I’ve got a full review of Wacom Intuos3 here, but I completely forgot to post one about Intuos4. After all, I used a medium variety of it for some time. I’ll try to keep it as a simple list of pros and cons so that everyone can form their own opinion. I’ve got mine. I mean I’ve got my Intuos3 and don’t see many reasons to upgrade from it to anything else unless it’s a Cintiq.
I used to have this review on DooYoo UK, but I thought it would be good to publish it here as well, with some revisions. Alright, let’s start here:
Advantages:
1. Intuos4 is recognised by graphic software. Corel Painter and Sketchpad, for example, can tell at which angle you are holding the stylus, which is very handy when shading pencil drawings. And it’s just more natural anyway.
2. The tablet is supplied with almost a dozen tips for the stylus ergonomically packed into the stylus holder. The tips come in several varieties, each designed to imitate a particular drawing tool (pencil, brush, etc.). Keeping them in the pen holder is a great idea. Unless you are hopelessly disorganised, you will always know where they are.
3. The matte surface and the changeable stylus tips make the experience of using Intuos4 truly intuitive.
4. Unlike cheap generic tablets, it really has pressure levels.
5. The navigation area on the side is very handy for such things like zooming in (although every now and then I tend to touch it accidentally). Unlike Intuos3, Intuos4 tells you which button is responsible for which key. I am using my Intuos3 a lot and I, honestly, I am still struggling to memorize the buttons 100%. Every time I need half a second to stop and think whether I am holding the right one.
6. The tablet can be easily customised for left-handed users.
7. Wacom tablets are known to be reliable. Cheap tablets even feel cheap and flimsy. A Wacom tablet is nice and solid and feels like it’s going to be your friend for years (and most likely it will).
8. With a newer model of Intuos you don’t have to face the pain of finding the right software. My Intuos3 software which I downloaded from Wacom’s site is crashing on Windows Vista every now and then and has to be re-installed. Intuos4 certainly has the right drivers for modern operating systems with it.
9. I should probably mention that a new Intuos4 tablet comes in a perfectly stylish box as if James Bond had packed it for you. These things matter, don’t they? Cheap tablets are usually packed in a chicken farm.
10. I didn’t notice that the Intuos4 surface has a tendency to come off. Intuos3′s surface does. I’m not sure it is a bug, I think it is just the way it is attached, but it’s pretty annoying. You don’t get that with Intuos4.
Now, some disadvantages:
1. Fist of all, the price. Wacom Intuos4 will cost you about £250. For a third of this price you can get a simpler tablet which will still do the job. Before I could afford an Intuos3, I had been using a Genius tablet and it was doing the job pretty well. Unfortunately, it gradually died, but only after about 2 years of use. During that time it helped me to start earning enough to buy an Intuos3.
2. Wacom tablets are reliable and sometimes this fact can bring not only happiness, but also a touch of disappointment. Unlike the plug-and-play generic tablets, Wacom tablets need original drivers. So chances are, if you want to use your Intuos4 for decades, it just won’t run on an upgraded computer. I tried to use Intuos3 with Windows 7 and even though I managed to find the correct driver, pressure levels wouldn’t work in Photoshop.
3. The nice intuitive feel of Intuos4 may not be to everyone’s taste. When buying my Intuos3, I was worrying that after 4 it would feel basic and cheap. Surprisingly, I really liked how easily the stylus was gliding on the surface.
4. More friction on the tablet surface means you have to buy replacement stylus tips more often and they are not all that cheap.
Conclusion:
I don’t expect Intuos4 to disappoint anyone who’s got the budget for it. Despite its nice feel and a cleverer and more stylist design, I personally see it as an unnecessary bridge between Intuos3 and Wacom Cintiq and feel perfectly happy to continue using the former until I can afford the latter.
My only gripe with 4 is the placement of the cable.
I know you can change it, but it all comes down to annoying cable in your way.
I think there is a wireless one.
Yes, there is a wireless version of Intuos4: http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?lang=en&pid=311
I don’t like cables either, but they are bearable, at least when you want to stay within a certain budget.