I'd consider it if they even bothered putting in a new Haswell CPU in it for $2500.
Who was the genius that thought only 4 buttons would be a good idea on a mobile tablet? That's the biggest issue with tablets thus far and Wacom didn't even realize it.
If the time ever comes where I need a laptop to work on I'd most likely purchase one of these over carrying around a laptop and my intuos but I don't really see how that'd be necessary anytime soon for me personally as a 3d artist. Maybe it'd be more suited to concept artists who want to get some painting done in the park but there's already cheaper options for that.
crap!! dat price. only concern I have is the GPU in the top end one... it doesn't sound zbrush worthy, guess I will have to wait and see what people say
Zbrush runs fine on my Samsung series 7 slate which has far worse specs (i5/4gb ram/intel HD GPU). They really should have put a haswell in these new Wacoms though.
I just got my regular Cintiq 13HD a week ago and when I saw the article I freaked out a little bit because I thought Wacom would drop the standard 13HD price and sell these starting at what I paid for my 13HD a few days prior.
Personally I wouldn't use the stand-alone functionality enough to justify the extra cost, though I could see a lot of people really loving these.
meh.. better off buying a regular 13HD and a second hand macbook air or 13" pro :P
I say macs because at the lower spec end they generally feel more snappy using a wacom than a windows PC does, and generally from my experience have a longer lasting battery.
My old Core2Duo iMac felt more responsive in photoshop using my intuos than my current monster i7 based desktop PC does >.<
Differs slightly in zbrush, but the difference wasn´t that great untill you get to the higher millions of polys.
For general sketching, it would be the same I suspect.
edit: bah never mind.. in a fit of lunacy I forgot the powerpack for the 13HD :P
I guess for mobility the regular usb powered tablets are still the only way to go short of something like the Slate 7 or 8 or a Windows tablet with the wacom pen digitizer built in.
crap!! dat price. only concern I have is the GPU in the top end one... it doesn't sound zbrush worthy, guess I will have to wait and see what people say
Zbrush uses a software renderer so it doesn't utilize the GPU.
On topic, you can't really blame them on the pricing, it is a Tablet AND a Cintiq after all. The Companion is a luxury from the get-go, but it would be sweet to own one of these bad boys.
Not sure about battery specs but I had a vaio laptop a couple of years ago, using photoshop I'd get 2 hours on the battery. If I pushed it to max watt usage by playing games on it I'd hardly get 30 minutes on the battery.
crap!! dat price. only concern I have is the GPU in the top end one... it doesn't sound zbrush worthy, guess I will have to wait and see what people say
The android one sounds kinda neat since it seems to be basically the 13" one with an added functionality of being able to operate standalone. Not sure I'd pay the extra price for that though.
I haven't heard of Wacom being involved in any anti-competitive practices. The only accusations are users going "Wacom tablets are expensive, therefore Monopoly!!!".
The patent on their stylus technology has expired as well so their competitors don't have to use battery powered pens anymore.
I find it odd that although the Android version can be used like a Cintiq when connected to your main workstation, the Windows version seems to lack that functionality.
I've been looking into picking up both a Cintiq as well as a notebook for work on the go, and was hoping I'd be able to kill two birds with one stone. Its looking like neither of these devices will let me do that. Bummer...
To elaborate a bit further on the statement by Neox about the battery life span of the Companion.
The 1h life span will only be true in worst case, max. power consumption scenario. You'll have to ride the device through rough waters to make it drain so much power. The average battery life span will probably be longer. Wacom states it will be 7hours, but i have my doubts about that.
7h battery life span means 9.2Wh power consumption. While its too early for tests for the Companion, we can look at other products for comparison. E.G. a surface pro or surface RT.
Displaying a white BG with power saving management turned of -> max. brightness takes up ~20Wh.
Running a HD Video from the SSD with power management turned on ~20Wh.
Transferring data from/to a USB device ~20Wh.
There's a study by microsoft showing that running chrome and watching youtube-videos will already consume ~18Wh average. IE is supposedly better with "only" ~16Wh power consumption.
Now i imagine my average workday with all the software i have running simultaneously. That'd be Thunderbird, Multi-Tab Chrome, FontExplorer, Photoshop with multiple documents open, Indesign, Bridge, Skype, Tweetdeck, Dropbox, Filezilla, Toggl, XnView, BeyondCompare, MediaMonkey, Blender, AcrobatReader.
How much battery life span will i get out of a Companion if i don't "adapt" my Workflow, if i don't go the extra mile and constantly close and reopen software & documents? I can only guess but i'll bet that it will be closer to the 1h than it will be to the 7h Wacom states.
This is a device supposedly for professionals, so i think it should be able to handle a professional workload.
I dont know, for $500 more than a 13" regular cintiq.. That Hybrid sounds very tasty. You would pay about that much for a Tegra 4 Tablet, with non of those extra buttons, and 10" at the most (though higher rez screen) . That said, it only has one speaker.
30 W, 2.8 W when asleep, 0.4 W when off
Battery operated: 15W"
Battery 7.4 V, Li-polymer
Battery life 48.5 Wh or 72.8 Wh
Not a mathy guy, what would that equal? Sure, you would be limited to 2d Android programs like Sketchbook on the go, but with pressure sensitivity, it shouldn't be that bad.
I dont know, for $500 more than a 13" regular cintiq.. That Hybrid sounds very tasty. You would pay about that much for a Tegra 4 Tablet, with non of those extra buttons, and 10" at the most (though higher rez screen) . That said, it only has one speaker.
You sure about that? The HP Slatebook X2 is closest i could find, Tegra 4, 10.1" and that is $480 !! That's a fifth of this thing..
the tablet devices are really good, but I only use mine when I cant get to a desktop. Couldnt imagine trying to model stuff on them for long without getting a headache or severe eye strain haha. fantastic for zbrush sketching and photoshop doodling.
Neox - what didnt you like about the newer samsungs, I much prefer the newer ones, my friend has the slate 7 and is why I wanted one but the ativ pro is soooo much better. windows 8 isnt great but the better screen res and better specs make up for it I thought.
30 W, 2.8 W when asleep, 0.4 W when off
Battery operated: 15W"
Battery 7.4 V, Li-polymer
Battery life 48.5 Wh or 72.8 Wh
Battery life 72.8Wh
max. power consumption: 15W
-> 72.8Wh/15W = 4.853h = 291.2min
But again, that's worst case scenario.
The 30W max. power consumption you quoted above will only happen when used when plugged in. Running on battery the max. power consumption is limited to 15W.
Even in worst case scenario the hybrid will run for 4-5hours. When used moderately i imagine ~7h of use.
the tablet devices are really good, but I only use mine when I cant get to a desktop. Couldnt imagine trying to model stuff on them for long without getting a headache or severe eye strain haha. fantastic for zbrush sketching and photoshop doodling.
Neox - what didnt you like about the newer samsungs, I much prefer the newer ones, my friend has the slate 7 and is why I wanted one but the ativ pro is soooo much better. windows 8 isnt great but the better screen res and better specs make up for it I thought.
a friend of mine had a lot of issues with getting pressure sensitivity to work, then PS didn't really run cool on it, pressure was lost all the time, windows8 was something HE (i only tested it shortly, and use mine only for zbrush and surfing) really didn't like.
Also the whole artdock didn't really work on windows 8 which is definitely crucial to me, couldn't use zbrush without it.
thats a shame, I remember having to play with a few settings to get photoshop running nicely, was definetly frustrating at the time as it was all juddery but easy enough to fix. art dock just doesnt do that lock thingey but Ive never used that, some of the shortcuts needed changing in the .txt file but otherwise it runs like butter Ive found
even installing windows 7 wasn't possible, well ubnless he wanted 8 and 7 running on the same machine, which is crazy considering the size of it's ssd :X
Who was the genius that thought only 4 buttons would be a good idea on a mobile tablet? That's the biggest issue with tablets thus far and Wacom didn't even realize it.
+1
I have the lenovo x220t and the x201 each year they have less buttons "WHY"
The old x61t has still the best button config for a slate/tablet in my opinion
16 programmable buttons with 13 on the nav circle
Yeah, so why did Wacom copy this badly. there's enough examples on how it should be done. shame
Worked as expected for 2k pressure sensitivity, screen was clear and nice, guess it should be comparable to the 13inch cintic,
Design I didn't really like though, I guess the roundness is good for the grip, and well that's ofcourse most important, but it didn't really feel new.
Asked about battery life, and was told 6 hours, even when using photoshop or Zbrush? ofourse, I was told, That's most certainly a very big lie.
Any word on whether the battery would be user replaceable?
Wacom Creatives Europe posted on their Facebook page saying that their use cases with creative software were giving an average of 4-5 hours of battery life.
Worked as expected for 2k pressure sensitivity, screen was clear and nice, guess it should be comparable to the 13inch cintic,
Design I didn't really like though, I guess the roundness is good for the grip, and well that's ofcourse most important, but it didn't really feel new.
Asked about battery life, and was told 6 hours, even when using photoshop or Zbrush? ofourse, I was told, That's most certainly a very big lie.
Since this is like a tablet on the go (finally something that I truly wanted was released,) did you ask about the heat up issue? Like if you use Zbrush or photoshop / corel will it heat up and drain the battery?
Also:
-Will the zbrush and photoshop would size up to the resolution of this tablet especially with windows 8 version?
-Would you recommend it?
and so on.
EDIT: I know that I have been asking these questions alot but the last tablet that I bought was completely lame (MS surface pro.)
It was on the whole day, and I didn't really feel any heat when I was holding it, but it was only running a simple painting program so that should be expected, would guess there would be some heat if using zbrush and such, but I didn't really ask them much, as they just wanted to tell me what I wanted to hear.
Also I was only able to play with the android version, they didn't have the windows 8 versions there .
It feels like a cintiq, so it would be really great to bring this on trips and such, but It's all about if the battery life is as good as they say.
I wouldn't pay that amount for it though, the guy I was talking to
looked really embarrassed when I asked the price.
I asked that more as a general question, and I was expecting that he knew that it would require the windows version, but he might not even have known what I was talking about (^_^:)
I'm pretty new to the tablet world here. What is the need for a Windows 8/Android version of the hardware? The blurbs on Wacom's website don't really answer that very well for me. Are there any Android-specific art apps worth using?
I'm pretty new to the tablet world here. What is the need for a Windows 8/Android version of the hardware? The blurbs on Wacom's website don't really answer that very well for me. Are there any Android-specific art apps worth using?
Yes, there are many android apps for 2d art. Autodesk sketchbook is one.
Replies
I'd consider it if they even bothered putting in a new Haswell CPU in it for $2500.
Who was the genius that thought only 4 buttons would be a good idea on a mobile tablet? That's the biggest issue with tablets thus far and Wacom didn't even realize it.
Personally I wouldn't use the stand-alone functionality enough to justify the extra cost, though I could see a lot of people really loving these.
"Battery life64.4 Wh
Power ConsumptionMax. power consumption: 65 W, 0.3 W when asleep, 0.1 W or less when off"
if its 64.4Wh and the thing eats 65W per hour thats roughly 59 minutes, yay
I say macs because at the lower spec end they generally feel more snappy using a wacom than a windows PC does, and generally from my experience have a longer lasting battery.
My old Core2Duo iMac felt more responsive in photoshop using my intuos than my current monster i7 based desktop PC does >.<
Differs slightly in zbrush, but the difference wasn´t that great untill you get to the higher millions of polys.
For general sketching, it would be the same I suspect.
edit: bah never mind.. in a fit of lunacy I forgot the powerpack for the 13HD :P
I guess for mobility the regular usb powered tablets are still the only way to go short of something like the Slate 7 or 8 or a Windows tablet with the wacom pen digitizer built in.
Zbrush uses a software renderer so it doesn't utilize the GPU.
On topic, you can't really blame them on the pricing, it is a Tablet AND a Cintiq after all. The Companion is a luxury from the get-go, but it would be sweet to own one of these bad boys.
Wouldn't this be the same?
http://cintiqcompanion.wacom.com/en/
http://cintiqcompanion.wacom.com/CintiqCompanion/en/
http://cintiqcompanion.wacom.com/CintiqCompanionHybrid/en/
zbrush is a CPU program, not GPU.
I haven't heard of Wacom being involved in any anti-competitive practices. The only accusations are users going "Wacom tablets are expensive, therefore Monopoly!!!".
The patent on their stylus technology has expired as well so their competitors don't have to use battery powered pens anymore.
I've been looking into picking up both a Cintiq as well as a notebook for work on the go, and was hoping I'd be able to kill two birds with one stone. Its looking like neither of these devices will let me do that. Bummer...
just a shame cant get manga studio on the Note
The 1h life span will only be true in worst case, max. power consumption scenario. You'll have to ride the device through rough waters to make it drain so much power. The average battery life span will probably be longer. Wacom states it will be 7hours, but i have my doubts about that.
7h battery life span means 9.2Wh power consumption. While its too early for tests for the Companion, we can look at other products for comparison. E.G. a surface pro or surface RT.
Displaying a white BG with power saving management turned of -> max. brightness takes up ~20Wh.
Running a HD Video from the SSD with power management turned on ~20Wh.
Transferring data from/to a USB device ~20Wh.
There's a study by microsoft showing that running chrome and watching youtube-videos will already consume ~18Wh average. IE is supposedly better with "only" ~16Wh power consumption.
Now i imagine my average workday with all the software i have running simultaneously. That'd be Thunderbird, Multi-Tab Chrome, FontExplorer, Photoshop with multiple documents open, Indesign, Bridge, Skype, Tweetdeck, Dropbox, Filezilla, Toggl, XnView, BeyondCompare, MediaMonkey, Blender, AcrobatReader.
How much battery life span will i get out of a Companion if i don't "adapt" my Workflow, if i don't go the extra mile and constantly close and reopen software & documents? I can only guess but i'll bet that it will be closer to the 1h than it will be to the 7h Wacom states.
This is a device supposedly for professionals, so i think it should be able to handle a professional workload.
Just my 2cents though.
^,^ *
o-*
30 W, 2.8 W when asleep, 0.4 W when off
Battery operated: 15W"
Battery 7.4 V, Li-polymer
Battery life 48.5 Wh or 72.8 Wh
Not a mathy guy, what would that equal? Sure, you would be limited to 2d Android programs like Sketchbook on the go, but with pressure sensitivity, it shouldn't be that bad.
Might note this as well on the forefront: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/pictures-of-nvidia-tegra-tab-point-to-more-conventional-tegra-4-tablet/
Note the space for what may very well be a stylus area.
You sure about that? The HP Slatebook X2 is closest i could find, Tegra 4, 10.1" and that is $480 !! That's a fifth of this thing..
Neox - what didnt you like about the newer samsungs, I much prefer the newer ones, my friend has the slate 7 and is why I wanted one but the ativ pro is soooo much better. windows 8 isnt great but the better screen res and better specs make up for it I thought.
Battery life 72.8Wh
max. power consumption: 15W
-> 72.8Wh/15W = 4.853h = 291.2min
But again, that's worst case scenario.
The 30W max. power consumption you quoted above will only happen when used when plugged in. Running on battery the max. power consumption is limited to 15W.
Even in worst case scenario the hybrid will run for 4-5hours. When used moderately i imagine ~7h of use.
a friend of mine had a lot of issues with getting pressure sensitivity to work, then PS didn't really run cool on it, pressure was lost all the time, windows8 was something HE (i only tested it shortly, and use mine only for zbrush and surfing) really didn't like.
Also the whole artdock didn't really work on windows 8 which is definitely crucial to me, couldn't use zbrush without it.
can see why hes not fond of windows 8 though haha
+1
I have the lenovo x220t and the x201 each year they have less buttons "WHY"
The old x61t has still the best button config for a slate/tablet in my opinion
16 programmable buttons with 13 on the nav circle
Yeah, so why did Wacom copy this badly. there's enough examples on how it should be done. shame
M-Pad concept 2011
You forgot to tell us what you thought of it. :poly121:
Worked as expected for 2k pressure sensitivity, screen was clear and nice, guess it should be comparable to the 13inch cintic,
Design I didn't really like though, I guess the roundness is good for the grip, and well that's ofcourse most important, but it didn't really feel new.
Asked about battery life, and was told 6 hours, even when using photoshop or Zbrush? ofourse, I was told, That's most certainly a very big lie.
Any word on whether the battery would be user replaceable?
Wacom Creatives Europe posted on their Facebook page saying that their use cases with creative software were giving an average of 4-5 hours of battery life.
Sorry didn't ask about that, going there again tomorrow, so if they are still there I could ask.
Also this is Japan so what is included or not, might not be the same, no idea.
Since this is like a tablet on the go (finally something that I truly wanted was released,) did you ask about the heat up issue? Like if you use Zbrush or photoshop / corel will it heat up and drain the battery?
Also:
-Will the zbrush and photoshop would size up to the resolution of this tablet especially with windows 8 version?
-Would you recommend it?
and so on.
EDIT: I know that I have been asking these questions alot but the last tablet that I bought was completely lame (MS surface pro.)
Also I was only able to play with the android version, they didn't have the windows 8 versions there
It feels like a cintiq, so it would be really great to bring this on trips and such, but It's all about if the battery life is as good as they say.
I wouldn't pay that amount for it though, the guy I was talking to
looked really embarrassed when I asked the price.
lol. 1500 puts it a the same price range of a 22 HD Cintiq (at least here in China). The intel version though is really obscenely expensive.
Why would you be able to run Photoshop or zbrush on the android version? I wouldn't be surprised if the android version did run for 6 hours or so.
so I'm guessing that's where you should keep it.
Yes, there are many android apps for 2d art. Autodesk sketchbook is one.