Review: Wacom Intuos4

The Intuos4 is the latest in a long line of successful Wacom drawing tablets. With every evolution and redesign, users expect more from their creative applications. The Wacom Intuos4 lives up to these expectations. This is a simple yet super-efficient piece of design hardware and it’s damn sexy, too. The drawing tablet radiates style with its slick streamline black shell, high-gloss ExpressKey panel as well as blue LED lighting.

But looks aren’t everything and Wacom has produced a piece of hardware that seriously considers functionality. For example, the Intuos4 is a reversible drawing tablet. This means that the designated ExpressKey shortcuts are accessible to both left and right-handed users, maximising comfort when selecting key functions. This can be set in the driver software options, by following Grip Pen>Mapping>Orientation. It’s also worth noting that the Intuos4 can also be orientated to portrait mode. This works best for photo retouching in Photoshop, when co-ordinating your Screen and Tablet area Portion settings with your Photoshop image dimensions in the tablet driver options.

The proximity of the ExpressKeys also means that the Intuos4’s working area promotes quicker application and more efficient workflow, while remaining comfortable. These are all great qualities for a designer, as this saves valuable time, which can equal money. The Touch Ring has also been modified, now with even more purpose. Its centre button allows you to toggle through your applications, with perimeter LED lights indicating your current selection. This is great for utilising zoom functions and alternating through brush sizes, which once again speeds up your application.

The Intuos4 certainly presents an extremely professional persona to complement its incredibly professional capabilities, but standard options still apply. Customisation of your two Grip Pen side switches is still available. These are best suited to double-click, right-click or Cmd/Ctrl-click functions in order to quickly access menus and option sets. The pen also considers gripping, so those of you who are looking for a thicker barrel are able to strap on the thick-bodied Intuos4 replacement grip, a complementary accessory.

As you would expect, the latest Intuos drawing tablet has increased its pen pressure sensitivity. But there are no half measures with this piece of creative hardware and Wacom has doubled the device’s resolution since the Intuos3 to a whopping 2,048 levels. This augments the painting capabilities of this tablet for those artists using software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter by enhancing on-screen feedback.

We found that this resolution corresponds really well in Photoshop when you are defining your Brush Dynamic settings, allowing you to apply alternating, realistic brushstrokes, which is great when painting in image elements such as hair and other detailed values. Matte painters will certainly be taken by the Intuos4’s creative capacity. This is also undoubtedly helped by the new proprietary tip sensor technology introduced by Wacom. This means that digital artists are able to apply near zero – or one gram – starting pressure with the pen, in turn emulating a more natural feel when drawing, painting or writing.

The Intuos4 goes another step further, maximising creative application with a set of plush pen accessories. Now available to you is the Art Pen, which works a lot like a calligraphy pen. There is also the popular Airbrush, letting you create and define paint patterns within creative software, as well as an Inking Pen. Finally, there’s the Classic Pen and a cordless and battery-free Wacom mouse. The weighted pen stand has also had a redesign. Now it not only functions as a stable penholder, but it acts as a twist-off storage for your pen nibs as well as a nib extractor. Standard, Felt, Stroke and Flex nibs also ship with the Intuos4, so you can simulate working with a variety of traditional art and design materials.

But none of these applications would be possible without the Wacom Intuos4’s powerful and extremely user-friendly driver software, which, as you would have guessed, has also been upgraded. Now included is the Precision Mode. Once this is selected, the mapping of the pen tip alters to a slow-motion movement, which is extremely useful for commercial projects where accuracy is paramount. This action is applied when pressing down on the designated ExpressKey, and it deactivates when you stop.

Additionally, the new Radial menus allow you to customise and group media, desktop and software command functions, then access them through a preference-ordered menu display. Simple to set up, all you need to do is designate one of your ExpressKeys to access the Radial menu and then the latest on-screen options will appear. This can make vital, oft-used practices such as tool and filter selection, copy and pasting, controlling video playback or accessing your emails an immediate choice. This, coupled with all the other new innovations reviewed here, makes the Wacom Intuos4 one of the most practical tablets to date.

Summary: This is not a piece of design hardware to be trifled with. The Intuos4 is built for creative performance on a practical level and professional users will get the most from this device.

Score: 10/10

Details:

Web: www.wacom.com
Price: Intuos4 Small, £199.99/$229
Intuos4 Medium, £329.99/$369
Intuos4 Large, £429.99/$499
Intuos4 XL, £699.99/$789