Wacom Cintiq 12wx 12 Inch Display Survey At first glance, it's an amazing product. It's a great size, it's thin, bright, with nice buttons and a nice pen. I just got mine and am using it to work with as a normal tablet (to control the cursor on my main screen), and also to work directly on and draw/paint. I use a 21" Cintiq at work and also have a 6x8 Intuos 3 tablet that I used before getting this new 12" Cintiq. The 12" Cintiq has a lot of flaws so much so that I think I may have to return it, which is really disappointing. First. Though it's a "12-inch" screen, I'd say it's more like a 10". Why? Because when you move the cursor to the edges of the screen - a little over an inch away from each border, the cursor starts to shake tremendously. This simply doesn't fly when you're trying to keep a steady hand and get a good line while drawing or painting. It's also very annoying when you're just trying to click on something in the menu bar at the top of the screen. The cursor looks like it's spazzing out and it's really hard to live with. I think part of the reason for this may be because of the limited 2-point calibration, as someone else who reviewed on here talked about. The calibration is just nowhere near refined enough. Like I said, I also have a 21" Cintiq and I don't have this problem with that. They just didn't do a good job with the 12". Second. The excessive cables. They really need to figure out how to slim this down and simply it - and I think they could. Before you buy look at the manual online and see all that you have to do to get this thing working. If you're thinking about taking it with you on the go with your laptop, forget it. There's so much to have to deal with. I don't see why they can't just make a simple cable like Apple's Cinema displays - it plugs into the DVI port, a usb port for the pen to work, and then a power brick, which then plugs into the wall. That'd be so much simpler. The cintiq itself is very thin - so it lends itself to portability, but when you have to consider all the extra cables and connections you have to make, it doesn't work out so well. Third. The quality of the screen. It is cheap. When I first plugged it in I wasn't disappointed - I saw my desktop background on this small 12" screen and it looked nice and bright. But then I started working with it. When you're actually drawing in Photoshop the line doesn't look nearly as crisp as on my Apple Cinema display. Text also suffers. Just reading through web pages it's quite noticeable. I think another review said that they just used a cheap laptop screen, and after working with it for a couple days, I think that person was right. There are nice things about it. The design is nice and like I said before, it's nice and thin so it sits nicely on my desk (a problem I have with the bigger ones is that they are SO bulky). It's easy to pick up and put in your lap. And the stand is nice too. I really wish that it didn't have the problems that it does because I'd love it to work well. My main problem has to be the cursor jumping around and shaking - it's really awful and I don't think I can stand it. It's worst at the edges of the screen, but you can't even click and drag to scroll down a web page without the cursor shaking. It's not only annoying, it's almost unusable. I'm used to using my Intous 3 and my goodness - what a difference. That one is SO much better at tracking your pin movement. Worth $1000? Not at all. Hopefully they'll come out with a better updated one sometime soon - then it may be worth the price. There are good things, many people have listed them. But for $1000, it should be much better. Here are a list of the shortcomings that are not excusable for this price: -Poor viewing angles. Wacom says you should use the color profiles that come with the display as it has been properly calibrated at the factory. And yes, color is perfect. At least Hue and Saturation. Verified with ColorSync advanced setup. But if the brightness and contrast changes if you move your head, well, it isn't accurate, is it? I assumed that this 12. 1" display was going to be higher quality than the crappy displays you get in a MacBook or thin Windows Laptop. Wrong. Same horrible viewing angles and hot spots. Basically a cheep laptop monitor in a Wacom case. -Poor tracking. Wacom is the standard. Supposedly this is based on an Intuos pad. But Wacom gives 2 points of calibration. That's right, 2 points. Upper left, lower right. That means that if you move the pen along the line drawn between those points, it's calibrated. But not in the lower left of upper right.
Not at all. Any professional product should have at minimum 5 points of calibration. 4 corners and center. 2 is what my GameBoy DS has, and frankly, it tracks better and faster. Wacom needs to improve their driver and they could accomplish this. And of course since you can't touch the bottom 5 pixels of the screen, good luck if you had your dock hidden down there (Mac only). I have to have the dock squished to the side, which makes it harder to use, especially with a dual monitor setup. -Lots of cables and the brick. It works well, but still. With all that cabling and hardware, you'd think they could provide a DVI/VGA passthrough port. -1st grader pen. The grip pen is just not logical. No artists tools I use have that shape. Pencils, pens, brushes, all are thinner. I am used to sketching with Colorase and drafting pencils, so I won't be using this grip pen. Can I get used to it? Sure, probably, but then it will be more awkward to switch back and forth between the Cintiq and real paper and pencil. I ordered the classic pen, which should arrive in a few days. But that's another $50 to spend, when it should have either been the default pen provided, or BOTH pens should have been provided. -Software. They have been downgrading the bundles over time with their tablets, but at $1000, we should get more than Painter Light and Photoshop Light, since the vast, vast VAST majority of Cintiq customers already own Photoshop. I mean, you don't spend $1000 on a Cintiq without already owning a full version of Photoshop, so what value is Elements to anyone? Dump it and provide more brush plugins and the Classic pen instead. And a full version of Painter would be nice. Everything I list is fixable after the fact except for the LCD quality. Bundle can be improved, driver can be upgraded to fix the tracking issues, classic pen can be included. And a "rev B" could include a higher quality LCD screen with a professional viewing angle, at least vertically. Or, if they don't want to fix these problems, cut the price by $400 and it's less offensive. . . ;) All that said, there's still nothing like drawing directly on the screen with a pressure sensitive, high resolution pen. It's a great concept and a decent product that could be great. I believe that most of us got this product because we are heavily into animation or other digital arts. Anyone who tried this can tell you; nothing beats drawing directly on the screen. However, when the CINTIQ 12WX costs as much as a loaded Tablet PC (at least it was at the time of this writing), and when you use this professionally all day for a couple of months the "WOW" effect fades out and reality sinks it. . . It's HOT The biggest problem I have with this product, the lower portion of the tablet (where you rest your hand) gets REALLY hot in only a couple of hours (I mean annoyingly hot, not lukewarm). I place a microfiber cloth under my hand when I have to work longer hours. I know that the heat comes from the back lights for the screen, yet this seems like a design flaw, since the top of the tablet doesn't get hot, nor does my brighter, larger, LCD display. This brings me to the screen : The Monitor is very low res. compared to my DELL laptop's screen, this is soo unsharp, soo unbright, it is annoying, especially after working for longer hours. You also have to deal with Annoying reflections. And the screen smudges very easily (this happens with all LCD's and should be expected). This means you will definitely need another screen to inspect your work. Accuracy and calibration: With only 2 calibration points, the tablet is only accurate in the middle part of the screen, and with the limited real estate, you are really limiting yourself. So if you think you are actually painting where the pen is, you are wrong except in the middle part of the screen. Sensor bars: sometimes they are so sensitive, on other occasions they are not responsive. ( some drivers issues I presume!) Portability?? "The Cintiq 12WX enables you to work wherever you feel inspired. It fits into everyday laptop bags . . . " Are they kidding? Nowhere in any of WACOM's advertisement for the CINTIQ do you see any cables, and although you know that this is not wireless, and you know that there must be communications between graphic card and screen, and computer and tablet portion, you will NEVER imagine the cable jungle this device creates! It is a big hassle just to take it from room to room! The Grip Pen. Although I have used the Grip Pen with Intuous3 and really liked the feel, working with the CINTIQ 12 WX you realize how BULKY it really is. It is like drawing on a regular paper using a very large dry eraser pen. You can't see what's under your pen tip. Drawing small details becomes a hassle, you constantly zoom in and out to make sure your are drawing details correctly. As a WACOM fan, I believe they can make a great product out of this, they said they will release an update driver soon, we hope that should fix the inaccuracy issues. The Heat issue, will probably be fixed in future releases, so, wait a bit before taking the plunge. As
someone who has been using WACOM tablets for the last 10+ years. This is a product I would expect MICROSOFT to introduce to the market not WACOM. This is the fourth Wacom tablet I've had over past 10 years. The first three sat in the corner of my studio and rarely got used. I'm just one of those people who couldn't look at the screen and draw on a tablet. I spent hours trying to get comfortable with it and every time I gave up. I kept telling myself that with each new model that this would be the one. Well, I can finally say, THIS IS THE ONE! I've had this for a little over a week and I've drawn on it every day. I've worked with it on my Macintosh Desktop as well as my Mac Book Pro. I can lean back, set it in my lap and draw on it like a sketch book. It truly feels like a non-digital experience. I even noticed myself attempting to wipe away eraser dust after removing a line! This is the tablet I've dreamed of. For anyone whose had the same problems that I've had trying to get used to the standard tablet, this is the way to go. The only thing that could replace this for me would be a true Macintosh Tablet PC. This one gets a bit cumbersome with the connector box and multiple cables, but that's a small issue to endure to get such great results. I have used an Intuos for ages (Intous2,3 and 4). I've had the small, medium, and large. I've used the Bamboo as well in addition to now the 12wx and the 21ux. I was debating for months on buying the 12wx or the 21ux. I use the 21ux at work and yes it's amazing. . . but it is incredibly expensive. The 21ux offers a huge screen and making sweeping strokes with your arm and not your wrist is important in painting and drawing. I was worried the 12wx would not offer this freedom and thought I'd might be drawing with my wrist only. . . as I did with the non-Cintiq models. I've yet to find a review on the pros and cons of using either based on actual real world usage of both models. I decided to go with the smaller Cintiq to save money as I crossed my fingers. The Cintiqs are based on older Intuos3 technology and not on the Intuous4 technology offered in their latest Intuos models. I did not see a difference in pressure sensitivity so if you think the Intuos4 technology is better based on specs, you'll likely not detect a difference. . . meaning waiting for the Intuos4 technology to be embedded into future Cintiq models before buying shouldn't be a concern. The Intous4 tablets are better than the Intuos3 tablet mostly because the drawing area is softer and is easier to move your hand smoothly across the surface. The Cintiq has a nice smooth monitor surface comparable to the surface of the Intous4. I use a SmudgeGuard glove (cheap) as well and the combination is amazing. I highly recommend not considering reviews from people who've not used a tablet at all. . . people who use the Cintiq as their first tablet experience. It's like learning how to play guitar on a high-end guitar model instead of learning on a cheaper model and then upgrading once you've upped your skills. Appreciating the Cintiq will be based on using a tablet for years in my opinion. Using a non-Cintiq tablet has it's cons for sure. You're unable to connect directly with the canvas is the most critical downside. Also these non-Cintiq tablets have an inability to create a nice sweeping line, you'll always need to undo and try again until you get this line. . . not a problem with drawing on paper or the Cintiq. The bigger Cintiq is nice because you'll be able to draw along with your reference on one screen, you'll not need to rely on a second monitor. You'll possibly need to rely on a second monitor with the smaller model. The downside of my 12" Cintiq is that I was unable to get it to work with a secondary monitor. . . that being my laptop monitor. Also, I've disabled my laptop's monitor. . . so I have to open my laptop every time to turn it on and then close the lid (monitor disabled) so whenever I open the laptop lid my Cintiq screen's pixel dimension will be out of wack until I close the lid and the Cintiq recognizes it's the only monitor. This may be because I have an older Dell laptop. I could have both screens on, but they wouldn't work together, and I had to turn it off so the pixel dimensions I chose was relevant to the Cintiq (if I kept my second laptop monitor on, the Cintiq would think it was my laptop monitor and not inherent the correct pixel dimensions). The upside of this smaller Cintiq is the long cord that accompanies it. I can sit on my couch in my office and maneuver to a better sitting position, something I wasn't able to do with the larger Cintiq. It feels more like paper than the bigger monitor because I can pick it up and move it as needed. The smaller Cintiq is pretty thin (I was worried about the thickness since I was unable to find anyone with the model - person or store - to actually touch and hold the model). I don't use the rotation-nub (on
the back) feature and I never use the tablet in varying up positions, I only use it flat and in the firmest up position. The elevation at its firmest position is exactly the same angle as my animation drawing table. I also put it on my lap as I draw on my couch. When on my lap I slightly rotate as needed, but when drawing I'll usually use the rotate canvas feature in the software of Photoshop and Sketchbook. I suppose you could have more freedom of movement if you bought an arm for the 21ux, but a good arm costs a lot, and if you buy a cheap one it'll wear out in a few months. Having an arm for your 21ux or having a 12wx at work would be great because you could change how you sit and where you sit. . . especially if you back is turned to a high-traffic area. Being able to put the smaller Cintiq on your lap and changing your seating position is a definite plus. Most artists love privacy and the smaller one gives you this privacy. Also, productivity will increase so much you'll wonder why any company wouldn't furbish their employees with this device. Because I use the smaller Cintiq as my only monitor I cannot have a reference side-by-side on screen when drawing or painting and have to resort to switching between apps or using a smaller section of the monitor to put side-by-side which gives my very li
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