Tablet: Intuos 3 9x12
Okay so this is my first ever tablet and I've had it since 2006 or 2007, can't remember which.
First off - it's big. Definitely not the sort that you want to carry around with you when going to Uni which is what I did. It's pretty much the size of an A3 piece of paper so I needed a bag that would fit A3 sketchbooks to lug it around.
However - I love the drawing size on it. Because the tablet itself is A3 size, the drawing active area is just a bit bigger than an A4 piece of paper. It also meant that the ratio between what I was drawing on the tablet and what was happening on my 22 inch screen were relatively accurate. A thing I noticed when using smaller tablets is you tend to draw 'smaller' on them because what's happening on screen isn't the right ratio which REALLY threw my drawing out of whack.
Which leads me to a handy tip for Wacom users - Forced Proportions.
Check out below - I literally put the pen stand on the tablet and traced around it and you can see the difference. Now imagine that happening when you're drawing - you don't realise it but you end up having to draw things WRONG to get them to look RIGHT when translated onto your screen which can add to the difficulty of drawing on a tablet for the first time. This can also explain why - if you've tried to trace something it didn't look 'the same'.
Back to the review though!
The pressure sensitivity is good - I certainly can note a difference between it and my laptop which is like half the pressure. Sometimes I think it's too sensitive, but that's just me and I should adjust it.
The drawing surface itself is smooth so the pen glides along it. I like it - but I've heard some people say they would prefer if it had more tooth like real paper because it doesn't offer any resisitance. Each to their own.
The buttons... I have issues sometimes where the touch strip goes crazy and seems to 'lock' in thinking I'm still stroking it upwards to increase the brush size and I have to crawl under the desk to unplug it and plug it back in. Not sure if it's because of how old it is but that's certainly something that has annoyed me from time to time. I definitely use the buttons on the left side of the tablet and rarely ever touch the ones on the right - more a matter of my right hand is occupied using my stylus so it's awkward to use buttons that might require both stylus input and the button press to achieve an effect.
Desk space is also an issue - the tablet being so large means I literally have my keyboard pushed further back towards my monitor and you might want a 'deeper' desk to ensure you have the space for it.
Cables - this is the older one so the cable is in the top left corner of the tablet and I'll admit - it wasn't well designed and the cable has actually frayed close to where it plugs into the tablet and some of the wires are exposed. I know the newer ones are wireless or have a cable you can unplug which is a lot better in my opinion.
All in all, I do like this tablet. It's survived 8 years and still works great aside from the above flaws I've pointed out which could be an issue with age. It gets the work done and puts up with the abuse of me using it as a place mat when I decide to eat at my desk.
