Review on New Model Wacom PTH660 Medium Intuos Pro Drawing Tablet for Mac or PC - Black by Marcus Rash

Advantages: 1) Very light and beautiful. Quality design, comfortable to hold and wear (even in large size). The back is made entirely of metal, so it can get very cold at times. 2) Integrated wireless (no Wacom wireless accessory kit required as on previous models). Bluetooth works well, never dropped and there were no noticeable lags. 3) The new pen uses over 8000 levels of pressure sensitivity. 4) Built-in support for touch input. 5) The touch screen perfectly rejects the palm. , very well designed, has a lot of weight. Cons: 1) Unless you are a new user and have set up programs with specific pressure curves or are used to using brushes at a specific pressure, you will need to recalibrate each one. Single. Brush. to be able to do the same work with the same basic feeling. However, applying strokes is easier than ever as even lighter strokes are possible. 2) If you're using a Wacom Art Pen (one with rotation sensitivity), you'll either have to deal with losing new levels of pressure or losing rotation. I ended up going with rotation as the sensitivity levels are ONLY perceptible at best. 3) The surface of the sheet is rough. It's not even the "rough" interface that Wacom offers (or rather will offer, since the new interface foils aren't available yet). Using a standard pen (not even a felt tip pen) is like writing with a marker on cardboard. .5) In addition, the resistance of the springs and the surface foil will completely destroy the springs. I have very light touch and have never had to change a Wacom pen in 14 years of using their tablets. A pen on this new sheet was completely eaten up within 2 weeks of use - and most of the time I was using Art Pen, not a new pen, anyway. Maybe 9 hours of general use and it was completely destroyed. It's very likely that using felt nibs would be even worse - and they don't offer a pack of new nibs in store just yet - by the time they do I'm afraid all nibs will have been completely used up. 6) Touch does not work properly in most programs. Photoshop's touch capabilities are by far the best and are quick to tell the difference between a rotate and a zoom gesture, but most other programs don't work properly. Not exactly an issue with the tablet itself, but with the driver and compatibility with various applications. 7) At the moment (early February 2017) the driver has some problems and causes significant delays at times. It's wired, not bluetooth. It will take some time for the stroke to be recognized and sometimes a program like Photoshop will pause for a few seconds before registering. Using an older driver and a different stylus fixes these issues, so this is definitely unique to the new model. 8) The side buttons, while aesthetically pleasing, are extremely difficult to use without looking at the tablet as you can barely feel them on the tablet. Tablet - my workflow has slowed down significantly because I was looking for my shortcut buttons. The tactile ring is fine. 9) The feathers themselves seem very cheap and fragile and there are only two types: felt and standard. No rubber tips or feather tips. Old nibs will not work in a new pen. Sometimes new springs fall out and need to be put back in from time to time. Springs in general are the main issue I see with this new model. 10) Old accessories will not work with the new pen (e.g. a large pen). The new pen is a different size and shape, and Wacom does not currently offer alternative holders for the new pen. 11) The new pen, although lighter, seems much cheaper. The side button of the pen rattles when shaken and has a very light actuation weight - you can accidentally press it just by shaking the pen. 12) $500. The Paper model might be worth it, but the new "regular" model just isn't worth the upgrade price if you're already using an older Intuos Pro model. Or even the older Intuos standard. All in all, if you're looking to upgrade from Pen and Touch/Bamboo/older, smaller hobbyist tablets, this would be a pretty good upgrade if you can live with the fact that you're probably looking at the high replacement price of pens every day over the years . But if you're already an Intuos Pro/Intuos user, then this model is absolutely not worth the price.