Betobeto: Scrapbook

2013 is proving to be a banner year for Wacom. Besides their much anticipated standalone full drawing tablet they have just announced their new Cintiq 13HD display, a more than welcome replacement for the aging 12WX model. While Wacom’s rumored iPad-like tablet is still more vaporware than fact at this time, the Cintiq 13HD is here with us, and ready to ship “in early April” (that is, any minute now) at the sound price of $999.

I know many who might be disappointed at this not being a “full” tablet a la iPad or Surface Pro tablets - but in all honesty, nothing still comes close to the pro levels of Wacom hardware for digital sketching, drawing and painting. Besides, even if it’s likely we’ll all be drawing from computer tablets in the future, that still will take a while to happen. Graphics professionals aren’t exactly chucking out their Photoshop, Painter or Manga Studio workhorse apps for some half-baked iOS or Android application. Professional illustrators and comic artists require professional level features.

What I like of the Cintiq 13HD is that for all purposes it can be considered portable - at roughly the size of my current Intuos4 tablet, which I traveled with across Europe along with my Macbook Pro. The ungodly mess of cables of the 12WX is thankfully down now to a single cable for power and display — and no fugly transformer box to deal with. Of course this comes with all the bells and whistles one expects from Wacom: ExpressKeys, touch ring, and the cool stylus with 2048 levels of pressure.

Also, the 13HD brings on full HD resolution (1920 x 1080) in a compact, portable package. For me, that’s more than a reasonable deal. And let’s be honest: if we get to see the promised standalone tablet from Wacom this summer, it won’t cost a “mere” $999, but more likely double or triple that. And still the platform debate is not clear enough; if you are used to a Mac as I am, better don’t hold your breath: Apple won’t license their OSes to third party hardware, ever. So in that context, the Cintiq 13HD proves to be a no-brainer. I know I’d want to have it sooner than later.