I used to be skeptical in regards to the new Wacom One 13 Contact. I’ve been a totally wi-fi digital artist for years now. My iPad Pro and I are inseparable. It’s my sketchbook, my skilled productiveness workity-work machine, and my favorite art tool. How might a tethered show pill even start to match to my beloved iPad Professional?
Properly, after a while with Wacom’s new drawing pill, I discovered myself utilizing any excuse to place the stylus to display screen.
Enjoyable With a Stylus
Proper out of the field, you’re just one cable away from utilizing the Wacom One Contact. The setup course of couldn’t be simpler. It’s a shining instance of the benefit USB-C brings to show setup. No wrestling with HDMI cables—simply plug one finish into the pill and the opposite into your graphics card or laptop computer. Even with out the Wacom drivers, it really works as a primary contact show.
Whenever you first drag the stylus throughout the display screen, it’s instantly clear that this can be a exact and responsive drawing show. The stylus glides effortlessly over the 1,080p, matte, textured display screen, abandoning easy, exact brushstrokes. To say it’s a pleasure to attract on is an understatement. For any instrument, the higher it feels to make use of, the extra seemingly you’re to make use of it. I discovered myself inventing additional causes to make use of the Wacom One only for the enjoyment of it. I even used it to handwrite notes throughout a piece assembly and to annotate this overview draft with corrections and adjustments.
{Photograph}: Wacom
The stylus’ nib is detachable and replaceable, not solely to account for put on and tear but in addition as a result of Wacom makes a number of totally different sorts of nibs to customise your drawing expertise. (Those that got here within the field had been excellent for me.) In case you’re aware of the Apple Pencil, you understand how it typically feels just a little … sticky. There’s none of that right here. Towards the display screen, the Wacom nibs present a tactile drawing expertise that’s like utilizing a comfortable graphite pencil on a semi-textured sketchbook web page. Easy however with the tiniest little bit of satisfying scritch.
The opposite factor I really like about this stylus is that it’s utterly battery-free. You don’t need to cost it. The Wacom One 13 Contact makes use of electromagnetic resonance (EMR) to detect the place, strain, and angle of the stylus. No batteries means it’s additionally a light-weight little factor. There’s no heft like there may be within the Apple Pencil or different powered styli, which implies your fingers and wrists received’t get as fatigued when utilizing the Wacom One for lengthy intervals.
Wacom additionally has added touchscreen capabilities on this pill (when you couldn’t inform from the identify), and it’s a pleasant choice, particularly when you like to maneuver your mouse and keyboard out of the way in which when you’re utilizing the Wacom One. Tapping by way of the interface on Home windows and macOS feels responsive and is much more intuitive than reconfiguring your desk since you forgot to shut a window or two. In case you don’t take care of touchscreens, it can save you some money with the Wacom One 12, which nixes this function and is barely smaller for a cheaper price.
Slicing the Proper Corners
My largest criticism with the Wacom One 13 Contact is that it’s not wi-fi. I wished so badly to select this factor up and carry it with me to the sofa and curl up for some chill sketching time. As a substitute, I discovered myself leashed to my desk, trapped by the tyranny of that USB-C cable. However to hit the Wacom One’s $500 value (reasonably priced in comparison with the remainder of its lineup), there are concessions relating to pro-grade options.
It’s very gentle, and the again plate is totally plastic. That’s not essentially a nasty factor. I discovered the load to be a constructive, because it made it straightforward to shift the gadget round on my desk as I labored. However examine the construct high quality to an iPad Air, and there’s a reasonably large gulf. Similar once you examine it to the higher-end Wacom Cintiq tablets. There aren’t any of the additional enter choices you’ll discover on higher-end fashions. No knobs, distant controls, or ultra-sturdy stands to confidently lean on.
Wacom reduce all the appropriate corners right here. The Wacom One 13 Contact isn’t a multi-thousand-dollar skilled illustration pill. It’s $500, and at that value it’s what you may name “entry degree.” To be clear, I hate that label and apply it solely as a result of it’s an approachable value, not as a result of an expert artist couldn’t produce pro-grade work on this factor. You positively might. This can be a pill you might use for years with out operating into any skilled roadblocks, and for $500 that’s sort of unimaginable.
