WACOM CREATE VS GRAPHIRE4 REVIEW!
I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment and I FINALLY got a new tablet. My old Graphire 4 (100$ back then) tablet is working fine but its tiny at 3x4 inch and is really really old. So I got the newest economy class tablet - the Wacom Bamboo Create (200$) which is 8.5 x 5.4 instead. It has 2 other expresskeys as well. Here is my take of the two:
SPECS:
Graphire4: 512 levels of pressure
Bamboo: 1024 levels of pressure
Intuos5: 2048 levels of pressure + pen tilt
CintiqHD: 2048 levels of pressure + pen tilt + drawing on screen
REVIEW:
Appearance [ BAMBOO >Graphire]
When I opened it first thing I noticed was how much prettier it is. Especially since my Graphire is so dirty. It’s sleek and a lot thinner than the graphire for sure. The pen is not in an indent that is too small for it, but can be put into a fabric holding thing. It works a lot better. There are 2 extra express keys as well.
Control [ BAMBOO >Graphire]
Trying it out, I felt that the Bamboo had a LOT more control than the Graphire. Maybe this is due to how much larger the Bamboo is, but most likely its the extra levels of pressure. Lines are smoother and more precise.
Drawing Feel [BAMBOO>Graphire]
I LOVE the feel of drawing on the Bamboo. It feels like matte paper. The Graphire makes me feel like I’m drawing on plastic, which is what it is. The plastic on the Graphire scratched a lot too. I don’t know if the Bamboo will scratch. We’ll see. The only problem with the matte paper feel is that it means that the material on the Bamboo has more texture - which may make the pen nib wear out a lot faster. However, they provided us with 3 extra nibs so it should be fine.
Pen [GRAPHIRE>Bamboo]
The Bamboo’s pen’s grip is a lot nicer than the Graphire. The Bamboo’s is rubberized metal (think Thinkpad) while the Graphire is plastic-y. However, the Graphire is a bit heavier than the Bamboo which, imo, is better. The Graphire pen is also better in that it’s nib is white/translucent. The Bamboo’s is black and the tablet is silver. So it creates marks on the tablet. If you rub the marks, they come off, but I still find that annoying and unintelligent on Wacom’s part. And lastly, while both pens have the exact same erasers. However, WITH the matte paper feel of the Bamboo, the eraser doesnt erase very smoothly at times.
Touch Support [BAMBOO ONLY]
The Bamboo has a bunch of multi-touch features that you would see on a mac. Two finger scroll, pinch zoom, two finger rotate, 3 and 4 finger swipes to do various things. Most of the time it works nicely. Some of the time it doesn’t work at all. The rest of the time (with zoom especially) its supper laggy and jagged. It not as functional as I hoped so I prefer just to reach over and use my awesome mechanical keyboard instead.
CONCLUSION:
While the pen and multitouch arn’t perfect, when drawing, control and feel are the most important. And due to that, I think it was well worth paying an extra 100$ for the Create.
