Received my Wacom tablet. Good news is, they billed me the price that was indicated at the time I ordered it, which gives me a Graphire4 Classic XL for 125 euros instead of 170. Heh.

Bad news is, an A5 tablet is a bit small for a 1680x1050 20-incher. And Inkwell is unusable because the CPU can’t keep up, making the display lag and garbling strokes. And Painter Essentials can’t keep up either, for the same reasons. And I can manage to draw a bit using SketchBook Pro, but provided I don’t move too fast, and even then the CPU is working overtime and the iMac’s fans get louder than I ever heard them.

It’s too bad, because the hardware is rather good: the removable clear plastic overlay is less pleasant to the touch than the old tablet’s soft plastic, but it’ll be much easier to replace when it’s scratched; the tablet itself is smaller, pretty, and doesn’t need external power. The only problem being that the stylus is a perfect cylinder, barrel buttons don’t stick out, so you have to look at your hand every time you need them under your fingers — and it rolls if you put it down on your desk. And the drivers are buggy, and the tablet lags, and I’m quite glad I got an involuntary discount.

Makes for a decent mouse replacement, but I’m not sure I’ll start my webcomic any time soon.

P.S. Looks like the iMac-white version only exists on Wacom’s American website. Go figure.

P.S. Thinking back, sluggishness is probably not Wacom’s fault. But that doesn’t change anything to my disappointment. If it’s not working correctly on a 2GHz G5 with 1GB of RAM…

P.S. Hallelujah !