A fantastic tablet at a low price (Wacom Bamboo)

Member Name: Jondot

Product:	Wacom Bamboo
Date:	12/07/09 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively inexpensive, looks great, great to use

Disadvantages: Some materials feel a bit cheap

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. I paid something like £50 for this in PCWorld not that long ago, and it was certainly a sound investment.

Personally, I think the Bamboo looks brilliant. Really sleek and sophisticated in that matt black colouring. Once plugged in via USB, the 4 buttons along the top of the tablet glow a lovely blue, which looks superb.

These 4 buttons can be programmed via Wacom's software. Personally I've got them set for 'undo', 'redo', 'new layer' and 'ok' for Photoshop, all of which were programmed in as key strokes, so essentially the sky's the limit in terms of what you want them to do.

The pen is very nice too - it's made from a sort of soft-touch plastic, has two buttons and two different ends - a pen 'nib' and, at the opposite end, an 'eraser' (which, when used in Photoshop, automatically activates the eraser tool). Personally I've disabled the two buttons as I found that I kept accidentally hitting them as I wrote anything, but it's up to you.

The tablet is pressure sensitive too, meaning that the likes of Photoshop can adjust the brush settings based on that.

My only gripe is that some of the materials aren't a fantastic quality. Not that it particularly matters, but the previous pen strokes are quite visible on the black surface. But then it cost £50, so who cares quite frankly...

If you're after a reasonably priced graphics tablet, this is certainly an excellent choice. About 10 times better than those dreadful £20 Trust ones.

Summary: Simply brilliant - a great product from a great brand.

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