For creative types dependent on a drawing tablet for illustrating, photo editing, or 3D modelling, the new Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 is going to be a hard upgrade to pass up. With dramatically thinner bezels, it now looks like a regular old computer monitor — albeit one you can use with a redesigned stylus that offers extensive customizability when it comes to buttons, weight, and balance.
The Cintiq Pro line is where you’ll find all of Wacom’s best features, and that’s reflected in the price. The new Cintiq Pro 27 comes in at $US3,500 ($4,859), which doesn’t include the cost of the now required stand (Wacom has removed the retractable support legs on the back of the tablet that allow prior models to sit angled on a desk). Wacom does sell a $US500 ($694) adjustable stand for the new Cintiq Pro 27, but buyers are also able to grab a third-party solution thanks to a standard VESA 100 mount on the back.
To those who consider a $US100 ($139) mouse a splurge, spending that much money on a drawing tablet is incomprehensible. But for artists pushing pixels all day, the Wacom experience is unrivalled, and provides a more natural way to creatively interact with a computer. Like previous iterations of the Cintiq Pro, the new 27-inch model pushes 4K resolutions (3840 x 2160) with a 10-bit LCD panel capable of displaying 1.07 billion colours, 99% of the Adobe RGB standard, and 98% of the DCI-P3 standard (Digital Cinema Initiatives, Protocol 3) used by the film industry. So while industry professionals probably won’t want to use it for colour critical tasks like grading, it will still give artists an accurate portrayal of colours and skin tones.
The new Cintiq Pro 27’s most obvious upgrade is the screen’s dramatically reduced bezels. Wacom has never shied away from bezels in the past, as they provide real estate for shortcut buttons and a place for artists to securely grip the tablet without covering the screen. As a result, despite including a 27-inch screen, the new Cintiq Pro 27 is actually smaller than the Cintiq Pro 24 (with a 24-inch screen), while weighing more or less exactly the same. To be exact, the Cintiq Pro 27 weighs 7 kg, compared to the 7 kg Cintiq Pro 24.
That doesn’t mean that shortcut buttons have been eliminated — they’re just all located on the back now and integrated into a pair of grips on either side that make it easier for artists to hold and manipulate the tablet while they work. Each grip has four buttons, providing eight in total that artists can customise using Wacom’s bundled software.
Wacom might be best known for its stylus technology that, unlike Apple Pencils, doesn’t require a battery in the stylus or any charging. Alongside the new Cintiq Pro 27, the company is also introducing its new Pro Pen 3, which can be custom assembled from interchangeable components that change the thickness, weight, balance, and even the number of buttons on the stylus, which can now be maxed out to three. Wacom promises the new Pro Pen 3 also includes “enhanced tilt recognition” and can detect 8,192 different levels of distinct pressure on its tip.
The Cintiq Pro 27 is available starting today from Wacom’s website. The new Pro Pen 3, which will be compatible with older Cintiq Pro and Intuos Pro tablets pending patches, can also be purchased on its own for $US130 ($180).