Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

Intuos4 Small Tablet is for all users, November 4, 2009
By davidcwalls

"Pros:
Better than a mouse for all computer users
Great for graphics
Different nibs let you find your personal favorite
Cons:
Wide margins make it larger than it needs to be
Buttons don't work so well when set off to the side of the keyboard
Very light pressure can be difficult to control

Sue Chastain wrote an excellent review of the Intuos4 tablets called, "Wacom Intuos4 Graphics Tablet". You should give that a read for a general review, with which I agree 98%, and the remaining 2% has to do with my use of the table varying from hers. One of the primary ways in which my use varies from Ms. Chastain, and as far as I can tell, from most tablet users, is that I keep the tablet off to the side of my keyboard. In that location, it has nearly completely replaced my use of other pointing devices. I have a Thinkpad laptop with the UltraNav pointing device that includes the little red button in the midst of the keys, called a Pointing Stick, and a standard touchpad. When I am using the laptop's built-in keyboard and doing a lot of typing, I will often use the pointing stick for a quick click here and there since I can do that without moving my fingers from the keyboard. Aside from that, the Intuos4 is my pointing device of choice. I use a computer about 10 hours per day or more, so strain and repetitve motion issues are both very likely to occur and devistating to my productivity. Using a graphics tablet has done more for me in the regard that any other pointing device, and I have tried dozens.

My first tablet was a Wacom Bamboo Fun, and that opened a new world for me. That tablet was stolen (the smaller tablets are easily portable, which is great for you, but also great for thieves, so be careful), and when I went to the store to replace it, I found that a new generation of both Bamboo and Intuos had become available. I purchased the small Intuos4, and later I also purchased the Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch. These two tablets have similar size active areas, although the Intuos4 is rather larger in total due to the wide edges around the active area. The small Intuos4 is still small enough to fit into a typical laptop bag, and light and slender enough that I don't mind carrying it with me. I would recommend one of these tablets without hesitation to any computer user whether or not he or she was a heavy graphics user. The additional sensitivity levels of the Intuos4 and functions like tilt-sensitivity make it the clear choice for those who are heavy graphics users (although I have some difficulty controlling the lightest 15% - 20% of pressure values compared to the Intuos3; when I am drawing a stroke and working it around its thinnest, i.e. lightest, settings, I sometimes accidentally lift the pen off the tablet).

I am still in the process of deciding how best to use the additional controls on the Intuos4, and which nibs I like best for which purposes. I regularly use the touch ring to scroll up or down in a window, although, as other reviewers have pointed out, this is slightly uncomfortable when holding the pen. One of the nice things about have the wide margins around the edge of the Intuos4 is that you can set the pen holder in the upper corner of the tablet where is will be out of the way when using the pen, but close enough to be able to set the pen down without making a large arm motion. That may sound trivial, but when you compare using the tablet to using a mouse that has a scroll wheel built in the to middle, having to set the pen down at all is a major issue. The Bamboo tablets come with a default setting on one of the two buttons on the pen body such that pressing the button turns the pointer into a "grabbing hand" with which you can move around in a document or web page. That works well for small movements, but when making a lot a large movements, for example, when editing a large document, it can become tedious to have to perform so many strokes. Let it suffice to say that I have restored the programming of the pen buttons on my Intuos4 back to double-click and right-click.

I find that the buttons on the Intuos4 are not as useful as they could be because it is difficult to use them with my pen hand (unless I set the pen down; see above), and it is difficult to reach them with my other hand.

In summary, I will never go without a tablet except in case of emergencies. I recommend tablets to all computer users, even those who don't do graphics work. The additional sensitivity and functionality of the Intuos4 over the Bamboo line make it the better choice for those who do work with graphics. And finally, consider non-traditional positioning of your tablet: mine even works well sitting on the arm of my easy chair when the laptop is actually on my lap."

5 of 5 people found this review helpful.