Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been professionally retouching photos for 18 years, full time. I have been using a Wacom tablet (non-display) for that long. The hardware is great. I just replaced an indestructible old tablet that didn't keep up with modern technology. My problem is with the Wacom software and customer service. I purchased this Intuos Pro Paper edition last week. The device works fine with Photoshop for retouching, however, I decided to purchase the Paper edition because I wanted to give it a try. Using the tablet outside the office and drawing a few things, have a few sketches digitally saved without scanning. First off, the ink pen writes nicely onto the physical paper, but I'm not impressed by the digital representation of the sketch that the Paper edition provides, so I'd rather scan my drawings, but I wouldn't even take a star off for that. I'd like to point out that my Galaxy Note seems to produce the same line quality and I have more flexibility drawing with that than with this Paper tablet. So for me the Wacom Paper feature is kind of pointless. If my end result is going to be a digital drawing, I can use a different device for that. My mobile devices have screens that I could use in the dark, same line quality, have color, produce vector and layered files, etc. But whatever, I'm not comparing their features for the purpose of taking off stars from the Wacom tablet because of that. I'm highlighting the uselessness of it, that I did not think about earlier, for me and other people that have mobile devices that they can already draw with. My removal of the first star, out of five, is because the Inkspace software does not work with my Mac. I've downloaded it and tried to install it several times during the past week and it's not working. The program doesn't run, my Mac gives me an error that it's not a valid program and it even provides a pop up error button that says "move to trash", as it's a nonfunctioning program. So, I'm flexible and installed the app on my phone. I was able to see my drawings on Inkspace mobile. However, I run Inkspace browser edition on my Mac to see if I could download those images from there. I get nothing. They're not visible. To me, Inkspace is supposed to be a type of cloud, right? But it's not functioning as one because the images do not appear on the browser version of Inkspace. Where are the images? I have no idea. So what I can do, is export a vector file to my mobile internal memory, then upload to dropbox or drive or any other cloud and then download it from there. That's a lot of workaround, when I could just draw on my sketchbook and scan it quickly or draw on my mobile device. Second star removal for customer service. I've contacted Wacom twice for a different download link or any assistance they could provide to help solve this issue and I have not received any responses. If I had purchased the tablet without Paper, I might have given it 5 stars because I wouldn't have had the negative experience of researching the heck out of how to make my tablet upload an image to the computer seamlessly. Thumbs down on that. In the end, Paper edition cost me about $422 after taxes. I don't think it's worth the extra $50 ***UPDATE 5/8/17 I cannot recommend this tablet. There are many many glitches that are affecting my work. I retouch with Photoshop every day for a living, the glitches are causing tools to stick and not switch back and forth using the keyboard shortcuts. It's really ridiculous. This is insane, my work production is slowed down significantly as I keep clicking multiple times on the keyboard shortcut to the the tool to switch. Other glitches include not being able to click through certain buttons on web browsers, not being able to click through the song position slider on Spotify when I am able to use it with the trackpad on the laptop. I might have to revert to my old tablet and render this one useless. And yes they've fixed the other issue with Inkspace, but that's more of a novelty item, the basic functionality of the tablet is just awful. ***UPDATE 7/21/17 The tablet received driver updates that corrected most of the original issues I had with it. I believe it's finally safe to purchase this device if you're using it for work. I do not recommend the paper version unless you're really going to use it. The line quality isn't something that you can't already get on a regular mobile tablet or phone. My Samsung Galaxy Note 4 outputted better digital files than this and you have more control over line quality with other devices. It's 'ok' for doodling. I'm still not satisfied with the uploading process because you have to use the Wacom application for it but at least it finally works. Had I purchased this tablet today, without the paper addition and with all the driver updates, I might have gave it 5 stars. Just so happens I bought it earlier and it had so many problems. I waited for a long time to receive the updates and it was tedious to use professionally until then. So it leaves a bad taste but I raised my rating from 1 to 3 stars. ***UPDATE 8/28/17 Never mind. There are still various glitches with the tablet. When you browse through videos online or use Spotify you get intermittent glitches for not being able to skip the position slider. Sometimes you can't click on buttons within browser pages. It's just a sloppy mess right now. Functionality seems ok for using Photoshop, though, which is most important for me. ***UPDATE 4/1/18 My tablet is working properly now (For the most part). The biggest issue I have with this tablet, at the moment, is that the original surface is killing my nibs very quickly. I'm running low on nibs right now and will order the smooth surface replacement with new nibs, maybe the smooth surface will allow the nibs to last longer. Will update later on. My old Intuos, pen, & nibs used to last a long time, and this one isn't so. I will up my review rating to 4, for functionality, but can't give it a 5 because the nibs are disappearing quickly. ***UPDATE 8/14/18 Yo yo yo I'm back and I think this is my final update to this. I can now recommend this tablet (ew not the paper add-on, please). As far as I can tell, everything works for me. I'm not a 3D artist so I have no idea how they're dealing but for retouching and general usage it's working great. There is one annoying little thing that may be a Mac issue, but when I wake my laptop from sleep mode, the Wacom isn't connected and I click on the Wacom icon at the top of the screen, wait about 30 seconds, then it comes back. Humorously, the original matte texture sheet has rubbed off to a shine in some areas where it makes contact with the nib the most, and now the nib lasts a lot longer. Which means if you are considering throwing it away and replacing it with smooth, try steel wool or something on this first! Or anything that would polish to a fine finish. Hmm, Mr. Clean magic eraser? lol Not sure. Regardless, if you intend on using this thing forever, you will need a backup sheet about 5-10 years from now and I recommend buying a smooth grade texture sheet – they may not be offering that sheet then, ask me how I know, so stock up on it some time in the next 2-3 years and keep it in a drawer somewhere, they sell it for $30. I'm attaching a photo of an old tablet that I used "forever" for about 10-12 years or so and the sheet had become so bad I flipped it and taped it on there. I'm showing how durable these things are so get your backup sheet. Really. I have used several other Wacom tablets at the workplace too and this old Intuos 2 was a champ. They're all very good if/when the glitches are fixed, if you're wondering which to buy. Cheap model, pro model, all the Wacom tablets (without a screen) are useful. I have never used a Cintiq nor MobileStudio Pro and can't speak for those, they look like a headache of their own. I'd use a cheap one any day, and I have. I hope to try a Huion one day to compare but nobody at work ever used one of those and it's really difficult to move on when you've used this one brand for 20 years. Since the competitors are getting closer, I would like to give them a try. I've been hoping Apple jumped in and allowed full version of Photoshop on their iPad Pro so I can move on already. 10/17/18 Did I mention you should also buy a backup pen for this down the line? Also within the next 2-3 years. Yes, do. The clicker dies, falls off, after like 4-5 years. That's what happened to my favorite old Wacom. Ain't nothing going to help you but scotch tape. I put the new clicker in but it would fall off. :) I used the scotch tape for years. Shame on me for being a professional retoucher. Maybe. I had the money to buy a new one but I was postponing adding it to a landfill. All these suggestions of buying replacement parts are if you're set on extending the life of this one product for as long as possible. Sadly, they stop supporting it after a few years and the company tries to force you out of using it, but I held on for as long as I could using legacy drivers. lol Sounds so dire. It wasn't. Want to apologize if I don't get back to you if you ask me a question I haven't been getting my notifications from here. Uh. What a long review.