I recently had the opportunity to spend a few weeks with Wacoms latest addition to its arsenal of hardware, the Cintiq Companion.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Cintiq brand, these are essentially large graphic tablets with screens, which attach to your computer. They act like an extra monitor but using a stylus you can draw directly onto them with 2048 degrees of pressure sensitivity. This makes the act of drawing, painting or sculpting feel much more natural and intuitive when compared to the standard graphic tablets where your hand and eyes are in different places.

The Cintiq Companion takes this to the next level, combining the power of a multi-touch screen, mobile tablet with Wacoms technology, offering you the ability to work away from the office.

It currently comes in two flavours.

The Cintiq Companion is a more expensive Windows based device, making it ideal for those who have key applications, like ZBrush, Maya or Modo, and need to use them while on the move.

The Cintiq Companion Hybrid is a lower priced, Android based version, acting more like your typical, day to day tablets.

For this review I wanted to test the Windows option, mainly so I could use the same software I work with in my office. I also didn’t want this review to be bogged down with hardware specifications, but instead be focused on what the device is like to use on a day to day basis, as a digital artist.

Unboxing

After removing the Companion from its box I was impressed by the sheer quality of the build. It was solid and sleek with even its protective case feeling luxurious, like its own fur lined sleeping bag.

The Companion comes with a generous 13.3 inch screen, and next to this is a series of configurable buttons called Express Keys, and a Touch Ring. For those familiar with Wacom technology you will know that these buttons are an essential part of any artist’s workflow so it’s great to see them included here too.

The size and weight of the tablet was something I wasn`t expecting. It’s roughly 15 by 10 inches, so it’s not small, and at a hefty 2kg it’s not something you can comfortably hold in one hand while you work. This is a sitting device, one which is best used when at a desk, or propped up in your lap.

The power supply has caused some concerns across the community. Firstly, the Windows authorisation key is on the actual power brick, so if you lose one, you lose the other. Also the power jack is tiny, almost fragile looking. You almost feel that if you press it in too hard it will break, and I’m sure if it’s pulled out incorrectly it will.

The Stand

Digging deeper into the box I found that Wacom have also included a stand. This attaches to the back of the device allowing you to then prop it up at three key levels. This is one of the next areas I wasn`t entirely convinced with. The stand felt almost like an afterthought, and in practice attaching it to the back felt a little clumsy.

Sometimes I didn`t entirely trust it would hold the device as it only slotted into two shallow grooves, which on a few occasions it slipped free of. When collapsed it also added to the bulk of the tablet, and was too big to detach and leave lying around.

Ideally a stand built into the casing would have been preferable, one which almost disappeared when not in use, like you see in the Surface Pro 2 & 3.

Updates, and more updates

I then hit my next issue, not with the device as such but with Windows 8. I needed to update to 8.1 but before I could Windows had to download and install an initial 65 updates, a process which took over an hour.

8.1 finally began downloading, but this took an additional half an hour…Luckily I had plenty of other things to be working on, but before long it was finally ready for me to sit and play with.

First I installed ZBrush and Maya 2015, mainly so I could try the new multi-touch controls, which worked well. This was followed by Photoshop and Krita. With that all set I decided to head downstairs and work on the sofa. Well that’s the idea behind this device, right? What’s the point in having one if I stay shackled to the office?

As it was a nice day I thought I would chance a trip outside, but the glare on the screen meant I couldn`t really see what I was doing, and there wasn`t a suitable shady spot available, so I retreated back in doors.

The Companion in Use

The stylus which accompanies the companion is a Wacom Pro Pen. It comes in its own case with a handful of replacement nibs, and the coloured rings for personalisation. This slots nicely into the Companions case too.

ZBrush was going to be the first test for me and initially it performed well, although I admit I wasn`t doing anything too complex at this stage. The pen worked well, just as you would expect, with the pressure sensitivity allowing me to create the finest of strokes.

I did seem to spend most of my time trying to find a comfortable configuration for the Express Keys and Touch Ring where my thumb wasn`t being contorted into odd positions.

I initially settled on the four main controls, Ctrl, Shift, Alt and Space on the touch ring. This also meant I could press two keys at once, which you need to be able to do at times in ZBrush – This however was soon to change, multiple times.

Firstly, the device is a joy to use, as you would expect from a Wacom device. The high definition 1920×1080 screen is large enough to fit the entire ZBrush UI on it, which is great and means that the UI doesn`t suffer as it does on smaller screens.

The sculpt started well but ZBrush began to stutter once I hit a Dynamesh resolution of above 200, especially when I zoomed in. This wasn’t ideal as I was already thinking of heading back to the office. What good was working on the Companion if it couldn’t even handle a basic head sculpt?

I was about to call it a night when I noticed the battery icon had hardly dropped, which was impressive. This also reminded me of the power save options, which I quickly checked. It was set to Power Saver. Once I switched to High Performance ZBrush began to behave and run much smoother, and on par with my desktop machine.

I then tried Photoshop, with a large, untidy 500MB file full of unnamed layers and masks, you know the type. This time I compared it directly with my desktop, checking for any noticeable difference in lag or performance. I am happy to say there were none. Both files worked the same on both devices, with the only lag I found also being present on my desktop system.

Mobility

It was time to test the mobility of the Companion, so I decided to take it on a trip to London. I was going to be on a train for a few hours, so thought it would be a good opportunity to test it out of the office and see how it felt to carry around, work on and also present work to clients.

Firstly, as mentioned previously, this is one big, heavy tablet, so I wouldn’t recommend any lengthy hikes with it strapped to your back. I also struggled with my usual bag as the Companion, when in its case, was much larger than I am used to, so I had to source a larger back which would also fit my other equipment in, and the charger.

On the train I grabbed myself a seat with a table and power point, thinking this would be the ideal spot. Unfortunately I was plagued by the sun which made the screen almost impossible to see. I also struggled with the movement of the train which meant I couldn’t do any precise strokes or movements.

This was frustrating. I couldn’t see what I was doing or get comfortable, plus my pen strokes were more like erratic streaks. I was also praying that no one sat next to me, as because of the size of the Companion I was already straying into my neighbouring seat.

In the end I moved seats, so I then occupied two seats with no table. I sat with my back to the window, legs half up on the seat next to me and the Companion in my lap, without the stand. I found this to be a much more comfortable way to work, and I was now also shielding the screen from the sun.

The Companion worked really well from here on. I was able to work on a document, although I used the touch keyboard and not the supplied Bluetooth one, and also dip into Maya and ZBrush.

I was also impressed with the battery life. At the start Windows estimated over 7 hours of life, and this had dropped to around 4 after the journey.

At the meeting in London the Companion came into to its own, allowing me to quickly show and share work in Maya without worrying it was going to be laggy.

Should You Invest?

For me, I liked the Cintiq Companion. Coming from a Wacom Cintiq 24HD it did feel like I was taking a smaller version of my office out with me. The stylus behaved in much the same way and you even have the configurable buttons to help you as you work, all this plus a multi-touch screen and a decent battery life.

I am not sure it should have been dubbed the “Companion” though. I think a true device like this, a true companion, should be something you put into your bag and almost forget it’s there whereas going out with the Cintiq Companion is almost like taking a small child out for the day. You have to consider your luggage because of its size and weight, and also work out if you will have enough room on the journey to actually use it en route.

With the Cintiq Companion Wacom have produced a true, artist orientated device. It looks and works well, but unfortunately a few poor design choices do let it down. In giving us the larger screen, the 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and the Express Keys Wacom have continued to put artists first, but in doing so they have also sacrificed some of the mobility this device is meant to offer.

At the price, (around £1,899 for the top end model), which is pretty much the same as a Cintiq 24HD, I think I would rather invest in its larger, less mobile brother as I would simply use it more often, but if Wacom can lighten the load, incorporate the stand a little better and perhaps reduce the screen glare, then version two might be more tempting.

Although Wacom supplied the device for me to to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

You may be reading this and wondering if a review of the Surface Pro 2 is even relevant after the recent announcement of the Surface Pro 3. Like any technology, new and improved hardware is always just around the corner, but this doesn`t mean the older models become instantly obsolete.

Instead, think of this as an opportunity.

As people scramble to get their hands on the Surface Pro 3 they will no doubt sell the Surface Pro 2 they currently own, either because they feel they no longer need it, or to use the money towards the more desirable, and expensive model. You never know, Microsoft might also reduce the price of the older tablet/laptop combination once the newer model hits the shelves.

So as you can see, those of us with smaller budgets can now look a little closer at the Surface Pro 2 which, a year after it was initially released, still remains an impressive piece of hardware, whether you’re an artist, writer or blogger.

Unboxing

I`ll admit that after using Wacom`s Cintiq Companion for a few weeks the Surface Pro 2 had the potential to feel like a bit of a downgrade. Its screen, although a respectable 10.6 inches is smaller, and the stylus offers half the amount of sensitivity with “only” 1024 levels of pressure, and just the one button.

In addition to this there are no external configurable buttons on the device, so I wasn`t sure how well it would handle 3D applications.

However, once I pulled it free from its box I could instantly tell that this solid, well-constructed device was one which had a lot of time, thought and consideration behind it. For instance, the power adaptor also has a USB socket, meaning you can charge something else from the same plug. A simple, but clever and useful addition.

At the opposite end of the power cable isn`t your traditional pin which slots into a circular socket. Instead it’s a long, slim and almost flat plug which is held in place with magnets. The use of magnetics also extends to the supplied stylus and the keyboard, (which is bought separately), which again automatically connect when within close proximity to the power socket, or the base of the device.

These magnets are so keen that they almost pull the peripherals from your fingers, which is in some ways fun, and I found myself playing with this, just detaching and reattaching and detaching. I felt like a kid again.

Another thing I quickly realised with the keyboard is you can also attach it backwards. So, if you’re typing you have it forwards, like a laptop, and then when you want to sketch, sculpt or browse you simply detach it, turn it around, reattach it and fold it around the back. You obviously don`t need to always flip it, you can simply fold back the keyboard and it’s automatically disabled, yet stays exposed. It’s just nicer to hold if you aren`t touching the keys. In addition to this, when you’re not using the device the keyboard closes to act as a cover to protect the screen.

Again, such simple ideas but its nice not having to detach the keyboard and put it down somewhere while you work.

With the Surface Pro 2 everything stays together, and in addition to this you even get a stealth like, built in stand too which locks at two positions.

The Screen

The first thing which struck me once I powered up the Surface Pro 2 was how quickly it loaded. Within what felt like a few seconds I was at the login screen and ready to work, and this was from the device being powered down, and not in sleep mode.

Once Windows was configured and updated, which again took a matter of minutes, Windows synced with my desktop, bringing across my theme, backgrounds, everything, so I was literally looking at a carbon copy of my office system. This was a really nice touch, and meant I didn`t have to spend ages configuring a new device.

I was now ready to work, and I have to say that the screen itself was lovely. It was bright, colourful and razor sharp, and even though the actual screen size is only 10.6 inches it still squeezes in a nice resolution of 1920×1080, so most applications fit well, even if their icons appear quite small in some cases.

In others, like ZBrush, the UI simply drops off the bottom of the screen. Luckily it is highly customizable so with a bit of work you can easily have a more Surface Pro friendly layout as you sculpt.

The only downsides I have found with the screen so far are its very reflective, so if you are outdoors you will see more of yourself than what you’re actually working on. To combat this you can increase the brightness, which does work in some cases, but also drains the battery.

It also seems to attract smudges and finger marks, meaning you are forever cleaning it, but this is no different to any other glass based screen on the market.

The ArtDock

Now, if you’re a digital artist like myself, you will know that for most applications to work well you need to have a finger, or thumb, or both on other important keys. These being Alt, Control, Shift etc. The problem with the Surface Pro 2 is unless you are using the attached keyboard, there isn`t a way of accessing these while working due to its lack of external buttons.

This does have the potential to put a lot of artists off the device, people who want to hold the Surface Pro 2 like a sketchbook as they work, but also need access to these crucial keys.

All is not lost, because we have the ArtDock. This tool overlays a set of configurable keys onto the screen, so you have access to them as you work. In practice this works really well, and opens up the Surface Pro 2, making it more artist friendly. Now, it does have its down sides, and the main one being that with the palm rejection technology the key you are holding sometimes gets ignored, so you still have to adjust the way you work slightly to compensate.

With that said, without the ArtDock I am not sure I would be able to use the Surface Pro 2 as often as I do. Personally I think Microsoft should incorporate this into the OS, alongside the stylus settings, and make them both fully configurable per application.

I`d also like to see the option to dock it to the side of the screen, so once an application opens, its window resizes to it, rather than hides under it.

Even though the ArtDock is a nice tool, I did still miss having access to a few configurable buttons on the side of the screen. Maybe even allowing us to configure the volume control buttons might be a future work around?

You can download the ArtDock from here – ArtDock 2.0

The Surface Pro 2 in Use

With my key applications installed, along with the ArtDock, I was ready to test drive the Surface Pro 2, and to properly test it I thought I would actually do some work on it for a while, rather than just play about with the apps.

I was currently working on a contract which involved animation in Maya, plus a lot of texture painting, so it was the perfect excuse to dive back into 3DCoat. I forget sometimes just how nice and easy it is to use, and painting directly onto the surface of a 3D model, pixel by pixel is so much more intuitive than working solely in Photoshop.

The app itself worked really well, with the pressure from the supplied stylus coming through nicely, but more on the pen later.

With the Surface Pro 2 weighing just 2lbs you can easily hold it in one hand while working, yet after a while mine began to warm up quite rapidly, to the point where it was uncomfortable to hold. Now, this could be more of an issue with 3DCoat being power hungry rather than the device itself, but the battery life also dropped dramatically from over 7 hours to just 2.

To compare I decided to work in Maya and ZBrush for a while, using both from a full charge. ZBrush initially started out with over 7 hours of power, but I find devices like these need a little time to settle into a workflow so the battery meter can properly assess what you are doing. With the power setting set to Balanced it stabilized at over 5 hours, and after over an hours sculpting with Dynamesh it had only dropped to 4 hours, which was pretty good. Plus the device was still quite cool, and the fan hadn`t kicked in yet.

With Maya I decided to use the Surface Pro 2 as more of a laptop, with a keyboard and mouse. This time the system estimated nearly 9 hours of battery life, but again this eventually settled to around 6.

After an hour spent UV mapping a 4,000 polygon model, with Viewport 2.0 enabled, the battery still showed a respectable 5 hours of power. I did test the system briefly with High Performance enabled and the power estimate was slashed to under 2 hours. To be fair though I didn’t feel the need for High Performance to be active as Maya worked very nicely under a Balanced power option.

The one thing I did miss while working in Maya was the Insert key, which as you might know is essential, especially when rigging, and is strangely absent from the keyboard.

In conclusion I found the Surface Pro 2 to be a good device to work with, and it allowed me the opportunity to sculpt, work in Maya, paint in 3DCoat, Photoshop or Krita (which is lovely on the device too) while also having the option to use the Surface Pro 2 as a laptop to write with. I`m actually writing this on it as we speak.

The Stylus

We now come to the stylus which accompanies the Surface Pro 2, and even though it does its job, it is one of the devices weaker points.

Its plastic, light and thin like a pencil meaning it’s easy to pick up and use, but as you draw on the screen you don`t get any sort of feedback. It’s just plastic against glass essentially, so it’s maybe a little too smooth and rigid. There is also a noticeable offset of the mouse pointer compared to the tip of the pen, so this takes some time to get used too.

The single button on the side of the pen, which also slots into the power socket, is quite solid too, and sometimes can be hard to press. The fact there is only one button does present some challenges, especially to those of us used to using a two button stylus. For me I prefer having the middle mouse button active on the pen, as well as the right click, but with this stylus if you specify one you lose the other. Yes, you can hold down the stylus on the screen for a second and this acts as a right click, so you can get around it this way, but it still feels quite unintuitive.

There is a second button on the end of the pen, but so far this has proved useless. There are no options to configure it and in most applications it just does the same as the tip.

The stylus does run on Wacom technology, so you are offered some basic Wacom drivers which are an essential download if you want to configure the stylus, and gain the full 1024 levels of pressure. Again, if you’re coming from another Wacom device these settings are very limited. In recent releases the drivers have been improved to now offer a radial menu, but this is a global setting and again if you have this active you lose the other mouse clicks as you can`t add these to the radial menu itself.

I would like to see the option to configure the pen per application come in future updates, as Wacom do on their own devices. The code exists already to do this, so I’m not sure why it isn`t present already. In fact, they should just update their own drivers to work with this device, so we get all the configuration options already present. At least then we can export our settings from the desktop, and import them here.

I do plan to test alternative pens soon. I will be looking at the Wacom Bamboo Feel initially as this has been suggested as a good replacement, so I will let you know how it goes.

Mobility

Another day and another business trip, so this time I decided to take the Surface Pro 2 out with me to see how it felt to carry around and use while on the move.

The Surface Pro 2 is light weight and compact, so its essentially like carrying a sketchbook around. It fit nicely into my bag, and when on the train I didn`t feel like I was encroaching into other peoples space as I worked.

If you read my Cintiq Companion review you will remember how the sun plagued me, making the screen difficult to see. Unfortunately the same can be said with this device, except because it’s smaller and lighter, it was easier to move around to gain a better angle.

I spoke earlier about the batter life, which on this trip was equally as good. Once I arrived I still had over 4 hours left, and this was with me working a little in ZBrush and Microsoft Word as I travelled.

In short it performed well while on the move, and slipped into my bag without adding much more weight or bulk.

Should You Invest?

Given that the Surface Pro 2 has some really good design choices it does get a little let down with the battery life on high end applications, (when and if you need to use High Performance while on the move), and its stylus, which for artists is a key area. To be honest though, if the stylus isn`t right for you there are some much better alternatives available for not too much money, so you can simply replace it. Plus hopefully the software will be developed over time to give us much more freedom and configuration options.

For me the Surface Pro 2 ticks all the boxes. I personally need a device I can carry around, write on when I need to and also have the option to work from too. I don’t think I could work on one for the duration of a project, although I do plan to test this, but being able to use ZBrush, Maya and other key applications, along with a decent amount of pressure sensitivity, gives me a lot more options. Far more than my previous iPad and laptop combination which I used to take out with me.

If your budget is tight and your choices are to wait and buy a lower end Surface Pro 3 or a high end Surface Pro 2 then I would say go for the Surface Pro 2, and also treat yourself to a new stylus.

The Surface Pro 3 is still an unknown entity. Yes it looks and sounds like a really nice piece of hardware but there are still question marks floating around the stylus and its pressure sensitivity, which at the time of writing doesn`t work with a number of key applications.

With the Surface Pro 2 you get a powerful system which is mobile, versatile and works with all the applications you want it to, making it a great all round tablet and laptop in one neat package.

 Although Microsoft supplied the device for me to to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

I thought it was about time I uploaded another freebie for you all, and this one was just begging to be added to the list. If you have been following my Game Character Creation Series you will no doubt already have this in your arsenal, but if not there here she is.

Kila is an updated version of my previous free Kila model, this time bringing her up to date for you and including a full rig, with facial animation capabilities, Level of Detail models and a dynamics system to help animate her hair.

So, feel free to take her for a spin! I`d also love to see what you produce with her…so please share anything via my Facebook Page.

Download her directly here – Kila – and please pay it forward by sharing this page with one of the social links below. Doing so will help me to share more content, all for free.

Also be sure to follow the full, 10 part tutorial covering how she was created below.

Game Character Creation Series

Let’s be honest, when we talk about graphics tablets or pen input devices one brand springs to mind. Wacom have held the monopoly on this type of hardware for years, and for good reason. The devices they produce are good quality and reliable, but can also be very expensive.

I am guilty of falling into this category too, and in the past I have tried to leap from the Wacom bandwagon on occasion to try a more affordable option, only to go crawling back because the technology wasn`t up to scratch.

Huion are a brand I am not familiar with myself, and the GT-220 is the first of their devices I have had the opportunity to try. What I was hoping for was a painting and sculpting device with a crystal clear screen and responsive stylus, while also being a piece of hardware I could invest in without breaking the bank.

I am also a realist and the Huion GT-220, which is currently retailing at around £609 (on Amazon at the time of writing), is still expensive, but also nearly a thousand pounds cheaper than the closest Wacom model. So I wasn`t expecting the build quality, or its usability to blow me away.

So with the Huion GT-220, is it a case of you get what you pay for? Read on to find out.

Unboxing

Taking the GT-220 out of the box I found it to be compact, light and solid. The 21.5 inch screen covers almost the whole front of the device with just a slim silver bevel around the sides, making for a cleaner, less cluttered design.

Around the back you have the usual input sockets for HDMI, USB, VGA and DVI as well as a built in stand. The stand allows the monitor to be set into a number of different angles from standing almost vertically to pretty much flat on the desk.

Once you have the cables connected however you soon discover that you can`t actually go too low. With the sockets being at the lower back, and pointing down, the GT-220 ends up resting on the cables when at its lower positions, making it unsteady to work on.

The power and menu buttons are located along the bottom of the monitor, which I found to be a strange decision. With the monitor in its vertical position it’s difficult to reach them, and if you tilt it forwards to access the stand or the rear, you inevitable end up turning it off.

With the GT-220 appearing so well crafted these design choices do let it down, yet they aren`t deal breakers, and with the device being so light you can easily work around them.

One more thing to note is the lack of any configurable buttons on the front of the device, so, if you’re like me and can`t live without access to the Control, Alt and Shift keys, then you will still need your keyboard handy.

Drivers & Software

Once the GT-220 is plugged in and your machine has been powered up its then time to install the drivers. Without them the device acts as a simple monitor and nothing else.

First, I urge you to download the latest drivers from the Huion web site. Since I got my hands on the GT-220 there have been numerous updates, and I am sure there will be more in the future. This is good step for Huion, to be on top of any issues and ready to supply support and fixes to the community quickly shows real commitment to their users.

I discovered quite a major issue early on, one which would affect 3D artists more than 2D, and within a day Huion had a firmware fix ready for me to test.

Back to the drivers and one issue I did have while installing was a popup box saying that the Wintab32.dll file couldn`t be updated. This is quite an important file to simply skip but after a while I worked out that the Autodesk Application Manager I had installed was locking it for some reason. Temporarily closing this application down solved the issue.

Once you’re installed you are ready to go and the stylus will then be recognised by the monitor. You also receive a set of simple utilities which allow you to customize the stylus and how it performs. These cover all the basics, like assigning different functions to the two buttons and adjusting sensitivity, as well as monitor calibration.

These tools are very basic and work more as global settings. Initially I did think I would like more options to play with, maybe even the ability to specify settings per application. In reality though this would be more important if the GT-220 had configurable buttons available to use, so I didn`t find the number of options too limiting.

With that said, it would be nice to see more flexibility in future updates.

The Screen

When you first boot your machine with the GT-220 connected you will be amazed at the screen. It’s 1920 by 1080 pixel resolution is bright, colourful and sharp. If you’re used to using a Cintiq then you will be familiar with the faint grain on the screen, well you can rest assured that there is none of that here.

As a monitor in its own right the GT-220 is excellent. The colours are punchy and the contrast spot on. Being glass based you do get the standard issues of smudges on the screen and also bad reflections when working in a well lit room, but again, like any device similar to this you learn to work around that.

The GT-220 in Use

With everything installed, setup and configured it was time to play and my first port of call was my current go-to sketching application, Mischief. The lines were clean, sharp and the 2048 levels of pressure came across beautifully.

I then hopped over to Photoshop CS4, working on an A4 sized canvas. The lines here weren`t as clean, with most having a slight jaggedness to them. This is probably because Mischief is vector based so the lines in that application are cleaned as you work. I was slightly disappointed, but when I tried the same on my main machine, using a Cintiq and Photoshop CS6 the jagged lines were still present, although less so.

Time to try 3D and I am happy to say that 3DCoat, ZBrush and Maya all worked very well, as expected.

The only issues I had while working were that the pressure sensitivity dropped occasionally when swapping between applications. The screen also got quite warm, but not unbearably so.

The Stylus

We can`t talk about a device like this without covering one of the most important areas, the stylus. When I initially removed it from the box, and realised it needed to be charged, my heart sank. I am used to working with a stylus where power isn`t even an issue, and I did worry that it would die on me mid stroke.

The good news is you simply charge it via USB, and the charge seems to last forever. I have used it for hours now and not had to worry. You simply get into the mind set of plugging it in while you’re not using it, like anything really.

The stylus itself is quite light, but fits nicely in your hand as you work. I found it to be comfortable as I worked, with the two main buttons feeling solid and responsive.

I have heard comments about parallax being an issue but I haven`t suffered from this myself. Yes there is a notable distance between the pen tip and the cursor but this is due to the thickness of the glass, or the distance between the glass and the actual screen.

Should You Invest?

You can`t help but compare the Huion GT-220 with its closest rival, but in doing so I think you’re doing it a disservice. They are two different devices, in two vastly different price ranges, so you should judge it simply on its own performance.

And that’s the problem. The majority of people I have spoken to are doing just that, they are tempted by the GT-220, but feel more secure with the popular, but more expensive brand simply because its a known entity.

I think for me the question wouldn’t be which is the best device, but would I feel comfortable using the GT-220 on a daily basis to do all my work – 2D, 3D, everything? Well I am happy to say a resounding yes!

The screen is gorgeous and the line quality is good, the pressure levels come across very nicely too. Yes there are slight issues with the pressure every now and then, but nothing major.

At the end of the day, anything you buy will have its quirks, and as you use it you learn to live with those small issues and even find a way to work around them. Even the Cintiq has its problems, so the fact the GT-220`s buttons are at the bottom, it rests on the cables when too low and it has no configurable buttons are tiny things when you look at the price.

Going back to the opening statement and I do feel in some ways you do get what you pay for, but in this instance the cheaper options isn`t the more inferior. Its a great device for the price and one you should seriously consider before you max out your credit card on the more well known brand.

If you are a regular visitor to this site, or you follow my Facebook and Twitter feeds, you will know that I often review hardware and software related to my chosen career. This usually ranges from devices by Wacom, Microsoft or Huion as well as a range of applications for 2D art, 3D work and animation. In fact I am currently testing the Surface Pro 3, with a full review to come soon.

What I wanted to do was expand my review bubble slightly, still keeping within the same boundaries but explore other devices and software that I could test and share with others, and then I had an idea.

If your like me you spend most of your day either sat or standing in front of a desk. If you work from home, on an average day you may never even leave the house, so you will no doubt find, as I did, that the pounds begin to creep on. You may also start to struggle with your sleep and feel ill more often, both of which are not ideal, especially if you are self employed.

Keeping fit and healthy is important to anyone, but in our industry heading to the gym three times a week sometimes isn`t possible, either because of where you are, your working hours or just your budget. So I thought I would review a few devices which claim to help you to maintain a healthier lifestyle by monitoring what you are doing and also motivating you to do more. Maybe use the stairs instead of the lift, or walk to work instead of taking the car? At the end of the day its about being that little bit more active within the boundaries of your own lifestyle without having to fork out for an expensive monthly or yearly gym membership.

I am in discussions with a few manufacturers but first to respond and generously donate a device were Fitbit.

So here is the first product I will be testing, the Fitbit Charge which was released before Christmas, with a Fitbit Charge HR model also being made available to me in a few weeks. As always I will post my thoughts and experiences across my social circle before posting a full review here too.

My hope is that by reviewing these devices while maybe even introducing the idea to some of you, that you decide to take matters into your own hands and get out of your chairs and get even a little bit more active before its too late.

That`s what I plan to do anyway

I decided it was about time I spent some alone time with the Surface Pro 3, so this morning I stepped away from the office intent on sitting and working on the device to see how it held up.

I didn`t do any intense work, not at this stage, this was us both getting to know each other in a relaxed setting as I worked in a few applications to see, not only how well they worked but also how comfortable it would be to work with.

Firstly the lighter Surface Pro 3 is much better to hold than its predecessor, and the larger screen feels more natural to work on, meaning you don`t have to resort to tiny text and icons to fit everything on screen.

I`m not going to get into the specifics just yet, like the stylus and how I have it setup etc. I`ll save that for the full review, but I began with the keyboard detached, working on it much like you would any other tablet device.

The first application I wanted to work in was Mischief. I need to work up a few concepts so I thought I would give it a go and see how it felt compared to working with it on my desktop.

All I can say is it was a joy to use, with the reduced pressure sensitivity, (256 rather than the Surface Pro 2`s 1024 levels) not noticeable, not unless you were really looking. The pencil strokes were as light or heavy as I needed, and the ink pens felt fluid. I have heard people complain about the performance of apps like this on the i5 version of the Surface, but on the i7 I didn`t see any lag.

Granted, all I did was doodle, so nothing too stressful on the processor, but it gave me the confidence that I could go back and perhaps create a full illustration on the device, which is something I intend to do in the future.

After over an hour of doodling I switched over to ZBrush, and unfortunately I did find some issues with it while working. As you may know, while working in ZBrush you do need access to the Control, Alt and Shift keys, so to help me I used RadialMenu which overlays a series of custom keys onto the screen.

The problem I had was while I held down Alt to create a recess in the model, the key would suddenly stop working if another part of my hand touched the screen. So in the middle of sculpting ocular cavities for example, it would suddenly fill them in.

It’s just a small thing, and probably something I could work around with more practice and investigation. RadialMenu allows you to hold keys rather than you physically pressing and holding them, so this might be a solution.

ZBrush itself held up well to a basic Dynamesh sculpt, the only issue being my rusty ZBrushing skills.

Finally I delved into Maya, which again seemed to work nicely on the device. I do think however that this is one app where using the mouse and keyboard might be more productive, especially if, like me, you use it full screen and work with Marking Menus a lot. Something which needs access to lots of keys. Yes, you could configure the RadialMenu to work with it, but when tested I felt like I was working at a quarter speed.

After three solid hours of working on the Surface Pro 3 I actually felt for the first time that this was a device I could create on. With the Surface Pro 2 there were limitations, and the screen size and weight did get in the way occasionally, as did the limited stand.

None of these were an issue with the new, improved model.

Authors, bloggers and writers in general have held the monopoly on working anywhere for too long. Cafes the world over are full of people free from the shackles of their desks, busy beavering away while enjoying free wifi, good coffee and the freedom to disconnect from the oppressive office environment.

For digital artists it’s sometimes not so simple. We require more from our laptops than the ability to surf the web or write a manuscript. For many, just being able to sketch or continue an illustration is enough, but for those of us who work in 3D we also need to be able to manipulate thousands, if not millions of polygons, sculpt and texture a detailed model or animate a fight scene.

I realise that there are tablets available which allow you to do this already. The Cintiq Companion for one is a great tablet for sculpting and painting, but it’s not the most mobile of devices and trying to write or do more general tasks on it can feel cumbersome.

I`ve been a fan of the Surface Pro 2 for a while now and had hoped this would be the device which would give me more freedom. Although it did eventually replace my iPad and laptop, the smaller screen size, basic stylus and lack of any physical buttons meant I was never as comfortable working on it as I was my desktop.

Then along came the Surface Pro 3 touting many improvements including a larger screen, lighter and slimmer design and a controversial change in direction for the pen. Needless to say I couldn`t wait to get hold of one in the hopes that this was it, this was the tablet/laptop I had been waiting for, one which I could actually work on and would be a true mobile office.

So did it live up to expectations? Read on to find out.

Unboxing and Setup

The packaging the Surface Pro 3 comes in is very similar to that of its predecessor, except the main box is longer and lighter.

Once out of the box what you have is a sleek slate of a device which feels solid and well built. The Surface Pro 3 is not only larger and lighter than the Surface Pro 2 but thinner too, with Microsoft reducing the thickness from 13.5mm to just over 9mm.

Also in the box is the pen and its battery, power adapter and a separate adhesive pen holder which you can stick to your Type Cover, if you also purchased one. I was glad to see that the power brick still had the extra USB slot in it which is useful for charging a second device while you’re on the move.

The Surface Pro 3 comes pre-charged, as most devices do these days but I plugged it into the power adapter anyway and turned it on. As with the Surface Pro 2 the power connector attaches using magnets, which helps to hold it in place. The same area, when not charging, can also be used to temporarily hold the pen, again using the built in magnets.

Note: One thing I have noticed with the new power cable is that once connected a white light appears to indicate it is charging, yet it never turns off to indicate when the battery is full.

Once the Surface has booted, which takes mere seconds to do, you are then presented with the usual configuration steps which you would expect with a Windows based device as well as an onslaught of updates.

If you have a Microsoft account you can also log in and synchronise the main settings with your desktop system which was a nice touch and made me feel more at home while navigating it.

The Screen

The new 12.1 inch display boasts a resolution of 2160×1440 pixels, which is a welcome improvement over the 10.6 inches or 1920×1080 pixels of the Surface Pro 2.

The larger screen is clear, bright and pin sharp, plus the size makes it instantly more comfortable to look at while you work. Most applications now fit nicely on the desktop, with the exception of a few like ZBrush which is still a little too wide, especially when navigating the Lightbox, but this isn`t a major issue.

The downside is if your applications don`t support a scalable UI you may find that the increased dpi means your icons and menu items are almost lost, but many developers seem to be embracing the dynamic UI which is a welcome move on their part and more should be integrating this sort of flexibility.

The Stand

With the Surface Pro 2 the built in stand, when not in use, folded nicely into the back of the device becoming invisible. Thankfully the same design has been applied here and also enhanced.

With the older model you were restricted to two stand positions, which worked as a standard way to hold up the device as you worked or watched a movie. With the Surface Pro 3 Microsoft hasn’t just added a few more positions they have made the stand fully adjustable. So you have the freedom to fold it around from closed to almost flat, with the stand supporting the weight at any angle in between.

In practice this works very nicely and means you can work anywhere and in any position. Sitting on the sofa with it on your knees, lying with your knees up and the stand propped over them or even hunched over it while working on a desk.

It’s quite liberating not being forced into two set positions.

The Type Cover

Although you can use the Surface Pro 3 without the Type Cover through its on screen keyboard, it really comes to life with it. Not only does it work as a back lit keyboard but also a cover to protect the screen when not in use.

It’s important to state that the Type Cover is sold separately, but this is also an area where Microsoft hasn`t hesitated to make improvements.
I`m typing with it now as I write this review and I find it quite comfortable to work on. The actual size of the key area is no different to the one on the Surface Pro 2, but the outer area is larger, as it would need to be to cover the increased screen size, but this also means there is more room to rest your hands.

The multi-touch touchpad is the first area which has seen a redesign. It’s larger, nicer to run your fingers around and you can now physically click it to make selections.

The second area of improvement is the way the Type Cover actually connects to the Surface. As before magnets are used to help guide it and hold it in place, and this feels really nice and solid. As an extra step however you can now also fold the keyboard up slightly so a smaller strip close to the device attaches to it, again using a magnet.

This raises the keyboard to a more natural typing angle, and makes it sturdier to work with, although the keyboard is still flexible so will bend slightly under heavy fingers.

The only negative point I have to say about the Type Cover is that even with it attached the on screen keyboard still tends to pop up when you need to type into a selection box in a browser for example. It’s just a small thing, but can get a little annoying when you have to close it each time.

The Pen

One of the most controversial decisions Microsoft made with the Surface Pro 3 was to switch from using a Wacom based digitizer to n-Trig. Initially people weren`t too happy with this as it was seen as possibly a step backwards. Many hoped that the pressure levels would have been increased on the Surface Pro 3 to 2048, which is standard with Wacom devices. With n-Trig it has gone the opposite way and been reduced to just 256.

The pen on the Surface Pro 2 wasn`t perfect and as soon as I could I replaced it with the Wacom Bamboo Stylus which was much more precise and nicer to work with. Even then there was a slight issue with the pointer becoming offset as you moved towards the edge of the screen. This doesn`t seem to be an issue with the new n-Trig system.

Another improvement is the addition of a third button, bringing it in line with the desktop stylus. This means you can use the pen as a mouse and still have access to two more buttons for right and middle click. Well, you could accept there are currently no options for configuring the pen buttons.

By default the tip acts as your usual left click, the first button is the eraser and the third is the right click. The button at the end of the pen, which did nothing on the Surface Pro 2 now actually has a function. Again this is not customizable but a single click will launch One Note, even if the device is off, and a double click will take a screen shot.

When the Surface first launched there were no options for configuring the pen and many people complained about the linear pressure curve. As an artist you need to be able to adjust these levels to compliment the way you work, so it’s a very personal thing.

Thankfully Microsoft quickly followed this up with the launch of the Surface Hub, an application which allows you to adjust the pressure curve, all be it in a basic way. Unfortunately this is pretty much all this tool does, and I would have liked to see more options available for button customization too.

In use the pen works very nicely. Once you get over the hover lag, which is an issue where the cursor seams to float behind your pointer as you hover the pen over the screen, you will find that it’s smooth and responsive. When the pen touches the screen the pointer jumps to that point so the hover lag isn`t an issue once you learn to ignore it.

To date I have dabbled in Mischief, Photoshop, ZBrush and 3DCoat and have yet to notice any issue with the reduced pressure sensitivity. If anything the new pen feels more natural to hold and even more precise making it ideal for sketching, painting and even taking notes.

Radial Menu

One of the areas I really missed with the Surface Pro 2, and again with the Surface Pro 3, is the lack of any physical buttons at the side of the screen. Coming from a Cintiq, and with most of my main applications needing some sort of keyboard access, I did struggle with using ZBrush, Maya and 3DCoat. All of these need the user to at the very least hold or press the Alt, Control and Shift key to maintain a streamlined workflow.

Yes you can use the Type Cover, but with applications like these you want to use the pen and hold the device like a tablet as you work, with the keyboard detached.

One solution is to enlist the help of a third party application like RadialMenu, which gives the user a suite of configurable buttons and a custom radial menu which will float on the desktop. This toolbar can then be touched and held as you work as you would any physical button.

Another advantage of an application like this is that you can create a new personalised toolbar per application and also reconfigure the Surface Pro 3`s pen buttons as well as the volume buttons.

Problem solved, right? Well, not exactly. This type of tool is excellent for this sort of issue but in practice it can sometimes become frustrating.

As an example, you’re working in ZBrush and decide to hold Alt to sculpt a recess into the model, if your hand brushes the screen or your finger moves slightly the button is unintentionally released. So you then end up adding to the surface of your model rather than removing. Yes you can press Undo but it breaks your concentration and train of thought and ultimately becomes frustrating.

I admit that this is more of an issue with the software than the hardware, it could also be my fat fingers, or perhaps it’s just a simple case of getting used to a new workflow. Either way I intend to persevere with the tool as the applications work well on the i7 so I want to push myself to use it for as much as I can.

Ideally Microsoft will hear our calls and invest the time into creating their own configurable touch keyboard. One already exists in Windows, so all they need to do is rework that one so you can drag a few choice keys to the side of the screen and keep them there as you work.

If you know of any other good touch keyboards which work on the Surface Pro 3 then please let me know in the comments below and I will give them a try.

You can find a great, more in depth review of RadialMenu over at SurfaceProArtists website.

Digital Art Use

I`ve talked in length about the Surface and its improvements but let’s get down to business. The upgrades are all well and good but will the Surface Pro 3 run the applications we all want to use?

Rather than give a general overview of how the Surface performed with a few key 3D applications I thought I would add a separate section on each, outlining their pros and cons.

In general there were occasions when the Surface`s fan would kick in and continue to whirl loudly for long periods of time, in addition to this the back of device did get quite warm. This did only seem to happen when I was using more processor intense applications like ZBrush or 3DCoat.

Mischief

If you’re not familiar with it, Mischief is a relatively new application focusing purely on drawing and sketching. Working in tablet mode i.e. type cover detached, your Surface becomes your own digital A4 sketch pad.

Without the need to hold or press any extra buttons you can then happily sketch or ink using the pen with each stroke coming through fluidly, and the pressure registering nicely.

However, using the touch screen to zoom, pan and rotate around the canvas was a strange experience, as you will see from the video below. Panning with two fingers worked seamlessly but zooming into the canvas didn`t always register. With practice I had to pan first and with my fingers still in position zoom into the scene.

I downloaded one of the sample files from the Mischief web site, to compare performance and initially I was disappointed. Zooming into the scene and panning around it did become laboured when more information was being displayed. This disappointment soon vanished when I tried the same scene on my desktop machine and noticed the same issues. So essentially this was not a hardware problem.

So to summarize Mischief works very nicely on this device.

Maya

With Autodesk Maya, an application I use daily, I decided to take a scene I was currently working on and open it on the Surface. This way I could properly compare the two devices.

Happily the scene, which was a subdivision surface based animal, seemed to perform equally to the desktop. I could pan, move and edit the topology with no visible delay in the feedback.

Next I took a more complex scene and opened it on the Surface. This one was a character made up of over 1.5 million polygons. So not super high resolution, but a decent every day test. Panning and moving around the scene was flawless, and I was happy to be able to use the touch screen to do this too. It was when I tried to edit the model that things slowed down.

With Viewport 2.0 enabled model manipulation was very slow. Using Soft Selection, the falloff display moved across the models surface smoothly but it was when I selected a vertex and move it that things began to chug.

To compare I switched to the Legacy Default Viewport and things did speed up dramatically.

Although I was using the RadialMenu tool I mentioned earlier I did feel that for more intense work I still needed access to the keyboard. I work primarily with Maya`s Marking Menus which are heavily keyboard based, so in this instance RadialMenu couldn`t compare.

In summary Maya handled flawlessly for lower end work but I would primarily use the Legacy Default Viewport for more higher end models. I also decided that for this application, and my particular way of working, it would be easier to use a mouse and keyboard for more focused work.

Update – 23/2/15 – After spending some more time with Maya on the Surface I have noticed the same buggy touch screen controls I experienced in Mischief. Perhaps this isn`t a software issue after all and instead is a hardware one?

ZBrush

I was excited to try ZBrush on the Surface Pro 3, not only because its ZBrush but timing wise couldn`t have been more perfect with the release of ZBrush 4R7 and the long awaited 64bit version.

With the Surface Pro 2`s smaller screen ZBrush was cramped to say the least, but its configurable UI meant you could easily rework your main tools to fit on the reduced resolution. With the Surface Pro 3`s increased screen size and resolution the UI was a much better fit, although the Lightbox did hang over the edge slightly as mentioned earlier.

To help myself out I decided to rework the UI to fit better on the Surface Pro 3, if you like you can download it from here and give it a try yourself.

So how did ZBrush perform? Initially I began by testing some of the models which are supplied with the application in the standard 32bit version. First was the 4R7_QuickHeavyLoadMech project and second was the GroomPracticeLongHair scene. The mech loaded and I was able to move around it and also edit it with the new ZModeler brush, all smoothly and with no lag. Unfortunately when it came to the FiberMesh intense groom scene things did see a reduction in performance.

To compare I moved to the new 64bit version and in short both scenes were super smoothly with no lag.

As with Maya I loaded the 1.5 million polygon test model next, to see how ZBrush would hold up. Even with two more subdivisions added to the model it continued to be as smooth and fluid as the base mesh. In fact the only issue I did have was I couldn`t then add more subdivisions because I had hit the polygon per model limit on this machine.

So in summary ZBrush ROCKED! Particularly the 64bit version which didn`t even seem to break a sweat.

Update – 23/2/15 – Ok, so after working more in ZBrush on the Surface I may have discovered a major flaw. This may just be my system and I am looking into whether other people are experiencing the same problems but it seems that if you import an external model it loses the pressure sensitivity. It works fine initially with the stock models and using a dynamesh sphere, but loading or importing a model or tool created elsewhere seems to break the pen. This could be a huge game changer for ZBrush on the Surface Pro 3 as it means, certainly in my experience, any work I do on my desktop machine can`t then be continued on the Surface.

I don`t know whether this is a hardware or software issue just yet but I am investigating it. For now you can find out more about this bug in THIS thread I set-up over at ZBrush Central.

Photoshop CC

Finally I wanted to dip into Photoshop CC as this is kind of the flagship application for the Surface Pro 3.

In this blog post last year, Microsoft revealed that it was working closely with Adobe to bring to us a version of Photoshop CC which was “optimized for the Surface Pro 3”. This included updates to make the UI more user friendly, the addition of touch controls for navigation and greater accuracy with the pen.

On first loading the program I was struck by just how tiny the UI was. The buttons and menu text were so small I almost had to squint to see them. Luckily Adobe has started to combat this issue, as mentioned above, by adding an Experimental Features tab under the Preferences menu. Inside here is the ability to scale the UI by 200% making the buttons much easier to press on a touch screen device.

Great! I thought. Although I think they maybe went too far.

At 200% the UI and dialogue boxes become huge, so much so that this results in some boxes hanging off the screen. I can see why they decided to simply double the button sizes as they are much easier to tap with your finger, however I would have preferred a more scalable UI, or at least a few more options in between. Maybe 150%?

The UI aside, working on the i7, painting and using the touch controls to pan and rotate the canvas worked seamlessly, as promised. Again, just like Mischief, the pen pressure transferred nicely with the lightest and heaviest of strokes coming through beautifully.

This just helped to reassure me that the reduction to 256 levels hasn`t affected the ability to sketch and paint effectively on the device.

In a final summary, Photoshop on the Surface Pro 3 is a go! The UI just needs a little bit more flexibility.

Below is a short video to accompany this section where I use the Surface Pro 3 in tablet mode and experiment in ZBrush 4R7 and Mischief.

General Use

I`ve spoken about how the Surface Pro 3 holds up to being worked on with the more higher intensity 3D and 2D applications but there is so much more it can do.

Surfing the web is smooth and responsive, plus if you’re using Chrome along with a Google account all your bookmarks and settings are seamlessly synchronised to this system. This again helps to maintain a familiar surrounding as you work or browse as you’re essentially looking at the same browser across computers.

Another area where the Surface has outshone its competitors is by using it to watch TV or movies. Previously on a cold night I would retreat to bed and watch Netflix or some other similar streaming service on my iPad. I recently tried this with the Surface and won`t be going back. The screen is larger and clearer, plus the sound quality is far superior.

As for more office based tasks like writing a document or compiling a spreadsheet the same applies, working on the Surface was a pleasurable experience.

Battery Life

So after all these tests how did the battery hold up?

I guess it comes down to what you are using it for. Everyday tasks like writing documents and surfing the web, plus using Photoshop or a similar application, something which doesn`t throttle the processor too much will give you a much longer battery life. I spent a few hours doing these as well as watching some movies and the battery meter didn`t drop much at all. Certainly not to the point where I was dashing for the cable.

Once you start using more intense 3D programs and the fan begins to whirl, the case raises in temperature, then you can expect this to drop dramatically. As an example, an hour in ZBrush can see your battery drop by almost 40% which isn`t ideal if you are traveling.

It’s important to say that I haven`t done any scientific tests so your own timings may differ. In general the battery is excellent for basic tasks but if you’re planning on any 3D work I would have your charger and a plug socket handy.

Mobility

I think the Surface Pro 3 probably answers this question itself.

The slimmer, lighter design with the ability to use the Type Cover also as a screen protector makes this a very mobile device. It’s not as light as an iPad Air 2, but if you compare the scope of just what you can do with it then I know which I would rather have in my bag when heading out to a meeting.

I can already see myself doing a bit of writing, sketching or even ZBrushing whilst on a long train journey.

Should You Invest?

I have to admit that I love the Surface Pro 3 and with the upcoming release of Windows 10 I can imagine it only getting better.

It’s a perfect device for everyday tasks such as using Microsoft Office, writing emails, surfing the web, watching movies etc. the list goes on, and I love the way you can use it as a tablet and a laptop, so from that perspective I think Microsoft has nailed it.

Even small things like it mirroring my desktop machine through my Microsoft account, and Google synchronising Chrome, help to make the transition smoother when I do step away from my desk.

From a creative point of view, a traditional 2D artist or even a Photographer would find it a perfect fit for their work demands. As mentioned, in tablet mode it becomes more like an A4 pad, so painting in Mischief or using Photoshop are ideal.

Unfortunately I still don`t think it will be there yet for some 3D artists. Performance wise it hit all my personal targets meaning I wouldn`t be concerned about switching to this to continue working in Maya or ZBrush if I was out of the office, and close to a plug socket.

What may put some people off is having to use an on screen keyboard solution but with practice and a few application updates this could become a non-issue if you’re willing to persevere.

Ideally Microsoft need to release its own, more robust on screen keyboard solution for us 3D digital artists. Add to this more configuration options for the pen buttons too, making these changeable per application, and they could be on to a winner.

What’s Next?

The review is over and thanks for taking the time to read it, but things don`t end here.

In the coming months I plan to take the Surface Pro 3 further and push it to its limits to see just what it can handle. Will it hold up to baking Normal Maps or Occlusion maps? What’s it like to animate or even render on? Could you work through an entire project on it?

These are just a few questions I have, but feel free to post your own in the comments below if there is anything in particular you would like me to test.

In the meantime please make sure your following my Facebook page for more regular updates and thanks for coming.

 Although Microsoft supplied the device, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

If you work in an industry where each day is spent sat behind a desk and then you have the commute home, which again is spent sat in a car, bus or train, you will know that once you finally reach the welcoming glow of your front door, heading to the gym is the last thing on your mind. You certainly don`t want to spend your precious lunch hour working out either.

The problem is as the years roll by you will find, as I did, that your waist band increases and your energy levels plummet as your health slowly deteriorates. So what can you do with the little time you have to improve your health?

An activity tracker like the Fitbit Charge could be the solution if all you need is a little motivation to move more. This wristband will track your movements and using the online dashboard or smartphone application, you can see just how active or inactive you are during the day. Armed with this information you are given goals, challenges and an element of competitiveness which all help to gently push you to walk that extra mile or use the stairs instead of the elevator.

But is this the ideal solution for us desk jockeys? Does this wearable technology actually work?

Read on to find out.

Unboxing & Setup

The Fitbit Charge comes in a compact box with the device itself visible through a clear plastic window.

Also included in the box are a very short charging cable and a bluetooth dongle, which you can use to synchronise your data via a computer. Synchronising is an important part of any Fitbit as it allows you to upload and also visualize your data online within your own custom dashboard, or on your smartphone, but more on this later.

Before you can use the Fitbit you do need to connect it to a computer or pair it with a smartphone. For me this was relatively painless and within seconds my iPhone was connected to the Fitbit app. This initial connection not only helps to establish and activate your Charge but also download and transfer any firmware updates which have been made available.

Once setup, and the Fitbit has been charged, its then time to put it onto your wrist and begin tracking.

Build Quality

The strap itself is made from a band of solid silicone which is comfortable on your wrist, so much so you almost forget it’s there. It’s held in place with a dual stud clip which does a good job of securing it to your arm, even during the most rigorous of activities.

The main OLED display is a slim sliver of a screen but it’s also very bright and crystal clear making it easy to quickly cycle through your activities which include the time, steps taken, distance, calories burned and stairs climbed. This is done by pressing a small button next to the screen, but you can also tap the screen twice to quickly display a specific item.

These statistics are also configurable so you can decide what is shown, and in what order.

Fitbit state that the Charge is water resistant up to 1 ATM, which essentially means its splash proof but you can`t go swimming whist wearing it. I did test this with the Charge in the shower and it held up well, working perfectly during and afterwards.

The Charge in Use

What I like about the Fitbit Charge is it sits quietly on your wrist, silently keeping track of your daily activities. It does this by using the built in accelerometers to track your movements and elevation before using Fitbits own algorithms to work out exactly what you were doing. This is then translated into steps, stairs climbed or even how well you have slept.

What’s more, with a quick glance and a button press you can easily see how well you are doing, without the need to take your smartphone out of your pocket and synchronise each time. This makes the Fitbits unique display very convenient.

There are other elements you can track manually through the app or the dashboard and these include the ability to log your daily water consumption as well as food and calorie intake. The problem at the moment is there is no UK food database. Yes you can connect apps like MyFitnessPal but for me personally I wasn`t interested in this aspect of fitness, not at this moment in time anyway. It’s good to have the option there though should I change my mind in the future.

The first problem I did encounter when I began using the Charge was that the goals it sets initially are all generic and very impersonal. 10,000 steps in a day for example is the recommended amount we should be doing but it still seemed quite intimidating to someone like me, especially at the start of my journey. Luckily you can edit these and define your own goals in the app. The problem is knowing a good place to start, as everyone is different.

I would have liked to see an initial setup system which asked you a few basic lifestyle questions and then estimated a good starting point. This could be followed up with a week where it would track your activities and then set your goals based on the average results.

Fitbit does email you a weekly update which includes your averages so you could easily set your goals based on these yourself, but it would be nice to have it automated for someone new to the Fitbit universe.

I decided to begin with a goal of 5,000 steps and I also adjusted my stairs, distance and calories based on my personal averages. After a few weeks I noticed that I was hitting these goals so I increased them. I`m only at 6,000 steps now so nowhere near the recommended amount, but even this number makes me to do more to reach that goal.

It’s funny how having this small bit of motivation can push you that little bit further. I am finding that I look for excuses to squeeze more steps into my day, like parking further away from the gym or the supermarket when I go just so I have to walk further. Now if I have a choice of driving for five minutes or walking for ten I walk.

The difficulty for me is that I work from home. Yes I try to get out three times a week and go to the gym or go swimming, and it’s those days that I hit my goals, yet on the other weekdays the Fitbit has shown me just how inactive I am. I used to think that going to the gym was fine and the day after I could relax, but now I realise I need to do something more to get my activities up on my down days.

So in that respect the Fitbit Charge has done its job and I am surprised that after two weeks I didn`t get bored, in fact it’s more the opposite. I still get a feeling of pride whenever it silently vibrates on my wrist to tell me I have reached my daily goal.

Accuracy

Now the Fitbit isn`t perfect and sometimes it doesn`t track things how you would expect it to. The stairs climbed for example is a bit of a grey area. If I run up the stairs it’s not logged, even if I hold the banister which steadies my wrist it ignores the flight of stairs, so you almost have to train yourself to ascend them a certain way.

With the pedometer this again isn`t an exact science. What you have to remember is that it’s tracking your movement and guessing what’s its sensing is a step. With this in mind I have found that in the morning I might wake up and have done twenty steps in my sleep. At the gym, it reads the movement on the rowing matching as actual steps too even though you’re not physically walking.

I personally don`t see these as major issues and you can work around them. With any wearable technology like this you have to make sure you use it as a rough guide only. If you’re looking for exact numbers then you may have to invest in something a lot more expensive, and less comfortable to wear.

Exercise Mode

As well as the Charge tracking steps, stairs climbed, calories burned and many other aspects of your daily life you can also ask it to track a specific time period with Exercise Mode.

Holding the button down for a few seconds will activate a stopwatch. A second button hold will end the timer and any activity done during that period will be marked in your data as a “Workout” which can be categorized later.

This is useful for example if you go for a walk or a run and can even be used whilst at the gym. I`ve tried it on the elliptical, treadmill and even the rowing machine and it kept track of my movements, although it did just simplify this information into steps. How accurate it is for these I don`t know, and I did find myself having to input most activities manually too to take into account other statistics I wanted logged like distance etc. just to get those extra calories which otherwise would not be included.

Luckily the Fitbit is clever enough to notice any overlapping activates so won`t double up your numbers, instead it will simply merge the two. Ideally the “Workout” entry should be expanded upon so you can manually add the distance you travelled and other key factors yourself so the need to add two entries is made redundant.

It`s those activates which don`t have any step value, as in your wrist doesn`t move much, which leave the wristband redundant. You can manually input these into the app, so the exercise bike for example can be easily added, yet other options like weight training are very basic giving you the ability to record the amount of time you have been working out and that’s all.

For me I like to keep a record of what equipment I used, how much I lifted and also reps so looking back I can see what I have done. Even a notes section under each entry would be useful for tracking this data.

Another area of improvement would be for the Fitbit to notice other activates automatically, or at least make a guess which you need to confirm. After a few sessions on the rowing machine for example the Fitbit Charge could learn these movements and add the data for you. The same could be applied to repetitive movements like weight training on a machine. Your arm is only going up and down a certain amount of times so couldn`t the Fitbit recognise this during Exercise Mode too?

This goes back to it feeling very impersonal. With a few firmware and software updates what you could have is a device which learns your activities over time and can then recognise them when you do them.

Dashboard

It’s all well and good having all this data collected on our wrist but how do you visualise it? Well once synchronised, your data is sent to the cloud and stored in your own, free Fitbit account. You do this via the supplied Bluetooth dongle and a small piece of software you can download from the Fitbit website.

It’s here that your statistics come to life and the data shines. The online dashboard is bright, colourful and excellent for seeing not only your current statistics but also your history, so hopefully over time you will see yourself slowly becoming more active.

The amount of data you are given is impressive and you can easily identify what time of the day you were most active through the detailed graphs. It even works down to the minute so even a five minute walk is tracked and then you can see it later to see how well you did.

To some people the dashboard may seem a little overwhelming. As well as showing the wristbands data you can also manually input a wealth of other information. Again, you can add your food consumption and calorie intake directly into the dashboard, you can also keep a personal journal which allows you write whatever you like about your day to help balance out the data. You can even track your glucose and blood pressure measurements, so it’s quite comprehensive.

For many though, like me, I just stick to the main page which is fully customizable meaning you can drag and drop the tile style layout so it shows just the information you need.

The App

In addition to the dashboard you can also access your data via the smartphone app which for some may be much more convenient. I personally use this far more than the desktop dashboard.

In the app you have access to all the data on your dashboard but you can also configure and manage your Charge too, and even see your battery level, so in some respects you rarely need to access the dashboard via a computer.

Everything is well presented making it easy to follow and view plus the app is fully configurable so you can show and hide just the areas you personally want to track.

Run & Walk Tracking with GPS

Another aspect of the Fitbit app is the ability to track your walks and runs as well as the other activities mentioned above, using the phones built in GPS in conjunction with the data the wristband collects.

As with every area of the app, setting this up is simple, all you need to do is set the device to track your exercise. Once you start the phone will then begin tracking your position on a map so afterwards you can see exactly where you went.

In addition to this once you synchronise the Charge you will also see information on your speed, calories burned, steps taken and also elevation too.

In practice this worked really well over a one hour walk and it was nice to see a visual representation of just what I had achieved.

Sleep

Unlike many of the other Fitbit devices, the Charge now has automatic sleep detection. So it notices when you fall asleep and then begins tracking rather than you having to tell it it’s time for bed.

In practice I found the Charge to be quite accurate, although on the days when I went to bed early and watched TV or read a book, my lack of movement meant it thought I had had an early night. This is easily fixable though and you can edit the times it’s logged the next day via the app or dashboard.

You can configure the Charge to either use a Normal or Sensitive approach to tracking your night. Fitbit say that the normal setting is best for most people with sensitive being used if you don`t sleep soundly as it essentially tracks more movements.

For me this was a little confusing at first as I wasn`t sure if I was a sound sleeper or not. Yes I do wake up sometimes in the night so should I have it set to sensitive?

I tried both ways and the results were either I had a good 8 hours sleep, or a restless 5 which made me a little anxious. In the end I decided to keep it set to normal as in general I don`t consider myself a bad sleeper, but its interesting to see your sleep patterns.

Social

If you`re lacking motivation you can make your Fitbit experience a little more social by joining with other Fitbit users. Adding friends opens up a whole new area of competition which in turn can boost your flagging motivation.

By default you are ranked according to a seven day step chart, so initially you can see how well you are doing compared to your friends. In addition to this you can also ask your friends to participate in a series of challenges. These are quite basic at the moment but range from competing to see who reaches their daily goal first to seeing who racks up the most steps in a week.

Hopefully Fitbit will expand upon this to include some more imaginative challenges using other aspects of the data the Charge collects. Maybe most stairs climbed or calories burned?

As well as adding friends directly you can also join various online groups to get help and advice plus team up with people in your area.

All in all these are great additions to the Fitbit community and will scratch that competitive itch, pushing you even further.

Other Tools

As well as all the information above the Fitbit Charge also has a few more tricks up its sleeve. You can set up the Charge to use its vibrate feature as a silent alarm. This, as it turns out, isn`t that silent, but if you need to be woken in the morning or reminded of something during the day it’s a perfect and discreet way to do it.

It would be nice for the alarms to flash custom text on the screen, if it is being used as a reminder. Like “Take Pills” or “Ring Home” rather than just flashing the time.

When paired with a smartphone you are also treated to call notifications. The number or name of the caller is sent from the phone to your wrist so you can judge whether to answer without having to remove it from your pocket.

This is a great extra feature but would be even more valuable if it expanded to notify you of messages, emails or reminders. All it needed to do was flash up the name of the person the text message or email was coming from so again you can judge whether to dig your phone out of your pocket or leave it until later.

Battery Life

With a device like this battery life is very important. You don`t want the extra chore of having to charge it every day, especially if your also tracking your sleep.

Fitbit claim that the Charge will give you seven days of use between charges and from my tests this seemed accurate. Obviously this will drop during your first week of use as you are constantly checking your statistics, but after the novelty wears off you will find the battery last much longer. I have had twelve days continuous use before I was notified that it was time to charge it.

Another tip is to disable the All Day Sync option in the app which will save battery life. It will mean that you have to synchronise your Charge manually when the app is open but that’s not a big deal, and it automatically searches, connects and synchronises when the app is launched anyway.

Should You Invest?

I`ve been wearing the Fitbit Charge for over a month now, only taking it off briefly to clean myself or the device, and I am impressed with not only the amount of data it gives you, but more importantly how it continues to motivate me.

Yes, it’s a very impersonal device and I would love to see it become more of a fitness friend, something which can learn from your activities and make suggestions rather than just collecting statistics. Also, some of the manual tracking tools do need an update, particularly if you go to the gym and use non-step based equipment.

This aside, what you do have is an excellent activity tracker which offers the user a great deal of data about their day. Not only this, it does actually get you out and about more.

The convenience of the OLED screen is a huge bonus. Just a quick glance can tell you how well you’re doing and getting that little buzz notification when you hit your daily goal is a great feeling.

So is this the device for you?

If you simply want to improve your health and find out how active or inactive you actually are then the Fitbit Charge is perfect. It will motivate you and if you add friends and join groups they will add to the motivation meaning after a while you will find that your activity levels have risen. It’s just important to use the data as a guide and not take it as gospel.

What about the Charge HR?

Also released alongside the Fitbit Charge was the Charge HR. This device is very similar to the Charge except it also continuously tracks your heart rate.

I hope to have some hands on time with the Charge HR very soon but my initial impressions are that If you’re someone who is already active and goes to the gym regularly, then maybe you should hold off and wait for my Charge HR review.

If all you’re interested in is steps, stairs, calories, distance and sleep then the Fitbit Charge is ideal.

  Although Fitbit supplied the device, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

In 2013 Wacom introduced the first of its new mobile tablets, the Cintiq Companion. This originally came in two flavours, one having an Android based operating system and the other using the Windows 8 operating system.

Myself, like many others, picked our jaws off the floor and then tried to figure out how we were going to pay for our own mobile Cintiq.
Unfortunately, after spending a month with one my credit card ended up staying inside my wallet. As great as it was to continue working with a Cintiq away from the office a few design choices made this sound better in theory than reality, as you can read in my review.

So when Wacom announced the Cintiq Companion 2 I admit that I got a little excited. My credit card was beaming as it looked forward to being released from its leathery prison and I looked ahead to a summer of working in the garden.

Just like last time Wacom offered me the chance to spend a month with the i7 version of the device, and that month is now up.

So, will I be buying a Cintiq Companion 2? Read on to find out…

Unboxing and Setup

The box which the Companion comes in is very similar to that of its predecessor, in fact I think it’s identical in size and shape, apart from the obvious changes in the designs and information on the front.

On opening the box everything is very neatly packed away inside, and peeling away the layers revealed the Companions stand, its cover and the tablet itself. Hidden beneath this was the Pro Pen in its case, the charging cable and power brick and also an input display cable.

Just as before everything screamed quality. The tablet felt solid, smooth and weighty, with the new sleeve feeling more current with its design.

Even the Pro Pen felt luxurious, like your holding an oyster and opening it to find a pearl hidden inside.

At this point I couldn`t wait to get it setup so I plugged the Companion 2 in and began working through the Windows 8 set-up process. Just as with any Windows based device this included the obligatory updates which added another hour to the task but before long I had synchronised my Microsoft account and was good to go.

The Device

On first inspection the Cintiq Companion 2 may appear to be the same as the original Companion, but there are many differences.

Firstly, the Companion 1 measured 0.7 by 14.8 by 9.8 inches (HWD) and weighed 3.9 pounds. The newer model is smaller and lighter measuring 0.6 by 14.7 by 9.9 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.75 pounds. These aren`t huge differences but they are heading in the right direction. One of my main gripes with the original Companion was its weight. It was never a device you could hold and draw on like a sketch pad, it was just too heavy. Unfortunately the same can be said of this smaller model. Yes it is lighter, but it`s still a desk or lap device which you have to sit to use.

Looking around the device you will see it now has six Express Keys where previously there were only four. This is a huge improvement and in practice I found the extra keys more comfortable to work with as I find I need quick access to Control, Alt and Shift while working.

There is of course the Rocker Switch too which holds four more configurable keys as well as housing a fifth in the centre, which by default is used as the Windows key.

There are also more input sockets at your disposal. You now have access to three USB 3.0 sockets, an SD Slot, Mini Display Port and a new Input Display Port. This allows you to use the Companion 2 as a standalone Cintiq meaning you can connect it to your Mac or PC and use it as a second screen. This again is another leap forward for the brand making it more flexible, so if for example you have a powerful desktop system you can connect the Companion 2 to it and use its screen to draw, paint or sculpt directly onto your system, meaning you no longer need to own multiple Cintiq`s.

Another improvement is with the power switch which is now a slider rather than a button so you don`t accidentally turn the device off. An issue which the original Companion suffered from.

The Screen

Although the screen size hasn`t physically changed and is still 13.3 inches, the resolution has. Previously you were working with 1920×1080 pixels but now you have a huge 2560×1440 to play with. This give you much more screen real estate meaning your canvas size is roomier. I was hoping that I wouldn`t still need two different UI configurations for ZBrush, a desktop and a Companion one but even though the width was fine the height of the UI was still too short.

The screen does look great though. It is colour accurate up to 73% Adobe 1998 and 96% SRGB and the matte cover helps to diffuse the light reducing, but not eliminating reflections. The only downside, something which resides with all Wacom products, is the grain this matte covering adds to the screen. What could be a crisp, sharp and clear screen almost has a slight blur to it.

The Stand

It`s no secret that I didn`t like the stand on the Companion 1. It was a separate entity which almost clumsily attached to the back of the device and then didn`t feel secure. It also added unwanted bulk to the tablet if you kept it attached but closed. I think I said previously that it almost felt like an after though, something the designers forgot to add and just threw on at the last minute.

With the Companion 2 they had time to rectify this, to include a built in stand which became almost invisible when closed yet simple to slide open.

What do we have? The same stand as before.

I couldn`t do a direct comparison although it did seem slimmer by design, but the usability issues I had previously were the same. If I wanted to use it I had to retrieve it from the sleeve, try to line up the slot at the base and then prise open one of three height positions on offer. This then had to line up with another slot in the back of the Companion 2 with you almost leaning on the device to make sure it was all connected correctly.

It only came into its own when at a desk, when it was meant to be used as a semi-permanent fixture. On the go however I found it clumsy and almost a chore to have to attach.

Come on Wacom, let`s see something better in version 3 please!

The Keyboard

The Cintiq Companion 2 doesn`t come with a keyboard but you can use any Bluetooth keyboard with it, just as you could with the Companion 1.

This isn`t a device for writing your next novel on though, or even replying to emails. The keyboard, when used, is always detached so only works when at a desk. You couldn`t use it while out and about and I think your neighbours would have something to say if you began working with the Companion 2, its stand and keyboard on a crowded train journey. It’s just not practical or discreet.

I found that I used the on screen keyboard more just out of convenience and left any serious writing for my desktop machine or laptop.

The Pro Pen

Bundled with the Companion 2 is Wacom`s Pro Pen. This isn`t a new device and has been around for a while now, but if it isn’t broken why fix it?

This stylus is compatible with many of the Wacom products and works very nicely, so there was no need to create a brand new pen for this device. It comes in its own case with a handful of extra nibs of varying hardness levels, plus a selection of coloured rings for personalisation.

The Pro Pen gives you a comfortable 2048 levels of pressure meaning you can draw the faintest and hardest of lines, making sketching almost like working with paper and a pencil. The Companion 2 also recognises the pens tilt angle which is ideal for painting applications when you need to simulate the edge of a pencil, or a broader paint stroke.

The pen also gives you two buttons to work with and an eraser at the tip, all configurable via the Wacom software.

Here it is compared to the previous pens in Wacom`s library.

Configurability

Wacom are well known for how configurable their devices are, and what`s makes them easier to set-up is the unified software which is the same across them all.

If you’re familiar with setting up your Cintiq 24HD, or Intuos tablet then you will be more than comfortable configuring your Cintiq Companion 2.

The pen, its buttons, the Express Keys and Rocker Switch are all changeable so you can adjust what they do on a per application basis. You also have the added ability to create on screen buttons and sliders to help you as you work, which is a nice touch. None of this is new however and has been part of the software for a while.

The point I am getting to is that the amount of configuration available is quite liberating so you aren`t stuck with one set of options across the whole system.

The Elephant in the Room

Ok, let`s talk about the fan. If you have looked online you will no doubt hear tales about how loud the fan is on the Cintiq Companion 2, especially the i7 model.

If you watch the video below, with sound, you will get a good idea of just how loud the fan is. Yes, all mobile devices like this do have some degree of noise especially when working with processor intense applications, but with the Companion 2 it’s almost taken to another level.

I`m not going to harp on about the fan, its loud, that’s it. You either get used to it or it’s a deal breaker. I`ve heard it isn`t as bad on the i5 model so it might be you opt for that version of the hardware. You never know, by the time you read this Wacom may have released a firmware update to reduce the problem.

I`ve spoken to Wacom about this issue and from what I gather it’s all about balance. After using the Companion 1 people wanted more power, which Wacom gave them, but this came at the price of a louder, more intrusive fan.

Digital Art Use

We have covered the Cintiq Companion 2`s many improvements as well as its downsides, so let`s get down to business and see what its actually like to use one.

Just as I did with my previous Surface Pro 3 review I have created a video demonstrating how key applications perform. In addition to this I also used the built in microphone to record the sound. You can see the video below.

What I will also do is work though the applications and write a little about them too.

Mischief

Mischief has been around for a while now and is a very affordable sketching and painting application. Its strengths lie within its vector based strokes which mean anything you draw isn`t limited by size. This also can be said of its canvas size which is, as Mischief claim, unlimited.

Working on the Companion 2 was a joyous experience. It was fluid and the 2048 levels of pressure worked very nicely. Because the use of a keyboard isn`t essential I could even sit with the device on my lap as I painted.

The only problem came with the grain on the screen which made what could have been a crisp stroke into a slightly blurred one.

Maya

Working in Maya was certainly helped with the use of the Express Keys. It meant I didn`t need to use the keyboard, not for basic work anyway. I am a heavy Marking Menu user however so for longer stints of work a dedicated keyboard would be essential.

As you could see in the video, when using Maya 2015 on the Companion 2 the UI became tiny. This should be fixed however with the release of Maya 2016 and its new scalable UI.

In use, low polygon models performed well and I could build and animate with ease. As usual I also imported a 1.5 million polygon test model and this is where things began to slow down, to a point where it was almost unusable.

In summary I felt that Maya worked well for lower end models, but collapsed on more complex scenes.

ZBrush

If there was one application I needed to test on the Companion 2 it was ZBrush. I had struggled to use it on other mobile devices so I was hoping this would be perfect for it. In theory there should be no issues with the stylus as the Cintiq is still Wintab based. The Express Keys would also enable me to work as I would if I were stood at my main machine.

Let’s just say it didn`t disappoint.

The higher resolution screen meant I had more room to play with and could experience the full width of the ZBrush UI. It wasn`t as tall however so some items did still disappear off the bottom of the screen.

In use ZBrush performed well and I found myself spending hours sculpting away on it. I was working on a ZBrush project while testing the device and this allowed me to throw my scene onto Dropbox and continue working later in the evening while sitting on the sofa.

I tested the device with my standard 1.5 million polygon model, which was subdivided to over 12 million polygons. Sculpting on its surface was smooth and fluid, navigating the scene however became laboured.

Working in ZBrush was great, and I’d definitely recommend it for models under the 10 million mark. You could easily use higher resolution models however with some clever use of Sub Tools and visibility.

Photoshop

The first hurdle I had with Photoshop CC was the tiny UI, similar to what I experienced in Maya. Even increasing this through the 200% experimental option didn`t really help as the UI then became too big.

The UI aside it was nice to find that Wacom had some built in tools available for Photoshop. These were in the form of on screen buttons and sliders which gave you quick access to key commands like adjusting your brush size.

While painting on an A4 size document I did find that quick strokes did tend to lag behind, something I didn`t experience in Mischief. Photoshop is a heavier application but still, on a device like this I would have hoped for a much smoother ride.

All in all this was just a small issue, and I could easily see a Photoshop artist working full time on a Companion 2.

General Use

I think I have covered using the Companion 2 for more general tasks already. For art based projects it works well, the stylus pressure is nice and it’s comfortable to work on, if a little heavy.

I don`t however see a time where I would opt to sit in bed and watch Netflix on it, or play a game. For basic web surfing, yes I could use it for this while utilising the on screen keyboard, but compiling a document, like this review, wouldn`t be an option personally, perhaps for minor edits.

Battery Life

I was disappointed with the battery life on the Cintiq Companion 2. In full use, using ZBrush, I got the low battery warning after around 3 hours of work. What surprised me more was the amount of time it took to actually charge. I plugged it in at around 9am and the light went off, showing it was fully charged, late in the afternoon.

You can adjust the power options if you’re doing lighter work to give you a little more time, but in general I would make sure you’re not far from a power supply.

Mobility

If you have read this far you will probably know the answer to this and it’s along the same lines as I found with its predecessor. Yes it’s mobile in the sense that you can pack it away easily and carry it to another desk, or to a meeting. It’s lighter than the Companion before it, but still heavy and too large to slip into a messenger bag.

If you’re planning a long journey and want to use it on a plane, that’s not going to happen. On a train you could use it, without the keyboard or the stand, and prop it up. This would work and I have tried it. The issue then becomes the battery life.

I would say that this isn`t a true mobile device you can use anywhere, but if you intend to simply desk hop its perfect.

Should You Invest?

I really wanted to like, no, love the Cintiq Companion 2 and there were moments when I was using it that I felt the divine freedom of working in a full version of ZBrush out of my office.

I think this is the pivoting point though. If you’re a heavy ZBrush user, or even a Photoshop or other painting application user then this would be worth the investment. Applications like these worked like a dream, if you can put up with the fan noise and be near a power socket, which for some people like me, isn`t an issue. Just put on your headphones, sit further away from other people and your fine – head down creating.

This is, as it says on the box, a “Professional Creatives Tablet”. It’s moving from your larger Cintiq at your desktop to the smaller version and getting away from the office, and this is where it shines. It does feel like you’re doing just that, moving seamlessly between Cintiq`s.

The problem comes when you want more from it. It’s a huge investment and for me I need more from my devices, especially when they come at over £1,500. I need the flexibility to create on it, wherever I want. I need to be able to flip open a keyboard, slide back a stand and write wherever I want without bothering other people. I also want to be able to have fun on it, surf the web, binge watch some movies and play games.

All this and I also want to discreetly slip it into my bag and not notice the extra weight.

So going back to my opening statement will I be making my credit card happy? Unfortunately not this time around, so back in my wallet it goes.

If the Cintiq Companion 3 is lighter, has a better battery life and a built in, more discreet stand then maybe, just maybe that’s the time I invest.

What’s Next?

What I like to do with my reviews is follow them up further down the line with more experiments. See how they work in a production environment, try rendering and baking maps etc. the areas many reviewers don`t get the chance to try.

Unfortunately I only had the Cintiq Companion 2 for a month before I had to return it and as I won`t be investing in my own at this time the review ends here.

With that said please get in touch if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Although Wacom supplied the device for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

A few years ago I made a decision, one that would change my workflow forever.

For a long time I had worked with a Wacom tablet in one form or another, these being primarily the Intuos graphic tablets and earlier versions. So, as you may know, your hand is drawing on the desktop while your eyes are on the screen.

This worked well for me initially, but I longed for more. I wanted the precision and ease of actually drawing onto the screen itself, so my eyes were always on the more desirable and more expensive Cintiq range.

Eventually I plucked up the courage to order a Cintiq 24HD and to be honest, and as you can read from my review, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. My work improved, I was more productive and I felt my drawing skills were also getting better. In short, I could never go back, but as it was such a huge investment I also didn`t want to upgrade any time soon. The 24HD was my Cintiq for life, and I was more than happy with that.

So, technology moves forward and eventually Wacom revealed the 27QHD, with its higher quality screen and separate ExpressKey remote. It looked great, but was it good enough to warrant an upgrade?

Initially I was eager to try it out, but my heart had been stolen by the 24HD, so it would take a lot for me to push that aside for a younger, slimmer, more attractive model.

Wacom generously agreed to allow me to try one out for four weeks, so below is my full review, but now my time with it is over do I still feel the 24HD is enough for me? Read onto find out…

When I first received the Cintiq 24HD it was in a huge box clearly labelled that it should be handled by two people. It was heavy! This was mainly due to the Cintiq Ergo stand it came with, which had a solid base enabling you to position the Cintiq which it held firmly, with no chance of it toppling over.

When the 27QHD arrived the delivery man carried it to my door and I was thankfully able to pick it up and take it to my office with relative ease. The main reason for this is that the 27QHD doesn`t come with an adjustable stand as the 24HD did, this time the device has a small built in stand but if that’s not enough for you, you are also given the option to buy a full ergo stand separately, but more on the stand later.

After opening the box the Cintiq simply slides out, and in a second box you find all the cables, the Pro Pen and ExpressKey remote as well as all the instructions etc.

There are a few connection options available with the 27QHD but initially you won`t find a DVI cable as you would expect. Your options are either HDMI or a DisplayPort for optimal screen resolution and colour range. Wacom have also supplied two adapters, a HDMI to DVI-D and also a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort adapter if you prefer.

Connecting the device to your computer is pretty straight forward. A panel on the rear of the Cintiq opens up to reveal all the ports nicely hidden away along with a cable tie to keep things tidy, and, as the device itself is quite light, it`s not too much trouble to get connected and be up and running in minutes.

The Cintiq itself is a whopping 33.3 by 18.3 inches with a physical screen size of 27 inches, (measured diagonally). The most striking thing is the lack of any physical buttons around the screen itself, which almost feels a little strange when coming from a more traditional Cintiq set-up.

This isn`t entirely true though as once powered up, via a power button on the top, three touch buttons above the screen become illuminated, these are shortcuts to an on screen keyboard, the Wacom control panel and a third to enable and disable the touch screen functionality. All of which do come in handy as your working.

Distributed on both sides are four of the five USB 3.0 ports giving you even more connectivity options. The fifth is hidden inside the back of the unit and reserved for the ExpressKey remote`s USB dongle, which comes pre-installed.

All in all the device is sleek, smooth and well designed, with everything exactly where it should be. As mentioned previously all the cables are combined into a closed compartment on the back meaning they aren`t left hanging around asking to get in your way, and the USB ports are within comfortable reach.

Even though I love my Cintiq 24HD there has been a long standing issue, and this also spread to the Companion range. With other touch screen or pen input devices I have used, the screen is always crystal clear, yet with the Cintiq there is a graininess to them. This doesn`t stop you working, and eventually you kind of tune it out, but it is still noticeable.

My main concern with the 27QHD, (which stands for Quad HD meaning you are getting four times the pixel density of HD), was that the grain would still linger here.

Well, I can sit here and say that they finally cracked it. The high resolution screen is bright, colourful and so crisp it’s like Hank Pym devised a way to shrink pixels to a level where they aren’t visible to the human eye.

Now this may be exaggerating slightly, and is it really totally grain free? Well, unfortunately not. On close inspection you can still see a slight grain but compared to previous devices it’s nowhere near as bad, and in normal use the 27QHD is truly glorious.

The new 16.9 aspect ratio along with the 2560×1440 resolution give you much more screen real estate, so when using applications like Maya, Photoshop or ZBrush you have much more room to breathe. Even when using Maya 2015 the UI wasn`t ridiculously tiny, and Maya 2016 now has a scalable UI too which makes things easier.

As mentioned earlier in the review, the 27QHD doesn`t come bundled with a separate ergo stand but it can be bought separately if you feel you need one.

The 27QHD does however come with a built in stand, meaning you can lower it to desk level and use it quite easily as more of a drawing board. The stand comes in the form of two legs which can be lowered out of the back of the device holding it at an elevated level of around 20 degrees. You can also use it with the back flat against your desk which offers a smaller 5 degree increment.

This may be too low for some people and I was a little wary initially, I had visions of developing back ache after being hunched over it for a few hours, but I actually found it quite comfortable. At the end of the day if it’s too low just prop it up with a box to get it to your preferred angle.

For me, I have the legs out all the time and have the device resting on a shelf when it’s raised and being used as a monitor. This is when I am using Maya or writing so I need full access to the keyboard.

As the Cintiq is so light I can then easily move it down when I need to paint, sculpt or draw and as I suggested above, I have a sturdy box to rest it on if I need to raise it slightly.

I have found that not having the huge ergo stand, as I do with my 24HD, has freed up lots of space on my desk so my work area feels a lot roomier than it did before.

Let’s talk about the new kid on the block, the ExpressKey remote.

From the outset I loved the idea of this. With previous Cintiq`s, where the express keys are fixed to the surface, I did find I ended up leaning more on the device itself as I held my hand over the buttons and touch ring, which for me isn`t a bad thing. For some people though, the fixed button positions could be a struggle to reach or maintain a comfortable grip on.

What the new remote brings to artists is freedom.

Now as you work you can hold the remote comfortably in your hand, which can be anywhere. Alternatively, the remote also magnetically sticks to either side of the screen so you can use it in a more traditional way, but again, wherever it is most comfortable for you.

What makes the ExpressKey Remote even better are the amount of buttons available for you to fully configure, per application. Although the touch strips have been sacrificed you still have a total of seventeen buttons at your disposal, and the Touch Ring returns with the usual three options for brush size, canvas zoom, rotate or whatever you fancy.

The remote is battery powered and you charge it via a micro USB cable which comes supplied, and a handy icon on your desktop keeps you informed on the level of charge it has. Although the charge is suggested to last for 160 hours with continuous use so you shouldn`t need to charge it very often.

In short I feel Wacom have made a huge leap forward with the inclusion of a separate remote rather than static buttons, but it gets better…

Remove the USB dongle from the back of the Cintiq and you can plug it into any other device, like a Surface Pro 3 for example, and use the remote on that too. Say goodbye to those clunky and intrusive on screen keyboards and instead download your settings from the Wacom Cloud and have the same remote running on your laptop as you do with your 27QHD.

It’s amazing that Wacom allowed for this functionality, and they do sell the remote as a separate accessory which is a great move. They just need to offer a Bluetooth version, for those tablets without a USB port like the iPad.

No Wacom device would be complete without its trade mark stylus and with the 27QHD comes the tried and trusted Pro Pen, along with a stand and a host of replacement nibs including 6 standard, 3 felt and one stroke nib.

The Pro Pen has been bundled with Wacom devices for a while now and to be honest, if it ain`t broke don`t fix it. It feels nice in your hand and has a good weight to it, plus there are no batteries to replace or charge.

You get the same 2048 levels of pressure, plus 60 levels of tilt recognition so you are free to paint as hard or as soft as you need and at whatever angle. The only difference this time is it doesn`t come in its nice carry case, but then again you aren`t likely to be travelling with the 27QHD like you would with a Cintiq Companion.

The main improvement here is the feel of the stylus on the actual screen, and what you will find is a slight resistance as it moves across the surface. This gives a more natural feel to each stroke, almost like drawing on paper which for me is a much better experience.

All Wacom devices use the same software for configuration purposes and calibration, so if you’re used to using the Wacom Desktop Center with one device it will be a very familiar process.

The software itself is very user friendly and allows you to configure both the remote and stylus on a per application basis. This means that if you’re using Photoshop you can change how the touch ring and buttons work compared to Maya for example where you won`t necessarily need to adjust brush size, or rotate the canvas.

All these settings can also be uploaded and stored on the Wacom Cloud making them transferable between desktops and devices, so you don`t have to spend time setting up a new system with your preferred configuration.

The addition of the quick access settings button on the Cintiq 27QHD itself, also makes changes and tweaks to your settings quick and easy.

The only thing I could suggest is a new UI for the Wacom Tablet Properties window. The same layout has been used for many years now and with each new device a new series of settings are just bolted on. At times this can leave it feeling cluttered, but this is just a small gripe.

So, let`s get down to business. All these details and technical specifications are good but what’s the 27QHD actually like to use?

After the initial set-up, configuring the ExpressKey remote for each of your applications will take up a chunk of your time, although Wacom do offer some default configurations per application. To access these simply open the Tablet Properties window and add your application in the usual way.

Once done simply click the Default button and the configuration will be populated with a suggested layout for that application.

Once configured and my settings backed up to the Wacom Cloud, I found I could settle into a painting or a 3D model quite easily.

The colours simply pop from the bright, high definition screen and the larger canvas area is really nice to work on, with the resistance you get from the screen enhancing the whole experience.

Again, the remote took some time to get used to, learning where to put my thumb and fingers etc. but the ability to place it anywhere was a comfortable way to work. It’s important to state however that it won`t stick to the actual screen area itself. The rear of the ExpressKey remote has a rubber coating so if you have the device lowered onto its legs it will rest on the screen and not slide off, but still won`t stick to it magnetically.

Even without the ergo stand I found moving it into a desired position quite a simple task, but this is more due to my own setup. If you don`t have anything to prop the device up against when in “monitor” mode then you may struggle with using it lying flat all the time, unless your a dedicated painter that is.

If you have used a Cintiq before then the results are very similar, with it having great pressure sensitivity and no visible lag when drawing. Although I didn`t detect any major improvements in performance compared to the 24HD the upgraded hardware certainly improved its usability.

There are two options available when deciding which 27QHD to purchase and that’s whether to have a touch screen enabled model or not, which is similar to what was offered with the 24HD. The main difference when looking at a cost point of view is around £300, so it’s a big chunk of your budget for something that you may actually never use.

So is it useful?

Well, in general use you can use it as you would any touch screen device. So if you’re browsing the web or reading a document you can simply scroll, pan and zoom by touching the screen. With Microsoft Word, which i`m using now, this is great and makes it much quicker to navigate a large document and the same can be said of any web browser.

The gestures also come in really hand. For example, tap the screen with five fingers and the on screen keyboard pops up. A three finger tap will show the Radial Menu and three finger swipe will navigate your open apps.

With painting applications like Mischief and Photoshop you can`t use Touch input to paint, instead this is used primarily to navigate your canvas. Zoom, rotate and panning with your fingers is quick and easy and for professional painters not only will this feel more natural but also speed up your workflow.

For more 3D based applications the touch screen had varied results. Maya 2015 & 2016 were great for rotating around a model but buggy when you tried to zoom or pan around a scene. ZBrush had similar results when it came to being able to rotate a round a sculpt, but I couldn`t easily navigate the scene, or find any obvious ways to configure the touch input.

Yes, these issues could be solved by using the remote and pen as you would normally but then you wouldn`t need the touch screen.

I`d say at this point if you’re primarily a 2D artist then the touch input is worth the money. If your more 3D orientated I think you might find it a novelty at most, but ultimately never really use it.

At the beginning of my time with the Cintiq 27QHD Touch I was expecting to like it, return it and happily go back to using my trusty 24HD. At the end of the day it’s another £2,099 to find to upgrade to the newer model and if it wasn`t that different was it really worth the upgrade?

What I discovered was a Cintiq which is finally what a Cintiq should be.

The 27QHD has been designed along side existing Cintiq users, and its because of that essential feedback we now have more freedom to create how we want to create. Yes the screen still has a very slight grain to it, but in all honesty the only real issues I found were more application based rather than the hardware itself.

In short, the screen is amazing and the new ExpressKey remote is truly liberating.

So after four weeks with a 27QHD I found I just couldn`t go back to my 24HD with its lower resolution, grainy screen, heavy stand and fixed express keys. So now I’ve purchased my own 27QHD Touch and said a tearful goodbye to my 24HD. It served me well but in my opinion, if you can afford it, the 27QHD is well worth the upgrade. You won`t regret it!

Although Wacom supplied the device for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

Earlier this year I reviewed the Fitbit Charge, a great device for keeping you active and also motivated to do so. Shortly after the Charge went on sale in the UK, Fitbit released the Fitbit Charge HR. A similar device to the Charge but this time with the added feature of a heart rate monitor.

Rather than rush out a follow up review I thought I’d let the Charge HR settle into my routine and live with it for a while. That way I could properly evaluate its impact on my life, and see if it’s a device that I’ll be wearing in six months, or whether it will be resigned to a life at the bottom of a drawer.

Before you read on I do urge you to first glance over my Fitbit Charge review. Both devices are very similar not only in appearance but also functionality, so rather than repeat myself here I’m going to focus more on the differences to help you decide which is best for you.

Click here to read my Fitbit Charge review.

The Fitbit Charge HR comes in a box which is almost identical the Charge. It’s compact, with the device itself visible through a clear plastic window. The only difference being the actual text and information on and inside it.

Inside you will find the same cables and Bluetooth dongle allowing you to charge the device and also connect it to your desktop computer so you can synchronise with the online Fitbit Dashboard, although you can still connect to your mobile device via Bluetooth to update your profile via the Fitbit app.

As with the Charge setup is quick and easy, you simply connect to your phone or tablet via the app and bingo, you’re ready to go!

Aesthetically the Charge HR is quite similar to the Charge but there are some key differences. The first thing you will notice is the strap closes with a watch style buckle, rather than a clasp. This makes the fit a lot more sturdy on those long runs or workouts, not that the Charges studs were flimsy, but having the full buckle means it won`t accidentally come loose or get knocked off your arm.

The strap itself is made of the same silicone material as the Charge, but the pattern on it is an embossed cross-hatch style rather than diagonal lines. This is quite nice and means you can differentiate between the two devices, but during my early days wearing the Charge HR it seemed to be more of a dust magnet than the Charge. This isn’t much of an issue really as the Charge HR is also splash proof, not waterproof I hasten to add, so you can quickly run it under a tap to clean it.

Behind the slim display which shows you your statistics is where the magic happens. Here you will find two green flashing lights facing your arm, which are used to measure your heartrate, but more on that later.

Let’s talk about the main feature of the Charge HR, the heartrate monitor.

Firstly, how does it work?

Well, each time your heart beats your capillaries expand and contract beneath the surface of your skin. The Charge HR uses the green lights to detect this and calculate your heart rate. As you exercise your heart beats faster, so the capillaries are more active.

In my tests the Charge HR was quite accurate compared to standard monitors built into gym equipment. As an example, while running on a treadmill the Charge HR`s reading seemed to lag behind the treadmills for the first five minutes, but once it caught up it was on par with what the treadmill was showing.

The information stored on the Charge HR is also reflected in the Fitbit app. Unlike some other heart rate monitors the Fitbit boasts all day monitoring so you get a full twenty four hours of information based on your activity. In the app this is displayed as a graph which also tells you what “zones” you have moved in and out of during the day.

There are four main zones by default, although you can specify your own if you need to. These are your resting heart rate, fat burn, cardio and peak.

Depending on your age and fitness your heart rate may need to reach different levels to enter each of these zones, but by default between 90 and 126 beats per minute puts you into fat burn zone. Between 126 and 153 is your cardio workout and above 153 puts you into the peak fitness zone.

Having this information at hand, or wrist, is great for checking where you are during a workout so you know when to push yourself further. What makes it easier is you don`t need the app open, a quick tap on the Fitbit Charge HR`s display will quickly display your current heart rate, amongst other details, too.

Also in a recent update, Fitbit added the ability to turn on the display just by rotating your wrist. This does make life easier, but it also does have a hit on your battery.

As well as all day tracking you can also specify certain periods of time for the Charge HR to focus on and log separately; this is called Exercise Mode and is a feature also shared with the Charge.

Holding down the button will start and stop the timer, and this time is logged as an exercise and stored in the app for you to categorize later. You can also manually enter exercises if you so desire, and you can also use your phones GPS to track where you are running and the distance.

Being able to specify and log periods of time is a feature I use quite a lot. When I am out running or at the gym I often activate Exercise Mode so I can more accurately track that specific workout. What makes the Charge HR even better is also being able to visualize your heart rate through these sessions too.

Unfortunately the app hasn`t really been updated that much since my time with the Fitbit Charge and my issues with it still remain the same. That being that the information from the Fitbit is great, but once you transfer it to the application there are no options to expand upon it. Say for example I am on an elliptical and save my workout, I can`t add in the distance I covered, or the level I was using etc.

All that is stored is my heart rate and any steps that have registered as I moved. The app does calculate your calories used from this information, but for me I’d like to just have a few more boxes open for me to fill in.

At present I still have to use multiple apps like Runkeeper, to log everything I need, and because of this I use it to track my runs rather than use the GPS option in the Fitbit app.

Comparing the Charge and the Charge HR I can say that they are almost identical with regards to how they work, and the information they give you. Both sit silently on your wrist, just like a watch or bracelet, measuring your daily activates and your sleep pattern in a stalker type of way.

You can set specific goals for each category so you’re hitting your daily milestones, and you can even become part of a group through the challenges section which adds a bit more competitiveness to your workouts.

Pressing the button on the side will cycle through your daily statistics showing the time, steps taken, distance, calories burned and stairs climbed but the Charge HR also shows your current heart rate too.

As mentioned earlier, both devices offer Exercise Mode and all the other options associated with the Fitbit app, like sleep tracking, call notifications and silent alarms. So as you can see, in general use they are very similar.

What I have found is, just like with the Charge, I do find it works. I now like to reach my goals where possible so try to take the stairs rather than an escalator, and even after all this time I do enjoy the little buzz and celebration you get from the Fitbit when that goal is achieved. On the days or weeks I join a challenge group I also find this is an added motivation to squeeze in a few more steps so I can move up the leader-board.

In addition to this there are now a huge selection of reward schemes available. The one I am trying at the moment is Bounts. As your activities are collected and logged Bounts takes this information and turns it into points. Reach a certain amount of points and you can then choose a reward, like a £20 gift voucher for example. This again adds more of a push to go out and be active to clock up those points.

Sleep tracking with the Fitbit is probably the one area I don`t really follow. I do check it when I remember too, and since using the Charge the application has had a great update which expanded upon sleep tracking to give you more detailed information as well as the option to add sleep goals.

What’s good about the Fitbit, and again this is the same with both devices, is the device automatically knows when your sleeping, so you don`t have to try and tell it before you nod off.

Now it’s not exact. For example, if I go to bed and read for an hour it can think I’ve actually gone to sleep so the next day it looks like I’ve slept for an hour longer than I actually have. You can edit the data afterwards, so knocking that time back off isn`t an issue, but you still have to remember to do so.

Where the sleep tracking really works is seeing your actual sleep pattern. You can see if you had a peaceful night’s sleep or a restful one and perhaps use that information to improve your sleeping patterns.

Here is where the Fitbit gets a bit more fun, and again this spans the range of devices.

Adding friends and setting or joining challenges is a great way to push yourself to do more, just so you can reach that number one spot.

Now the challenges section of the app has been updated, but it’s more a cosmetic change than anything. I had hoped that by now we would have more creative challenges but unfortunately we are still restricted to Goal Day, Weekend Warrior, Daily Showdown and Workweek Hustle. These are all good but are limited to how many steps you do in a given time slot.

If Fitbit don`t plan to include more challenge types then they could at least give us the option of creating a Custom challenge. I realise the type of challenges is dictated by the data collected, and can only really be used alongside the types of activities that are tracked rather than manually added as this leaves them open to abuse.

For me though I’d like to add in something like Stairs Climbed, Most Active, Time in Peak Heart Rate Zone to name but a few. You could even use calories burned and distance covered too so there are plenty of options available.

Even with the small, aging amount of challenges available it’s still good to get involved and they do the job of getting you out of your seat.

We have talked about the Fitbit app already. Both in the Charge review and also in this one, but I think it’s important to discuss it here too. Aside from the fact the app is one of the nicest and most user friendly I’ve used for this type of device, its constantly being updated with new features and general UX improvements.

Since I’ve been using a Fitbit device the app has transformed to give the user more information in areas like sleep and water consumption tracking, and also easier access to the challenges and trophies you can earn.

You can also finally keep a log of the food you are eating now there is a dedicated UK food directory. So all in all the amount of information to track and update on a daily basis is impressive, yet there are some areas which still feel weak.

As mentioned previously the exercise tracking desperately needs opening up so the user can input more data. We need more challenges and it would be great to have some way of visualising how far off the next badge is. At present I have no idea until I get a notification that I’ve earned one, but if there was a section listing all the badges, with a bar underneath showing my progress, I’d feel more like I was earning one rather than just stumbling across them.

I had hoped these issues would have been resolved by now and I’d certainly welcome these improvements over another UI shuffle.

When comparing the two devices there is an obvious difference in battery life. With the Charge the longest I had out of a single charge was twelve days, whereas with the Charge HR I’m lucky if I hit four.

This could just be down to how I am using it. I go to the gym three times a week and during each session I use Exercise Mode for at least one activity. On top of this I also go running a few times a week, and track each of those too, so perhaps this mode drains the battery a touch more than normal.

What you have to remember is with the Charge HR you have two little lights flashing constantly, twenty four hours a day, so this is bound to have a hit on the battery. Even so, it does make you think differently about it. If you’re going to be away for a few days for example, you have to remember to take the charger, with the Charge you didn`t have to worry.

I`ve been fortunate to test the Charge and the Charge HR for prolonged periods of time, and each has settled into my lifestyle nicely. I do feel however that the Charge HR is more geared towards the already active type of person. The type to go out for a run, or go to the gym and want to see their heart rate information to help push their workouts, information I feel might be a little redundant for those who walk more than anything.

The Fitbit Charge gives you a wealth of statistics and in functionality is identical to the Charge HR, so for those of you that don`t visit a gym or regularly workout this would be the better option. Especially with its impressive battery life.

For those of use who do workout regularly then the Charge HR is an obvious choice. Besides the three day batter life I still wear it constantly and it has truly become a part of my life now.

Taking notes and jotting down ideas is something we all do. Whether it’s recording the details of a meeting, or roughing out an early concept, we end up using pages upon pages of paper which is then hidden away in a pile of notepads or sketchbooks.

Recently there has been a growing trend of recording these scribblings digitally and storing them in the cloud using a variety of devices. Tablets and laptops are being used more and more as you will see in any meeting these days, yet you can`t beat the fluidity of writing with a pen on paper.

I doodle quite a lot and sometimes these doodles turn into sketches. Even though my preferred medium is a pencil I do find that when I’m out and about I end up using a ball point pen most of the time, in fact I probably prefer it.

Sometimes I want to push these sketches further so I have to scan them in, clean them up and then take them into Photoshop to work on, which in itself isn`t a huge chore but can be time consuming.

What we ideally need is a device where we can have the best of both worlds. A mix of the traditional and the digital, so we can sketch or write with a pen and paper but also take this further on our desktops with the touch of a button.

With the Wacom Bamboo Spark, Wacom think they have solved this problem by giving us exactly that; a Smart Folio. A device which will record your pen strokes and then transfer them seamlessly to your device via Bluetooth.

Sounds simple enough, and just what the world needs, but does it live up to expectations? Read on to find out.

Before you actually buy your Bamboo Spark you need to consider how you will be using it and what device you plan to use alongside it. Rather than a one size fits all approach, Wacom have given us three options when it comes to the Spark.

You have the Gadget Case for use with smart phones. The Sleeve Case which is for larger devices, like the iPad Mini and finally a Snap-Fit Case for your tablets although on the Wacom website it specifies the iPad Air 2 as a good size guide. This is so your device can sit alongside the notepad and be carried safely inside the Spark case.

Once your chosen Spark has arrived you can slide open the box to find your very own smart folio packed neatly away covered in a thin fabric sheet. Beneath this you will also find a USB cable for charging, the usual manuals and guidebooks and also two replacement ink cartridges for the pen.

Once you open the Spark you will find the pen itself sitting nicely in its holder and also a notebook to get you started.

With a device like the Spark there is very little to set up, you simply charge the device, turn it on via the switch at the base and your good to go. The only real setup involved is when pairing it with your device, something you do via the Bamboo Spark companion app.

The actual cover itself is lovely. It’s solid, sleek and looks very professional with the use of two grey materials on the outside. On the inside is a third fabric material which is quite comfortable to rest on, and also adds some friction to your device as it sits inside the sleeve, or rests on top as you transfer your notes.

You can tell from the look and feel of the Spark that it’s aimed at the professional market. Those of us who have a need to take lots of notes and store them away for easy access or share them with colleagues. The fact that it only currently comes in grey shows this too, although I do wonder if the next iteration will maybe have a wider market appeal with more colour options. Wacom are already playing with personalisation by offering people the chance to change the closure band, although these are currently limited to grey, blue and orange and are sold separately.

The case and the pen are key to how the Spark works and work hand in hand, so losing or damaging either will mean a replacement is needed. At the back of the case, beneath the notebook, sits the digitizer dubbed the Bamboo Spark Smart Board which tracks the movement and pressure of the pen, (which also has Wacom technology built into it), as you write or draw. This information is then stored in the on board memory until it’s time to transfer it to your phone or tablet and then the Wacom Cloud.

What I like about the Bamboo Spark pen is the fact it’s pretty much a run of the mill ball point pen. It uses normal ink and with its metallic finish it feels sturdy in your hand. Even though it appears to be a normal pen it’s far from it, and unfortunately you can`t use any old pen with the Spark, or generic ink to refill it.

According to Wacom their replacement cartridges are needed because the copper coating helps the communication between the pen and the Bamboo Spark. Luckily you get two free refills in the box and each is supposed to last around three months, so that’s nine months of scribbling until you need to think about replacements.

Using the pen feels and acts like any other, so you immediately feel comfortable and familiar as your working. At the end of the day your writing as you would be normally, so the only difference is having to use a notepad sat in the case.

Being an artist I was hoping for some level of pressure sensitivity with the Spark, so I could draw a wide range of lines from faint to heavy. The Bamboo Spark does boast 1024 levels of pressure recognition so I thought this would be the case, but in my early tests it seemed like the Spark would only register when the pen was touching the paper. So basically on and off, which was a little disappointing.

You can see a video below where myself and artist Glen Southern test out the Sparks sketching capabilities. You can see the results beneath this too, with the original sketch on the left and the Bamboo Sparks interpretation on the right.

After further investigation however I discovered that the pressure doesn`t register as opacity, instead it comes through to the Bamboo Spark app as line width. So the more pressure you apply to the page, the thicker the line will be. You can see this in the example below. The image on the left is a scan of the page, the one on the right is the same image exported form the Spark.

There are obvious areas which are missing, where I was drawing too lightly, but you can also see the pressure at work.

Something else I noticed when compiling this image is that the two don`t overlap correctly either. When I was scaling them to match their sizes I noticed the image from the Spark was stretched slightly too. Again, you can see this below, I changed the Sparks version to red to highlight it, but there is an obvious distortion. Could this be the way I was holding the Spark or the pen? Perhaps the page was sliding as I wrote, either way this shows what you get out of the Bamboo Spark app isn`t as precise as you would expect.

Now this isn`t a huge issue for the majority of people who are using the Spark to take notes or jot down ideas, but if your an artist this slight inaccuracy could effect your work, so its good to be aware of it and I urge you to do some of your own tests too.

To fully utilize the device you also need to download the Bamboo Spark companion app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices. As mentioned earlier in the review you will need this to transfer your pages to your device and the Wacom Cloud, where you can use Inkspace to organise and transfer your notes.

The app itself is quite simple to use, but then again it doesn`t need to be complicated. While your Spark is connected to your device, a click of the button will transfer your page across where it can be stored and accessed later.

Once on the device you can also choose to edit it further or even use the rewind feature to roll back your strokes to an earlier time. This then allows you to divide page recordings into two if needed.

While on your device you can then export the notes, or the sketch as a PDF file, a PNG or Wacom`s own WILL file format. You can also export to another app on the same device, like Evernote for example. So there are plenty of options for life after the Spark.

With that in mind I do think there is a lot of room for improvement. The main area would be to implement some sort of handwriting recognition, so your notes can be quickly transferred into text to use in a more official capacity. You can do this with other external apps, but it’s another step to go through and it would be much easier if the Bamboo Spark app could do this for you.

Using the Bamboo Spark is very easy, you simply turn it on and then begin writing or sketching. A green light above the main button will show the device is on and as you write it will turn blue.

If you want to move onto the next page simply press the button to indicate you are doing so, with no need to stop and transfer it to your tablet before you do. If your tablet is connected at this stage, the page will also be transferred over for you, but the Spark can store up to 100 pages of data on its internal memory so you have plenty of room to breathe.

Once you are finished you then open the Bamboo Spark app on your device, press the button and all your recorded pages magically floats across to your phone or tablet. It’s that simple. Plus you don`t have to worry about your battery running low as the Spark will turn itself off if left dormant.

Up to now I’ve only been using it with the Wacom notepad which comes bundled with it but you can use any pad you like. The thickness of the pad will have an effect on what’s recorded however, and Wacom recommend using a pad with around 50 pages in it, or one that’s around a quarter of an inch thick.

One other thing to note is to use both sides of each page you will need to remove the pad, turn it over and reinsert it, or simply tear the page off and flip it if you aren`t planning on keeping it long term.

I really enjoyed using the Bamboo Spark, and I was impressed with the quality of the device overall. It’s so easy to use and being able to write with a ball point pen on paper is a much more natural way of working than with a stylus on glass. The transition from the page to your phone or tablet is also simplistic and from there or the Wacom Cloud you have plenty of options available to take your work further.

The only areas which let it down for me could potentially be fixed with a software or firmware update. What I would love to see in a future update is handwriting recognition and also more options for how the app handles the pressure information. Maybe let us decide if we want it to come through as opacity or line width, perhaps both? In the scale of things these are minor quibbles and as far as I know Wacom are already working on an update with these very things included.

In short Wacom have created a device with real potential and I hope to see the app grow as more and more people, particularly artists, begin to use it.

Although Wacom supplied the device for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

Ever since I first got my hands on the Surface Pro 3 back in January i`ve had a major issue. You see, for me the Surface promised so much, and in many ways it delivered, but in one key area it just let me down.

That area was with ZBrush and for many users it worked without an issue, which frustrated me more because for me it would lose the all important pressure sensitivity needed to properly sculpt. If I wanted to simply practice sculpting using a dynamesh sphere or one of the custom models, that was fine and the pressure worked flawlessly. It was when I wanted to import my own base mesh, or load in a sculpt I had started on my desktop everything would fall to pieces and the pressure would be reduced to simply on or off.

For an artist like me this is disastrous and it meant ZBrush on the Surface was just something I could doodle in but never be productive with. I even had stages where it would lose pressure even on a dynamesh speed sculpt, so ultimately this lead to me never actually using it just because it was so unpredictable.

I was in contact with Microsoft and they did try to help and in the middle of the year a ray of hope shone through with a firmware update. This update worked, but for reasons unknown it didn`t last and the final nail in the coffin came with the update to Windows 10.

Now, I do get contacted frequently about the Surface Pro 3 and in particular people ask  whether they should buy the Surface or the Cintiq Companion 2. Even though I know people who have no issues on the device, and this could be a difference between the i5 and i7 models, I couldn`t recommend it for ZBrush work knowing the struggles I have had.

So to help answer peoples questions I decided to create a new video demonstrating the issues I am having, firstly so people are aware but secondly in the hope someone across the web may have a solution. The resulting video, which you can see below, turned out to be the exact opposite.

Last week Microsoft released another firmware update and for a few days I had been trying, and failing to install it. I though it only fair to record the video with the latest updates installed so I had to go hunting for a way to download them manually.

After some time searching I followed the link at the bottom of this post and in the list of updates, right at the bottom, I saw a new Wintab update. Could this be the one that solved my problems? I was a little sceptical seeing as the last updates hadn`t worked but I downloaded them, held my breath and installed them.

Now they didn`t work streight away. I had to do some juggling as I had the Wacom drivers as well as some other tools installed too, so I uninstalled those and then reinstalled the Wintab update again, this time choosing the Repair option.

After a restart I opened ZBrush, waited for the Lightbox to open and chose my usual dynamesh sphere. The pressure worked, but in fairness this isn`t where the majority of my problems were. The next stage was to test it on another scene.

First I loaded a sculpt I had created on my desktop, it worked and I got a little flutter of delight inside my stomach. The final test was the OBJ test, could I now import my base meshes? I put pen to screen and drew a line, it came through as a slight bump on the surface of the model. I applied more pressure, the bump grew and I almost let out a squeal of joy.

Now I had been here before, but for some reason this felt more stable, so I decided to try it over the space of a few days to be sure. Problems arose again when I tried to reinstall the Wacom drivers and the pressure vanished, but again I used the Wintab update with the Repair option and this fixed things again.

To cut a long story short the updates seemed to have worked and I am finally in love with the Surface Pro 3 again. So as mentioned earlier, the video I then recorded wasn`t a complaint against my Surface and ZBrush still not playing nicely together, instead it became an updated review of sorts for all those wondering what working in ZBrush on the Surface is like.

For me it means I can finally recommend it to ZBrush users, and i`ll be keeping a copy of those Wintab drivers, just in case.

If you are any type of graphic artist, be that a traditional painter who uses applications like Photoshop or Mischief, or more of a 3D modeller and virtual sculptor, you need to own a graphics tablet. Using a standard mouse just isn`t an option with this type of work. With a tablet and stylus you get that natural fluidity and pressure sensitivity as you would if drawing with a pen on paper, nothing can beat that, except possibly drawing with a pen on paper.

Now I’m not suggesting that you rush out and buy yourself an expensive interactive pen display like the Cintiq or GT-220. A simple graphics tablet will do, particularly if you’re on a tight budget, or just starting out in the industry.

These days there are plenty to choose from with a host of companies offering their variations on what’s become a standard design. Huion is one of these companies and they have been producing graphic tablets for a while now. They have a wide range of products on offer and one of these is the 1060 Plus.

The 1060 Plus is an updated version of the 1060 Pro, with the newer model allowing for all twelve express keys to be used as well as boasting a larger 8GB MicroSD card which comes installed. This gives the artist more freedom to take their work with them actually in the tablet, rather than separate memory sticks, plus for photographers it means you can simply put your memory card from your camera directly into the tablet.

So with such tough competition, is the 1060 Plus worth your time and money? Read on to find out.

The 1060 Plus comes in a small, compact box which is also lightweight. Opening this box you will find all the components packed neatly away, with little wasted space.

As well as the 1060 Plus itself you also get a USB cable so you can connect it to your computer, be that a desktop PC, Mac or laptop. You also get the all-important stylus which is rechargeable, as well as its very own charging cable.

Huion also supply plenty of extras, these include a pen stand which opens to reveal eight extra nibs, both black and white. You also get a generous amount of additional nibs too, 14 black and ten white, so it will be a long time before you run out.

They also supply two overlays for the working area, these are a replacement for the one already installed and a white variation which can be used for tracing.

On top of all this they also supply a cloth to clean the working area with, and in some cases a handy glove too.

From the outset I was impressed with the look and feel of the 1060 Plus. It’s solid, light weight and looks stylish too with an impressive drawing area of 10” by 6.25”. Plenty of room for your hand to move as you’re scribbling.

By the side of the drawing area you have twelve physical express keys as well as sixteen soft keys across the top of the device, all are fully customizable via the Huion software. These are great for freeing you from the keyboard although I did find the physical buttons quite firm and noisy when used, which may irritate your co-workers after a while.

Half way down the left side of the 1060 Plus is where the power socket and also the MicroSD card and slot are found. I did find the positioning of the power cable a little annoying and would rather it have been further back, or actually at the rear of the device. I am right handed so if I were to hold my left hand over the express keys it would also be resting on the cable, which could become uncomfortable after a while. It also means rather than the cable being neatly tucked away it runs in front of your keyboard, a position that can be quite awkward.

All in all the 1060 has a nice design and look to it, and the build quality is solid and doesn`t feel cheap.

Where would any graphics tablet be without its stylus? It’s pretty much the main feature and how one works, how it feels and what one is like to hold are all very important.

The 1060 Plus stylus is almost identical to the rechargeable pen which comes with the GT-220, except the newer model has a rubber coating just near the base, where your fingers would be.

Its light, almost weighting as much as a basic ball point pen, and when you write or draw it feels comfortable to hold. Add to this the slight grain of the working area on the tablet you have quite a natural feel to each stroke, as if you were drawing on paper.

The stylus has two configurable buttons on the side but no eraser at the back as this is where the charging cable is plugged in. Speaking of which a full charge is said to last you around three months, and the stylus will take around two hours to fully charge.

Working with the stylus is a different experience if you’re coming from another device, like an Intuos for example. The tip is very soft, almost springy, so you have a lot of room to apply the 2048 levels of pressure which all come through nicely onto your canvas.

A common issue amongst Huion devices seems to be with the drivers, and unfortunately the same applies here.

On day one I found that setting up the 1060 Plus was pretty straight forward. According to the website you can be up and running within 30 seconds, and for the most part this was true. Having used a Huion device previously I was aware that any other drivers could cause issues, so before I began I removed any older versions and also any alternatives, like the Wacom drivers, from my system.

I then installed the 1060 Plus drivers which came with the device, (version 11.0.4), the tablet was recognised and I was painting away in no time. My key applications all seemed to work too, all recognising the 2048 levels of pressure, which was great.

On day two I started my machine but noticed the system wasn`t following the mouse pointer as I moved it over the tablet. The Tablet PC software was showing it was connected which was odd so I simply unplugged the 1060 Plus, plugged it back in and it started to work. A minor irritation I know, but it gets better.

I wanted to do some pressure tests so I opened Photoshop and started drawing. All was well at this stage so I moved on to Mischief, but the pressure wasn’t registering. I also tried Krita but again the pressure wasn`t coming through. Finally I decided to try ZBrush and thankfully this did work, so two out of four compared to all four the previous day, with no idea what had changed.

I went through and tried all the fixes Huion suggest. So firstly I used a checkbox in the Pen Tablet software titled Support TabletPC. They suggest you close your software, enable and then disable this to fix pressure issues. It didn`t fix them.

I next disabled Flicks, and Hold Pen for Right Click from my Windows Pen and Tablet settings, again as suggested by Huion. Still no luck.

After various restarts and more tests I decided to download the newest drivers, version 11.0.7. Even though I uninstalled the previous version first there was still a conflict with the Wintab32.dll file which turned out to be locked by the Autodesk Application Manager and Dropbox, yes, Dropbox. With these closed I could finally install the update but even then I had no pressure sensitivity in Mischief or Krita.

This does all seem like its the end of the review for most people, broken drivers just shouldn`t be a thing these days especially with a device which has been shipped. The great thing about Huion though is I contacted them with my issues and within a day they had sent over some internal drivers for me to test, and the pressure worked again.

Yes, things still weren`t perfect. Pressure had returned but occasionally I had to restart Mischief to almost kick-start the drivers, so compared to how it was previously this was a step up.

The actual software which comes with the tablet is very basic. It focuses on the bare minimum needed to configure the stylus buttons, the express keys, soft keys and pen pressure, with no options to change these on a per application basis. You have one configuration for your whole system.

With that said their simplicity means that initially configuring the buttons, and making changes later is quick and easy to do.

As you can see below, the button screen is a no frills configuration window. You simply select a button and define a key from the drop down menu.

Although this is a quick and painless way to change the express keys there is no visual representation of what each button is. The only way to find out is to press and hope for the best, or open the utility and look. It would be nice to have some sort of quick reference guide, or on screen display to quickly remind you what each does.

With this tablet being an entry level model you won`t be getting any multi-touch abilities on the working area, which is a shame but to be honest something you could learn to live without.

When you put into perspective that this tablet costs £69.99 (at the time of writing) and one of a similar spec but which also has multi-touch functionality could be anywhere above £130 you certainly won`t miss the lack of a touch surface.

The same could be said with the tilt recognition, or the lack of it. Again Huion don`t support it in the 1060 Plus but this is something I rarely use anyway, and it also tends to be found in the more expensive tablets.

Putting the driver issues aside, the 1060 Plus is a very nice graphics tablet to use. As mentioned, the stylus is comfortable and responsive with the pressure coming through beautifully in both Photoshop and ZBrush.

There were slight niggles with Windows though. For example, when you are prompted because you are trying to run a program and have to give permission the stylus doesn`t register.

I also found that double tapping on an icon took a few attempts before it would launch the application.

Below are a couple of pressure tests I did, just to demonstrate the results you could get with the 1060 Plus. Initially I began with a large canvas, zoomed out to 25%, but as I drew on the 1060 Plus I could clearly see some jitters in the lines compared to the other tablet.

I repeated the tests again, this time at 100% and the results were much more precise with just a few, minor wobbles present.

The 1060 Plus is a solid, nicely designed entry level graphics tablet. Yes the buttons are a bit firm and noisy and I do find myself longing for a touch ring of sorts, but now the drivers are working for me I can happily paint or sculpt in whatever application I chose.

The working area is a generous size and the pressure comes though onto the canvas well, although its not as precise when your working below a scale of 50%.

It was a shame that my first impressions of the device were tarnished with the dance around the drivers, but I was impressed with how Huion handled my issues, and resolved them quickly.

I guess it comes down to the competition and if we are honest there are similar graphics tablets available at around the same price. What the 1060 Plus has going for it though is the larger working area, multitude of configurable keys and also the addition of the MicroSD slot, which comes preinstalled with a generous 8GB card.

So when you look at it that way, if you can handle the potentially buggy drivers, (which could be resolved by the time you read this), then the 1060 Plus could be the tablet to free your artwork from the rigidity of a mouse and push it to the next level.

Although Huion supplied the device for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

1060PLUS is the updated version of the 1060PRO+

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Improving my drawing skills is something I strive for, not just for my career but also because I want to be a better artist. No matter how many books you follow or how many classes you take, the best advice has always been to draw every day. Just half an hour of daily doodling can improve your skills over time – Its that simple.

The problem is life inevitably gets in the way, and what begins as a daily routine slowly gets pushed aside for tight deadlines and other priorities.

I do try to take a sketch book out with me so I can squeeze in some sketching while waiting for an appointment or a bus but I often forget it.

In July this year Ralph Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign to help solve this problem by combining an every day wallet with a sketchbook. By the time he had reached the deadline in August he had almost doubled his $30,000 goal by reaching an impressive $55,911.

The sketch wallets have now been made and are starting to be sent out to the people who pledged and I was lucky enough to be sent one too.

What I want to know is will this simple wallet live up to my expectations? Is it easier and more comfortable to carry around compared to my current wallet and small Moleskine sketch book? Only time will tell, but for now read on to find out my initial thoughts on the product.

The wallet comes in a stylish box which makes it perfect as a gift, and depending on what you pledged, you will also receive three extra sketch books. It currently comes in two colours, black and brown, with the pads also matching your colour of choice.

Also included as part of one of the stretch goals is a small pencil which slides perfectly into the upper section inside the wallet. Once this and the pads have run out you can order replacements direct from Ralph but you can obviously use your own stationary too. As an example a Moleskine Cahier Journal, which is 3.5″ by 5.5″ is said to fit perfectly.

As you can see below, on the left is my usual arsenal when out and about. My bulky wallet, sketch book and a pen. On the right is the sketch wallet for comparison, so i`ll be swapping to this for the next few weeks to see how it actually works.

The wallet is made from leather and has a nice, soft feel to it. The outside is smooth with bold white stitching and the inside has a soft felt lining. The wallet itself is larger than you would expect from a standard wallet, its about the same height as an iPhone 6S Plus, and a good half an inch wider, but it does need to be this big to accommodate a decent sized sketching area.

On the inside you have your sketch book on the right and on the left space to put your cards, pen or pencil and also an easily accessible flap behind those to put your cash, receipts or anything else you usually jam into your wallets. On the top there is a large sketch wallet tab which also cleverly doubles as an extra pen holder.

In order to keep the wallet as flat as possible the card sections are above each other, but they are also quite slim. I could only really fit four of my cards in it, which isn`t a huge problem as I only really ever use two or three, but there isn`t any immediately obvious room for anything else. So if you need to carry your credit cards, debit cards, driving licence, bus pass, Oyster card, library card, reward cards, loyalty cards etc. basically if you like to have everything handy they may not all fit in.

Another option is to stash them behind the sketch book or in the flap area, so there is extra space if needed, but the more you squeeze in the more bulky it will become. I managed to fit an extra fifteen cards before it wouldn`t close properly, so there is space even if its not hugely obvious.

The pads which come with the wallet are a nice fit and complete the overall look. They hold around 26 pages for you to pour your imaginations onto, although the paper itself isn`t super high quality it does the job. If your using a standard ball point pen or a pencil you will be fine and nothing will come through onto the opposite side. With ink however you will get some of your work showing through, which could distract you when creating other masterpieces.

So my initial impressions are hugely positive. For $68, (roughly £45 or 63 Euros), its a bit more expensive than your standard wallet but this is everything but a standard wallet. It looks and feels smart, is a good quality product and at the end of the day if something like this gets us all to draw more, then its worth every penny.

I`ve currently only had the wallet for a few days, so I think its too early to form an opinion on it just yet. What I will do is update this section, and the section below after a week or two, once its had time to settle into my lifestyle.

If you would like more regular updates please follow me on Twitter or Facebook, and if you have any questions please leave a comment below an i`ll answer it as soon as possible.

Coming Soon

Although Ralph Thomas supplied the wallet for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

Just over a year ago there were whispers circling the internet. These were of a new type of activity tracker dubbed the Advanced Active Recovery Band, one which did away with basic step counting goals and focused more on telling you when your body was ready to be active, and when to have a day off.

It also boasted the ability to automatically detect when you were walking, running, cycling, swimming (yes swimming) or doing other sport activities so you didn`t have to log them manually.

All this was collected in a stylish wrist band and then displayed on an equally well designed app on your smart phone.

The idea sounded appealing but unfortunately the developers, Jaybird, decided to put the launch on hold for a while and spend more time refining the device.

Well, a year later its been relaunched and I was fortunate enough to be sent one to try and review.

I received the box yesterday and eagerly opened it to take a look. What I found inside was a sleek and soft wrist band with the Reign Pod nestled inside, ready for me to take out, charge and wear.

You see, with the Reign the Pod is the actual brain of the device and can be removed from the band whenever you like. This is also an essential part of the design as you are meant to use numerous bands with the Pod, depending on what you are doing. So it makes sense to keep it as a separate element.

Inside the box itself you will find a host of extra equipment. This includes two extra straps for the main band giving you a couple of extra size options should the default one be too tight, two activity bands, a cycling strap and also the usual charging cables and dock.

The activity bands are a solid silicone band meant to be worn when your the most active and fit your wrist more so the Pod doesn`t come loose. Again Jaybird give you two sizes to choose from.

The cycling band is just as the name suggests but rather than this attaching the Pod to your wrist, you instead wrap it around your ankle.

So with everything your given, Jaybird have certainly covered all the bases when it comes to the main activities we tend to do. On top of this the Reign is also fully waterproof meaning you can also go swimming, and the Pod will automatically recognise this activity as well.

As mentioned earlier the Reign isn`t meant to be a standard activity tracker and when looking at the companion app you can certainly see this.

There are no step goals, it doesn’t show you the amount of stairs you`ve climbed either. Yes, you can find a step counter hidden away in the settings but the Reign tries to be a bit cleverer with how it handles the information it stores.

Rather than being ruled by a 10,000 step counter each day you are given the Go Zone. The idea being that each morning you activate the Pod which then checks your heart rate, or the variability of your heart signal to be more precise. The app then gives you a Go Zone score out of 100 and depending on where you are in that score, will dictate whether your body is ready to go for a run or a swim etc. With a score below 33 meaning your body is fatigued so you should take a day off to recover.

Using this information the Reign app then gives you an activity goal for the day, which could be 2000 points for example. It then quietly logs your days activities, automatically recognising what you are doing, until you reach that goal. If your a little short it will also suggest what you need to do to get those last few points, so maybe a 10 minute walk or a 20 minute run.

Up to now it sounds very impressive but it gets better, the Reign also learns from you as you use it so it can make improved and tailored suggestions so you can get the most out of your body.

I`ve had the Reign for less than a day now and initially i`m impressed with the design and quality of the device and the bands. The idea behind it intrigues me too but I am a little sceptical that it will work out exactly as its supposed to. I guess from experience with these devices, which are supposed to automatically recognise what your doing, they do fall down when doing just that but i`m hoping the Reign lives up to expectations.

I`ve been a Fitbit user for a year now so it will be a interesting to see how this take on the activity tracker works out. Will I be wearing this in a months time or will I go back to the Fitbit? Only time will tell.

So today i`m giving it its first real test and planning to go swimming and also running, so we will see how it holds up. As for my main review i`d like to live with the band for a few weeks first before rushing out any early comments so expect an update next month.

In the mean time feel free to follow my Facebook or Twitter accounts for more regular updates on the Reign, you can also post any questions you have in the comments below.

Although Jaybird supplied the device for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

You may not know it but we can all travel in time. We do it while at work or working out, on a long commute or studying in our bedrooms, yet we don`t even notice. Now, this ability is limited. We can`t go backwards or forwards, instead, with the help of a magical ingredient, we can make the present seem to fly by.

What is that magical ingredient? You ask. Its music.

Try to travel for a few hours without your own personal sound system and the journey feels longer. The same can be said if you’re out for a run, time drips by if you don`t have the right equipment and your favourite, motivational tunes.

Having the right headphones is essential, and the pair you choose can decide whether the music you listen to reaches inside and touches your soul, or fades into the background noise.

I`ve always been active but more recently I’ve taken up running and to be honest, the standard headphones just aren`t cutting it any more so I decided to give Jaybirds wireless X2 headphones a go.

Being their update to the popular BlueBuds X headphones, the X2`s promise the same superior sound quality, better sweat proofing and a more comfortable design with their unique ear fins.

So, with my running gear at the ready I put them in my ears and headed out to test them.

The X2 wireless earbuds come nicely packaged with the front of the box securely fastened with a magnetic clip. Opening this flap will reveal the headphones and accompanying carry case teasing you behind a clear plastic window.

The buds do come in a variety of colours so there are plenty to cover most tastes. These include Midnight (Black), Storm (White), Alpha (Green), Charge (Lime Green), Ice (Blue) and Fire (Red).

Also in the box are three pairs of ear fins, foam tips and silicon tips, of varying sizes for you to experiment with to find the most comfortable fit. Plus, the standard USB charging cable and cord management clips to help gather the wire away if it’s too long.

On first inspection the X2`s do look larger than your standard headphones but you have to take into account the fact that these are wireless so there has to be somewhere to put the battery etc. Still, when they are in your ears they do stick out slightly, enough for people to notice.

With that aside these are a solid pair of headphones. They are compact and the cord has a nice thickness to it so it doesn`t feel too fragile. This also means you can quickly gather them up and put them in your pocket without worrying that you will have to spend ten minutes untangling them when you next want to use them.

These are also sturdy by design and there have been more than a few occasions where I’ve needed to quickly throw them into a gym bag or a pocket, along with an assortment of other things and they always come out like new.

The remote controls are also well placed and when wearing the buds in the traditional way you can easily access them to turn up the volume, skip a track or even answer a call. Even when wearing them over the top of your ears the controls are still accessible, even if they are then behind your ear.

During my first week with the headphones I must admit I did struggle with them. No matter what I tried I couldn`t get a comfortable fit, and when they did fit I always had the sensation that they were going to slip out of my ears at any moment.

The sound quality was also poor. Well, not poor but not as great as I thought they would be, especially for the price, so I was about to stop using them.

As a last resort I watched Jaybirds online help videos again and realised I’d missed something which turned out to be quite crucial.

The ear fins are what keep the buds held inside your ears. Whether you’re wearing them in the traditional way or with the cable over the top of your ears, the fins sit snugly inside your ears. I was aware of this but for some reason they still didn`t fit.

On the top of each of the buds is a small raised lip which I assumed was to stop the fins being pushed too far over. What I noticed on the videos was that this wasn’t the case, instead the lip, which is known as a Locking Ridge, held the fins in place, so in short I had to push them over and past the lips.

This small detail made all the difference.

The buds now sat securely in my ears and what`s more, the sound quality was dramatically improved.

I`ve tested the headphones while doing a variety of activities ranging from running to weight training and I can confirm that they don`t budge. Even slipping my sweater on over them didn`t dislodge them from my ears.

I have had a few occasions however, only when outdoors, where the Bluetooth has encountered some interference so the connection wasn`t as solid as I’d liked. This has only happened very rarely though and only interrupted the music for the odd second or two.

It’s not all about getting fit though. If you’re paying top whack for your headphones you want to get the most use out of them so If I’m commuting, I’ll put them in my bag or even if I’m just watching something on my tablet or phone these will now be my headphones of choice.

When it comes to headphones there is one area which trumps all others and that’s a pretty obvious one.

The quality of the sound you get from the X2`s is exceptional, once you get that perfect fit. I`ve heard reports that the bass just isn`t low enough for some people but I have to say, for me it was ideal. You get the right amount of bass without feeling like your teeth will be vibrated out of your skull, but also not too much of the tininess which can be a sign of cheaper ear-buds.

For me they are really well balanced and have a good clarity to them too.

There is also little or no discernible noise leakage and when using the foam tips you can listen to your music in piece as they also help to reduce the surrounding noise coming into your ears.

While running outside though you will get some noise coming through, particularly if it’s a windy day.

Jaybird claim that the battery will last around eight hours, so possibly eight good sessions at the gym which is plenty of time. I can confirm that they do seem to last a long time, so much so that I’ve never been in the position where they have been running low.

Charging them is easy too, and even if you find the supplied cable far too short you can always use another as they use a standard Micro-B USB cable.

It can be a little difficult to judge how charged they are if your charging them with the ear fins still attached as they cover the indicator light. You can just make out a faint red glow though shining through the rubber, but perhaps adding the light somewhere else would be better on the next iteration?

For £150 you could certainly look elsewhere for wireless in-ear headphones, but you may end up feeling like you`ve short changed yourself.

These are tough headphones designed to be as active as you are, hence the ear fins and the updated sweat proof design. They are mainly aimed at the type of person who goes to the gym, running or even cycling where you don`t want the distraction of your buds falling out, getting tangled or the outside world clouding your concentration.

With the X2`s it’s just you and your music, everything else can wait, and with this sound quality you won`t be in a rush to take them off.

What I would say to those who are considered buying a pair is if you run or regularly work out and need your music to help motivate you, then these are the headphones for you. If these are going to just be your commuting headphones then they are certainly a great choice, but perhaps in this instance you might want to look at a slightly cheaper pair of over the ear headphones instead.

When you hear the words “Activity Tracker” the first thought which springs to mind is one of a pedometer. A device worn on your wrist or belt which simply counts your movements for the day. This information is then pushed through various algorithms to work out when you were walking, running or just sat on the sofa. The idea behind this type of tracker being that you have a goal to reach, which is usually 10,000 steps, and this in turn pushes you to get out of your seat to achieve that goal.

Now this is simplifying things slightly, and more modern trackers can now measure steps climbed, calories burned, distance travelled and also how well you have slept using this data.

Jaybird, a company already known for creating wireless headphones is now dipping its toe into the tracker pond with what’s its dubbing an Active Recovery Band. Initially this may seem like yet another glorified pedometer making its way into an already crowded market, but the Reign has a twist.

Yes, it follows you throughout the day and quietly stores your activity. It also sits on your wrist and synchronises its data with a companion app on your chosen device, but the similarities end here. Where the Reign differs from the competition is with the Go Zone. A virtual personal trainer of sorts who measures your body each morning and tells you whether you should push yourself further, or have a well-deserved day off from the gym.

It`s also one of the first devices to automatically recognise when you’re walking, running, cycling or playing sports in addition to swimming. Yes, the Reign is fully waterproof, another feature most of its competitors are lacking. To top it off all this is done with no need for you to log anything, or tell it when you’re about to exercise.

These are all bold claims, but does it actually work?

So with all this in mind have Jaybird breathed a breath of fresh air into the activity tracker market, or will the Reign simply drift by like a draft from an open window?

Read on to find out.

Just like other Jaybird products, the packaging the Reign comes in is well designed and is much the same as they use with their headphones. On opening the cover, which folds out to reveal its contents, you are greeted by the band itself displayed behind a plastic cover with all the other elements hidden away inside.

As well as the main silicone band you are also given a wealth of other straps too. These include two sports bands, a biking ankle strap and two more silicone bands of varying sizes. Because the main band isn`t adjustable Jaybird give you two more sizes to try to get your perfect fit. They also give you a cleaning brush to help unclog the magnetic clip which closes the main strap.

Unlike other devices the brains behind the Reign sits inside a dedicated pod which can be removed and placed into any of these bands or the ankle strap, making it much more flexible. It also makes it easier to charge too.

Before you start wearing the Reign you need to pair it with the companion app but before that you are advised to fully charge it. My initial charge took around three hours, which felt like an age as I was eager to try it out, but once it was done, pairing was easy.

On opening the app your walked through the setup process which involves holding the top and the bottom of the pod for a few seconds. Once done your then asked a number of lifestyle questions, height, weight, current activity level etc. and your good to go.

Time to get active!

The overall design of the Reign is modern and minimalistic and unlike any other activity tracker available. Its smooth strap and shiny metallic clasps make it feel more like a fashionable bracelet than something associated with fitness.

The main silicon band is soft, smooth and surprisingly comfortable to wear. It’s also very light; so much so there are times I forget I’m wearing it.

The band closes using two metal clips which interlock and are held in place with magnets. These do a good job of keeping it on your wrist and I’ve had no issues with it coming loose. The only problems I have had is with putting it on my wrist as the clips can be a little fiddly, plus if you have hairy arms, as I do, then you will inevitably trap and lose some of those hairs.

The pod itself is quite compact with a basic display on the top and a small metallic plate beneath which is used to measure your heart rate.

The display is made up of twelve green LED`s with red LED`s between them. This is simply used to show your daily progress plus it also tells the time in its own unique way. Four taps on the band will activate the display showing your progress, although this doesn`t always register and you could be tapping for a while before your shown anything. I`ve had more luck with it being activated by accident if I move my arm quickly.

After your progress you are then shown the time. Solid red lights indicate the hour and a flashing light shows the minutes, but this is limited to 5 minute intervals. So you basically have to count very quickly to work out what time it is, or you could just use a watch. In practice it does get easier over time, but I still found it a bit of a chore and something I rarely used, and I’ve since disabled this feature which you can do in the app.

I would have liked the display to be used in more imaginative ways. For example, when the green bar is full you would assume that you have hit your goal for the day, right? In practice there have been times where I sat and relaxed at this point and then discovered through the app I was actually at 96%. One solution would be for the display to fill with green lights, as it does, but then maybe do a little light show to celebrate your victory. This way you know for certain that you’ve accomplished your goal, plus it will add a bit of fun into the device.

At the heart of the Reign is the Go Zone, but what is it? Basically the Go Zone is the key motivator behind the band. Rather than using a simple step count to push you each day, Go Zone works out a personalised activity goal for you to reach.

Each morning you open the Reign app and are asked to generate your Go Score, although you don`t need to do it daily. Three days a week is recommended for best results. To generate your score, you hold your finger on the top of the pod, where the LED display is, and this activates the heart rate monitor. A countdown then starts on the app with you sitting still for a full two minutes until its completed. It’s during this time that the Reign measures your heart rate variability.

Unlike other trackers who use continuous flashing lights to gauge your heart rate, the Reign uses the metal panel under the pod as well as on the display to pick up the electrical signals of your heart. It then uses a built in ECG biosensor to turn this signal into your heart rate variability information.

It’s this information which tells the Reign whether your body is fatigued or fully recovered and ready for a workout.

Your then presented with a score out of 100. Anything below 33 means your fatigued whereas anything above that means you’re in the Go Zone! With this information the Reign can then generate your activity goal points for the day.

On first use the Reign will estimate your points based on the information you gave it as you initially set it up, but after a while it starts to learn your activity habits and you get better, more accurate readings. You can alter the points in the settings at any time if you find they are initially too high or low, but after a while I found that it does a good job of giving you enough points to push yourself.

The idea is that even if you feel tired your body might still be ready for a run or a trip to the gym and that’s what Go Zone does. It listens to your body rather than your mind so you can then make a call on what you do during the day.

What I like about the Go Zone is that it boils everything down and reduces it to a single score. With other trackers you are either counting steps, calories, stairs climbed, food intake, water consumption, food eaten, the list goes on and you can find a lot of your time is taken up logging all these separate aspects. For many people this is ideal as you get to see everything in one place but for me it’s a lot to handle.

I eat well, most of the time, and I drink plenty of water. I also exercise regularly so the Reign is great as I don`t need to do anything apart from generate my morning Go Score. It then does all the hard work of working out what activities I’m doing and how much I should do the next day.

I have actually noticed that if I have a particularly good session at the gym the Reign will know and the next morning, even though I think I feel fine, it recommends I take the day to recover. I then realise by the afternoon that I am actually quite tired, so a morning run probably wouldn’t have been the best idea.

The next day my score is back up to 43 and I’m recovered and fine to head out.

The Reign wouldn`t be anything without the companion app and Jaybird have done a really good job with the design of theirs. It’s smart, intuitive and gives you lots of information about your day and activates in a simplified dashboard.

At present the app is divided into three key areas. Activity, Sleep and Go Zone.

The Activity section is the one you will be looking at most of the time and at a quick glance you can see your activities plus how far away you are from your goal.

The main circular graph which dominates the screen fills up during the day and you can click on each section to get a quick summary of that activity. Click on walking for example and you then get to see how long you were walking for and also the calories you burned while doing so. Each segment is an overall summary however, so it compiles all the walking you have done during the day into one area; you won`t get separate chunks for each time you went out.

Below the main circle is a tiny green chart which fills up during the day, plotting how active you were. The problem with this is it is so small it would be nice to have the option to select it to view a larger version. Perhaps simply turning the device on its side would prompt a full screen graph?

One feature I do like about the main activity page is if you tap the middle of the circle the app will suggest activities for you to do to hit your milestone, be that a ten-minute walk or a five-minute run. It’s a simple thing but a really nice touch which, as it turns out, is also very useful.

If you want a more detailed look at what you did and when, you can click on the Activity Timeline at the bottom of the screen. Here you will see lots of basic information on calories burned, distance travelled, active time, inactive time plus a step counter too.

Below this you will see your timeline which you can scroll through at your leisure and highlight a particular area for even more information.

A swipe to the left of the main screen will bring you to the Go Zone area. This is where you perform your morning tests and your daily score is generated. Below this is also a Go Zone support area where you can find lots of information to help you get the most out of the Reign and the Go Zone in general.

Finally, a swipe to the right of the activity screen brings you to the sleep section where it shows you how much sleep you got the previous night, plus a recommended amount of sleep you will need tonight.

Again, below this you can tap to bring up more detail on your night’s sleep so you can see how restless you were and how well you slept in general. It’s here you can also edit your sleep details should you need to.

If your wanting to compare your workouts over time, then you can do this via the History section which is hidden away in the main menu. This is quite a comprehensive area where you can focus on a single activity, swimming for example, or all activities and see how well you have been doing over the space of a day, week, month or year.

The design of the app also leaves itself open to expansion. With the simple left or right sections Jaybird could easily add in more features, maybe even some to make it more fun? I say this because I think that’s what the app is missing at the moment, a sense of fun or even competition.

There are no social features to speak of so you can`t find and add friends. However, you can share your daily activity online via Twitter or Facebook where the app takes a screenshot and then uses the devices built in sharing options to compile a post for you, so that’s something.

There are no achievements to strive for, badges or even challenges either to help you scratch your competitive itch or even push you a little further, but that is coming this year apparently so I will update this review once those are implemented and tested.

What`s also planned is third party app support too, so you can take your data into Runkeeper, MyFitnessPal or Health kit for example. Again, something I would have liked implemented from the start.

I realise the app is all about automation and being able to manually input activities could lead to abuse, but I would still like to edit or add to what I have done. Swimming for example, I’d love to track how many lengths I did each time so I could compare swims. If I’m at the gym and on a piece of equipment the Reign doesn’t recognise, like the elliptical, I’d like to tag that period of time myself and get those points rather than it thinking its just general activity.

Like many other devices the Reign also tracks your sleep and uses this information to help generate your Go Score. Again it automatically knows when you’re visiting the land of nod and can use your night time movements to measure how well you have slept or if you`ve had a particularly restless night’s sleep.

For me this is one area of the Reign where I have had the most issues. It always does a great job of knowing when I have actually fallen asleep but there have been many times where its assumed I have woken up in the middle of the night and just stopped tracking anything. So from 2am for example it says I was awake, but not moving.

This may not seem like a huge issue but when you tie in the Go Zone it does become a problem. You see, you can only generate your score during the first thirty minutes after you`ve woken, so if it thinks you were awake from at 2am when you actually rose at 6am then you have missed your slot.

I suspect Jaybird are aware of these issues because sleep is the only area where you can edit or log the times manually, so a quick fix is to correct the time, which then opens up the Go Zone section for you to do your morning test.

Although this does work you can still end up with a chunk of time missing from your sleep pattern.

With a device like the Reign, which has no options to input data manually apart from sleep, you really need to be confident in its ability to recognise and track your activities correctly.

I`ve tested it during a lot of activities which included walking, running outdoors, running indoors, rowing and cycling and I have to say I was impressed with how well it noticed what I was doing. Yes, sometimes it was out by a minute but I guess you can`t expect it to know the exact second you began sprinting.

Even with swimming it knew what I was doing regardless of the strokes, although initially it did think I was swimming when I was actually driving. Luckily they have added the option into the app to disable swimming tracking, so I tend to only have this active at times when I actual go to the pool.

Where it did fall down was when I used the elliptical and it was classed as General activities. So I basically lost those points. What I did the next time I used this equipment was use the ankle strap instead and thankfully it registered as Sport, which was great, but the timings were off. I was on the machine for 15 minutes yet the Reign tagged it as 7. It would have been great if I could have edited the timings of this like you can with sleep.

So in some cases you need to think outside the box and experiment a little to get the most out of the Reign, but this was the only activity where I had issues.

The actual step counter aspect of the device is a funny area to discuss. Each company has their own specific algorithms to work out when you’re walking so I guess pitting one against another isn`t the most scientific of experiments.

Regardless I did spend a day wearing both the Jaybird Reign and the Fitbit Charge HR and the results were surprisingly different. At the end of the day the Fitbit had registered around 800 more steps than the Reign, but which is more accurate is up for debate.

I also counted some of the steps myself, all 500 of them, and where the Charge HR over counted by 49 the Reign actually only registered 342. Now the problem with the Reign is it doesn`t update the app in real time and there is a slight delay, so it could be there were a few more waiting to be deposited in the bank.

I think as far as steps go with these devices it’s all about using them as a rough guide and not expecting them to be exact.

I`ve been using the Reign for a month now, so long enough to get a real feel for how it works and fits into my lifestyle. I`ve tried to fit in as many activities as I could just to see how well it tracks them and for the most part its done a really good job of recognising what I was doing.

Go Zone was also a little hit and miss in the early days but I think this was down to the issues I had with sleep and also how I was generating my score. Now that its learned more about me it’s actually generating more realistic scores. Previously a Go Zone score of 42 would have generated an activity goal of close to 2000, which I quickly had to knock down to 1200. Now a score of 42 gives a more manageable 1276 points, so enough to push me.

What I love about the Reign is just how easy it is to use and how much of the hard work is done for you. Everything is automatically added to the app, be that walking, running, sports or swimming so you don`t have to, and for someone like me it’s so nice to be able to track swimming too rather than leave my device in a locker and manually add it in later.

Even cycling worked well with the ankle strap. It’s a simple case of popping out the pod, putting it in the strap and fastening it to your ankle, although you do get a few odd looks while at the gym but that just might be me.

Having used a Fitbit for pretty much a year prior to this I did think I would miss it. I do like the personality their devices have and the little buzz you get when you hit your goal was great. I was finding though that adding in the activities manually was becoming a chore, and even though they just updated the app to automatically recognise certain activities it didn`t work as smoothly or as precisely as the Reign.

Even the display on the Charge HR is something I don`t actually miss. Yes, the LED`s on the Reign are very basic but it doesn`t take long to open the app if you really want to see what you have done, and the four tap solution is kind of ok as a rough guide.

Again, having a continuous heart rate monitor was nice but I don`t think I actually used it to push myself if I’m honest. So all these extras, for me personally, were just extras.

There`s nothing worse than spending the day working out only to find out your favourite tracking device`s battery ran out hours ago. It’s also inconvenient if every other day your having to charge it too so it’s great that the Reign has a claimed battery life of over five days.

In my tests I can confirm this and I’ve even had a week’s use out of mine before I needed to charge it, and even then it wasn`t running on sparks so could probably last a little longer.

As with any device like this though the more you tap the display or synchronise it with the app the more it’s going to drain the battery. Expect this to rise though as the novelty wears off and you’re only checking the app once or twice a day, plus if you want even more life out of it you can always disable the clock function.

The Jaybird Reign has actually been out for over a year now but Jaybird held it back for twelve months to make improvements before rereleasing it again in December 2015. So with that in mind I would have assumed that all the features they spoke about implementing into the app last year, like social features, third party app support, adding friends, achievements etc. would be in now. So when they say these are coming this year I am a little sceptical, but hopeful.

All that aside, judging the Reign as it is now, I am impressed with its alternative take on the activity tracking trend. Its stylish and the Go Zone works as a virtual personal trainer with the automatic tracking being so good I can only assume witchcraft is involved.

Yes, this doesn`t have all the bells and whistles of other devices but what it focuses on it does well and in turn it does a good job of focusing you.

What I would say is that a device like the Jaybird Reign is better suited to those who are already active but want to do more, whereas other devices seem more focused on getting inactive people, active. So at this moment in time it may appeal more to those who already regularly run or go to the gym.

This could change however once they introduce more features into the app to make it more social and competitive, and it’s at this point it will also have a greater market appeal. So if you don`t like the sound of one now I urge you to take another look in six months’ time as it could be the device to beat.

So in summary, will I be taking off the Reign and strapping my Fitbit back on? I have to say no. I`m intrigued by what Jaybird have done and their plans for the Reign and this moment in time this particular tracker suits me far better than the Fitbit did.

Although Jaybird supplied the device for me to test, the opinions offered in this review are my own.

I never intended to buy an iPad Pro.

Yes, I own an iPhone and have done for many years now. I also got sucked into the whole iPad vortex eventually, thinking it would allow me to be more productive but it ultimately ended up living out its days in the bottom of a drawer.

When Apple revealed the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil I didn’t even bother to watch the keynote. For me another, larger iPad wasn’t huge news, and a stylus, well that’s wasn’t exactly ground-breaking. I already owned a Surface Pro 3 which did everything I needed. I could write on it and use all of my main desktop applications too, like Autodesk Maya and ZBrush to a degree. I could even sketch and paint on it too…Yes, it wasn’t perfect but that was just what you expected with these devices. You were never going have the perfect drawing experience so you adapt.

It was only after talking to a handful of my artist friends that my interest was piqued. When phrases like “It’s amazing to draw on” and “I haven’t used my Cintiq Companion since.” We’re used on more than one occasion I decided I had to at least try one.

So did it live up to the hype? Was the drawing experience really that good and would it eventually, as Apple claimed, replace my laptop?

Read on to find out.

With all the Apple products I’ve owned the packaging is very similar and whether you’re buying an iPhone or an iPad there isn’t a huge amount in the box. With the iPad Pro you get the device itself, the usual array of pamphlets, the charging cable and plug.

What I liked about the charging cable which comes with the iPad Pro is its length. Rather than coming with the standard 1 meter cable you get twice that length, making it easier to keep the device charged while sat at a desk or holding it on the sofa. Not that the battery life is so short that you would feel the need to keep it constantly charged, but more on the battery later.

Setting up the iPad was straightforward. You turn it on and follow the on screen prompts, connecting it to your iCloud account if you have one to synchronize your settings or download a previously backed up version if upgrading from an older iPad.

Within the space of five minutes you are up and running and scouring the app store for those key apps that will show off your shiny new device.

The 12.9 inch iPad Pro is slim, sleek and light, weighting just 713 grams. Yes it’s big, but just like upgrading from an iPhone to an iPhone Plus you soon get used to the size, and when going back to the smaller device it feels too small. For me the size is perfect. The display is slightly smaller than an A4 sketch pad which gives you plenty of room to sketch and paint, to a degree where it could constitute as work rather than leisure.

The iPad Pro follows in the footsteps of most other Apple products in that it’s an enclosed tablet with minimal buttons and ports around the sides. These include the power and volume buttons, lightning charging port, a 3.5mm earphone jack and four stereo speakers.

On the rear you have the lens for the 8-megapixel iSight camera with a second, 1.2-megapixel camera on the front for all those FaceTime calls and selfies. Also on the front you have the home button which also houses the Touch ID sensor.

The model I chose was the 128GB, Wifi only version as I wanted to have lots of space for saving artwork plus I didn’t need to connect it to a phone network. I already had a phone for that and if I needed to I could use it as a personal hotspot.

Holding it is similar to holding a standard size magazine which makes it ideal to read on, especially if you have lots of digital magazines or comics. They appear almost the same size as their real life counterparts and on the crisp, bright, 2732 x 2048 resolution screen they look amazing.

That is unless you’re outdoors as the glass screen is also very reflective making it difficult to work on in brightly lit areas.

When I ordered my iPad Pro I chose not to have it delivered until I could also get the pencil too, even if it meant a three week delay. The whole point of getting one was to draw and paint and I knew if I received the tablet first I wouldn’t use it to its full potential.

When I finally got the pencil I was surprised by how long it was, but then when comparing it to a normal pencil its actually not as out of proportion as I initially thought.

Its round, has a good weight, is smooth to hold and is also very comfortable. I have drawn with it for hours at a time now and had no aches or pains as I have with some other stylus’ in the past. If you do find it uncomfortable I have seen many people online who have simply taken a rubber cover off a standard pen and put that onto the pencil which seemed to help.

The back of the pen, rather than acting as an eraser as you would imagine, instead houses a lightning connector. This is used to charge the pencil and also pair it with the iPad. This is very easy to do as you simply enable Bluetooth and then plug the pencil into the iPad and wait a few seconds.

In the box you get a replacement tip as well as a small connector which allows you to plug it directly into the charging cable so you don’t need to rely on charging it from the iPad itself. This connector is quite small though so you will need to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t go walk about.

I think I would have preferred a smaller cable, one which could plug into the iPad as well as the main lighting cable to charge. This would also solve the other issue of charging the pen from the iPad itself, where it simply sticks out of the bottom of the device in a very precarious way, one which is just asking to be knocked off and broken.

When I think about it though I have never used this approach to charging the pencil. If I am going out I make sure both the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil are fully charged and because both devices have quite a generous battery life I am never suffering from power panic. I guess if I ever do, having the option of a quick boost from the iPad is a good idea, so in this instance a quick 30 second charge is very convenient.

With the iPad Pro I also decided to get the Smart Keyboard, which also doubles as a protective cover for the screen. I wanted the full experience to see if I would actually use this more than a laptop. At £139 its certainly not cheap, but I didn’t want to go down the route of a third party keyboard at this stage, besides, the only other one on offer was quite bulky and I wanted to keep my iPad Pro as slim as possible.

The Smart Keyboard is exactly that, its slim and light so doesn’t add a great deal to the weight of the device and with a quick flip of the cover you have a keyboard in front of you and the iPad Pro sat upright, just as you would with a laptop. Although this gives you a comfortable angle to work with you are only limited to the one position, and the keyboard is left flat against the desk which some users may not like.

Some other potential issues are that the keyboard doesn’t have a track-pad and it also doesn’t have a full suite of keys. The fact it doesn’t have the full line of Function keys doesn’t actually bother me as for this device I wouldn’t see me needing to use them, the missing trackpad also isn’t a deal breaker as you can easily navigate your work via the touchscreen.

What does seem strange is there isn’t a holder for the pencil, which would have been a nice touch.

The keyboard is covered with a waterproof fabric to help with those drips and spills and typing on it feels quite nice, once you get used to it. The keys have a good, firm feel to them and also have a decent press distance and springiness, yet I can’t help but feel its just shy of that full laptop typing experience. I also found that I was hitting the wrong keys sometimes when in full flow, but this could be that I simply need more time typing on it.

Even though I had the Smart Cover I was still aware that the back of the iPad Pro wasn’t protected, plus I was getting more and more annoyed with having to carry the pencil around separately. I looked around for a solution and was thinking I might need to attach something to the keyboard myself, just to carry the pencil but then I discovered the Coverbuddy by SwitchEasy.

This is essentially a plastic cover which is designed specifically for the iPad Pro and to work along side the Smart Keyboard. It clips to the rear of the device and protects it from knocks and scratches but the other bonus is it has a handy holder for the pencil.

This can be removed if you need to lay the device flat, or you can use it to prop the iPad Pro up at a slight angle while you are drawing.

For me it’s been a great investment as I can finally carry everything around in one complete package, plus the iPad Pro is fully protected. Although after a while using it I have noticed the corners of the case are cracked and chipped but this might just be me being clumsy and thinking about it I would rather the £30 case be chipped than the iPad Pro.

After all this information you probably just want to know what it’s like to use, that’s the important question. Sometimes details and statistics pale in comparison to whether the device actually does the job you want it to.

Make no mistake this is a powerful device and it handles all the major apps without breaking a sweat. Games look and play amazingly well too, the ones that have been updated to the iPad Pro anyway.

I also have to mention the four speakers and how good the sound is. When sat in front of the iPad you get the full stereo experience which can be great when watching a movie, although if I am being picky the base just isn’t as deep as I might like.

I personally love using Adobe Sketch and Procreate which both run super-fast and are just a delight to work in. I have tested many other applications too like Sculpt + by Autodesk and some of the more 3D specific ones and these all work well, although when compared to the full desktop experience they do feel limited. I do think it’s about time we had an iOS version of some of the more popular desktop applications available.

Imagine ZBrush running on this device, or even a ported version of Sculptris. Even a stripped down version of Maya would be great as it would open up the iPad Pro to so many other people. I would love the ability to work on my desktop and then continue on the iPad Pro, even if it was in a more limited way.

I’m getting a little side tracked here but this is a major limitation of the iPad Pro, the inability to continue working from your desktop. That is unless you’re a writer or illustrator in which case you are laughing.

So back to business…

Using the pencil is a pure delight. Its responsive to even the lightest of lines and there is little visible lag. Yes, if you draw fast lines all over the screen you will see some delay in the strokes but for the majority of my time with the pencil I have been focused on smaller, more precise lines while I am sketching. As you would with a traditional pencil and paper.

I even love being able to tilt the pencil and shade areas of my sketches and this also registers with how hard you are pressing. Below are some head studies I did using Adobe Sketch and you can see how it almost looks like a pencil sketch.

In short I have to say this is the best drawing experience I have had to date with a tablet and whenever I feel like sketching its always the iPad Pro I go to.

Another aspect I like with this device is it doesn’t get hot and even after a few hours of use its still deathly silent. With other devices I have used in the past after half an hour the casing begins to get warm and then the fans kick in and can be annoyingly loud. To the point where if I am working in the evening I have to stop or move to another room because the fans are drowning out the TV.

When the iPad Pro was first announced a lot of people complained about the fact that this powerful tablet didn’t have a full-fledged operating system. Instead Apple chose to stick to iOS, something that still confuses people to this day.

You have a tablet that’s claimed to replace your laptop yet it won’t run any of your favourite desktop applications. Instead, you have to fumble onwards with tablet versions of these apps which don’t really do the same job, before transferring them to the desktop to finish.

After using the iPad Pro for over a few months now I have to say I couldn’t disagree more. I think keeping it iOS based is one of its greatest strengths.

Let me explain…

A full operating system is created to work on a huge number of devices, all with wide and varying configurations. It has to adapt to different environments and be easily updated should that change. What comes with this are constant updates, compatibility issues and crashes.

The same can be said of the programs which run on these systems. They too have to be able to work on any setup and be compatible with a wide range of peripherals. A mouse, a stylus, a graphics tablet, 3D mouse the list goes on.

iOS is simply made to run on the iPhone and iPad, that’s it, so it’s written specifically for those devices. The same applies to the applications they run. They are made for the iPad and that’s all, so they can be focused and streamlined to make the most of that environment.

An example is Photoshop. This works great on a desktop but when you try to use it on a touch screen device your workflow isn’t as fluid as you would like. The UI is too small and it can be difficult to navigate the menus which are all built to be accessed with a mouse.

If we look at Procreate, which is probably its closest competitor on iOS, we have a really nice app which is made purely for the iPad and optimized for the touch screen input. This makes it intuitive and also keeps it responsive so you can focus on your art rather than where the tools are.

Yes, iOS does limit what you can do on the device but I feel that developers should embrace it and create or adapt their apps to take advantage of the operating system and work in harmony with it rather than forcing Apple to to change.

In short, I am impressed with the battery life of the iPad Pro. Its claimed to last up to 10 hours and even though that number is quite generous I don’t think it’s too far off the mark. Obviously lots of things factor into this. If you are connected to wifi and using Bluetooth for the pencil, plus you have the Smart Keyboard attached then all these are going to have an impact on the power consumption.

I have used the iPad Pro for three hours, sketching using the pencil while also connected to wifi and seen a drop of 15% with the battery, which for a tablet is quite liberating. I have also spent many hours writing with the keyboard attached and again the battery didn’t drain as quickly as I would think, with a full battery dropping to just 68% over the space of a few hours.

I think you already know the answer to this but it has to be no. I do love the iPad Pro and I can see myself using it for many years to come, however when it comes to work I will still need access to a laptop.

I often need to visit clients where I will work in Maya, or need to demonstrate it in use. I will also need the ability to take their data or use custom applications, which are almost always generated in a Windows environment, and use it directly on the laptop and in all these instances the iPad Pro would be useless.

Where it does shine is with those times I want to sit and be creative, read a magazine, surf the web or even play a game. If my work moves into a more illustrative path, or if you are more of a traditional artist yourself then this could all mean nothing as for this type of work it’s ideal. I could see myself creating a full illustration on the iPad Pro, just transferring it over to the desktop at the last minute for final tweaks and I have spoken to many artists who do just that.

So if you’re a 3D artist then with the current line up of apps this wouldn’t be an ideal choice for you but I could see the iPad Pro pushing many laptops aside within the 2D art community.

I don’t think you can say a definitive yes or no to this questions. As with many devices you have to look at your budget and factor in what it is you are going to need from it.

If you are in the market for something which will work in tandem with your desktop, then I would say the iPad Pro isn’t for you. At this point it’s still too restricted in what you can do with it, especially if you are a Windows user who needs to work with applications specific to that OS. With this in mind I would suggest you go for the laptop option instead.

If you are an illustrator then I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest you get one, with the Apple Pencil, now. Drawing and painting on it is a pure delight, its portable, light, quiet and has a good battery life. What more would you need, apart from a less reflective screen that is.