Wacom announces new 4K 24-inch and 32-inch Cintiq Pro models

It is quite possible that iPad Pro and the Surface product line from Microsoft forces Wacom to move and make announcements.

Wacom is the company which pioneered combining a display with a pressure sensitive input device. Since this has always been a niche product for professionals, Wacom never received much public perception. Now, with a buyer base counting by the millions, people credit Apple/Microsoft etc. for it.

I never had an iPad Pro or a Surface, but have tried them frequently in stores. I am using a 7 year old Cintiq 21 with the 4:3 ratio. When it comes to translating even slightest pressure into varying opacity and brush width, Wacom is best. They´re also doing a great job at re-creating the feel of a paper-like, textured surface (not like rubber on glas as with the iPad Pro).

My only gripe is the heavy parallax on the older Cintiqs. Apples iPad Pro did a much better job at that right from the start. Wacom has taken too long to address this particular issue.

Very true.
Many now believe that pressure sensitive pens were pioneered by Apple! Little do they know that there are far superior tech available for almost two decades that doesn't even need battery in the pen.

Wacom used the best possible display available during its release for each CIntiqs. The displays that are with such thin glass cover directly pasted on top of the LCD without any gap were not available until recently - that's why parallax on the older Cintiqs is so high.

Despite their high price, I have seen way too many Cintiqs with faulty screens - and repairing them is so prohibitively expensive that they just sit there in the studio as a showpiece. That's why I prefer their gotten used to the Intuos tablets.

@saiko:
Do you have that technical information from a reliable source?

Reason for asking is, years ago a technician from Wacom told me exactly that: The only way to significantly reduce parallax is to basically glue the glas surface directly on the display.

However, there is a big downside to this: Over time, the glass surface will show wear and tear (not as much as in my 13 year old Cintiq 18 with plastic surface, but still...), so after years of use, one would eventually want to have the surface exchanged (not the display), which by itself is costly enough (approx. 400€ in the Cintiq 21).

With the glas glued to the display, this would mean exchanging the display as well. Talk about costly....

Any info on that?

The 120 hz iPad pro is the best drawing experience I've ever had on a tablet (and I've tried everything. Almost every designer I worked with was using Wacom). Everyone should try one before they judge it. Virtually no latency when scribbling at ridiculous speed for an unlimited amount of time. And the pressure sensitivity of the Apple Pen is very good. It's true, Apple doesn't necessarily innovate first but they are still very good at refining. Wacom has good reason to be worried.

I tried, several times. Considering that this is Apple´s first shot at such an input device, they did an excellent job.

However, it´s far from perfect. The feel of hard rubber on completely smooth glas is just unnatural. And there is something funny with the initial activation force required. It´s a bit like a lottery: You don´t know whether or not the pen is actually going to produce a line if you apply very light pressure.

With Wacom, it is almost impossible to not leave a trace behind even at the lightest touch, which is how traditional media basically works. And from then on it´s a very coherent translation of successively more pressure into more opacity and/or line width.

Hjs_koeln: I don’t know where the idea of the glass surface getting scratched is coming from, but it’s unlikely. I haven’t found that to be true for my iPad Pro 12.9” from last year, or my new one. If it doesn’t get scratched within the first 18 months, then it’s not likely to scratch after that. The plastic nib isn’t going to do it.

There are glass screen protectors for these if you’re so worried. They are cheap enough, and the better ones are hard. You can replace them to your hearts content.

Apple doesn’t use hard rubber for the nib. It’s a vinyl plastic compound. The new iPad Pro 12.9” has a surface with some drag, unlike the first model. I tried them side by side after I bought my new one.

I don’t understand the problem some people have with drawing on glass. It’s just another surface to work with. Every surface I’ve used over the decades, along with every drawing and painting tool, feels substantially different from each other. Why should it be any different with this?

@melgross:
Not sure why you mention scratches, that was not the issue with the iPad Pro.

It´s the feel of a hard rubber tip on smooth glass which feels unnatural. Way too slick for my taste. Wacom somehow manages to put a slight texture on their Cintiqs which feels a lot more like drawing on smooth paper.

The iPad with pen definitely feels less than natural. The iPad screens are ultra glossy to provide the clearest view of the pixels. The cintiqs are more matte. I've used a friend's iPad with a high quality matte screen protector and the feeling it gives is much better - more similar to the texture of paper. But then some of the clarity of the completely clear glass is compromised, if only slightly. The sensitively seemed the same though.

It will be great to see these side by side (when the new cintiqs are released). There has to be more innovation regarding tips - mimicking a ballpoint that rolls slightly or lead that actually crumbles minutely under pressure. Seems like there's a lot of room to grow in this regard.

As someone who is 'classically trained' as an Illustrator (on good old fashioned paper/board), back in the day, bigger was always better. Some people (like me) still prefer to work on an area that is as large as possible to avoid having to constantly zoom in/out and scroll all the time. Not saying I'd fork out $3300 for the extra work space, but I currently use the Wacom Intuos Pro L and sometimes wish it was bigger...