- Thanks for joining me today, I'm Aaron Rutten
and I'm going to be reviewing
the new Wacom Intuos Small just for you.
That's coming up next.
(marker squeaking)
(paper rustling)
Quick disclaimer, this video is not sponsored by Wacom
but they did send me the Intuos Pro Small.
As always all opinions in this video are my own.
The Intuos Pro is a creative pen tablet
which means that you can draw on it
with a pressure-sensitive pen
but it does not have a built-in screen.
The Intuos Pro can connect to a Mac or PC computer
using wireless or USB.
I'm reviewing the newest release from this series
and that is the small version
and for clarity this is the second generation
of the Intuos Pro model number: PTH-460.
So the size of this tablet is pretty small,
it's 10.6 by 6.7 inches and it has a thickness of .3 inches.
There is also a medium and a large version
of the Intuos Pro in this series
and there are also medium and large paper editions.
The paper editions will actually let you place
a piece of real paper on the tablet,
you can draw on it with a special pen
and then it transfers it to your computer digitally.
But in this review we're going to focus mostly
on the Intuos Pro Small.
The active area or the area that you can actually draw on
on the Intuos Small is 6.3 inches by 3.9 inches.
That's roughly the size of a postcard.
As you can see compared to the medium
which has an active area of 8.7 by 5.8 inches,
or the Intuos Pro Large that has an active area
of 12.1 by 8.4 inches, they're not kidding,
this is a small Intuos Pro.
The weight of the Intuos Small is just under one pound
and as you might imagine,
the medium is a little bit heavier at around 1.5 pounds
and the large comes in at nearly three pounds.
The Intuos Pro series supports multi-touch
so you can gesture with your fingers to pan zoom
and rotate your page.
The Intuos Pro series comes with the Wacom Pro Pen 2
which is a pressure-sensitive cordless
and battery-free pen with over 8,000 pressure levels
on both the pen tip and the eraser.
It also supports tilt recognition
so you can shade with the side of your pencil.
There are two shortcut buttons on the side of the pen
and there's a switch to enable or disable touch
on the side of the tablet.
The pen comes with replacement nibs,
there are six standard nibs and for felt nibs.
Those nibs are hiding inside the pen stand,
the felt nibs make you feel
like you're drawing with a marker and add more friction.
(pen squeaking)
Built into the side of the tablet
are six customizable express keys rather than eight.
You can use these to invoke shortcuts and commands
and in the center of the express keys is a touch ring
and you can use this to invoke shortcuts like undo and redo
or to resize your brush or zoom in and out of your canvas.
If the eight express keys in the touchscreen aren't enough
you can also bring up on-screen keys and a radial menu,
this will give you access to loads more shortcuts.
If you're using a multi-monitor setup,
you can easily toggle this tablet
to work on any of your monitors
using the display toggle feature.
As I mentioned earlier the Intuos Pro Small
can be connected in a couple of different ways.
First you can plug it in using the USB-A to USB-C cable.
This cable is a little bit over 6.5 feet long
and despite being USB-C,
the connection is actually pretty strong,
you have to really pull on it
in order to be able to disconnect the cable.
One cool thing about using USB-C
is that you can easily reverse the cable
to have it go up or down
meaning that you can easily rotate this tablet
to be both left-handed and right-handed.
Or you can ditch the cable
and you can connect this wirelessly using Bluetooth
and I want to clarify that you can only connect wirelessly
to a PC or a Mac, you can't connect to a phone or a tablet.
I think Bluetooth is a nice change
because the previous generation of the Intuos Pro
had a wireless receiver and transmitter
and that was just less elegant.
So in other words, you don't have to install a wireless kit,
all you need to do is pair this
with Bluetooth on your computer.
As far as what you need to use this tablet,
you need a USB port, a Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 computer,
or a macOS 10.10 or later.
And the Intuos Pro comes with a two-year warranty.
Now I'll show you some of the accessories
that come included with the tablet
and some of the optional accessories
that you can purchase separately.
First we'll start with the accessories
that come with the Intuos Pro Small.
So of course you have your tablet
and you have your Wacom Pro Pen 2,
you also have your pen stand
which includes the six standard nibs and the four felt nibs.
Oddly enough, the color rings
you can use to customize your pen were not included
with the Intuos Pro Small,
however they do come included
with the Intuos Pro Medium/Large
and some of the Cintiqs.
I'm not sure why those weren't included
but if you wanted to you could purchase those separately.
There's also a nice quality PVC-free USB cable
that has USBC-A on one end and USB-C on the other
and then of course you have your Quick Start instructions
and warranty information.
So those are the accessories that come with the tablet
but now let's take a look
at some of the optional accessories
that you can purchase separately.
Should your pen ever run out of nibs,
you can always purchase replacement nibs
and you can of course replace the Wacom Pro Pen 2
if you ever lose that but you can also use
Wacom's other pens such as the Pro Pen one,
the Wacom Art Pen that senses rotation, the new Pro Pen Slim
and lots of other types of pens, not those.
And there's a nice metal case you can get
to protect your Wacom Pro Pen 2.
And now the price, without the optional accessories,
the Wacom Intuos Pro Small is 249.95 in U.S. dollars
and then of course the medium and the large
are more expensive.
Now we move on to the part of my review
where I'm going to share some of the pros and cons
based on my own personal preference
and experience with tablets.
But first let's add some further context
by discussing who the Intuos Small is for.
So who is this for?
Creatives who are always on the go
and work primarily from a laptop,
photographers and photo editors,
people who want professional quality pen
and touch input on a low profile device,
graphic designers who work in a cafe
or travel to meet clients,
audio animation and video editors,
3D artists, students who are always moving between classes,
creatives who want the smallest
and most high-quality tablet on the market,
and what I mean by that is the Intuos Pro
isn't going to have the quality control issues
that plague Wacom imitation tablets.
Wacom tablets have a reputation for being reliable
and lasting for a long time,
and last but not least the Intuos Pro Small
might be a great option for Osu! players
who want a tablet with both pen and touch.
So that's kind of a sampling of the type of user
that the Intuos Pro Small is geared towards
but who is this device not for?
And I'm speaking specifically about the small size here,
not the medium or the large.
In my opinion, the small is probably not the best option
for artists who will be doing
primarily drawing and painting,
creatives who need to make a lot of large gestures,
creatives who need an ergonomic tablet
because the Intuos Small can feel cramped to draw on
for extended periods of time.
If you happen to fit any of these descriptions,
please do yourself a favor and spend a little bit more
for the medium or the large size
or if you don't need all the bells and whistles
of the Intuos Pro, there's the entry level Intuos Medium
which has an active drawing area of 8.5 by 5.3 inches.
Or you might even consider the Cintiq 16
which has a 16-inch screen you can draw directly onto.
So now we'll move on
to some of the pros from my perspective,
the Intuos Pro is a great option
because it comes with the Wacom Pro Pen 2
which is the best pen you can get for a drawing tablet.
The pen is battery free,
meaning it doesn't require batteries,
you don't have to charge it, it just works.
The pen also supports pen tilt
and the Intuos Pro supports other types of pens
such as the Wacom Art Pen which you can use
to rotate your brush as you're painting.
The Pro Pen 2 also supports felt nibs
if you want a different feel while you're drawing
and the pen has a pressure-sensitive eraser.
Now while there are lots of other pens out there
with over 8,000 pressure levels,
the Intuos Pro offers excellent line quality
and a fantastic pressure response,
that means the lines are not going to be wavy or jittery
when you draw with this tablet
and even the lightest pressure is going to make a mark.
The surface of the Intuos Pro has a paper-like feel,
now this might be a con
if you prefer a more slippery surface
that doesn't wear down the nib as quickly
but I personally like some tooth or grain
because I don't like drawing on a slippery surface.
One of the big selling points of the Intuos Pro Small
is that it's small,
it's thin and it's more lightweight than the larger tablets.
This is the perfect tablet for creative tasks on the go.
While the Intuos Pro Small
is a little bit too small for drawing,
I can see this being a great tablet
for doing graphic design, video editing
and other non-drawing tasks where a tablet
might be more comfortable than using a mouse or a trackpad.
Another feature that sets the Intuos Pro Small
apart from other drawing tablets
is that it supports multi-touch
and the Intuos Pro Small supports Bluetooth
so you can connect it wirelessly
which means you don't have to plug in cables
and clutter up your desk or your workspace.
I think it's also important to mention
the build quality as a pro because the Intuos Pro Small
is built with a durable anodized aluminum
and fiberglass composite resin,
this does make it heavy compared to similarly sized tablets
but it feels very sturdy and strength is important
if you plan to bring this thing along in a bag.
There's also that two-year warranty that I mentioned earlier
and best of all, the Intuos Pro Small has no parallax.
That was a joke.
So those were some of the things I liked
about the Intuos Pro Small but now let's talk about
some of the cons in my opinion.
I think really the biggest one for me
is that the small is just too small to draw on comfortably.
I mean you certainly can draw on it
but it would just be more comfortable
to get a medium or a large tablet
if illustration is what you'll be doing the most.
If you're not going to be drawing on this tablet,
then it's a great tablet and I wouldn't really say
that the size is a con because obviously you got it
because you want something small but here's a legit con,
the Intuos Pro Small does not support texture sheet options
so if you don't like that rough texture,
at this point you don't have an option
to get the smoother texture sheet.
The Intuos Pro also does not come bundled with free software
like the software that comes with the entry level Intuos.
Another issue I was having with the Intuos Pro Small
is that the touch can feel
a little bit difficult to control sometimes
and it can even go off unexpectedly while you're drawing.
Now if touch is being a nuisance, you can disable touch
but the toggle switch to turn touch on and off
is too hard to find on the side of the tablet.
An option to use an express key to toggle touch on and off
would be better in my opinion.
So there you go, that was my review
of the Wacom Intuos Small,
I have a few other videos about this tablet
that you can check out
and make sure to subscribe to my channel
because I have a lot more
digital art tech reviews like this.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.