I am currently using the Wacom Intuos4 Large tablet and I love it! At 13″ x 8″, it’s the right size for me. I used to own a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch which was also great, but decided I needed the extra drawing space. I tend to make wide gestures when drawing no matter how hard I tried not to. I believe that you should buy the largest size you can afford and the Pen & Touch matched my budget at the time.
Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet
Compared to the Wacom Bamboo tablets, the Intuos 4 has improved the pen. It boasts a more pressure sensitive pen tip for improved brush size, line weight, and opacity adjustments by pressing harder or softer with the pen. This has proven to be the case. It has been exceptionally great when it comes to painting. I used to prefer sketching and inking my designs by hand and then transfer them to my computer, but with this pen I no longer need to because I can recreate pen strokes easily and they have the hand drawn look that I want.
Similar to the Wacom Bamboo line of tablets, the Intuos4 tablet has four ExpressKeys for creating shortcuts and a Speed Ring for zooming, scrolling, brush size and canvas rotation. I’m a fan of shortcuts so I like these features. It saves me time and I don’t have to rely on using the cursor to choose simple/repetitive tasks. I also like that I don’t have to look away from my work as often to do mundane commands.
There is also a better weighted pen stand/holder that doubles as a storage compartment for pen nibs. This is great for me since they are pretty small and could get lost easily on my messy desk.
A wireless mouse is included. It’s a five button mouse that moves smoothly across the tablet as well as the desk. It’s a very good mouse to use if you need one. Personally, I find the mouse to be useless since I prefer to use my own. That’s just my personal preference though.
Wacom Intuos4 does come in four different sizes to meet your needs, Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large and Wireless. The bonus to the wireless model is that it’s, well, wire free. I think it is worth buying if you like it’s size and don’t mind paying a little more.
Click on each link to read more or to buy them on Amazon.
Small Wacom Intuos4 Tablet
Active Area 6.2″ x 3.9″
Physical Size 12.2″ x 8.2″ x 0.5″
Medium Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet
Active Area 8.8″ x 5.5″
Physical Size 14.6″ x 10.0″ x 0.5″
Large Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet
Active Area 12.8″ x 8.0″
Physical Size 18.7″ x 12.6″ x 0.6″
Extra Large Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet
Active Area 18.2″ x 12.0″
Physical Size 24.5″ x 18.2″ x 1.1″
Wireless Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet
Active Area 8.0″ x 5.0″
Physical Size 14.3″ x 10.0″ x 0.6″
Software:
Two Plugins for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
Nik Color Efex Pro
Wacom Brushes
You choose two out of three of the following:
Adobe Photoshop Elements for PC and Mac
Autodesk SketchBook Express
Corel Painter Sketch Pad
Granted, I don’t think the included software is amazing, but if you are a professional designer/digital artist, you probably already own Photoshop and Corel Painter.
A downside is that the Wireless Intuos4 is only available in the one size which I think is a shame. Especially since that size is rather small compared to the others. This issue has been addressed with the new Intuos5 tablets.
Overall
I really like the Intuos4. I appreciate that it comes in a variety of sizes and I’ve been very happy with my large Intuos for the past year. For the price, I say it’s worth it. You might want to also check out my review for the new Intous5 tablets by Wacom.