review – As an art director and Photoshop artist, I have used Wacom tablets for over 25 years. I started with their Intuos – a black slate that you can draw on with a stylus (pen) while looking at a separate monitor. Working like this requires some hand-eye coordination, but I ended up falling in love with the three versions of the Intuos tablet I’ve used in my career. They’re expensive, but if you want to make money with them, graphics tablets are well worth the investment.
Later, Wacom introduced the Cintiq series of pens exhibit Tablet Display your work on your tablet as you draw! Cintiq was a breakthrough product that is still very popular today. Over the years, Wacom has steadily improved the Cintiq product line to fit any budget. The new Cintiq Pro 16 graphics monitor is the latest version built for serious artists/professionals. It’s an incredible graphics-display tablet — at an affordable price.
What is it?
The Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 is a 16-inch pen display/drawing board It has a built-in display that you can draw on with your Wacom pen. Unlike the Apple iPad, the Cintiq Pro 16 needs to be hardwired to the console to work. It features a 4K (ultra) high-resolution screen, wireless and battery-free stylus (pen), built-in shortcut buttons, and multi-touch. An optional stand is available for an additional fee (more on this later in the review).Don’t confuse this Pro version of the Cintiq with the less expensive ones Cintiq 16— Low-resolution graphics boards with fewer features.
glasses
- Weight: 4.2 lbs (without optional stand)
- Dimensions: 16.1 x 10.5 x 0.9 inches
- Active (drawing) area: 13.6 x 7.6 inches
- Colors: 16.7 million colors (8-bit), 98% Adobe RGB
- Contrast: 1000:1
- Connectivity: 1 USB-C, 1 HDMI
- Graphics Inputs: USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode (UHD), HDMI (UHD) and USB-A
- Multi-touch: Physical switch to turn multi-touch on and off
- Pen: Battery-free Pro Pen 2 with 8,192 pressure levels
- Express keys: 8 customizable, application-specific shortcut keys
- Bracket: 20° angle integrated pop-up legs (optional 19° to 85° angle detachable Wacom adjustable VESA mount bracket)
- Compatibility: Windows 10 or MacOS 10.14 (or later)
inside the box
- Wacom Cintiq Pro 16
- Wacom Professional Pen 2
- Pen holder with 10 replacement nibs
- Detachable pen holder with 3 additional replacement nibs
- USB-C to USB-C cable
- USB-C to USB A cable
- HDMI 2.0 cable
- AC adapter with power cord
- cleaning cloth
Design and Features
Unless you’re a digital artist, you’re probably wondering why the Cintiq Pro 16 exists. Let me explain. An artist would never draw on a trackpad with a mouse or fingers. That’s what pencils, pens, and brushes are for. In the digital world, pencils, pens, and brushes are replicated on a drawing surface (in this case, a monitor screen) with a stylus (pen). When you draw/paint (depending on the app), your artwork appears on the same screen as if you were drawing on paper or canvas.
But wait, can’t the iPad do it all? Well, yes…and no.
The iPad is a standalone computer that uses its own iOS software. Therefore, standard Windows or Mac applications cannot run on the iPad. Since Cintiq is a monitor, anything running on your computer will be displayed on the Cintiq screen. Applications like Photoshop or any Windows or Mac art application will work flawlessly.Bottom line: if you’re serious about digital art, you need Graphic display board. The question is – should it be a Wacom Cintiq Pro 16?
First, consider size. The Cintiq Pro 16 is a 16-inch, smaller form factor for a graphics display tablet. If you have limited desk space, or you just don’t want to overtax your arms and shoulders with a larger tablet, this smaller size might be perfect. However, if you need to see the “big picture” of all the tool palettes you need for your app, but still have plenty of room for your work, you can opt for a larger tablet.
Also, a 16-inch tablet is (for me) too small to be used as a primary monitor. When the tablet is not the primary monitor, moving the cursor from the Cintiq monitor to the primary monitor while using the pen can be tricky. You must first put down the pen and pick up the mouse (or move to the trackpad), as the pen will not extend beyond the Wacom display itself. The mouse cursor can easily be crossed between monitors.By the way, this is true all Display the tablet, not just Wacom’s. You probably don’t care that the drawing tablet is also used as a display, but I do.In my experience, this is a good argument for upgrading to a larger plot display, like Wacom Cintiq Pro 24. Cintiq Pro 24 can double as your main monitor and drawing board!
However, for this review, we’re assuming you’ve determined that the Cintiq Pro 16 fits your needs and budget. The monitor (like all Wacom Cintiq monitors) is built like a tank. The drawing surface is etched glass, not the plastic film that covers many other graphics tablets that wear out from use. Glass lasts almost forever, and the etched surface gives you the touch of drawing on paper. There’s also no parallax — some tablets have a visual gap between the surface and the actual screen below. Where the pen touches the screen is exactly where you see the pen or brush strokes.
Note: Before you draw the first line, I high We recommend purchasing the optional VESA mount from Wacom for the Cintiq Pro 16. Yes, the display comes with lag that holds the tablet at 20°, but it’s not ideal. While the extra cost of the stand is less than $100 (at the time of this review), having a stand that can be tilted from 19-85° is worth the money—even though it should have been included with the Cintiq Pro 16 without Additional cost. Even the non-pro version of the Cintiq 16—half the price—includes a stand.
The Cintiq Pro 16 has only three connections: HDMI, USB-C, and power. The USB-C port that connects to my MacBook Pro is all I need to watch high-res 4K video. HDMI is not required if USB-C works. The power cord has a large power brick that saves space on the monitor itself. The wires are attached to the top of the Cintiq Pro 16. It works, but it looks a little awkward visually.
Wacom pens are considered the best stylus out there. It has over 8,000 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt capability, an “eraser” and 2 programmable buttons – ideal as a “right click” replacement. The pen can be placed on a desktop stand or attached to the Cintiq with a clip-on stand. 13 extra drawing nibs included. An amazing 8,092 levels of pressure sensitivity mean that as you draw, lines can go from thin to thick depending on how hard you press the tip, just like a pencil.
The Cintiq Pro 16 is equipped with what Wacom calls “multi-touch.” Multi-touch allows touch controls (think iPad) such as scrolling, turning, zooming, and touches (like mouse clicks). Except… Multitouch doesn’t work as well on Mac as it should. It does technically work, but it can’t match the buttery smoothness of the iPad. I own an iPad Pro, so I’ll admit to being spoiled. Scrolling and zooming (using the pinch method) can experience noticeable lagging jitter.
Also using multi-touch, the Cintiq sometimes had difficulty distinguishing between fingers and palms. (Too) many times my palms have inadvertently triggered multi-touch, causing me to have to undo unwanted marks. I finally decided to turn off multi-touch – using the switch located on the top of the tablet. Maybe a future firmware update can make it play better on the Mac.
I’ve been told that multi-touch works better on Windows computers. I don’t have anything Windows based so I can’t say.
Most newer drawing tablets now offer shortcut buttons, making them easier to use and more efficient. Wacom has added an interesting shortcut.Eight buttons spread across the sides of the tablet Down Edge and out of the way. Each key has multiple customizable choices. The keys have a good tactile feel.
To avoid hitting the wrong key, I need some muscle memory learning to reach for the keys without doing a mental count by feel, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it. In fact, this is the closest I’ve come to using Wacom’s (or any tablet maker’s) shortcuts successfully on a regular basis. Apart from…
I’ll still probably disable all shortcuts because I’m too comfortable with my trusty keyboard method. Habits over 20 are hard to break. But kudos to Wacom for creating an easy shortcut method for less stubborn artists.
Drawing or retouching on Cintiq Pro 16 is a wonderful experience. The 4K screen offers killer detail. Plus, 98% Adobe color accuracy ensures that the colors you use will be the colors you expect in your final product. Drawing diagonal lines with a ruler is a good way to test for “jitter”. Many tablets exhibit small ripples when drawing straight lines slowly. Not this new emperor. The lines are straight – every time.
Keep in mind that drawing in Photoshop can leave some “laces” at the end of each stroke — especially when drawing quickly. This is a common feature common to display tablets. The way I work is not a problem for me, although it might bother some artists.
An annoying side note: When using a drawing tablet for photo retouching, I find that I switch from using the mouse to the Cintiq Pro pen a little less often than I used to. This is Adobe’s fault. Some Photoshop functions that Wacom is very good at, such as silhouette objects in Photoshop, have been reduced to a single menu selection. For example, Photoshop’s “Select Theme” button works almost perfectly to remove the main subject from the background without retouching. Incremental improvements to Photoshop are a big deal for an artist like me — even if it means less use of a tablet as good as Wacom. Even so, the Wacom Cintiq Pro can be used to make subtle but important improvements to the amazing but still imperfect features in applications like Photoshop.
what do I like
- Superb build quality
- Etched glass brushed surface
- High-resolution 4K screen
- Fun and useful keyboard shortcuts
- Best-in-class stylus
what would i change
- expensive
- bracket not included
- too small to be used as a display
final thoughts
I would say that the Cintiq Pro 16 graphics monitor is a Wacom closed chassis.However, there are tablet competitors that are closing the quality and price gap and Wacom even competes with itself in a similar fashion, but Low-resolution tablets for less than half the price. That said, the Cintiq Pro 16 is 100% Wacom and all you need. Yes, it’s expensive and has some issues with multitouch (for Mac users), but the driver software is easy to use and works. This pen is the best you can use, period. The etched glass screen with zero parallax dwarfs the plastic-covered screen – it’s 4K! Also, I hope the built-in multi-touch functionality will only bring improvements for us Mac users in future firmware updates.
If you’re a professional digital artist or graphic designer looking for a graphic display tablet, you already know the Wacom brand. But if you don’t know the Cintiq Pro 16, you should check it out before deciding.
…now, if they only included that stand…
price: $1,499.95
Where to buy: Amazon
source: Samples of this product are provided by Huakang.
