Cintiq’s 27″ tablet display is a sharp customer

Back in the 1980s, I purchased one of my first computer peripherals. It was for my 8-bit Atari Xe and was an Atari Touch Tablet. At the time, Atari had the edge when it came to home computer graphics, and the touch tablet cemented a place in my heart for many years after I’d bought it. Meanwhile, back in the present, I got an email from the folks at Wacom talking up the Cintiq Pro 27 pen display. Given my interest in tablets, the Cintiq Pro 27 piqued my interest, so I asked for a review unit. It arrived in a massive, padded, ultra-secure trunk that the poor straining courier had great difficulty lugging into Witchdoctor towers.

The Cintiq Pro 27 is a curious beast. As it is a smart display, it doesn’t have its own OS and can connect to a PC or Mac. It is the business of editing photos, videos, digital art, or CAD. When I say it is huge, I’m seriously not kidding. Measuring 378mm by 637mm by 30.5mm (HWD) and sporting a 26.9-inch (diagonal) screen edged by a slim black bezel, it is positively mahoosive. It has a built-in fan (which was thankfully quiet); given its size, a stand is a must, but you’ve got to buy a desktop stand (or you can use a VESA mount stand). Its sheer size makes using it in your lap impractical. It comes with what Wacom calls the Pro Pen 3 stylus (more on this later), and the display sports a clean, uncluttered design with narrow bezels. The screen sports a 4K resolution, a crisp 120Hz refresh rate, and a gloriously super-wide colour gamut.

All of the Cintiq Pro’s 27-inch goodness is a lifesaver for detail work in photo touch-ups or complex CAD work. Instead of squinting at my PC’s screen and hoping I’d got it right on a sniper-level zoomed-in view, working with the Cintiq’s screen was an absolute joy.

Its screen is an IPS panel with a 3,840 by 2,160 resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio. On-screen colours popped, which isn’t surprising given it has 98% DCI-P3 and 99% Adobe RGB colour-coverage ratings, Pantone certification, and HDR Gamma support.

The all-important tablet surface display consists of tempered glass with an anti-glare finish that helps reduce glare. Connecting is as easy as using the mini DisplayPort or HDMI ports, USB Type-A, and USB Type-C connectors. Thankfully the power supply cable is also a generous length, and all ports are covered by removable panels.

By default, the Cintiq Pro 27 comes with no built-in kickstand. This means you’ll need to factor in the additional cost of a Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 Stand or a 100mm-by-100mm VESA mount. The downside with VESA mounts is that they are often not all that steady, and even a small amount of extra bounce might be problematic when using a tablet for detail work. Thankfully the bundled Cintiq Pro 27 stand doesn’t suffer from this issue. In use, it was completely stable, regardless of how it was tilted. Not only did it give me height and tilt options, but there was a small amount of screen rotation too.

The Pro Pen 3 has an internal weight installed either at the front or back, depending on how you use the stylus. Two different styles of silicone grip are bundled too. Add in five bundled standard Nibs 5 felt style nibs, and there are more than enough customisation options to keep most graphic artists happy. Anyone who already owns recent Wacom tablets and styluses should be able to use them with the Cintiq Pro 27.

The stylus also has no battery. Instead, it uses Electromagnetic Resonance which sees button presses and movement converted into electromagnetic energy, which can be easily and accurately digitised. This handily also translates into no fiddly magnetic wireless charging. In use, the pen felt responsive and smooth due to its 10ms response time and the buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate on the tablet screen. Add in 8,192 pressure levels and support for 60 degrees of tilt, and there’s a lot to like.

Given the size of the Cintiq Pro 27, a stand is a must, as a kickstand won’t work with a tablet display of this size. Because of this, buyers need to add in the cost of the stand (or a good VESA mount) when considering the Cintiq Pro. The Cintiq Pro 27 is an incredible tool for any digital artist in video, photography, 3D graphics or graphic design.

https://estore.wacom.com/en-NZ/