Wacom Bamboo Product Review

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The USB tablet. Makes graphic design, art, and note taking easier on your computer. There are many of these tablets out there, from simple ones to large displays, these things can cost a lot. But not Wacom's Bamboo tablet. Sold for $80 at your local electronic stores, this tablet is cost efficient yet still high quality.

Coming in a blue and black box, Wacom packages this great product with the care like Apple does with their packaging. Clean and simple, using this from the get-go is easy. The package includes the manual, driver install disk, the USB cable, the tablet, the pen, and the pen holder. I will break down each one of these, excluding the driver disk, the USB cable, and the manual (of course).

The Tablet

I will not give you the dimensions of the product, as it can be difficult to relate to just how much room it takes up. It is slightly smaller than a generic mouse pad, and a little thinner than a 30GB iPod Classic (easy?). The only dimensions that will be given is going to be the active area: 5.8" X 3.7".

There are four programmable buttons, or ExpressKeys, that allow you to program different functions. These buttons are lit up via blue LED. The top two buttons are the left and right arrows, while the two bottom buttons are FN1 and FN2. In between these four buttons is a touch sensitive scroll ring. You can also use the pen to use the scroll ring, but your fingers are much better.

The tablet is only available in black.

The Pen

The pen is very light, and features an eraser end as well as two programmable buttons along the side. It is not battery operated. The tablet uses a magnetic field technology, to eliminate weight and/or cords (it cordless, too). It has a very good grip. Not too grippy, not too slippery. The function buttons will not get in the way when holding the pen right, so it is not a nuisance when using the pen. The pen tip has 512 levels of pressure, allowing you to draw lighter/thicker/thinner strokes.

The eraser tip is also pressure sensitive. When in Photoshop, for example, when tilting the pen upside down to use the eraser, the eraser tool will automatically select itself. When tilting it back to the pen tip, it will automatically return to your tool being used, whether it be a brush, gradient, or lasso tool etc. etc.

The function buttons can be programmed like the function buttons on the tablet, but double clicks, single clicks, right clicks, scroll up/down, etc. can be programmed for these buttons.

The Pen Holder

I am making a separate section for this because this has a couple things I want to address. It is a small, round plastic object, which has a reserve made for Wacom pens. It also has a crevice that will hold the pen horizontally. Putting it in the small reserve would have it stand vertically.

The only problem with the pen holder is that it slides very easily on your surface. It has a tendency to be moved around a lot when storing your pen in the reserve, and will move 95% of the time when storing it horizontally. When picking the pen back up from the vertical position, you have to pick it straight up to avoid moving the pen holder. When horizontal, there's no chance in avoiding moving it. this can be a hassle if you're always storing your pen.

Conclusion

I would highly recommend this tablet to the average user or hobbyist. It is not complex enough to handle large complicated projects, and writing notes with this tablet is tedious. There are more features that go along with this tablet, like Ink, for example. But that shall be for the new user to find out and explore, as it is a whole new book in itself. Here is an overview of the items included in the box based on a scale from 1-5: 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest:

**Please note that the following ratings are based on personal user experience, but are in no way exaggerated.**

Looks: 4

Buttons and Touch Ring: 5

Active/Writing Area: 5

Pen: 5

Pen Holder: 4

Travel: 5

Usability: 5

Price: 5



Thanks

Thank you all for reading my Wacom Bamboo Product Review! Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

;)
 
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i looked up the tablet a month ago and buying it at the end of the month for my gf's birthday lol. Thanks for the positive review =)
 

CrimsonRequiem


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I heard some pretty negative reviews from my friends. I got a Intuos 2 from Christmas last year, never used the bamboo so I don't know how they differ.
 
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cuhnool
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the intuos is much better than the bamboo. They're all good, but the intuis is much more... Usable. If I can really think of a word at the moment. ;)
 
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Can it be used as a substitute for typing? Nerve damage in my left hand makes typing papers for school take forever. I'd like to get one of these if it could speed up the process.
 
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cuhnool
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Can it be used as a substitute for typing? Nerve damage in my left hand makes typing papers for school take forever. I'd like to get one of these if it could speed up the process.

I do not believe so. Let me play around with it to check it out.

**EDIT**

I haven't really found any thing that could potentially help. But, you can turn handwriting into typed font. Ink will allow you to write on a pad-like screen, and it can turn handwriting into type-face. Afterwards, you can copy & paste into a word processor.

Hope I helped. :)
 
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I do not believe so. Let me play around with it to check it out.

**EDIT**

I haven't really found any thing that could potentially help. But, you can turn handwriting into typed font. Ink will allow you to write on a pad-like screen, and it can turn handwriting into type-face. Afterwards, you can copy & paste into a word processor.

Hope I helped. :)

That seems like it would fit my needs, thanks for the help.
 
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