Product Reviews

With the Intuos 4, Wacom has redefined the graphics tablet with a wholly new user experience: the range of new features looks set to win it new users, and to tempt many existing owners to upgrade.

The tablet has a new sleek appearance in both matt and gloss black - think Tim Burton's Batmobile compared with the previous gunmetal-grey BMW. The surface tapers off towards the desk both front and back, and that's because, for the first time, the tablet can be used either way around for both left- and right-handed users - a software option swaps the functionality and displays.

The old configuration of buttons and touchstrip has been replaced by a new system of eight buttons and a touch-sensitive wheel. You can configure the 'express keys' to perform any application-specific function that can be assigned a keystroke. And it's here where you'll find the first big enhancement in the Intuos in the shape of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that display the function of the key. These are shown as either a couple of words of text or as an icon, if one is available. Further, icon sets have been created for most of the standard features of common applications. The white text and imagery gleams through the black surface of the tablet, providing an instant clue to the key's use. Naturally, the icon or text changes as you switch between icons, so it always depicts the key's current function.

The old touch strip is now a circular touch ring, which can be used for such operations as zooming in and out of an image, or scrolling up and down a web page. It brings with it the second big innovation: a button in the centre of the ring that switches between four different ring modes. An illuminated dot on the side of the ring indicates which is currently active, and each can be defined separately for each application. This means that in Photoshop, for example, you might use one mode to zoom, one to change brush size, one to move up and down the layer stack, and one to change layer or tool opacity.

The third significant new feature is a software enhancement, the Radial Menu. Press a keystroke, or one of the express keys, and an eight-sectioned, compass-like display pops up on screen directly beneath the cursor. Each of the eight segments can be assigned a different function, such as switching to Safari or to

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Mail, or pausing the current iTunes track. Alternatively, any of the segments can lead to a subset radial menu with eight segments of its own. The result is a radial on-screen menu that can be configured independently for each application. You can add any menu command to which a keyboard shortcut can be assigned, and selecting the segment with the stylus triggers that command. So in Photoshop you might assign one segment to Filters, with the submenu triggering Unsharp Mask, Gaussian Blur and so on. It really is a neat solution to the problem of accessing hierarchical menus with a pen device, bringing all the options directly to the user.

Another key addition is the ability to assign one of the express keys to 'precision mode', and pressing this will force the stylus to operate on a much smaller area of the screen, making it perfect for situations when tiny movements are required.

The stylus rest - also a combination of matt and gloss black plastic - can hold the stylus either upright or, thanks to two indentations, horizontally across. However, the rest conceals a hidden function: lift the top half and it's found to contain nine additional pen tips that may be swapped in and out of the stylus using the included grabber device (although this frequently fails to grip tips sufficiently to remove them from the stylus). The stylus itself is in the same colour scheme, with a highly tactile, soft rubber case. A couple of centimetres shorter than the previous model, it feels light yet secure in the hand.

However, all this extra functionality - the express keys, the OLED display, the touch ring - does rather presuppose that users will be operating the tablet in isolation, with the keyboard well out of the way. You're expected to use one hand on the stylus while the other operates the keys - for example, you need to keep the express key held down when using the tablet in Precision mode, rather than it being an on/off toggle. Used in this way, the Radial Menu becomes not so much an optional extra as an essential tool for accessing keystrokes.

This is the first Intuos tablet not to ship with a mouse. Its omission is notable: when using applications where you need to divide your time between typing and moving items around, a static mouse resting on the tablet is far more convenient than a stylus that needs to be placed back in its holder after each use. Although a mouse is available separately, it's an extra cost on top of a tablet that's already more expensive than its predecessor. The OLED display is also, sadly, missing from the smallest, A6 model. The four-function touch ring is a good idea, but you sometimes have to press the button three times to get back to a desired function, which lowers its usefulness as a shortcut tool.

Minor gripes aside, with increased sensitivity adding to its impressive feature set, there's little doubt that Wacom's latest tablet is a world-beater.