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Maybe that’s not ideal, from a space-saving standpoint, but to be that close to a high-res screen when editing video is a distinct advantage. Tasks that sometimes have me leaning forward and squinting at my iMac require no such effort on the Cintiq Pro 27. And to those who feel that 27 inches seems like a downgrade from the previous 32-inch model, it’s really hard for me to imagine more screen space being practical—this is a massive work surface as is. At some point, you’re simply sacrificing desk space. During our time with the Cintiq Pro 27, we worked primarily with three software programs – Clip Studio Paint, Adobe Photoshop and 3D-modelling program Blender – and the display made working with each of these programs comfortable and enjoyable, as well as helping workflow feel more fluid and faster than usual. For instance, the touch features are the one time I felt the Cintiq Pro 27 was a bit laggy and unlike using the pen and keyboard, I couldn’t pan and zoom at the same time when using touch controls. So while there is usefulness to the touch features, I think this is an area where Wacom still has some room to improve and could take some notes from the functionality and performance of something like an Apple iPad Pro.
Despite all of the well-designed compartments for the spare parts and positioning of the cradle, compared to the pen, it feels somewhat cheap. Especially when you factor in the cost of everything with the quality build of nearly every other single feature, the cradle could use some extra love, even if it works just fine as is. It just feels like an afterthought. Wacom Cintiq Pro 27: Pen Pressure and In-Use The premium Pro Pen 2, supplied with the tablet, is one of the best styluses around (save of course for the recent Pro Pen 3 that comes with the new Cintiq Pro tablets), and it never needs charging. With pressure and tilt sensitivity, it gives you real drawing flexibility, and the level of “bite” on the stylus is just right. As mentioned, the Cintiq does support touch but I could take or leave them. For the most part, I left them. After some initial testing of the touch capabilities, which do work, I never felt there was a scenario where using them instead of the programmable buttons or my nearby keyboard was a better option. If you get one of these, just be prepared for the space this thing takes up. During my actual testing, it’s safe to say I had very limited space and it wasn’t the most ergonomic of environments. The Cintiq Pro 27’s screen was a little dimmer than I expected which resulted in colors appearing to be a bit muted, but the display still has incredibly great resolution and color accuracy. The grip and control buttons on the sides are pretty useful — if for nothing else other than repositioning the screen — and the Pro Pen 3, while not the most impressive looking, was incredibly accurate and handled exceptionally well, especially since the nib didn’t have the trademark “wobble” that’s present in nearly every other pen on the market. Finally, the entire surface supports multi-touch, so you can leverage the entire screen as a touchpad for hand gestures for additional workflow enhancements should you desire.
The touch controls are slightly less customizable—some are set in stone simply because they make intuitive sense (like pinch and expand to zoom); others, like various multi-finger taps, can be assigned to different tasks. The app includes a guide to every gesture, as well as advanced gestures for specialized actions. As previously mentioned, the touch controls can also be turned off. The screen supports multi-touch gestures for up to 10 fingers. Touch functionality is a necessity for several types of digital design, and thus, it’s here to stay—despite the grumblings of some who don't need it. If you have the patience to add another dimension of control to your workflow, you might find it speeds you up instead of slowing you down, and that unintentional touches happen less and less often with practice. The Cintiq Pro 27 boasts a 30-bit color gamut, with 98% DCI-P3 and 99% Adobe RGB, as well as HDR Gamma support. As with other Wacom Cintiq models, the Pro 27’s parallax is generally very minimal, regardless of the angle you’re working with. The Wacom Intuos Pro is a graphics tablet rather than a pen display, meaning you’ll need to hook it up to some kind of external display like a tablet or monitor. Once this is done – and the setup process is pretty intuitive and straightforward – you’ve got a highly effective drawing tablet on your hands, and one that comes at a great price. The display is only Full HD, not QHD or 4K as is increasingly standard on drawing tablets these days. Realistically, for the majority of users, this is going to be absolutely fine – more than enough pixels. However, it’s the same resolution as the smaller Wacom Cintiq 16, so if you don’t mind sacrificing a bit of drawing space in favour of a clearer image, that’s a compelling alternative.
Design-wise I get it, and with a larger workspace it really isn’t an issue, but if space is limited it is an annoyance. The Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 is All I Want to Use Now The Cintiq Pro 27 is a beast of a peripheral that weighs in at about 36 pounds when you include the official adjustable stand (the Cintiq itself can optionally be mounted onto a VESA-style arm). So while it is technically smaller than the Cintiq Pro 24, it still feels bigger. The Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 works out of the box with preloaded gestures for both your fingers and the included Wacom Pro Pen 3, and these will be familiar and feel intuitive to anyone used to working with other tablets such as an iPad. You also have access to a radial menu—the top Express Key on the left, by default, calls up the radial menu onscreen. In fact, there are two radial menus—one called Radial, the other called Express. Both pull up similar-looking wheels of useful commands and options, and each option can be swapped out for something else. The wheel is useful for accessing commonly needed actions, like Save or Tab, that might not quite warrant their own physical Express Key. When it appears onscreen, its circular interface hovers over whatever app you have open, taking up little space, with its options easily selectable. Wacom doesn't project any rated coverage claims for sRGB, but designers working with purely web-based art will be pleased with its 100% sRGB coverage (see below).While the stand is an absolute beast and weighs more than the Cintiq itself, you won’t need any additional tools, grips, cables, or stabilizers to get it installed and start using it. Simply slide the Cintiq into the mount and you’re ready to roll. It has a bit of an odd shape (think a camera lens diagram with the lens hood as the arms on the base) and is nearly two-feet wide at the longest part. It is super versatile though, and allows you to position the Cintiq in a nearly 90-degree vertical position (much like a standard monitor) all the way to laying flat on the table like an actual drawing pad. Arguably placing it along the side of your dominant hand shouldn’t be an issue as you won’t be using that hand to access the buttons behind the grip anyway since it will be occupied holding the pen, but since I was planning on messing with positions a lot while using the device, I opted to leave the mount on the top left side of the screen.
The experience is the best I’ve tested to date. While retouching photos, it was super easy to get even single-pixel accuracy when zoomed in which is wildly impressive considering how shakey and inaccurate my coffee-fueled body tends to be. On its own, the Cintiq Pro 27 weighs a healthy 15.9 pounds, but that stat is not terribly useful—the stand, at 23.6 by 14.1 by 12.6 inches, weighs another 19.8 pounds, so the total weight of the system is nearly 36 pounds. Unless you have a VESA mount you plan to use instead of the stand, you’ll be adding some substantial weight to whatever flat surface you place this on. Pressure sensitivity for the Wacom Pro Pen 3 is very much on the higher end at 8,192 levels, which is great for anyone who expects to work with more specific details in their design. Of course, some softwares you might use will have different level caps, so it isn’t necessarily guaranteed that you’ll always be working with the pen’s peak sensitivity. You can also customize the Express Keys to control a variety of actions—each button can essentially access the same range of Actions, and the Express Key panels house four buttons each. I found myself programming keyboard modifiers here and speeding up my workflows quite a bit—much of what I need to do in the Adobe suite begins with the Option or Command key. In recent years there have been an impressive number of new competitors in the graphics tablet market, giving a constantly growing list of alternatives for you to choose from.
Compatibility & Connectivity
The Apple Pencil may seem hyper-futuristic as it charges via induction while it rests on the edge of an iPad display magnetically, but consider this: The Pro Pen 3 has no battery or cord, and it requires no charging at all. It uses Electromagnetic Resonance (EMR)—a technology Wacom developed in the 1980s—to work with the screen, as pen pressure and button presses are converted to electromagnetic waves. Furthermore, the Pro Pen 3 has a 10ms rated response time, versus the Apple Pencil’s 20ms. This, paired with a 120Hz refresh rate on the screen, equates to extremely low latency. The Pro Pen 3 has 8,192 pressure levels and supports 60 degrees of pen tilt angle. Like most other modern tablets, the Cintiq Pro 27 Pro Pen 3 can recognize the degree of tilt and pressure up to 8,192 levels using Wacom’s Electro-Magnetic Resonance technology. Messing with it by drawing (poorly as you’ll see below) some lines and shapes and testing pressure levels, speed and angles, the pen was perfectly responsive and accurate.
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