I’ve had the new Wacom Intuos 5, professional pen tablet for just over a week, and I must say this new tool of mine is a great work of art, or should I say, great tool to create art!
Not only does it look good, it feels really great to the touch also. Having personally owned the previous iteration of the Wacom tablet, I can safely say that the newer version is a nice improvement from the Intuos 4.
Professionals have always turned to the ever reliable Intuos series for precision drawing / image editing. All the defining qualities like the 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, immaculate accuracy even when you decide to swing your pen around at high speed, has long been known and it’s great to know that not much has changed and the 5, is still pretty much the same product we’ve grown to love.
We are looking at an evolution of an already fantastic product, and the Intuos 5 certainly did not disappoint.
The new tablet drops the glossy side panel of the express keys and touch ring, for a matte rubber coated shell, which instantly makes it look way sexy and much better to the touch also. The niftiest change from the last version would be the decision to drop the hardware user display (for the express keys) and opting for an on screen display instead. Hover your finger around the express keys, and the On Screen Display will instantly show you what settings are activated. It saves me the need to glance down at the tablet to check my settings, and I really enjoyed the improved user experience.
While the touch interface (which first appeared on the Wacom Bamboo) also makes an appearance, I wouldn’t say that it’s a feature I would be using extensively. It is a nice addition though, and I have been using it sparingly to browse websites, or make use of the multi-touch features to pinch & zoom while going thru images. Not really an option for more extensive graphic work definitely.
The one thing I missed from the Intuos4, would be the 2 usb ports (previously there were 2 ports, one for right handed users and the other for the lefties). One of my ports broke before, while transporting the tablet and I was lucky to still be able to make use of the other available port. I can’t imagine having to shell out hundreds of dollars to get a new Tablet just because of a damaged USB port. There is just 1 port this time round, which means I have to be extra careful with the Matte beauty. But this isn’t a flaw, and I would highly recommend the new Tablet to anyone out there who wants to bring their graphic work to a whole new level.
