Wacom Cintiq 13HD

Wacom introduces a new 13HD Cintiq with interactive pen display. It replaces the Cintiq 12WX entry level, adopting a 13.3 "HD, a new base and a new pen. According to Wacom, customers found the Cintiq 12WX screen too small, while the tablet was also quite impressive. The Cintiq 13HD therefore adopts a 13.3 " bigger size, while itself being very compact with thinner edges. Cintiq 13HD is also the thinnest, partly because it no longer includes base : Wacom book instead a removable base which allows you to place the tablet in four positions (flat, 22 °, 30 °, 50 °), against three for the 12WX.


The new Cintiq input range of a lot like a tablet Intuos range: Wacom also makes no secret of their intentions. It thus takes the arrangement of buttons on the previous version, with four Express Keys but abandoning the touch wheel in favor of a five-button D-pad. It loses the zooming or resizing progressive tools, but you can always assign to each of the nine buttons of Cintiq 13HD for a specific function with Wacom utility. We can therefore find the zooming (up and down buttons D-pad for example), and especially to assign one button several shortcuts via a radial menu. Each menu may itself contain sub-menus can theoretically assign 4000 functions to each button!


Note that this utility is compatible with all versions of Windows since XP, all versions of OS X for Mac OS X 10.6 and some GNU / Linux distributions. This is good, but keeps in mind that Wacom is abandoning Windows 2000, Mac OS X 10.3 and Mac OS X 10.4. The new Stylus Pro Pen is more comfortable to hold (new coating gummed) and balanced (thinner rear) than the previous version. Comes with accessories in a carrying case, offering 2048 levels of pressure and is always sensitive to tilt.


You can use the stylus on the new Intuos and Cintiq old and vice versa using the Cintiq 13HD on the former also. Wacom also commercialize the Pen Pro separately, for a price of about € 75 with case. In our fast handling of the Cintiq 13HD, we particularly appreciated the resolution of the screen. At 166 dpi, it is certainly much less than the Retina display (over 220 dpi), but is much higher than that of most Mac screens (100 to 130 dpi), and especially that of the Cintiq 22HD and 24HD. The viewing angles are excellent (178 °), but the only correct colorimetric (72% of the RGB color space, the possibility of calibration). The Cintiq 13HD will be available for a suggested retail price of € 899.90 inclusive of VAT for the month of April 2013 - can already pre-order in some stores.