Wacom Intuos Pro Review – Small, medium, large and paper edition

Wacom tablets are pretty much industry standard and can often be spotted in the hands of professionals or major design and VFX studios.

They have been a go-to choice for a long time for anyone who wanted a long-lasting reliable device that provides top-of-the-line drawing performance and gives unlimited power in the hands of digital artists.

One of the main advantages of Wacom Intuos Pro is it comes with support for Wacom’s Pro Pen 2. Which is considered one of the best stylus for artists.

It has an amazing pressure response, good tilt recognition and best in class initial activation force.

In this Wacom Intuos Pro review, we will have a good look at all the features this tablet has to offer and help you decide whether this is the right tablet for you or not.

Wacom Intuos Pro Features and specifications

Here is the list of all the main features Intuos Pro has to offer.

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Available sizes – Small, medium and large

Intuos Pro is available in three sizes Small, Medium and Large. The image above shows the real-life difference between their sizes.

Other than size and number of shortcut buttons there is no difference between the three tablets. You get all the same features all these three tablets.

In terms of price – you may have already guessed the smaller Intuos Pro is the least expensive followed by the medium and Large Intuos Pro models.

Although the prices of these tablets keep changing, you can click here to check the current prices and offers on Amazon.

Wacom Intuos Pro Paper Edition

Paper edition of the Wacom Intuos Pro is like a 2 in one device. It works like a normal Intuos Pro – but can also convert your paper drawing into digital files with the help of a special pen.

The tablet uses a companion app called “Inkspace” – which is available for Windows, Mac, IOS and Android.

How does it work?

With the paper edition of Intuos Pro, you get an additional Pen. The pen looks and works like a normal pen but it can store your drawings digitally when you draw with it on top of Paper edition Intuos Pro.

Design and Build Quality

The Intuos Pro follows the classic design where you have all the shortcut buttons on the left and drawing area on the right.

For those who are left-handed – You can simply rotate the device by 180° and change the settings to the left-handed mode in the driver settings.

The tablet feels very premium and sturdy in hand.

It is made of brushed aluminum and has two large strips of rubber pads on the back.

There is a comfortable amount of extra space around the drawing area for your palms to rest.

The overall drawing experience is very comfortable with everything working as smooth as you would expect.

Surface Texture

The Intuos Pro comes with a scratch-resistant textured surface. It gives a slight resistance to your pen while drawing which makes them feel more controlled.

The texture also makes the tablet feel and sound like a paper. It is one of those things which adds to your drawing experience.

Now all the tablets in the market come with some kind of surface texture but no one has been able to perfect the recipe.

The texture on Wacom Intuos Pro is very well balanced. It is neither too aggressive nor too soft.

Multi-touch and gesture controls

Wacom Intuos is the only tablet in the market that supports touch and multi-touch gestures.

It enables you to perform various shortcuts such as zoom, rotate, pan and scroll. You can also use the touch in other applications or use the tablet as a big touchpad.

In case you do not want to use the touch feature – there is a button on the side of the tablet which lets you turn off the touch sensitivity.

Stylus – Wacom Pro Pen 2

A stylus is one of the most important parts of a drawing tablet. Some even consider it more important than the tablet itself.

It does not matter how good the tablet is – if the stylus sucks, you will have a really bad time using the tablet.

With that said Wacom Intuos comes with the Pro Pen 2 which is Wacom’s most advanced stylus. It is arguably the best stylus in the market.

The pen comes with 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity along with ±60° of tilt sensitivity. It has two buttons on the side which are fully customizable through the pen settings. There is also an eraser at the back.

Pro Pen 2 has a good ergonomic design which makes the pen feel comfortable to use for a longer duration. The pen has a wider front which slowly tapers towards the back.

The front portion of the pen has rubber-like material which feels soft and gives more grip.

Pentips

There are two types of pen nibs that come with Intuos Pro. The first one is the standard tip which is smoother and has less friction and makes less noise while drawing. The other type is the “Felt Nib” – it has more resistance and a slightly more grippy feel on the surface.

Pen Stand

There is a high-quality pen stand included in the box. The pen stand holds the pen while not in use. It can keep the pen in standing as well as horizontal position. It has a metal base which gives it extra stability.

There is a hole in the middle of the base plate that acts as a nib remover tool.

Opening the base you can access the nib storage area where all the extra nibs are safely stored in padded compartments.

Shortcut keys – Buttons and touch ring

Intuos Pro comes with a number of shortcut options.

The medium and large models come with a total of eight shortcut button which is divided into two groups of 4 button.

The smaller variant called “Intuos Pro small” comes with six buttons.

The buttons are clicky and give good feedback on pressing. To identify the button without looking, the button comes with raised dotted and dashed structures.

All the buttons are fully customizable and can be set to a different shortcut in the driver settings.

You can also set application-specific shortcuts in which the shortcut buttons automatically change depending on the application you are using.

Other than shortcut buttons the tablet also comes with a very handy touch ring.

The touch ring enables you to perform shortcuts like zoom, rotate, pan, scroll and most importantly change the size of the brush and eraser.

It is a very handy feature and really helps during making artwork. The touch ring has a toggle button at the center which toggles between various shortcuts.

Connectivity – Wired and wireless

Wacom Intuos Pro connects to your computer in two ways

1. wired
2. Wireless

Wired

The Intuos Pro comes with a USB-c type 6.5ft (2 m) long cable which plugs on the right side of the tablet. It comes with an L-shaped connector which keeps the cable away from the working area.

Alternatively, you can connect your tablet to the computer wirelessly via Bluetooth.

The tablet has decent battery life and lasts multiple days on a single charge. One important feature to notice here – unlike other tablets which boast of wireless connectivity, Wacom does not use any wireless receiver.

Which frees up your USB ports and eliminates the possibility of losing the wireless receiver.

Driver – tablet settings and customization

The driver allows your tablet to communicate with your computer. It also helps the computer to understand the pressure and tilt data.

For downloading the driver you can head over to the Wacom’s official download page.

The driver allows you to make some basic as well as advanced settings like changing from right hand to left-hand mode and properly calibrating the tablet to your monitor screen.

In addition to that, all the express buttons can be set to custom shortcuts.

You can also customize the button on the pen along with changing the pressure settings. On-screen shortcuts like radial menus can also be set as per your liking.

Accessories

The Wacom Intuos Pro comes with a lot of accessories, some of them come in the pack while others need to be purchased separately.

Included in the box: Pen stand, Extra pentips, Drivers, USB cable, Pro pen 2, Instruction booklet and the sample texture pad.

Available separately: Tablet cover(bag), Texture sheet.

Which tablet should you pick – Small, Medium or Large?

The tablet comes in three sizes small, medium and large.

Now the question is how to pick the right tablet for you.

Now some of you may say it depends on your budget and how much money you are willing to spend – which is right.

In addition to your budget, the other important aspect to consider is your monitor size.

If you are using a laptop with around 15-inches display – then you would be fine with small or medium-size Intuos Pro.

Otherwise, if your monitor is 19 inches or more then you should go for the medium or Large Intuos Pro.

Summary – is Wacom Intuos Pro worth the price

There are a lot of cheap devices in the market which try to match the Intuos pro in terms of numbers and specs list.

But a good tablet is not all about specs. What sets the Intuos Pro apart from all the other tablets in the market is its quality.

You may get a cheap tablet that costs half its price but after a couple of months, you would realize the drawing surface is getting scratched off and wearing apart.

These things do not happen to Wacom tablets. In addition to that, the Wacom Intuos Pro is made of premium materials like aluminum.

These things combined with a very stable and updated driver makes the Intuos Pro lasts for years and that is why serious artists prefer it more than the cheaper alternatives.

So – “is the Wacom Intuos Pro worth the Price” – Yes it is…

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