One of the toughest parts of being an artist is staying up to date on all the latest tech. This couldn’t be illustrated better then the 90s, where every artist I knew was making the migration to digital. This was far from the easiest transition, but there was a company helped take the sting out of it. They developed what was known as a graphic tablet, better known as Wacom. Measuring in at a mere 4 x 4 inches square, it came with the promise of being able to draw in a program called Photoshop 4.0.
Fast forward to today and a lot has changed, Wacom is still at the forefront of the Digital Art medium. The tablet market is certainly taking off, and the word itself makes people think of a device like an iPad. I’ve been waiting for Wacom to make a leap into this new medium. And leap they have, developing the Intous Creative Stylus.
How does this stylus compare to others that already exist on the market? Is this the ultimate in tech for the mobile digital artist?
Features
While the pen is certainly the most important part of this equation, most stylus companies don’t really think about how to carry it around. You may have the prettiest most expensive stylus on the Market, but if there’s not a safe way to carry said stylus then it’s almost worthless for mobility. I was very pleased to see the Wacom stylus comes with a carrying case. Now let’s take a second and realize that this is just a pen, so you can’t go too crazy in terms of transportation. What Wacom includes with the stylus is a very minimalist carrying case: sturdy enough for some extra protection for your treasured device with space for additional nibs (tip of the pen) and replacement batteries.
The stylus itself runs on a AAAA battery. (Yeah, I didn’t know those existed either.) They are relatively small but pack a punch in energy terms. I’ve had my stylus for a couple of weeks and used it quite frequently. There have been no real changes in performance.
As for the stylus’ other features, it includes two buttons closer towards the tip of the pen. A blue LED indicates the status of connection. It doesn’t blink so much that it strains the battery, but it gives you peace of mind that the battery is still rocking.
Feel
It’s interesting to see how Wacom handled pen’s feel the feel of the pen. At a glance the stylus looks more then familiar resembling something closer to it’s Intous line of pens. That being said, like most stylus developed for the iPad they feature a rather larger nib. Now this is certainly the smallest variety I’ve seen yet. It felt a lot easier to draw with and definitely more natural.
The biggest difference between the Wacom and the Pogo is the Wacom features pressure sensitivity. At approximately 2048, the device delivers. I’ve done plenty of sketches on the iPad utilizing my finger, and while the pieces turned out better then expected I felt you could tell that I was using my finger. When I used the Wacom, it looked like stuff that I had done in my sketch book using a bic pen.
The weight and size of the pen were spot-on. My only real complaint was the two buttons found on the handle of the pen. At the beginning I found myself accidentally hitting them. Luckily they are programmable and, I got used to them after a bit of use.
Overall: 9.0
To be quite honest, this has certainly been my new favorite device for my iPad. My original goal had been retiring my Sketchbook and going full digital, and Wacom has certainly taken me one step closer. A $99 price tag is perfect for any professional, while still affordable for a hobbyist. They have certainly brought what I love of their Intous line to the iPad.