Wacom Launches Windows, Android Tablets, Pressure Sensitive iPad Stylus
Staying on top of evolving trends in the creative community and responding to frequent requests from professional customers, Wacom® extends the creative experience from the desktop to a mobile environment with the new Cintiq® Companion line of creative tablets.
The Cintiq Companion line, available in two models, enables creative professionals to work wherever they want. The Cintiq Companion runs Windows 8 and full versions of creative software and offers everything a customer would expect from Wacom’s Cintiq products. The Cintiq Companion Hybrid, on the other hand, is a traditional Cintiq when plugged into a Mac or PC, but when used as a mobile device, works as a stand-alone Android® tablet with enough power to do light sketching and start creative processes with suitable apps. The new tablets were developed to bring unprecedented freedom to the creative workflow. They also ensure a distinct Cintiq experience even in mobile use, leveraging key elements of the Cintiq 13HD and Cintiq 22HD touch, for example, full HD display with touch control and the Wacom Pro Pen with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as tilt recognition.
Cintiq Companion Video
Nowadays, creative professionals require high performance hardware and software that enable them to create in a variety of environments including studios, client offices, coffee shops, planes, trains and many more. The Cintiq Companion supports creative freedom by offering everything necessary for productive art and design work whether in the studio or on the go. Providing an all-purpose, mobile workstation, it is a fullyfledged Windows 8 tablet, powered by a 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor and Intel® HD Graphics 4000 that pack a punch whether designing a character, or retouching a photo. For excellent creative results, Wacom offers two models. One with 8GB memory and 256GB SSD with Windows 8 and the other with 8GB memory, 512GB SSD with Windows 8 Pro.
“We are pleased that the Cintiq Companion has been designed with the needs of creative professionals in mind. With Wacom, we worked together to select the best combination of features to make it an excellent mobile platform for Adobe® Photoshop®,” said Maria Yap, senior director of product management at Adobe. “The Cintiq Companion is optimized for the latest version of Photoshop Creative Cloud™ and gives creative professionals a way to get out of the studio and create wherever they feel most inspired.”
“We are excited to have worked closely with Wacom over the last year to bring the Cintiq Companion to reality” said Chris Silva, Intel director of marketing for premium notebooks. “Intel’s powerful yet compact processors together with Wacom’s expertise in creative pen displays brought to life the Cintiq Companion, a product very different from any other in that it’s designed specifically for people in visual arts who need a professional solution to draw, sketch and paint when mobile.”
Cintiq Companion Hybrid
For illustrators and designers who want to draw, sketch and paint when mobile, but who also want to use their professional software when connected to a Mac or PC, the Cintiq Companion Hybrid offers a ‘two-in-one’ solution. The Cintiq Companion Hybrid functions as a traditional Cintiq when connected to a Mac or PC. When unplugged, it is perfect for light, spontaneous work using Android™ apps. The tablet comes with a powerful Nvidia® Tegra® 4 processor, Android Jellybean and specially designed software such as the new Wacom Creative Canvas for painting and sketching. For further refinement when back in the studio, rough images can be easily transferred to a computer or shared directly to popular cloud services with the easy and pre-loaded ASTRO File Manager™. Two versions of the Cintiq Companion Hybrid are available, a 16GB version and a 32GB version.
All of the time-savers that professionals expect from a Wacom Cintiq are integrated in both the Cintiq Companion and Cintiq Companion Hybrid, including the customizable new on-screen controls, ExpressKeys, Rocker Ring and Radial Menu. To enable a truly mobile working style, the Cintiq Companion family packs some impressive mobile communications features such as WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth® (version 4.0 for Cintiq Companion and version 3.0 for Cintiq Companion Hybrid), front/rear HD cameras (2M pixels/8M pixels), stereo headset jack and microphone for hosting calls or streaming movies.
As creative professionals require comfort and ergonomics to offset long working hours, an adjustable and detachable stand is also included with both products, offering four working angles – from flat to upright. “The new Cintiq Companion line enables mobile creatives to carry out their jobs without compromising on the high performance required for delivering professionalgrade design and artistic output,” said Don Varga, professional products brand director at Wacom Americas. “This is a truly ground-breaking product line that redefines the way creative professionals work, empowering artists and designers to immerse themselves in their work without being confined to a traditional studio or office.”
Pricing and Availability
The Cintiq Companion Hybrid models are priced at $1499 (USD)/£999 (UK) for the 16GB and $1599 (USD)/£1083 (UK) for the 32GB. Both products will be available from Wacom’s eStore in mid-September. The Cintiq Companion models are offered at $1999 (USD) for the Windows 8 with 256GB SSD and $2499 (USD) for the Windows 8 Pro with 512GBSSD. The Cintiq Companion models are scheduled to appear at the Wacom eStore in October.
To pre-order a Wacom Cintiq Companion or Companion Hybrid in the US, please visit the Wacom eStore and follow the ordering instructions.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
2 Comments
David
Now we’re talking! I’d love to play around with either of these. Very cool, Wacom. Very cool indeed!
Carlos
Interesting they decided to start with Windows. 8 os. Sleek..we’ll .see how The Artist like it.