Anybody has experience with Wacom Intuos Pro?

[mmmaarten]

Hi,

Today I ordered a Wacom Intuos Pro Large, after happily using an Intuos 4 medium for many, many years. I was pretty satisfied with that tablet and never had any issue with it, but it's having some bad scratches on it that's making me avoid these regions on the tablet and I'm drawing more and more every day professionally now and also feel like it's time to move on to a larger format plus I think I will be very happy with 4 times the sensitivity levels as well as tilt.

But after ordering I read some worrying reviews about its pen nibs that are done in just a few days because of wear... and lots of people complaining about Wacom drivers and bad bluetooth connections.

I am not sure whether or not to take these seriously. I never ever had any issues with Wacom drivers for over 10 years using the Intuos 4 and moving through various versions of Windows and many different types of different software. And in all these years I only changed the nib a single time. And it wasn't even really needed. The build quality of the Intuos 4 was just sublime. After 10 to 15 years it's still working great and if I didn't have these scratches I wouldn't probably even looked for a new one.

I think it's hard to find a good review on this by artists to judge if there's truth in this. There seem to be a lot of Wacom haters online now that there's some competition out there and also a lot of bias. And I see reviews and opinions by people never ever really using a tablet creatively and intensely and not for art at all, so they have way less or different demands for a tablet.

So I wonder if any of you perhaps has experience with the latest Wacom Intuos Pro tablets. Is it really true; do these nibs wear so fast and are drivers really that bad nowadays? Is is really this bad with bluetooth on these things? Does this mean that the quality of Wacom has declined last years? Or are these comments/reviews nonsense or an overreaction for whatever reason?

[Greenlaw]

Pen nibs should be fine. The standard is the same Teflon nibs Wacom has always used, with some variations. For example, one type has a spring to literally make it more 'springy'. (I'm not sure they still offer that one.) There's also a felt one and a rubbery one. I just stick with the Teflon but the felt one is nice...it's kinda squeaky like a felt tip pen.

As the nib wear down, it won't damage the surface, it just won't be pointy anymore. The wear will be very obvious long before you get far enough to do any damage. (Unlike an Apple Pencil for iPad, which can damage the screen.)

The nibs actually last a long time. I've been using Wacom products for decades and very rarely had to change nibs. When I did, it was usually to try a different type.

That said, your mileage may vary: it depends on how frequently you draw and how heavy you bear down on the tablet. The tablet requires very little pressure to get the full range so I don't understand why some people lean so hard on the pen.

Overall, I've been very satisfied with the Wacom products I've purchased, so long as I stick with the 'pro' line. Their high-end tablet are solid quality builds and they do last for many years of steady use.

IMO, the cheaper Wacom models are not worth it. When buying a tablet on a budget, there are better third party tablets for the same cost.

[Greenlaw]

That said, I don't use a stylus very much in Moho...I mostly use a mouse when working in Moho.

I do use a stylus for other programs (Photoshop, Krita, Clip Studio Paint, etc.,) in support of Moho though so I still recommend getting a tablet.

[mmmaarten]

Pen nibs should be fine. ...

Hi Greenlaw, thanks for responding. I value your opinion as an artist.
I never ever thought I would ever even ask this about Wacom as it used to be such a quality name that stood for quality and I thought the exact same thing as you write. I'm using my Intuos 4 for more than 10 years now and only needed to change the nib one time (and it wasn't probably not even needed).

But about the latest pro version in the last few hours I read so many the same detailed complaints by many users about this product and in several places that this didn't feel like an exception anymore and made me worried. So I had to decide to cancel the order as I don't trust it anymore.

Besides many people complaining about connection issues (under which some quite tech savy people), which I would've solved by connecting wired, which I would anyway (but let's face it, for this price point it should just work), I don't see myself changing nibs every few days. As that's what I read everywhere literally. These aren't just complaints, they are very detailed and some serious people, also being artist, saying this too. Just to be sure I asked it here and also asked on reddit and got the same answer by a user; he literally wrote that nibs already show wear after a few hours, that this wasn't the case on older models (just like my experience). And it's because of the texture of the surface that's deliverd on the product by default which is more raw, not as gliding as on the intuos 4.

Wacom used to sell a 'smooth texture sheet' as a replacement for the default 'medium' sheet on the pro, and many people saw this as a solution to prevent the wear. But Wacom decided to discontinue just that product, while so many people want it... They are still selling the more grittier/raw surface sheets tho (which wear pens even faster). So I can't see any other reason for that than Wacom wanting to make even more money by selling more nibs. They make more money on selling nibs than on selling these smooth sheets that slow down the nibs wear. So it looks like they try to make even more money on an already high product price and I wouldn't expect that in such a high price range. That feels quite greedy to me and doesn't fit the price point. I don't see myself paying 300 euros a year on nibs for a 500 euros costing tablet. To me that doesn't make any sense.

Guess I'll use my intuos 4 (which IS great build quality and doesn't wear nibs so much and I feel about this exactly as you write about Wacom in general) a little longer until I found a good alternative.

BTW In Moho I use the mouse too when animating just like you, but when drawing I always use a tablet. But besides this the main reason I use the tablet is for drawing and painting digitally in paint/draw/animation software, and also things like sculpting, painting, retopology etc. in Blender. I love pen tablets They make so many things so much more fun! Today I also bought Sketchbook pro and that's pretty nice! Finally a drawing program that has a good UI for pen drawing on screen for when using the Surface Book pen! (as many apps are made for ios instead of windows)