Wacom Bamboo Tablet Review

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2007-12-21T16:06:55 --> by Caleb Schmerge

Introduction

There are a lot of times when you just can&rsquo;t beat the ease and feel of using a pen and paper. However, in today&rsquo;s tech centered world, it just isn&rsquo;t always feasible. There are Tablet PC&rsquo;s, but they don&rsquo;t fit the bill for everyone. That is where the new Wacom Bamboo pen-tablet comes in. With this new tablet from Wacom you can add an easy and fun to use pen based interface to your USB-enabled computer. But, how good is it?

Unboxing the Bamboo. (view large image)

The Wacom Bamboo tablet is excellent. This lightweight, professional looking tablet provides an excellent experience, well worth its price. Keeping it short and simple &ndash; it works and feels like a dream. Skip this review and go order yours now! For those of you that already have ordered &ndash; here is what you can expect.

Design

For a professional using this tablet looks can be important, but even for casual users (such as myself, a college student) it&rsquo;s nice to see a device that looks sophisticated. The all black interface, with blue back-lit buttons is sleek. It&rsquo;s very thin, and just has a polished look. My previous tablet looked like it was in the trenches in WWI after only a little bit of use. The paint was coming off and it was very scratched. However, this tablet is excellent so far. I am confident it will stay that way, as well.

(view large image)

Portability

Most devices on the market need to be portable. For me, portability is a must as I carry this device to classes everyday and don&rsquo;t have room for muchwith all my books. This thing is very thin (just over a quarter inch thick) and has a reasonable footprint for its writing size (the footprint will vary based on the model you get).

Side view of the Bamboo, very thin and portable. (view large image)

Also, the USB cord is detachable, which means that this thing can fit almost anywhere. I have a laptop sleeve, and throw it in the front pocket on my sleeve. It adds almostno weightto the sleeve, allowing my laptop to be portable. Then, throw the USB cord and Pen in my backpack and I&rsquo;m off to wherever.

One thing I will note here is my concern over the pen. My previous tablet had a way to store the pen with the tablet. In the three years that I had it, I never once lost the pen. However, I am very afraid that with this model I will lose the pen. It has a pen stand for use while atmy desk, but 80% of my usage is on the go, so I need a way to keep track of it. It would be nice to have had some means of storage.

Feel

Let&rsquo;s face it, no input device, no matter how nice it looks, is any good if it isn&rsquo;t comfortable to use. The Wacom Bamboo tablet wins hands down in this category. I have on many occasions gotten up from my computer and had cramped hands from the keyboard and mouse. However, the pen based input makes this much less of a problem.

Writing and using the mouse as a pen for navigation or any other aspect of computing (graphic design, 3D work, anything really) is very comfortable. In fact, in many cases I prefer the pen to a mouse. Once you get the hang of the tablet (doesn&rsquo;t take too long) you can be as or more proficient with the pen as with a mouse.

Bamboo with pen. (view large image)

The actual writing on the tablet is also great. The stylus feels like a real pen-on-paper. This sounds trivial, but the feel is excellent. It makes writing much nicer than just having plastic rubbing plastic. I absolutely love the feel of writing on this tablet.

Controls

This tablet hasfour buttons on the tablet, two buttons on the stylus, and a zoom/scroll ring. The controls are pretty good. The buttons on the tablet are large, and fell good. You won&rsquo;t press them on accident either. By default the top two buttons are Forward/Backward, and the bottom two are customizable. This helps to allow you to make them more productive for your work style. I don&rsquo;t use them much, but when I do, they save me a lot of time.

The buttons on the stylus are nice. They are on a rocker, so you can&rsquo;t press them both. They stick out a bit, so it might affect the grip of the pen for some people. However, I find them to be just right. You can feel where they are, so you don&rsquo;t press them on accident. They don&rsquo;t require much force, which makes them very comfortable to use. This is a welcome change from my previous tablet where I was constantly pressing the buttons on accident.

Buttons and Scroll ring.(view large image)

The Zoom/Scroll ring is acceptable. The scroll portion seems to be touchy. I sometimes press on it and nothing happens, then suddenly I am at the end of my document. Other times, I press down and I get a nice smooth scroll down the page. I suspect that this is partially a problem on my end. The zoom portion is excellent. I spin my finger around it and it does exactly what I want. The ability to zoom seems trivial, but I like this addition to the tablet over just the ability to scroll.

Actual Usage

This tablet just works right. I am quite pleased with the response on the tablet. My previous tablet would often times connect strokes from the pen, which I didn&rsquo;t want. This tablet seems to have fixed this problem. Every time I put the pen to it, I get the results that I want and expect.

The pressure sensitivity is good. I like that just touching the surface doesn&rsquo;t quite count as a click. A slight bit of pressure and you are off and going. The ability to vary my writing and drawing just as I would with a real pen makes this tablet just that much better to use.

Bamboo pen in its included stand. (view large image)

The eraser is also a nice part of this tablet. If you make a mistake, just flip the stylus over and erase away. The eraser is a bit questionable. It requires a good bit of pressure to work, and it sometimes doesn&rsquo;t seem to recognize that you are trying to erase. I have always been able to get it to work on a second try, though.

The surface is excellent to write on. The pen is comfortable. The tablet works. I couldn&rsquo;t be more pleased. My previous experience was never this good. I am 100% pleased with the Bamboo. The bottom line is that it&rsquo;s comfortable and works.

Conclusion

This tablet is a keeper. The only thing I don&rsquo;t like about it is size, which is subjective. I would like a bigger tablet. If I had to come up with two complaints, they would have to be trivial. The first would be my concern over losing the pen. I suppose if I was more responsible, this wouldn&rsquo;t be a problem. The second would be that I wish the USB connector was a 90 degree connector. This would suit my use better, but since I can use a different USB cord, this isn&rsquo;t a big deal at all.

I can&rsquo;t stress how much fun I have had and how well this tablet has worked. Everything is just right when it comes to operation. Go and order one now if you are even considering it. I use mine for up to several hours a day for notes in classes, and I wouldn&rsquo;t consider anything else (except for a larger Bamboo). The price is excellent considering the quality and use.

Pros

• Excellent Writing Surface
• Tablet is responsive and works right
• The buttons and Zoom/Scroll wheel make a large difference in usage
• This tablet looks great, yet is still lightweight, portable and sturdy

Cons

• No &ldquo;storage&rdquo; option for pen
• USB connector could be angled
• There is nothing to complain about

Pricing and Availability

For more information or if you want to get your hands on one of these fun little tablets check out Wacom's website. Prices start at $79.00 for the small Bamboo.

 

Very interesting review, Caleb! I've been...fascinated by tablets for a while now . And this one isn't very expensive as well, so that's great.

 

Thanks for the nice review. Although I'd prefer it to be all matte, the tablet looks nice and clean.

I might just get one of these for the artist in me

 

Great review. Alex Lindsey reviewed this on DL.TV a while back... He told people to avoid the one you have(just the tablet, with physical buttons) in favor of the one with the mouse and touch buttons(additional $20) because the non-mouse version did not have an eraser on the pen... I guess he made a mistake. Good to see this cleared up, as i had no need for the extra mouse, and plan on buying one in the near future. Futureshop has them on sale right now for $70. Not really a good price by american standards, but its still $20 less then regular price for us canucks.(the mouse version is an additional $10 if you dont mind having a blue one, or $30 more if you want a black/white/silver one)

 

Yeah I read another review that said the same thing - but I just got this last week and can confirm erasure works (at least in photoshop). Good little unit-my first but I can't help but wounder what the other cheaper tablets are like. Example- "Genius" and others half the price and twice the levels of pressure.

 

Thanks for the great review! I am almost sold. Just one question, and please excuse any newbieishness. How well does this work with Microsoft PowerPoint? I would very much like to draw on some of my slides during presentations, and this would seem to fit the bill perfectly.

 

It works great with drawing on slides in powerpoint. I will caution you that at first it is difficult to get used to drawing in one place and looking at another, however, after some time you will get used to it, and you will enjoy it. I have had quite a few teachers comment that they would like using one of these for powerpoint lectures in class.

 

Well job done! It was very informative.

I was looking at this one when I was looking to buy one, but when I realized I would need a larger size and that the Bamboo was designed for mostly school work, and more simple projects, I realized that the Bamboo wasn't going to work for me.

Since then, my parents have bought me an Intuos 3, Special Edition :O! I'm just waiting for it to arrive, and I'll be sure to post a review once I get it.

 

Thank you for your reply, Caleb. That is good advice. I'll be sure to allot some time for practice before going "live".

 

Ah, my sis will love this . . . .

 

I've been using just about every Wacom there is and has been, and I love them to death. The Bamboo Fun is the spiritual successor to the Graphire series. The Bamboo is sort of the basic no frills version of it. An awesome little package in and of itself.

Those aspiring artists out there will want to invest in a Bamboo Fun (or Intuous). It has much more bang for the buck feature wise over a regular Bamboo.

I myself have a Wacom Cintiq 21UX as well as a Wacom Intuous 3 6x11 that I carry around with my Alienware m9750. Wacom by thy name!

 

Very nice review! Maybe I'll take another look at tablets, as I've never really cared for them that much.

I've used an older Wacom graphire4 4x6 tablet before at school, and I didn't really care for it all that much. In order to write precisely, I had to turn the mouse sensitivity WAY down (and disable mouse acceleration), and even then, it was awkward. The mouse would move when the pen came in close proximity to the pad, and would write when I would touch the pad. I understand this is how most tablets work, but I could never get used to it.

On the other hand, my dad bought himself a Wacom Intous3 6x8 tablet for Christmas. It has more bells and whistles than the bamboo (more buttons on the tablet itself, a 5-button mouse for use with the tablet). I haven't tried it yet, but he absolutely loves it. The only things he doesn't like are the fact that the mouse that it comes with is too slow to be of any use, and it's very big -- it's as wide as most 15.4" notebooks! (And almost as deep, too!) Clearly, if you're on the go, this is where the bamboo has a serious advantage over the intous: Size and portability.

But overall, this review makes me want to go ahead and try out my dad's intous3 just to see how well it works.

 

all the other tablet companies should really just give up, they are sooo far behind Wacom.

 

how good is this for taking notes in class? Am planning to use this with OneNote for all my homework assignments

 

Its excellent. I use this with one note. I wrote a note taking guide (link in my signature) with my older Wacom. This one is just a nicer tablet. It works better and is much nicer. Check out the guide, and I would wager you will be happy with it.

 

How good would a tablet like this be for a mouse replacement. Not totally, just day to day to mix it up a bit and avoid RSI.

 

For most tasks it would be just fine. I usually prefer my normal mouse, however, if you just wanted to use this every now and then, it would be fine.

 

Great review. Think I'll get one.

 

great review.. i just bought a bamboo fun the other day (haven't received it yet). the marketing for it got me! so FUN!

j/k.. i wanted a tablet to bust out on CS3.. heard the regular bamboo wasn't optimal for artistic endeavors.. and the intuos = $$$

 

What's the difference between Bamboo and Bamboo Fun? How much price differnece should I expect? Which one do you recommend?

 

You might be best served checking the Wacom website for the differences. Alternatively, do a compare at a place like Newegg.

 

i so want one, right now.

 

Lol. Me too, but I guess I wouldn't really use it..

 

i start class next monday...but i ll try to get one by fall...its soo sexy...its like back to the future 2....just wow.

 

I have a graphire 4 and it works pretty well, I find it is easier to write with if I tell it to do direct pin pointing instead of functioning like a mouse, so if I go to any corner the mouse goes to any corner.

 

I would agree with you one the mode - at first people don't seem to think so, but the linked mode that you describe is very nice, and makes the whole process much more like using a pen and paper.

 

Hey it's my first post here. Caleb I've read this review and your guide to Note Taking, and you've got my really interested, however I need some more assistance. In the fall I will be going into first year engineering and the tablet setup seems real nice. Does it feel awkward to look at a different area from the one you are writing on? Also is the size of the bamboo adequate for notes of calculus, physics, chem, etc? That being said...do you recommend the laptop + wacom bamboo setup during class or should I just stick to pencil and paper?! Sorry for the bunch of questions.

 

I actually bought the Bamboo Fun Medium size a few weeks ago. Prior to that I'd been using a 5+ year old tiny Graphire tablet. In the States the Bamboo Fun Med is 199$ I think? (I got it for less than 170$ cause of where I live. Sweet! )

To me, there is a difference in quality between my old Graphire and my new Bamboo Fun.
First, it feels almost like paper when you draw with it. (Strangest thing, since when you touch it with your hands it doesn't feel at all like paper.)
Second, the Med size is a very good "starter" size for an artist. If you're an aspiring artist please do get the Medium. Anything smaller will be more difficult to learn and use because of the tablet-to-monitor ratio.
Third, I really like that the USB can be unplugged from the tablet itself and that there's a nice little stand for the pen. (You can lay it flat on the stand or have it sticking up.)
Fourth, The drivers seem to "play" better with my computer. It makes a difference in user-friendliness.

Hope that helps a bit for all you artists out there.

 

just another cheer for Wacom, such an excellent company, can not possibly say enough good things about my Intous 3, pretty much perfect in all regards. Also, if you are going to be in Japan, that is a great time to pick one up, I got an awesome deal on my 6x11 intous in Osaka. Cant wait to go back to see if I can get a deal on the $999 12wx Cintique!

 

I would highly recommend using the Wacom + OneNote setup for notes in class. I wouldn't be at all worried about the size for the notes you plan to take - I have done all of those classes on a Wacom just fine. It will take a little getting used to, but once you are used to writing on the tablet and looking at the screen, it becomes almost natural.

 

Hello I also posted in the "How to Take Notes on your Notebook", I'll copy the message as those 2 topics are somehow related:

"CalebSchmerge I need some help.

I have a cheap chinese tablet (9$ >.<) with the software in Chinese, and I've been able to configure it to use it as a mouse.

But now, how do I use it like a "Tablet PC"?

I mean, it's a mouse, but if I want to write something I have to select "Draw" and then "click" the tablet and move around, and repeat everytime I want to draw something (I have to keep it "clicked").

Is there any special option in One Note??

Thanks"

 

I picked up the Bamboo today...didn't have much time to play around with it...it will take time to get used to it!!! my writing on it is horrible right now!! from product impressions...very nice packaging...and the tablet feels of high quality almost feels like a piece of slate chalk board! I won't have much time to play around with it right have to study for exams!

 

Does anyone know if this tablet is a battery drain when plugged into laptop via USB? About to pull the trigger but battery life is important to me...

 

I don't think it really is. I have never noticed a decrease in my batter life when using it. Just now I plugged in my tablet and there was no change in the projected battery life of the computer. Also, consider this - my computer runs at about 23W. This tablet adds to that consumption by .3W. That is a 1.3% increase in power draw on my computer.

 

The Bamboo + OneNote makes so much of a difference for me in classes. Even in classes where I don't use the Bamboo, OneNote is awsome. I am so glad I figured this out.

 

Hi, I recently bought the Bamboo tablet and I wanted to use it for my powerpoint presentations. Is it possible to draw while in full-screen presentation mode? So far I have only being able to write on the slides when I am not in presentation mode.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

Daniel

 

Hello Pindar,

It seems like you have being able to write on your powerpoint presentations using the Bamboo tablet. Did you write on them while on full-screen presentation mode? If so, how do you do that?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

there an ink feature if you hit the right click - is this what you mean?

 

Yes, thanks a lot. I totally forgot about that option.

This tablet is a really cool thing for presentations!

 

Hi Caleb,

Thanks for this cool guide, is good to know how easy you can convert an ordinary laptop into a "tablet PC" using the Wacom tablet and the One note software from Microsoft.

I wonder if some CAD programs like AutoCAD or ArchiCAD can be used in conjunction with this tablet.

Thanks

 

Technically speaking anything can be used with the tablet - it is just a mouse. How well it works is more a question of how the pen like control would work given the interface. My guess is that it would work well.

 

My best guess would be to set the button you want to be an "undo" button. I know its not the same as the eraser, but I don't see any settings that would allow that button to activate the eraser.

 

I want to use my Bamboo for powerpoint too. When I use the pen to draw on a slide, I get a yellow, lined page on which the writing appears, and then the whole page disappears very quickly. I can't figure out how to just annotate my slide without this happening. Can you help?

 

Hey CalebSchmerge - how do I draw on my powerpoint slide without getting a yellow, lined page appearing as I write? I just want to be able to underline, circle etc etc on my slide to draw the attention of my students to something.

 

Never mind - I figured it out.

 

I'm ecstatic about getting a Bamboo tablet just today but I would like to know how to make full use of what I can do on microsoft 2007 powerpoint. My lectures are all conducted on powerpoint!

It seems to me that I can only right click on slide presentation mode and use the pointer options and draw that way? That's given even without the use of the Bamboo tablet pen.

Is there a way for me to draw, write, without being on slide presentation mode? Is there anything else I could do with powerpoint using Bamboo tablet pen? The tutorial does not help with things like these.

Please, any insight will be greatly appreciated.

 

Woah, I never realized that good tablets are so cheap. I always figured that the price is at least $200 for a Wacom tablet. Is there really any use to one of these other than drawing, though?

 

Anyone know if this tablet would be compatible with this CAD based program? http://www.chiefarchitect.com/

 

I don't know if that program has specific tablet abilities, things like the pressure sensitivity. But, at the base level, the tablet is just a mouse, input via a pen. You will be able to control things in the program without a doubt.