Japanese company Wacom announces a new 'flagship' Cintiq - but how important is three inches?
Wacom has just revealed three brand new Cintiq digital art tablets... well, two new, and the other kind-of new. Their new 'flagship Cintiq' is the 27QHD, and as is the way with Wacom, it comes with a bigger, more expensive, Touch version.
The '27' bit refers to the the screen's size in inches, so now you can take your pick from 13-inch, 22-inch, 24-inch and 27-inch Cintiqs.
It comes with a new ExpressKey Remote, which can be placed anywhere on the screen or desk, giving more choice in how they use customisable keyboard shortcuts.
There are also more stand options, so you're hopfully less likely to get a crooked neck working on your masterpiece for hours and hours.
Of course, what really counts is under the hood. There's more pressure sensitivity, a cool one billion colours and nearly all of Adobe's colour gamut to be seen on the screen. The Touch version offers this and, you know, touch technology too!
We haven't got our hands on them yet, but based on the stats, this looks like it may boil down to three inches. Three inches more screen real estate than the company's previous flagship Cintiq, the 24HD that was released two years ago, and a sustained high price tag.
The Cintiq 27QHD comes in at £1,800, and the touch version at £2,100, and will be available from mid January. This is to replace the previous Cintiq 24HD models, which presumably will be out of production.
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The Companion 2 is much the same to its little brother as the 27 is to the 24. Again, it looks to be a Windows 8 PC, so you have the full Cintiq specs without connecting to a PC or Mac.
With added pressure sensitivity and new tilt recognition, the Cintiq Companion 2’s Pro Pen also promises to be more like a real brush/pen/marker, especially when used in combination with apps from Adobe, Autodesk, Corel, Smith Micro, and Pixologic.
Time will tell whether hands-on will reveal any revelatory discoveries about functionality but, for now, Cintiq completists with plenty of cash to spare can rejoice in these three new high-tech toys.
Beren has worked on creative titles at Future Publishing for over 13 years. Cutting his teeth as Staff Writer on the digital art magazine ImagineFX, he moved on to edit several creative titles, and is currently the Ecommerce Editor on the most effective creative website in the world. When he's not testing and reviewing the best ergonomic office chairs, phones, laptops, TVs, monitors and various types of storage, he can be found finding and comparing the best deals on the tech that creatives value the most.
