Product Description

With a new design and features inspired by members of the professional creative community, Intuos4 redefines the pen tablet experience. Featuring Wacom¿s new pen tip sensor technology and 2,048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, the Intuos4 pen captures the most subtle nuances of pressure, allowing you to dynamically adjust exposure, brush size, opacity and more. User-defined ExpressKeys activate frequently used shortcuts and modifiers. The finger-sensitive Touch Ring quickly controls up to 4 different functions such as canvas rotation, zoom, scroll, brush size and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #723 in Consumer Electronics
• Size: Small
• Color: Black
• Brand: Wacom
• Model: PTK440
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .50" h x 12.20" w x 8.20" l, 1.50 pounds

Features

• Quickly and professionally edit photos and create digital artwork with natural pen control
• New pen tip sensor technology lowers activation force and captures every nuance of pen pressure
• 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity for precise pressure control
• User-defined ExpressKeys & multi function Touch Ring put time saving shortcuts, modifiers, scrolling, zooming, and more at your fingertips.
• Illuminated ExpressKey displays provide a constant reference each Keys setting

From the Manufacturer
The small Intuos4 pen tablet is perfect for limited desktop areas or for those who want a highly portable, professional level tablet that fits comfortably in a laptop bag. To achieve its compact size, the small size has two fewer ExpressKeys than all other sizes of Intuos4 pen tablets, and no illuminated displays. Instead of the illuminated displays, a "show settings" ExpressKey function provides an on-screen, pop-up display showing the ExpressKey configuration.

Like all Intuos4 tablets, the Intuos4 small features Wacom's new tip sensor technology to deliver an even finer level of control. You can initiate pen pressure control with only a single gram of pressure and a feather-light touch. With 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and realistic pen tilt recognition, the Intuos4 pen simulates like never before the natural feel and accuracy of working with traditional brushes, pens, and markers. Professional photographers, designers and artists agree: Intuos4 pen tablets speed production time for photo editing, design and art creation. When working with digital assets, there isn't a more natural tool than a pen for increased comfort and control. Intuos4 redefines the Intuos pen tablet experience, thanks to a new design and new features inspired by members of our professional creative community.

What's New with Intuos4

	Slightest Nuance Featuring Wacom's new Tip Sensor, Intuos4 now captures the slightest nuance of pen pressure, starting with only a single gram of force.		Switches, Where You Want Them User-defined switches are preset to "right-click" and "double-click" or can be set to your most commonly used functions.
	Working Under Pressure With 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, Intuos4 gives you the creative power to dynamically adjust exposure, brush size, line weight, opacity, and more.		Ergonomic Ahhhs Intuos4 is the most comfortable Intuos tablet yet. The slim-profiled tablet has gently sloping, easy glide palm rests that provide complete support for working on all areas of the tablet.
	Natural Feel The Intuos4 Grip Pen features a new contoured barrel designed to minimize grip effort, reduce stress to your hand and wrist, and otherwise emulate the feel of your favorite writing instrument.		Peek Inside The new pen stand not only functions as a convenient pen holder, but also provides a handy twist-off storage compartment containing pen nibs and a pen nib removal tool.
	Who Says You Can't Take Shortcuts Set up your ExpressKeys to activate your own unique, time-saving shortcuts and modifiers in each of your applications.		Your Settings at a Glance On the Small tablet, just press the default ExpressKey to display the settings on screen.
	A Turn for the Better The finger-sensitive Touch Ring provides intuitive control of scrolling, zooming, brush size, canvas rotation or layer selection. A central toggle button allows you to control up to four different functions in each application.		Software, No Less Intuos4 owners are entitled to download their choice from a selection of titles by industry leaders such as Adobe®, Autodesk® and Corel®.
	Reversible The innovative, ambidextrous design of Intuos4 allows you to maximize the productivity of both your hands. Having the ExpressKeys and Touch Ring on the same side of the tablet ensures that they are perfectly positioned for use with the hand that is not holding the pen.		Many Accessories To complement your Intuos4, choose from a variety of accessories including the Grip Pen, the Classic Pen, 6D Art Pen, Airbrush, Inking Pen, Pro Accessory Kit and more.

Customer Reviews

Great deal for the price.
First of all, I must say that the only tablet I have used before is the Wacom Intuos3, so I will be drawing my comparisons mainly between the Intuos3 and Intuos4. I understand that there are a multitude of tablets/digitizers in the market, such as Genie and *forgot the company's name*, but my review will mainly focus on Wacom's line of tablets. To start off, I must say that if you are considering a tablet, then you might want to first try the Wacom Bamboo/Bamboo Fun before shelling out hundreds for a Intuos.

Everything aside, I love my Intuos4, and I think it is definitely a worthy upgrade from Intuos3 (or any other tablets in general), especially if you spend hours everyday with a pen.

Intuos4, instead of the gray metallic look of the Intuos3, hosts a cool black matte finish with a high-gloss black side panel. It is a lot thinner than the intuos3, a much lower profile, and a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Since most of us have widescreen monitors, I think it is very thoughtful of Wacom to update the aspect ratio of the Intuos4, but be warned though; if you use a 4:3 monitor, you might experience problems with drawing ratios since the 16:9 active area will be 'squeezed' to fit into a 4:3 layout; what this means is that if you draw a tilted line on the tablet, the line will appear to be squeezed horizontally and stretched vertically on the 4:3 monitor. Of course, you can manually limit the active area in the Wacom configuration software, but that would force you to sacrifice a portion of working area, so take this into consideration when purchasing this tablet.

The biggest design change from the Intuos3 is the layout of the expresskeys. Because of the ambidextrous design, Wacom placed all the keys on one side of the tablet, so there are more keys available to the users. What I think is extremely thoughtful of Wacom is that for the Small tablet, it came with 2 USB tables, one tilted upwards and the other downwards, as to cater to both the left-handed and the right-handed configuration. Note, however, that the Small version of the Intuos4 does not have the OLED display to the right of the expresskeys, and instead of 8, you will only get 6 keys (but it is more than sufficient for me).

The problem I have with the expresskeys is that in the Intuos3, the keys are shaped differently, so that it is very easy to locate a specific key without having to constantly look down; however, for intuos4, since all the keys are shaped exactly the same, it is extremely easy activate the wrong key...this is especially the case with Intuos4 Small, since there is no visual indication as to what function each key is assigned to, making navigation difficult. I think Wacom should have made each of the keys more distinct tactilely[sic?], especially for the Small version. However, I think this should not be much of a problem after some time of getting use to (I only had it for a day).

The Touch Ring is what I think the biggest innovation in the Intuos4. The touchstrip was great, but you can only assign one function to the strip, but with the new touch ring, you can assign 4 different functions, switchable with the press of the central bottom. What this means is that you can assign Zoom/Rotate/Brush Size/Opacity/Flow/etc. all to a single touchring, which greatly boosts productivity, and makes the tablet more intuitive to use. This is especially true with the new 'Rotate' feature in Photoshop CS4, but I have noticed that there is a significant latency delay (lag) when invoking the rotate function with the touchring, but it may just be me.

The new rubberized grip pen also features the cool black finish akin to that of the tablet; the weight of the pen is almost perfect, and the rubber grip makes using the grip pen more comfortable than ever before, but the rubber grip also attracts dust and lint, so it may be subjected to constant cleaning. The pen supports 2048 levels of sensitivity, and since I have a light stroke, the penstrokes register a lot better with Intuos4. The rocker on the pen, however, has a very poor travel, and a bit awkward to use. But all in all, I prefer the Intuos4 grip pen over the Intuos3 version for its comfort and usability.

The new improved tablet surface is perhaps as close as you can get with real Pen-on-Paper experience with a digital tablet. Intuos3's surface is extremely 'slippery', and drawing on it feels like plastic-on-plastic; however, the Intuos4's surface makes me really feel like drawing on paper with almost perfect travel and traction. The different nibs offer different levels of friction, simulating different mediums. This concept was attempted in Intuos3, but I think Intuos4 has really perfected the formula, making drawing on the tablet feel almost the same as drawing on paper.

I don't usually talk about the pen-stand, but the pen stand for Intuos4 is definitely worthy mentioning. A high gloss black finish, the pen stand can be twisted open, revealing a nib storage compartment with slots to store 10 extra nibs (and a nib extractor). I used to lose track of my pen nibs all the time, but not anymore, so kudos to Wacom for their attention to details.

The tablet comes with a wide array of softwares (Photoshop Elements, Sketchpad, etc.) all available online to Intuos4 customers via Wacom's website (but you'll have to register your Intuos4 to receive the softwares); the driver installation is extremely easy (but I do recommend resetting your wacom profile in the Wacom Preference Utility and uninstall any old wacom driver(s) before installing the new one to prevent conflicts); it took me literally 15 minutes to set everything up and running under Vista, and no problems thus far.

The expresskey configuration, however, is a bit tedious, especially if you plan on using different presets for you applications. There are many great additions, such as the Radial Menu, which is, in short, a nice multi-command invoker; this, along with the additional expresskeys and the touch ring, would probably take some time to configure to your liking.

There has been complaints about Intuos3's poor Vista support (although I have had no problems with my Intuos3 under vista); according to other reviews, Wacom seems to have fixed most of the incompatibility problems with Intuos4.

Note that I have intentionally left out the Wacom mouse because I never was a fan of Wacom's mouses, so it is still sitting in my box...maybe I'll take it out and test it someday...

PROS
+ Cool black finish, matte frame extremely comfortable to rest hand on.
+ Ambidextrous design
+ More expresskeys
+ Touchring with 4 presets
+ 2048 Levels of sensitivity
+ 16:9 Aspect ratio (may not be a pro if you have a 4:3 design, see above)
+ Great drawing surface, feels like pen-on-paper.
+ Thinner, lighter than Intuos3
+ Great driver, vista support.
+ Improved customization software, many useful functions
+ Improved grip pen, comfortable to use
+ 10 replacement nibs (should last 2-5 years)
+ Innovating pen holder, serves as a storage for replacement nibs
+ Color rings to give the grip pen a different feel
+ Tons of extra softwares, great value.


CONS
- Expresskeys shaped the same, easy to press the wrong key
- Intuos4 Small does not have the OLED display
- Price
- Only 16:9 is offered
- The rocker on the grip pen has poor travel
- May not be the best choice if you prefer the smooth drawing surface of Intuos3
- A bit too big for a small tablet (compared to Intuos3 Small)
- High gloss side panel is a fingerprint magnet
- The rubber grip on the pen attracts dust and lint.
- Does not come with a travel sleeve (is this really too much to ask?)


All in all, Intuos4 boasts many notable upgrades from the previous Intuos3 line. If you have been holding off for a Intuos3, then this is perhaps the time for you to finally jump on the Intuos boat. Due to the size limitations, the Small Intuos4 lacks a few features available in the other models of the Intuos4 line (notably the OLED display, dual USB ports, etc.), but the price difference between the Small and the Medium ($199 vs $349) tablets does not seem to justify for the price jump (especially since I don't have the space to accommodate for a medium tablet).

Again, if this is your first time shopping for a tablet, then I would recommend trying out the Bamboo line of products before considering the Intuos.

I enjoy the Intuos4 tablet, and I would recommend it to any serious graphics designers/photographers/animators/etc. This is a worthy investment and you won't regret it.


Final Verdict: Wacom, you have done it again. ^^

A must have for Photoshop retouching.
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2C9NV32Q3Q6SN The New Intuos4 is better in almost every way! In this video I'll show you my favorite new features.

3 steps forward, 2 steps backward
As my review title suggests, Wacom has improved once again with it's new tablet, yet has taken a couple steps backward also which keeps me from giving it 5 stars.
CONS:
1. If you're a 3d Artist, you might use the Ctrl/Alt/Shift buttons much more than regular graphic artists.. Intuos4 lined up these buttons making it harder to select more than one at a time, and the buttons themselves are harder to press and now feel "cheap". Intuos3 buttons were perfect, the changes are purely for looks and the functionality suffered because of it.
2. Zoom is circular now? whatever. Again, looks cool, less functional.

PROS:
1. Beautiful looking! A bit thinner & wider which is great for us dual-monitor users. I could even see a market for a "9x18" size.
2. Wacom FINALLY got the surface improved. No more "painting on glass" surface.. it now has a bit of 'roughness' to it, like you're drawing on paper. HUGE improvement!!!
3. Small improvement to the grip on the pen. Same pen, but the rubber grip slips less (so far).

note: Wacom mouse now works like a regular wireless mouse, it's axis/input is determined by the mouse location/direction... not by the tablets. It's the first Wacom mouse I've considered using!!