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Wacom Cintiq Companion [ITP.net (United Arab Emirates)](ITP.net (United Arab Emirates) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Anyone who claims that you can't be productive with a tablet computer can't have set eyes on Wacom's Cintiq Companion. The old adage is that tablets are great for consuming media, but no good if you actually want to create something. The Companion, like its predecessors, takes that myth and throws it out the window, except with a little more touch-friendly style thanks to it running on Windows 8. A big, powerful slab of creative machinery, the Companion is an ideal, albeit expensive, tool for an illustrator or designer's arsenal. The Cintiq Companion really is best described as a designing tool, rather than a tablet. For one thing, it hardly fits into the traditional definition of 'portable', as an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab might. With a 13.3-inch screen and a weight of almost four pounds, the device is something of a beast. It'd be extremely difficult to hold the device with one hand and operate it with the other, despite the rubbery paint on the left-hand side designed to make it more comfortable to hold. Luckily, when you think of it more as a slate PC, it makes much more sense. The Companion comes with a protective case, which features a handy little kick stand. That gives you an idea as to the intention of the device - it's meant for desk-bound professionals who want to use a touchscreen for design work. The fact that you can take it to meetings is a bonus, but it's not meant as an on-the-go productivity machine. Anyway, the headline specs are that it features Windows 8.1 Pro, a 1.9 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM and a 1080p screen resolution. You can also have up to 512 GB in SSD storage. You also get two USB 3.0 ports, a 2MP front-facing camera and an 8MP rear-facing camera, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. Disappointingly, it doesn't feature 802.11ac Wi-Fi, but that's all there is to complain about in terms of hardware. These are fanciful specs for any high-powered PC, so the Companion justifies some of the $2,500 asking price straight out of the box. And you can justify the rest of the price with the amazing selection of software the Wacom has pre-loaded the Cintiq Companion with. You get Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, Autodesk Sketchbook Express and a 90-day trial of Corel Painter 12, as well as a few other design tools. And of course, you can buy and download more software suites as and when you need them. Windows 8 suits the Companion better than most PCs. Whereas the operating system usually struggles to make the best of touch outside of the Metro-style interface, it works extremely well on the Wacom. The device offers pin-point touch accuracy so that, even on the traditional desktop view, you can click on icons as easily as if you're using a mouse. And because the device features 10-point touch, you can also make use of a handful of gesture to control things on screen. All that said, the Cintiq Companion is much more impressive when you add the included Pro Pen into the equation. Unlike most styluses, this one is much more than a plastic version of your finger. For one thing, it features 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, meaning that you can actually use it as a drawing tool. Open up Sketchbook and you'll notice immediately how brilliantly the Pro Pen has been engineered. Drawing with it is much like using a real pen (it's not as light as, say, a pencil would be), but it's certainly comparable to a standard Biro, which is impressive considering the end result is completely digital. The tablet and pen work seamlessly together - the device is even good at detecting the difference between your palm and the tip of the stylus, meaning that resting your hand on the screen doesn't result in huge smears of digital paint all over your works. There are other accessories available for the tablet, too, including an Airbrush Pen and special grip pen, though you'll have to buy those separately. On the face of it, they don't seem particularly necessary, because, for one thing, you can use the standard Pro Pen for hours on end without it becoming uncomfortable, and for another, you can set the pen to whatever function you need within the program you're using. Hence, airbrushing, erasing, cutting out and blurring are all a cinch. In terms of performance, that i7 processor will keep things running very smoothly. Photoshop is particularly quick to load up, and you get basically zero lag even when working in high-quality display mode. Unfortunately, the device fails to perform as strongly with graphics rendering. Even when performing a simple graphics test, performance pitfalls are made obvious, and we suspect they're as a result of using Intel's integrated graphics solution. That said, it's unlikely that you'll be playing games with the Companion anyway, so it's sort of a moot point. Overall, the Companion does what it was designed to do brilliantly. The thing is, the Companion is priced at the same level as a reasonably specced MacBook Pro or iMac. I'd contend that a MacBook Pro is more portable, because it can be more easily operated on your lap. You really do need a desk to get the best out of the Wacom device. So if you're desk-bound, you'd get a lot more out of an iMac, or even a good Windows PC. Sure, you won't get the fantastic touch features, but you'll have a proper machine at your disposal. The Wacom is very expensive, then, particularly when you consider its real-world capabilities. The only people who could really justify shelling out for one would be top-notch designers and illustrators who simply can't work as effectively with touchpads for PCs or styluses for tablets. That market is small, but then again, it's exactly the kind of market Wacom is targeting - the Cintiq Companion is a professional device through and through. Certainly, if you can justify buying one, you won't be disappointed with what it can do. Pros: Astounding touch precision, powerful performance, excellent stylus Cons: Very expensive for a tablet, quite heavy and bulky VerdictExpensive and bulky, but extremely impressive nonetheless (c) 2014 ITP Business Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |