# Can't pick a tablet.



## Senseisteel (Oct 25, 2013)

I am limited by desk space so I decided to grab a small tablet to doodle Straight onto my Desktop with less hassle. However, as I looked through my local stores to see what I could grab on the cheap I found two tabs going for the same price.

One is a WACOM intuos CTL-480S-ENES, and the other is a WACOM CTH-470-EN Bamboo Pen and Touch. I don't see much difference between them but I would like to know from those who have experience using them what the real differences are.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 25, 2013)

There really isn't much of a difference. Wacom in their "wisdom" decided to re-brand the Bamboo lines and integrate them into the intuos line to create more brand confusion. 

The "cheap" intuos are Bamboos, with no eraser end (more expensive models may have it). The pen is thinner and I believe the newer one may have the wireless kit involved (but with how Wacom treats Europe like Gingers...they may not have extras the US gets) They don't all the express keys or program them by per program basis. The more expensive ones adds more pressure sensitivity.

http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Touch-Tablet-CTH480/dp/B00EN27U9U/  at the bottom is a chart.


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## Centradragon (Oct 25, 2013)

I'd go with the Bamboo, mostly because of the price and that bigger numbers don't necessarily mean a better drawing experience. I can't recommend going smaller than a Medium on either tablet, though.

I owned a Bamboo Medium for years (sold it to a friend because I didn't need it as much as I used to, and had just bought a tablet PC) and it was fabulous for travel. I have an Intuos 3 9x12 that I continue to use for art because it's a great size and reliable (bought in October 2006). 

I've used an Intuos 3 small (didn't care for it; my high school had a set of them and that's what we used there), and my work currently has me on a Intuos 5 Medium when I'm in-office. Touch is a terrible idea and has no palm recognition (the computer I use at work forgets my Intuos "disable everything" preferences every two weeks, so that doesn't help me like it more) and tbh the Medium makes any sketching I do pretty shaky and terrible looking, although with painting I don't notice much of a difference. A lot of times I'll do work with the canvas zoomed out, and it seems my old Intuos 3 is way better for making those crisp lines. I've used the Intuos 4 with similar results (though thankfully without touch), as we also have two of those at work. It makes me miss my big Intuos every time, haha.


If this is your first tablet purchase, you can't go wrong with a medium (if you like hot keys, go with the Intuos... otherwise, the Bamboo is your man). I don't think I've ever heard people complain about that size being too big, and better to spend a little more up front than to realize a $100/$250 tablet was too small and be miserable about it.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 25, 2013)

I think you need to realize that the new intuos ARE Bamboos. This change happened about September 4th 2013 and has been a headache since it confused users, and people were some reason driving market prices up on certain models due to this.

That is what I was explaining to the user. Who was specifically asking what was the difference between the two models. One is the intuos which is a re-branded Bamboo. 

The old line of familiar new intuos have been rebranded to be called Intuos Pro.

You can enjoy more of this irritating clusterfuck by Wacom here: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/04/wacom-intuos-intuos-pro-pen-tablets/

So please be careful and read the OP's post more carefully. Wording is going to be more critical from now on.


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## Senseisteel (Oct 26, 2013)

By the sound of things I might try and grab a larger pre-owned one from Amazon or something. The whole idea of switching from paper to tablet feels a little daunting.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 26, 2013)

Senseisteel said:


> By the sound of things I might try and grab a larger pre-owned one from Amazon or something. The whole idea of switching from paper to tablet feels a little daunting.



Medium sized is fine. Tablets make it more efficient to draw with software, doesn't necessarily make you a more efficient artist overall. You could also go with the monoprice, turcom or hanvon brand if you're budget cautious.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monoprice-10x6-25-Graphic-Drawing-Programmable/dp/B004C4ZT0G/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turcom-Graphic-Drawing-Capture-Tablet/dp/B008Y40DQU/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hanvon-ArtMaster-inches-Tablet--Small/dp/B003W2GHDW

The Hanvon is small but it's also the only other brand I know of that uses electromagnetic induction to get the stylus to work vs a battery operated pen.


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## Senseisteel (Oct 26, 2013)

Arshes Nei said:


> Medium sized is fine. Tablets make it more efficient to draw with software, doesn't necessarily make you a more efficient artist overall. You could also go with the monoprice, turcom or hanvon brand if you're budget cautious.
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monoprice-10x6-25-Graphic-Drawing-Programmable/dp/B004C4ZT0G/
> 
> ...



How much of an annoyance are the battery powered pens? I see that 
the Monoprice works with a little ink well thingy; is that for charging or just for pen storage?

Edit: Needs batteries. Whelp, I have a rechargeable battery port for a power socket, I'll need to grab some new rechargeable bat's next time I go downtown.


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## Centradragon (Oct 26, 2013)

Arshes Nei said:


> I think you need to realize that the new intuos ARE Bamboos. This change happened about September 4th 2013 and has been a headache since it confused users, and people were some reason driving market prices up on certain models due to this.
> 
> That is what I was explaining to the user. Who was specifically asking what was the difference between the two models. One is the intuos which is a re-branded Bamboo.
> 
> ...




Uggh, what confusing rebranding. Thanks for letting me know... wasn't trying to purposefully lead them astray, as even the Wikipedia page seems out-of-date at this point. Hopefully that gets fixed soon!

OP, my apologies if the info I provided was confusing. Arshes has provided good info for you, and there's nothing wrong with buying pre-owned â€” most (Wacom) tablets I've owned (or seen people own) have lasted 4+ years if treated properly (the more common problems being wire issues or pens breaking). I take the Wacom pen for granted (the different pen tips are fun), but from what I could find in a quick google search, the Monoprice pens are similar in weight and the battery lasts a long time.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 26, 2013)

Centradragon said:


> Uggh, what confusing rebranding. Thanks for letting me know... wasn't trying to purposefully lead them astray, as even the Wikipedia page seems out-of-date at this point. Hopefully that gets fixed soon!
> 
> OP, my apologies if the info I provided was confusing. Arshes has provided good info for you, and there's nothing wrong with buying pre-owned â€” most (Wacom) tablets I've owned (or seen people own) have lasted 4+ years if treated properly (the more common problems being wire issues or pens breaking). I take the Wacom pen for granted (the different pen tips are fun), but from what I could find in a quick google search, the Monoprice pens are similar in weight and the battery lasts a long time.



Yeah, that's why I ranted about this change in another post in Rants and Raves. I don't think it helps. From what it looks like now all their tablets are called Intuos, and Bamboos are mostly for stylus or navigation. They should have left well enough alone in my opinion but whatever, if Wacom wants to make it more confusing for their loyal customers, I have no problems steering new users to less confusing brands.


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## Lobar (Oct 26, 2013)

Senseisteel said:


> How much of an annoyance are the battery powered pens? I see that
> the Monoprice works with a little ink well thingy; is that for charging or just for pen storage?
> 
> Edit: Needs batteries. Whelp, I have a rechargeable battery port for a power socket, I'll need to grab some new rechargeable bat's next time I go downtown.



Wacom has a patent on the self-charging styluses, unfortunately.  I have a Monoprice tablet and it works pretty well, though, even though I'm not really an artist.


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## UnburntDaenerys (Oct 27, 2013)

Senseisteel said:


> How much of an annoyance are the battery powered pens?



Honestly, not that much of an annoyance.  I had a Genius tablet that took batteries for the pen.  It doesn't have the weightlessness that Wacom pens have, but I liked the heft and it was more reminiscent of traditional media.


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## rjbartrop (Oct 28, 2013)

Intuos Pro is what used to be the "real" Intuos.  In fact, it's my understanding that the only difference between the Intuos Pro and the previous model Intuos 5 is the name.
    My thought is, go with the Pro model if you can afford it, or try to find a second hand Intuos if you cant, and larger is better than smaller, though even a small tablet is better than none at all.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 28, 2013)

rjbartrop said:


> In fact, it's my understanding that the only difference between the Intuos Pro and the previous model Intuos 5 is the name.



That's incorrect. 

There are some actual minor differences.
The intuos 5 had a capacitive touch rubber surface that covered all the buttons. They changed this in the intuos pro to actually have segregated buttons. In fact the intuos 5 buttons were often complained about because they were harder to press. The other issue was that being touch sensitive, if you had any part of your thumb over the ring as well as the center button of the touch ring it would not register a press. So those changes were actually improvements on the hardware.

The other change is you get the wireless kit with the tablet now, instead of having to purchase it as a separate device.

There's also complaints that the USB cables are worse than before, I suspect there's a bad batch going out as usual with early adoption of the models, because people have complained the USB flickers on and off when trying to use the cable. It wasn't uncommon with the intuos 5 either, and in fact, if it's flickering it's a bad sign that may mean it's wearing on the USB ports. 

I have actually owned about every intuos model (1-5) I currently own both 4 and 5 and the USB ports broke on both devices a year later. The Intuos 5 broke sooner.

Intuos Pro - you can see the buttons are segregated from the surface.

http://www.itsartmag.com/features/itsart/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/intuosintus-new.jpg






Intuos 4 (top) and Intuos 5 (bottom)- you can see it's all one big rubber mass...





And furthering why this is a headache, it's not the first place I've had to correct misconceptions. I had to correct a youtube video claiming differences that *weren't* there. He had claimed there were no lights that show when you change to which setting on the touch wheel on the intuos 5 - which is incorrect. There are lights on the intuos 5 as well that show you which setting you're on. 

[yt]wf_0GCxQzLw[/yt]

It's like fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.


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## rjbartrop (Oct 28, 2013)

Okay, I stand corrected on that.   When the Wacom site said the Intuos 5 is now the Intuos Pro, I assumed it meant in all ways.   I recently purchased a large Intuos 5, and I am enjoying the response on the actual tablet, though I agree about the buttons.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 28, 2013)

rjbartrop said:


> Okay, I stand corrected on that.   When the Wacom site said the Intuos 5 is now the Intuos Pro, I assumed it meant in all ways.   I recently purchased a large Intuos 5, and I am enjoying the response on the actual tablet, though I agree about the buttons.



It took a year for them to correct that too. Since I bought it in spring when they first came out the drivers were horrible. I was in fact contacted a few times by Wacom because my review was extremely descriptive to the numerous problems. They should send me a damn tablet


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