Wacom Cintiq 12" Pen Display

This is one of the coolest things I've ever bought but if your not an artist of some kind don't bother because the price will put you off for casual use. Having said that, it has paid for itself already by making my work go quicker. I don't need my light table, drawing table, or scanner anymore. Not to mention the money you save on traditional media. It's also nive to have a second monitor for extra work space. My only gripe is the price is a bit to high and it gets a little shakey when drawing in the corners. I'd give it a 4.5 if I could. But otherwise its AWESOME and worth it if you can afford it and will use it everyday.

At first glance, it's an amazing product. It's a great size, it's thin, bright, with nice buttons and a nice pen.
I just got mine and am using it to work with as a normal tablet (to control the cursor on my main screen), and also to work directly on and draw/paint.
I use a 21" Cintiq at work and also have a 6x8 Intuos 3 tablet that I used before getting this new 12" Cintiq.

The 12" Cintiq has a lot of flaws - so much so that I think I may have to return it, which is really disappointing.
First. Though it's a "12-inch" screen, I'd say it's more like a 10". Why? Because when you move the cursor to the edges of the screen - a little over an inch away from each border, the cursor starts to shake tremendously. This simply doesn't fly when you're trying to keep a steady hand and get a good line while drawing or painting. It's also very annoying when you're just trying to click on something in the menu bar at the top of the screen. The cursor looks like it's spazzing out and it's really hard to live with.
I think part of the reason for this may be because of the limited 2-point calibration, as someone else who reviewed on here talked about. The calibration is just nowhere near refined enough.
Like I said, I also have a 21" Cintiq and I don't have this problem with that. They just didn't do a good job with the 12".

Second. The excessive cables. They really need to figure out how to slim this down and simply it - and I think they could. Before you buy look at the manual online and see all that you have to do to get this thing working. If you're thinking about taking it with you on the go with your laptop, forget it. There's so much to have to deal with. I don't see why they can't just make a simple cable like Apple's Cinema displays - it plugs into the DVI port, a usb port for the pen to work, and then a power brick, which then plugs into the wall. That'd be so much simpler. The cintiq itself is very thin - so it lends itself to portability, but when you have to consider all the extra cables and connections you have to make, it doesn't work out so well.

Third. The quality of the screen. It is cheap. When I first plugged it in I wasn't disappointed - I saw my desktop background on this small 12" screen and it looked nice and bright. But then I started working with it. When you're actually drawing in Photoshop the line doesn't look nearly as crisp as on my Apple Cinema display. Text also suffers. Just reading through web pages it's quite noticeable. I think another review said that they just used a cheap laptop screen, and after working with it for a couple days, I think that person was right.

There are nice things about it. The design is nice and like I said before, it's nice and thin so it sits nicely on my desk (a problem I have with the bigger ones is that they are SO bulky).
It's easy to pick up and put in your lap. And the stand is nice too.
I really wish that it didn't have the problems that it does because I'd love it to work well.
My main problem has to be the cursor jumping around and shaking - it's really awful and I don't think I can stand it. It's worst at the edges of the screen, but you can't even click and drag to scroll down a web page without the cursor shaking. It's not only annoying, it's almost unusable. I'm used to using my Intous 3 and my goodness - what a difference. That one is SO much better at tracking your pin movement.

Worth $1000? Not at all. Hopefully they'll come out with a better updated one sometime soon - then it may be worth the price.

I have been using Wacom tablets for years now and have always loved them. I found them easy to use from the start, perhaps thanks to all the "blind" drawings I had to do in art school. There was always something missing, though, and I never had the finesse with a stylus that I have with pen and ink etc. This new tablet fills that gap quite nicely, and, although it is rather pricey, it is no more than I am willing to pay for great results. The wires seem to be a sticking point for some, but once set up they are not so bad. It is a monitor, after all! Even though I may lust after the larger version, it is probably a little much for my needs. What can I say?.. I love the new tablet!

Wacom Cintiq 12" Pen Display
This is really great! Just draw on your screen!
But I have few problems with it. I don't know if it is drivers problem, but it is not using the full screen.
And that pen, I am not sure how to charge it when its battery is consumed. Or is it working without battery?
..And the wire from the display. It is attached to it. I wish it was a plug so I could replace it in case it was damaged.
I am enjoying my product nevertheless. It is great despite all that =)

I believe that most of us got this product because we are heavily into animation or other digital arts. Anyone who tried this can tell you; nothing beats drawing directly on the screen.
However, when the CINTIQ 12WX costs as much as a loaded Tablet PC (at least it was at the time of this writing), and when you use this professionally all day for a couple of months the "WOW" effect fades out and reality sinks it...
It's HOT
The biggest problem I have with this product, the lower portion of the tablet (where you rest your hand) gets REALLY hot in only a couple of hours (I mean annoyingly hot, not lukewarm). I place a microfiber cloth under my hand when I have to work longer hours.
I know that the heat comes from the back lights for the screen, yet this seems like a design flaw, since the top of the tablet doesn't get hot, nor does my brighter, larger, LCD display.

This brings me to the screen :

The Monitor is very low res. compared to my DELL laptop's screen, this is soo unsharp, soo unbright, it is annoying, especially after working for longer hours. You also have to deal with Annoying reflections. And the screen smudges very easily (this happens with all LCD's and should be expected).
This means you will definitely need another screen to inspect your work.

Accuracy and calibration:

With only 2 calibration points, the tablet is only accurate in the middle part of the screen, and with the limited real estate, you are really limiting yourself. So if you think you are actually painting where the pen is, you are wrong except in the middle part of the screen.

Sensor bars: sometimes they are so sensitive, on other occasions they are not responsive. ( some drivers issues I presume!)

Portability??

"The Cintiq 12WX enables you to work wherever you feel inspired. It fits into everyday laptop bags ..."

Are they kidding? Nowhere in any of WACOM's advertisement for the CINTIQ do you see any cables, and although you know that this is not wireless, and you know that there must be communications between graphic card and screen, and computer and tablet portion, you will NEVER imagine the cable jungle this device creates! It is a big hassle just to take it from room to room!

The Grip Pen.

Although I have used the Grip Pen with Intuous3 and really liked the feel, working with the CINTIQ 12 WX you realize how BULKY it really is. It is like drawing on a regular paper using a very large dry eraser pen. You can't see what's under your pen tip. Drawing small details becomes a hassle, you constantly zoom in and out to make sure your are drawing details correctly.

As a WACOM fan, I believe they can make a great product out of this, they said they will release an update driver soon, we hope that should fix the inaccuracy issues.
The Heat issue, will probably be fixed in future releases, so, wait a bit before taking the plunge.

As someone who has been using WACOM tablets for the last 10+ years. This is a product I would expect MICROSOFT to introduce to the market not WACOM.