself a good hour or more. Therefore helping you get through your work load much faster. The touch ring has the same time saving features – this can be configured to do things from scroll through webpages or layers, change brush-size, zoom in or out and even change the tool inside graphic editing programs. There is an inner ring which when clicked scrolls through 4 functions which again are customizable and program sensitive.

The pen that comes with the Intous4 looks and feels like any other tablet pen however this pen has a whopping sensitivity level of 2,048, which you can feel as soon as you start to use the tablet, what this means is that the higher levels of sensitivity result in more of a natural feel while drawing or illustrating. It makes designing so much easier especially with its ergonomic design that fits great in the hand  - the precision is uncanny. The pen also has a built in tilt feature, this means that when you title the pen this will be replicated on the screen – brushes will become thicker as if they would in real life. It features two function buttons in an ergonomic position allow you to press them with ease, they are also customizable to what there function is. The pen comes with two grips a thin one and a fat one, personally I prefer the thinner one however this is really down to personal preference. This pen has be redesigned from the ground up and it really shows.

Precision mode within the Intuos4 is a revolutionary feature, the general idea of it is that you set one of your express keys to precision mode and the software will ask you to select the level of ‘precision’ from fine to ultra fine. Once you have the express key set up you ready to go, when the precision express key is held down the pen tablet goes into the precision mode, which means you can move you hand across the tablet as fast as you like and the tablet will respond very ‘slowly’ this is to get the finest of details for you work and get those brush strokes precise. This is another unique feature that pushes this tablet above the rest.

Wacom have now included a reengineered a new pen holder, this has a very sleek looking design and looks great on the desk. It has a lot of weight to it which is to one reason, you simply unscrew the holder, the top half will come off and you are revealed with 10 extra nibs! 5 standard black, 4 hard textured, 1 soft nip and a spring loaded one. Now for these nibs to be included is a great plus, it helps you achieve any task as each nip gives a different feel and reacts different in designing programs. The pen itself is nib sensitive so it will know what nib you have in the pen and adjust according for the experience. Inside the stand also holds a nib extractor which is really nice as it makes changing the nib a breeze! The design of the pen holder is really useful as it stops you loosing the nibs and the pen itself. As sometimes I find myself putting the pen down some where and now remembering where I have put it.

One other nice little feature that comes with the Intuos4 is the ability to detach the usb cable from the tablet itself which the Intuos3 didn’t have, primarily down to the fact that on on the back of the there is a little slider that when slid up or down it will close one usb port and open the other – this is because the design of the ‘left’ & ‘right’ allows you to keep the usb cable either at the bottom or top of the tablet. This is a big convenience to all users.

The Intuos4 comes in 4 different sizes which is great for people who need a certain size due to desk space, traveling etc. However personally if you can afford it – the bigger the better. As I have said I have been using the Large version and it is big! 17.5″x12.6″ to be exact. You wont regret spending a bit of extra cash on a larger version. Below you will find a review and run down of the software that comes with the Intuos4 and the promo video from Wacom.

In conclusion the Intuos4 is at the very top of its market and is a great buy for any designer serious about their work and for any user that is considering getting started with tablets or design work its a definite must have. The design is sleek and looks amazing the intuitive designs are endless and is a huge time saver which is always a plus. The technology of the tablet is again great from its sensitivity to its OLED’s, the materials used to manufacture the tablet are top quality all this making the Intuos4 ticks all the boxes for a great pen tablet.

Software Review:

The driver software that is included with the Intuos4 works for both Mac and Windows, the functionality of the software is easy to understand and very simple in the fact that what ever task you wish to do whether that be set a new function for an express key to changing the pen sensitivity it is all set out in a step by step order, with nearly all options annotated. This is really great as it makes every so easy. You can add program specifics with ease, simply click the plus (+) button and the driver will take you from there. Don’t worry if you screw anything up because there is a simple button on every customize page that allows you to set all options to default! Below you will find a few screenshots of the the Intuos4 control panel looks like inside Mac OSX.

Wacoms’ Promo Video:

Size Run-Down

Wondering what size is best for you? here’s a quick list of the sizes available and there dimensions.

(W x H x D)

S – 309mm x 208mm x 12mm
M – 370mm x 254mm x 12mm
L – 474mm x 320mm x 14mm
XL – 623mm x 462mm x 28mm

Gallery