Intuos3 4 x 6-Inch Wide Format Pen Tablet (PTZ431W)

First of all, I have to say that this Intuos is the first tablet I have ever used, and I am already loving it just after the first hour or so of usage. I learned Photoshop the old fashioned way (with mouse and keyboard), and the thought of switching to a tablet never actually crossed my mind until I started doing vector images in Illustrator (and digital paintings in photoshop). The mouse is great for image adjustments and casual modifications in Photoshop, but when it comes to making vector images (which involves a lot of tracing) and digital painting, the mouse just can't provide the level of smoothness and gradiation the tablet offers. I did quite a few vector images with a mouse before, but I have to say that the experience was painful at best. It usually takes somewhere around 20 or so hours to finish a character vector (w/level 15 posterizaition), but with the Wacom tablet, I was able to do finish 1/4 of the same project in little under 25 minutes, with MUCH better results. The biggest concern I had (aside from the price of the tablet) was the fear that a tablet may be difficult to adjust to. However, to those with the same fear, DO NOT WORRY! Not only does the Wacom come with tons of tutorials to help you adjust, it is also one of the easiest things to adjust to. It literally took me 15 minutes from never-used-a-tablet-before to this-is-the-easiest-thing-to-use. The tutorial included in the owner's manual (the one that trains your hand-eye coordination my making you draw dots, X's and circles) is perhaps the most helpful of the tutorials...definitely try that one out, you'll be greatly rewarded. The navigation may seem strange at first, since unlike using a mouse, where you move the mouse relative to the cursor on screen, wacom works in such a way that the cursor actually moves relative to the whole screen. It takes a while to adjust to, but after you do, you'll be amazed at just how easy it is to navigate with a tablet. However, if you absolutely have to have the cursor-relative way of navigation, Wacom does offer the Mouse Mapping Mode in the control panel, so it's really up to you. Oh and one more thing, the tablet's default settings are a bit too sensitive for me, so I suggest altering the Firmness and Clicking Threshold to fit your needs. I have to say that I have never tried other tablets before, nor have I tried other Wacom tablets such as the Bamboo or the Graphite, so my review is solely based on my personal experience with the Intuos3 4x6, and if you have any questions regarding my review, please don't hesitate to contact me. Final Verdict: If you are serious about productivity and efficiency, then this tablet is for you. Since I have never tried other tablets before, all I can say is that this tablet works great, it is intuitive, easy and fun to use!

I bought this and tried it on my winXP PC and the mouse would not work with IE to select items unless I would enable active X and I don't normaly surf with active x enabled. The problem with the mouse is major to me since I use my mouse a lot on the internet and otherwise. The logitech mouse I have would not work at all when I had this tablet installed and with the tablet mouse being basically useless for me I feel that this is a major flaw. I have a wide screen monitor and the tablet did not work well with it, it would not reach all areas of the screen and would default back to the side of the screen every time I lifted the pen. I can do better using my logitec mouse thatn with this so I sent it back for a refund.

This works for what it's supposed to do. It doesn't merit five stars, of course, since it's so old and there are many Wacom products better than this. But it's a classic, and a cheap alternative to the latest and greatest. I bought this used and it had a bunch of dirt and grime in the edges and corners. Ewww, is it too hard to clean items before reselling them? Minus one star!

Wacom Intuos 3 4x6" There's already so much written about this, so I will just say a few things about it. Takes a little getting used to, but got the hang of it after about an hour or two. I don't use the mouse that came with it. The mouse must be used on the tablet and 4x6 is a little too small for a mouse. That's ok, I didn't buy it for the mouse. I spent so much time worrying if 4x6 would be big enough. I have a wide screen monitor, and I thought I should probably get a tablet with the same proportions, but the 6x11 is over $300. I didn't know if I should spend so much on something I didn't know if I would even like. Turns out 4x6 is just fine. I am glad I did not get a larger one. A larger one would just mean having to move my arm around more to reach different parts of the screen and it would be less portable. I wish they would say somewhere a little more prominently that the drawing pad it SUPPOSED to only be attached along the top edge to make it easier to replace once it gets worn. I saw the bottom corners of mine were sticking up slightly, and was so disappointed thinking that I would have to return it. But I looked on the wacom web site and it says it is supposed to be like that. They say it's to make it easier to replace. Only things I would like different are having a 3rd button on the pen. I would also like to be able to adjust how close you need to put the pen to the tablet before the cursor starts moving. They say it's 1/4" in the instructions, mine is about 1/2" and that's a little too much. But I haven't been able to find any place to adjust it. I also wish the cord could be unplugged from the tablet. I think the Bamboo tablets do this, but not the Intuos. I am giving this 5 stars because it works so well and feels well made.

I bought the Intuos 3 4X6, and at the beginning I had my doubts about the size. I'm more than happy with it, since I use it only for retouching photos, and it works fine for me. I have more control over the functions in my photo editing software. The pressure levels of the pen is a great feature for dodging and burning, cloning undesired junk is much easier. Everything is done with more precision once you get used to working with it (I can say the learning curve is pretty steep). Serious designers and illustrators recommend much bigger tablets, but I recommend this one for the amateur photographer. ******UPDATE FEB 01, 2011****** I should have posted this update sooner: It is simple, the mouse is just garbage. It died after just a little over a year. It became erratic and irresponsive to the point it is useless. There is no way to replace it because the mouse for new model Intuos is not compatible with my tablet (this is non-sense), so I'm left with the tablet and the Pen, which are working perfectly, fortunately. I had to buy another regular mouse. I downgraded my rating by two stars because I find ridiculous that Wacom makes their own products incompatible, and to make things worse, they discontinue these products you just can't replace with newer models. It doesn't make sense and It just pisses me off.

I got one of these for a bizarre reason. I used to use one for GAMING. Not kidding. I found out that Mac s would let you use one as a pointing device in World of Warcraft and use to obliterate people in pvp because I could do instant 180's back and forth through people with pen taps. This was so long ago that macs had motorola processors, and 21" was a big deal for a monitor. You could get wow playing at 60fps though. So fast forward to today. I've discovered private wow servers! And wouldn't you know it, it's the same old codebase that the wacom tricks worked with. And sure enough, the Linux kernel just has the drivers for this tablet built in. So it's like a time machine. I'm playing oldschool world of warcraft again with a wacom tablet, and obliterating people in pvp that are calling me a cheater. I've started sending them here. Hopefully they get a kick out of this review. All that aside, it's amazing to me that this many years later, nobody has made anything better than this product offering for it's intended purpose. I mean, more sensitivity is pointless. It uses no batteries once plugged in. The replacement parts are inexpensive now, and it's still phenomenal, especially if you use tilt. It just blows me away I can open up Gimp, first time, pick a brush, and tilt is working and I'm doing caligraphy. No drivers to install. And on top of that, classic wow through an emulator recognizes it as a pointing device, just like my Mac did decades ago, and I can do all my old tricks. Running in tight circles, Running back and forth through people, casting backstab. It's sheer joy. Thanks for somehow breaking the space/time continuum and this product being here twelve years later for some reason. No idea why you still sell it, but love you for it.

I have a Windows XP system with two 19 inch monitors, one of which is a wide screen format. I also have a MacBook Pro with a 15 inch monitor. This device works wonderfully on both systems. My biggest concern when purchasing was whether the 4x6 inch format would be big enough for my needs. Well, it is. I think anything bigger would be cumbersome because my hand would have to move much more in sensitive drawing configurations. Having said that, this is not a particularly easy tool to master. It integrates with Adobe Illustrator perfectly, but the nature of the tools change when you go from a mouse to a tablet. Once mastered, I can see how this would speed up many drawing applications, but it takes a good deal of continuous practice to get it down. And the mouse that comes with this thing is practically useless. The 4x6 pad is way too small for the mouse to do anything useful on a wide screen. The mouse is just too big for the pad, and the mouse you are already using will work much better. Not a big deal, though, because no one buys a pad like this for its mouse.

This is an amazing product, I love my tablet! I purchased it thru Amazon and got it at the end of October and it's been wonderful ever since. It helps so much when working in Photoshop, I used to end up very tired using the mouse, but the pen makes all the difference in comfort and I can work a lot faster. I think I got used to it very fast, and I use it always, I don't use the mouse anymore. By the way, I got the 4x6 inch tablet, which seems to be great, at first I didn't know if purchasing this size or a larger one, but since I don't have such a big working space plus the cost, I chose this one. And still, even if I had a bigger space I wouldn't purchase a larger one. If I were to upgrade someday it would be for the one that you do the work on the screen, not over a tablet...but its worth about 2000 USD. I had made some research before among brands and thought that the best option was the Intuos from Wacom, and I still think it was the best choice. I gave it five stars because it is everything I expected it to be and more...now I just need a cover to protect it against dust.