Wacom Cintiq Companion Review
First off, I would like to mention that there are two different products in the Wacom Companion line. It can get a little confusing so let me explain. The Cintiq Companion is a drawing tablet running Windows 8. It’s pretty much a full-blown computer crammed into one of Wacom’s drawing displays. Since it’s running Windows you can use any of your favorite creative applications like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or Indesign. While it’s brother the Cintiq Companion hybrid is an android-based drawing tablet. While on the go it acts like a normal Android-based tablet allowing you to use any of the Mobile versions of drawing software but when you plug it into your Computer it stops running Android and acts like any other Wacom Cintiq. To make it even more confusing both products look the same.
This post will be focusing on the Cintiq Companion running Windows 8.
More information about the Wacom Cintiq Companion.
Wacom is the leader in drawing tablets for graphics professionals. Wacom’s products have traditionally been desktop-based until they released the Cintiq Companion in August. The Companion is designed to be the first portable graphics workstation (Thanks Popular Mechanics, I could not have worded that better). It’s not an iPad or an android tablet it’s a full computer inside of a Wacom 13.3in Cintiq. The Companion runs 64bit Windows 8 and has a full HD display with a touchscreen stylus combo with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.
The computing stats are as follows; Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics processor. There are also two HD cameras included as well. A two megapixel camera on the front and an eight megapixel on the back. Personally I never find myself using the cameras but I’m sure some people do. The Companion also includes a handful of helpful accessories. They include; A power adapter, an adjustable, detachable stand with three different height settings (it also clips to the back of the tablet), a black carrying case with a amazingly soft electric blue inside (to keep your tablet safe and warm), the Wacom Pro Pen and pen case with nine replacement nibs.
The companion is definitely not what most people would consider a “Tablet” these days. It’s pretty much a full-size computer and with that you’re going to get a larger size and heavier weight. It has a silver band around the outside holding everything together and this is where you will find most of the ports and buttons. On one side you have an orientation screen lock button and a volume up and down button. On the other side you have two USB 3.0 ports, micro DisplayPort, headphone jack, and a microSD slot as well as the power button. Out of all of these ports and buttons the power button is sadly the worst placed. I frequently find myself just bumping the power button and it puts the computer to sleep. I wish they had found any other place for that button. Looking at the Companion straight on you see the 13 inch Cintiq display with its nice matte finish. To one side of the display you have the ExpressKeys and circular rocker button with a Windows button in the middle. How does the stylus feel?
Well if you use any other Wacom products you’ll know exactly how the stylus feels. It’s comfortable to hold for long amounts of time and feels really good when drawing.
To try to ease this frustration Wacom has made some smart decisions with the ExpressKeys. I never use the express keys on my other Cintiq products, but now having to use the companion on a daily basis it’s become a necessity. The ExpressKeys are found on the front of the Companion next to the display and can be customized to fit your drawing and computing style. For me when I’m using Photoshop I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so I’ve mapped the 4 ExpressKeys buttons to be Spacebar, Alt, Shift and Ctrl. There is a circular rocker button breaking up these four buttons which is also customizable. Another Wacom addition is floating menus that can be set up with other frequently used operations such as save, turn on/off touch and adjust brush size. There was a bit of a learning curve for me coming from only ever using Apple products to a Windows operating system, but I’ve finally started to get used to the way Microsoft organizes their operating system. It’s not the most intuitive operating system to me. I had to Google how to add email accounts to the mail app. This should have been much easier but I’m a newbie to Windows.
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