My mom asked me if I wanted a XBone and PS4 as my Christmas/Birthday/Father's Day gift I said nah hook me up with the Apple iPad Pro we'll just my employee discount. Why did I choose the ipad pro over gaming systems I want? Well my need to draw some stuff for school and my hobbies hold a higher priority than gaming. I just recently sold my Wacom tablet and was looking at getting another one until I these two reviews made the decision for me.
Apple Pencil vs Wacom Cintiq
Apple Pencil vs. Wacom Cintiq
Currently the Wacom Cintiq is regarded as the pinnacle of professional drawing stylus/surface design. A lot of hesitation (or dismissal) of the Apple Pencil seems to stem from people's belief that Cintiq is superior in performance and design at a similar price. *sigh*
Quite plainly, the Cintiq sucks in comparison. And I've been using them for years for industrial design sketching, UI, and art. Let's compare the experience:
Stylus Design
The Apple Pencil has a much narrower body and tip, allowing the stylus to not obscure the drawing itself. I would also argue it provides more freedom of drawing motion. The Cintiq stylus is big, the pen tip is wobbly, your fingers randomly collide into the side buttons, and everything feels like cheap jiggly plastic.
Surface Design
Cintiqs are heavy, really heavy. The ones deemed "portable" are hardly at best. Most of them come with a giant set of cords because, obviously, they need to be plugged in to a computer. The screens aren't retina, the color is whack, the brightest it can display is not very bright and there's a lot of reflection. Most importantly the screen itself has a huge air gap between the pen and the digital screen, causing parallax. No amount calibration shakes the feeling that you're not actually drawing on this surface. All these things are a non-issue with the iPad Pro, also it runs its own OS and has multitouch build in, you'll be paying $2000+ for multitouch on a Cintiq.
Drawing
Latency latency latency. As in all that latency I can visibly see as I wait for my stroke to catch up with my Cintiq pen. Oops! Dragged my pen too far because I couldn't see where the strike would end up? Guess that's why I mapped 10 of these buttons to Ctrl+Z. This is the game changer with the Apple Pencil, barely any latency so you actually feel like the pencil is leaving ink and can see the outcome of your drawing as its happening. Real-life pencils have gotten this figured out for years. It also seems like pressure and tilt are mapped more sensitively compared to the Cintiq.
Outcome: drawing more of what you intended on the first try.
The iPad Pro + Apple Pencil: $899 – $1,179
The cheapest, non-touch-enabled Cintiq: $799
All other Cintiq models: $1,000 - $2,800
So my advice to anyone trying to decide between buying Apple Setup vs. Cintiq is run far far away from the Cintiq. Especially if you're a student. Specialized professionals that have their cintiqs hooked up to PC's running Solidworks, C4D, CAD, yeahhhhh.....I guess cross your fingers they make iPad apps.
iPad Pro review: Killer creative canvas with laptop-replacement dreams
Excerpts:
Apple Pencil vs Wacom Cintiq
Apple Pencil vs. Wacom Cintiq
Currently the Wacom Cintiq is regarded as the pinnacle of professional drawing stylus/surface design. A lot of hesitation (or dismissal) of the Apple Pencil seems to stem from people's belief that Cintiq is superior in performance and design at a similar price. *sigh*
Quite plainly, the Cintiq sucks in comparison. And I've been using them for years for industrial design sketching, UI, and art. Let's compare the experience:
Stylus Design
The Apple Pencil has a much narrower body and tip, allowing the stylus to not obscure the drawing itself. I would also argue it provides more freedom of drawing motion. The Cintiq stylus is big, the pen tip is wobbly, your fingers randomly collide into the side buttons, and everything feels like cheap jiggly plastic.
Surface Design
Cintiqs are heavy, really heavy. The ones deemed "portable" are hardly at best. Most of them come with a giant set of cords because, obviously, they need to be plugged in to a computer. The screens aren't retina, the color is whack, the brightest it can display is not very bright and there's a lot of reflection. Most importantly the screen itself has a huge air gap between the pen and the digital screen, causing parallax. No amount calibration shakes the feeling that you're not actually drawing on this surface. All these things are a non-issue with the iPad Pro, also it runs its own OS and has multitouch build in, you'll be paying $2000+ for multitouch on a Cintiq.
Drawing
Latency latency latency. As in all that latency I can visibly see as I wait for my stroke to catch up with my Cintiq pen. Oops! Dragged my pen too far because I couldn't see where the strike would end up? Guess that's why I mapped 10 of these buttons to Ctrl+Z. This is the game changer with the Apple Pencil, barely any latency so you actually feel like the pencil is leaving ink and can see the outcome of your drawing as its happening. Real-life pencils have gotten this figured out for years. It also seems like pressure and tilt are mapped more sensitively compared to the Cintiq.
Outcome: drawing more of what you intended on the first try.
The iPad Pro + Apple Pencil: $899 – $1,179
The cheapest, non-touch-enabled Cintiq: $799
All other Cintiq models: $1,000 - $2,800
So my advice to anyone trying to decide between buying Apple Setup vs. Cintiq is run far far away from the Cintiq. Especially if you're a student. Specialized professionals that have their cintiqs hooked up to PC's running Solidworks, C4D, CAD, yeahhhhh.....I guess cross your fingers they make iPad apps.
iPad Pro review: Killer creative canvas with laptop-replacement dreams
Excerpts:
Drawing like an artist
I'll tell you right now who's going to want an iPad Pro: anyone who draws or works with images. Its killer app doesn't even come in the box. The Pencil, Apple's new stylus is sold separately, for $99, £79 or AU$165. It's specifically designed to work with the iPad Pro, and it blows away any other stylus I've ever used , even Microsoft's Surface Pen. It's fast, accurate, pressure-sensitive, comfortable, and for apps that support it, glorious.
Marc Mendell, an artist by trade, loved it right away. "This device was made for me," he said. "So sweet, it made my teeth hurt." While noting that it was "ultra precise and reactive to drawing actions,"
Even non-artists like me can appreciate it: it feels like a regular pen. I was able to write by hand and have it feel normal. The Pencil is far more accurate than the mushier capacitive styluses you're probably used to trying on an iPad. It's more like Samsung's S-Pen for its phones and tablets, or Microsoft's pen for Surface.
The magic part comes when you tilt the Pencil's tip to an angle: it can do shading like a real pencil. Any amount of off-angle tilt can do extra things depending on what an app allows. Pressure sensitivity, while it takes getting used to, is finely tuned. The combination make this feel like a physical art tool, rather than a piece of technology. "It took time, but I got used to what I referred to as the shock absorber -- how the nib reacts to contact with tablet," said Mendell. "It's responsive and recognizes the pressure well."
I loved doodling around with Pencil on as many apps as I could find to support it: Apple's Notes app, Procreate, Paper by 53, Adobe's new suite of iPad Pro-optimized tools and Evernote. My 7-year-old son picked it up and loved drawing with it too. He just treated it like one of his colored pencils in his art box. To him it was just a sketchpad. Lindsey Turrentine noted that her 9-year-old daughter immediately took to it and started making art in the Notes app. "She said, 'It's pretty good. I like it so much better than how you have to use your fingers in drawings. This pen really works; it's very accurate.'"
The Pencil pairs via Bluetooth, and also needs charging: a Lightning plug on the end lets you plug it into the Pro for a quick charge (20 minutes took it from 38 to 100 percent), or plug into a Lightning cable using an included adapter to charge separately. It gets 12 hours on a charge, but I've never drawn long enough at a clip to exhaust it.
We haven't gotten one yet and the final decision hasn't been made. I plan on going to Best Buy today to play around with the Apple Ipad Pro first.I'll tell you right now who's going to want an iPad Pro: anyone who draws or works with images. Its killer app doesn't even come in the box. The Pencil, Apple's new stylus is sold separately, for $99, £79 or AU$165. It's specifically designed to work with the iPad Pro, and it blows away any other stylus I've ever used , even Microsoft's Surface Pen. It's fast, accurate, pressure-sensitive, comfortable, and for apps that support it, glorious.
Marc Mendell, an artist by trade, loved it right away. "This device was made for me," he said. "So sweet, it made my teeth hurt." While noting that it was "ultra precise and reactive to drawing actions,"
Even non-artists like me can appreciate it: it feels like a regular pen. I was able to write by hand and have it feel normal. The Pencil is far more accurate than the mushier capacitive styluses you're probably used to trying on an iPad. It's more like Samsung's S-Pen for its phones and tablets, or Microsoft's pen for Surface.
The magic part comes when you tilt the Pencil's tip to an angle: it can do shading like a real pencil. Any amount of off-angle tilt can do extra things depending on what an app allows. Pressure sensitivity, while it takes getting used to, is finely tuned. The combination make this feel like a physical art tool, rather than a piece of technology. "It took time, but I got used to what I referred to as the shock absorber -- how the nib reacts to contact with tablet," said Mendell. "It's responsive and recognizes the pressure well."
I loved doodling around with Pencil on as many apps as I could find to support it: Apple's Notes app, Procreate, Paper by 53, Adobe's new suite of iPad Pro-optimized tools and Evernote. My 7-year-old son picked it up and loved drawing with it too. He just treated it like one of his colored pencils in his art box. To him it was just a sketchpad. Lindsey Turrentine noted that her 9-year-old daughter immediately took to it and started making art in the Notes app. "She said, 'It's pretty good. I like it so much better than how you have to use your fingers in drawings. This pen really works; it's very accurate.'"
The Pencil pairs via Bluetooth, and also needs charging: a Lightning plug on the end lets you plug it into the Pro for a quick charge (20 minutes took it from 38 to 100 percent), or plug into a Lightning cable using an included adapter to charge separately. It gets 12 hours on a charge, but I've never drawn long enough at a clip to exhaust it.
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