Okay Geek Farm
Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet review
Jason Tsay
Tablet you say? No, we’re not referring to these popular new iPad devices but rather the input device many choose to use with their PC’s for handwriting and drawing. What makes this particular Wacom Bamboo special is that it recognizes both pen and touch input, allowing it to also double as a multitouch trackpad. With both Mac and PC support enabled, we spent some time testing out the Pen and Touch.
Features
- Two sensors for precise pen and Multi-Touch input
- Pressure-sensitive pen tip for natural pen and brush strokes
- Quick access to user-defined shortcuts with four ExpressKeys
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Win / 6.0 Mac for editing, retouching, enhancing and sharing digital photos
- Battery-free, ergonomic pen with two switches
Our Impressions
The Pen and Touch version of the Bamboo is packed within a blue box, encasing another box, which in turn contains the tablet, a pen, as well as some manuals/installation discs.In terms of hardware design, the Bamboo is pretty slick with its rounded off edges and matte/glossy plastic combo. Four large rectangular buttons line one side of the tablet, separated by a thin LED strip. On the opposing side is a red cloth tag with the Wacom logo imprinted on - a unique touch. At first, we thought this was merely a decorative aspect but then we realized we could neatly slot in the included stylus for storage. The tablet itself is quite lightweight and easy to tote around. The pen is fairly comfortable to hold and is pretty light as well.
After flipping through the manuals, we went ahead and installed the Bamboo drivers and Dock using the first included CD. The second “Software Bundle” CD is loaded with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 and Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0.
First off, we tried out the touch capabilities of the Bamboo. The large matte surface allowed us to drag our finger around with ease. The same goes for the various multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom and two finger scrolling. The four configurable buttons adjacent to the touch surface can act as the mouse buttons and shortcut keys if you so choose. Using the pen to control the Bamboo has a little more of a learning curve to it. Using a proximity sensor, the tablet is able to tell when the pen is within range of the surface (indicated by the glowing LED strip) and clicks when you make contact. Brushing the pen tip along the surface is the equivalent of clicking and dragging with a mouse. After a while, navigation around our computer was quite fluid using the tablet. So can you use the tablet solely for navigation purposes? Yes you can.
Drawing with the Bamboo is a fairly intuitive experience. Although it’s not as immersive as drawing directly onto a monitor, we had a great deal of fun working in Photoshop and inputting illustrations.
Overall
If you are an artist looking for a tool to create digital graphics and you don’t know where to start, the Bamboo is a great choice. If you plan on working with something more professional, you’ve already gotten used to the way Wacom tablets function and will be able to progress with ease. The point is, Wacom tablets are a standard in the world of digital art. The Bamboo is ideal for amateurs or even just those looking for something to doodle with on their computers.
Pro’s
- Simple to use
- Multitouch trackpad
- Entry level tablet for aspiring artists
Con’s
- Wired
- Probably won’t replace a mouse
Where to buy
MSRP: $99
This review was done by Jason Tsay, who was provided the Bamboo by Wacom.
