Product Description

Bamboo Make Your Mark The documents you create or review dont have to be like all the rest. With the Bamboo pen tablet made by Wacom its personal. Its paper-like work surface and the battery-free pen with ergonomic feel provides a natural user experience. A Touch Ring allows you to instantly zoom and scroll in applications. Navigation now becomes even faster with the 360-degree pan/scroll mode and four customisable blue-illuminated ExpressKeys for frequently used functions while the high resolution and report rate of Bamboo provide outstanding accuracy while working. Bamboo helps you to make the most of your computer, unlocking an exciting array of new of features in the Microsoft Vista operation system. Digital inking, signatures and sticky notes allow individual note taking and editing in your handwriting. If you prefer working with Mac OS, using Inkwell gives you similar opportunities. With its modern black surface and blue-illuminated function keys, Bamboo makes a statement, showing your style.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #249 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Wacom
• Model: MTE450KEN
• Released on: 2007-05-21

Features

• add handwritten notes
• personalise e-mails with your signature
• draw sketches or doodles to get your point across

Customer Reviews

Works well with Photoshop
I have never used a tablet before, and thanks to your reviews decided on this one. I ordered it yesterday afternoon, and it arrived (first class) this morning - excellent service. I have used it all day and find it very useful alongside my mouse. I am cutting round objects in Photoshop to place on backgrounds and it is definitely easier than a mouse. In fact, I have hardly used the mouse as, whilst the pen is in my hands, it will do most mouse jobs. I am certainly impressed with this and feel it is well worth the money. The comments regarding the comfort of the pen I don't understand. I have small hands and don't have a problem with it. I think it appears well balanced and easy to use.

Nice beginners tablet
I've been considering the purchase of a graphics tablet for some time. One of the only things that has put me off is the price of some of the Wacom tablets. After all no-one wants to spend a small fortune on something and then end up with it gathering dust amonst the pile of 'must have' gadgets that didn't quite seem to live up to their promises.

That said I'm quite impressed with this little device. Its compact enough to stick into a laptop bag and is nicely designed. The buttons at the top are glossy black and pick up fingerprints like mad, but lend an air of quality to the tablet. The control buttons also light up with blue LEDS.

The device plugs into your computer using a USB plug. There aren't any power adaptors to lug around, which is a bonus if space and weight in your bag is at a premium. One end of the UBS cable has a standard sized USB plug whilst the other end (which plugs into the Tablet) has a micro USB plug.

The pen is very sturdy. At one end it has an 'eraser' so if you make a mistake you can simply flip the pen over as per a traditional pencil and simply rub out any errors. I'm using it with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI and have encountered no problems with it.

Installation of the software is quick and painless. It comes with software and drivers for both Windows and Macintosh machines. For those users with Vista it has the 'Certified for Vista' logo on the box.

The configuration software is easy to use and you can set the buttons at the side of the pen to quite a few different settings.

System requirements are as follows:-

PC: WIdows 2000, XP or Vista incl. 64-bit editions, USB port, colour display CD rom drive.

Macintosh: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, Intel or PowerPC Processor, USB port, colour display, CD-Rom drive.

The only thing that lets this product down is that there are no spare pen nibs included. These will be needed during the life of the product since they will obviously wear down with prolonged use against the tablet surface. I know that they can be ordered from Wacom, however if they had included four or five spare nibs then I would have given this product a 5. As it is, it is still a lovely bit of kit and certainly has a wow factor about it.

OK but problems with Gimp under XP
I've given it 3 stars but actually it's very hard to say - the tablet and pen look and feel quite nice, and have received some good reviews, but anyone who is hoping to use this with Gimp under XP, as I was, should note that there is a fairly major problem - if you take the pen "out of range", i.e. lift it up more than a few millimetres from the tablet, Gimp will freeze and won't recognize the pen for a minute or two. You can still use the pen but it gets very frustrating. Currently there is no fix for this and had I known this when choosing a tablet I wouldn't have bought this one...