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For over 15 years I’ve used a wide range of fashions within the Wacom Cintiq line to create digital illustrations, graphic design, cartography, and webcomics.

Webcomics are what I do primarily, and the Cintiq 21ux is the rationale why I transitioned from conventional pen-and-ink mediums into digital artwork, launched my decade-long webcomic, and expanded into artwork for a lot of different tasks. Taking an opportunity on that piece of {hardware} led to a profession and new heights in my very own work that I by no means imagined doable.

I’ve spent 1000’s of hours honing a craft, spending years completely with Wacom {hardware}. You may say that I owe every part to that workhorse of a pill, and the Cintiqs that adopted.

I say this to drive house the truth that I’m a fan of Wacom’s merchandise — and for instance simply how disenchanted I’m with most of the choices made concerning the route Wacom is taking the Cintiq with the Professional 24 and Professional 24 Contact.

Cintiq Professional 24 Contact – Out of the field

I at present use a 2018 Mac mini with a 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Radeon RX Vega 64 by way of Thunderbolt 3 eGPU. Wacom supplied YourNextApp with a loaner unit for 3 months for the needs of this overview.

We won’t converse to the retail opening expertise, as Wacom shipped the overview unit to us in a Pelican case extra suited to the transport of nuclear weapons than a overview pill. Every little thing arrived clear, orderly, and able to use.

Inside the crate — and what you’d discover within the manufacturing facility packaging upon retail buy — there was the Professional 24 Contact Cintiq pill, one Professional Pen 2 stylus with 4-color pen ring set, ExpressKey distant, pen stand with 10 substitute nibs, illustrated set up card, 180W AC adaptor and 1.8m energy cable, USB to USB cable, DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable, HDMI 2.0 cable, USB-C to USB-C cable, DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort adapter, micro USB to USB cable, and a cleansing material.

Wacom Cintiq Professional 24 Contact – Key Specs

• 677mm by 394mm by 47mm (26.65 inches by 15.5 inches by 1.9 inches)
• 23.6-inch IPS UHD excessive brightness show
• 522mm by 294mm (20.55 inches by 11.57 inches) energetic space
• 10-bit 1.07-billion colours displayable, 99% Adobe RGB shade gamut
• 1000:1 distinction ratio
• 235 cd/m2 brightness
• 14ms response time
• Multi-touch help
• 8,192 stress ranges, 60 levels of stylus tilt vary
• 4 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB-C, 1 HDMI 2.0, 1 DisplayPort, 2 inner USB-A ports
• ExpressKey Distant with Contact Ring, rocker ring, house button, and 17 customizable actions

The Professional 24 Contact’s measurement is very large, so be ready to make a little bit of desk house out there. For those who go for Wacom’s Ergo Stand or a swing arm mount just like the Flex Arm from Wacom or an Ergotron, brace your self to create extra room — however extra on this in a bit.

For ports, the Professional 24 Contact options 4 externally-accessible USB 3.0 Kind-A ports, one USB 3.1 sort C port, one HDMI 2.0 port, and one DisplayPort.

Curiously, two ports are listed as USB-A ports by Wacom, separate from the principle usable USB ports, however differ for being situated beneath the pill and never simply accessible in day by day use. One in every of these two additional USB ports is meant for the ExpressKey distant dongle.

The mannequin despatched for overview gives contact options, corresponding to controls for managing the peripheral. It is good to see the advance of the native menu inputs on this mannequin over older variations, the place the buttons appeared hidden on the again of the pill and fewer intuitive.

It’s a small factor, however it’s good to have these inputs on the entrance, clearly labeled, and out-of-the-way throughout day by day use. When partnered with the ExpressKey dongle, it is vitally easy and user-friendly.

Aesthetically, the Professional 24 Contact seems lovely. Each new mannequin of the Cintiq feels smooth and polished for the time interval and that development continues right here.

Wacom has a powerful eye for design, so it’s no shock that the Cintiq seems nice on a desk. Every little thing is matte black and pleasing to the contact.

The pill nonetheless has a weight and sturdiness to it, and I by no means had the sensation {that a} small bump or unintentional quick drop to the desk would destroy it. Nothing in regards to the supplies feels low-cost or flimsy, which as a careless particular person, I admire drastically.

This heft is probably going because of the inner followers and elements wanted for the elective Wacom Professional Engine, that converts the pill into an all-in-one pill and PC.

That stated, there’s a case to be made that making merchandise sleeker for the sake of favor may affect the general efficiency of the {hardware}. For my part, that’s taking place right here on a number of fronts.

Cintiq Professional 24 Contact – Setup

Establishing the Professional 24 Contact was very straightforward, with easy to comply with directions enabling you to attach the pill, set it as the first show, and to get you working in little or no time in any respect. I’ve learn commentary about firmware updates making the pill unresponsive, however I didn’t expertise that, so I wouldn’t have the right degree of hands-on to correctly touch upon the difficulty.

Powered up, the colour vary and brightness of the pill are great, the 4K show is brilliant and sharp, and all the colours are lovely. As knowledgeable artist, shade profiles and consistency from my workspace to a shopper’s monitor or distributors prepress is essential, and it was a aid to see that the onscreen presentation of the Professional 24 Contact is spectacular.

Cintiq Professional 24 Contact – Angles of assault

With the Professional 24 Contact arrange on my desk and powered up, there have been two quick points that set a poor tone for the working expertise. First, the native “stand” of the Professional 24 Contact is tiny. The built-in stand legs present the naked minimal by way of angle or ergonomic help, and gives zero rotation.

Each illustrator I do know works to maintain their posture at a snug, sustainable angle whereas spending lengthy hours over their workspace. It’s a lifestyle, and due to the supply of standing desks and swing arms, the long-term results of poor posture may be slowed. However what if standing desks or swing arms will not be doable for the person?

I used the native stands on the Professional 24 Contact for 45 minutes, after which I gave up because of the swell of again ache and the unhealthy angle essential to work on the pill in my workspace.

Positive, you might alter to the brand new angle over a big time period, however the general modifications could be minor enhancements, and my muscle reminiscence and luxury would take a big hit. This could result in longer work instances, fatigue, and discomfort.

This is likely one of the factors towards smooth design over perform.

For instance, my important workhorse is a Wacom Cintiq 22HD. The show is excellent, it does every part I want it do, and most of all for this instance, it has a big, sturdy stand that was included with the 22HD at buy. The 22HD stand gives a variety of angles, rotation, and luxury that dwarfs the non-existent options of the Professional 24 Contact.

Shortly into the overview course of, I explored my choices from the attitude of a shopper who bought the Professional 24 and located themselves on this state of affairs.

The excellent news is that Wacom has two choices with the Ergo Stand and the Wacom Flex Arm, with each suitable with the Professional 24 Contact. The dangerous information is that on prime of the pill worth, the Ergo stand retails for $500 alone, and the Wacom Flex Arm retails for $379.

Whereas I did not get to attempt them out, it seems that the Ergo stand is stable, sturdy, and can get the job executed at the price of {dollars} and extra desk house. As for the Flex Arm, I’m skeptical out of the gate, as I’ve by no means seen a swing arm help a drawing pill of this measurement with out important bounce or wobble.

I personal an Ergotron swing arm for an additional function on my workspace, so I made a decision to set it up with the Professional 24 Contact, however then, one other roadblock appeared.

As a result of Wacom Professional Engine choices constructed into the Professional 24 Contact, there are not any customary VESA mounting factors on the pill. Wacom will promote you one other proprietary VESA mount that’s suitable with the Professional 24 and assist you to use non-Wacom swing arms and mounts.

The Wacom VESA mount value me $80 and some days later, I put in every part, linked it to the Professional 24 Contact, and returned to my overview course of.

As beforehand talked about, no swing arm is wobble-proof with a pill of this measurement. Therefore, an extremely high-tech, space-age, twenty first century resolution to the difficulty — two tub towels rolled collectively and secured with painter’s tape.

With the Towel-o-Tron 5000 in place, the pill’s angle was adjusted to my consolation degree, rotated barely (because the towels allowed for that), and I settled in to attract.

Fan points

By necessity, the Professional 24 Contact homes beefier — and louder — inner followers in contrast to the 22HD and different fashions. The followers present cooling for the bigger 4K show, and for the elective Wacom Professional Engine.

The fan noise of the pill could be very loud and distracting. Even in house and studio environments the place music, headphones, and chatter can drown out a few of the noise, I discovered myself involved at how usually the followers spun up in a 60-minute timespan. It was alarming, and apparently, it’s a recognized difficulty.

It appears different customers of the peripheral encounter the identical sound downside. Wacom was conscious of the difficulty as nicely, and ultimately launched a firmware patch that allowed customers to decrease the frequency of the fan velocity from “Computerized” to “Low”, lowering the frequency of followers spinning up. Based mostly on our inquiries, retail fashions don’t ship with this firmware put in, leaving it for the person to seek out and set up.

The firmware helped, however even after set up, the followers will not be what you name quiet. Perceive that in case you work in quiet areas, you will hear them.

Once more, these followers are obligatory for the technical specs concerned. However in comparison with the Cintiq 21ux and different comparable fashions, it could possibly’t be seen as a optimistic step ahead, and hopefully Wacom will take heed to their shopper base and its considerations.

Cintiq Professional 24 Contact – Really attending to work

On the optimistic facet of issues, as soon as the Professional 24 Contact was up and working, secured, and the fan noise decreased, I spent roughly two weeks engaged on it day-after-day, for upward of 12 hours every day, and typically extra. The scale of the show, the great thing about the colours, and the 4K decision are not possible to disregard. It’s beautiful and extremely responsive.

The expertise behind the brand new Professional Pen 2 and the Professional 24 Contact feels exact. With my settings dialed in for stress sensitivity, my line work paid dividends.

The floor itself has simply sufficient resistance to really feel like high quality paper, and never easy glass. I preferred the texture sufficient to overlook it once I went again to my 22HD after the reviewing interval ended.

The contact options are an added bonus for many who prefer to mix their use of stylus and contact controls from smaller pill use. I experimented with the function, however my private choice is to solely use stylus and mouse. I disabled the contact options after triggering them one too many instances by chance, however I’m glad that it’s an possibility.

The ExpressKey distant is an excellent instrument that gives all the performance of the buttons included on older fashions, with the liberty to maneuver the distant to an area snug for the person. The fast keys on the distant may be set to behave in a wide range of methods, and I used it for zooming out and in in Photoshop, utilizing CMD-Z, and different macros.

I can see the distant lowering the damage and tear on keyboards over time.

Cintiq Professional 24 Contact – Laborious to justify the value

I’m a full-time freelancer. Cash is at all times tight, and when the time comes to interchange or improve my tools, it’ll at all times be a fastidiously thought-about out course of with execs, cons, and opinions from trusted sources. It’s at all times a giant step and funding.

There are points with a couple of of Wacom’s selections and their proprietary equipment, however as soon as I settled into utilizing the Professional 24 Contact and began to stay with it, I discovered myself in a snug house, having fun with the 4K display screen, colours, and added workspace.

I don’t just like the as much as $500 added value for a Wacom-official resolution simply to get the pill into a snug working place. I hate that I wanted to purchase a particular VESA mount that can solely ever work with this pill, and even then, I nonetheless wanted to make use of towels to make every part really feel secure and cozy.

If I bought simply the Professional 24 for $1,999, added $400 for the Flex Arm, and discovered that I nonetheless wanted the Towel-o-Tron 5000 to really feel secure, as a shopper, I’d be irate and I’d query any future Wacom purchases.

Whereas the bottom $1,999 Professional 24 is dear, you are confronted to pay an excellent increased $2,499 for the Professional 24 Contact.

For me, the Professional 24 Contact is completely not well worth the added value for the contact function. Normally, the contact function tripped over itself whereas I labored, and led to me disabling all of it. Web analysis exhibits that I’m not alone on this regard.

The extra $500 spent on the contact model of this pill may go in the direction of the Ergo stand or Flex Arm, in case you are intent on buying a Professional 24.

Except you will have the additional revenue to spare for stands, want the added display screen space, or intend to utilize the Wacom Professional Engine, the associated fee for even the Professional 24 customary would not really feel price it. It is a onerous name, however what I am seeing right here simply doesn’t meet my expectations for what Wacom and the Cintiq line have delivered for years.

There are lots of good issues in regards to the Professional 24 line, however the cons of lack of consolation, poor mounting choices, and fan noise push it exterior of my acceptable adjustment pains. The Professional 24 and Professional 24 Contact really feel like the main focus was positioned on smooth design and gimmicks whereas taking a step again from sensible use and luxury.

The Professional 24 could possibly be nice, however for me, it misses the mark. In a time the place different firms are leaping into the drawing pill market, corresponding to with the XP-Pen Innovator 16, it nonetheless seems like Wacom is the business chief, however there could possibly be contenders to the throne in a couple of years. If Wacom rests on its laurels, the market may turn into fierce — and that might be a very good factor general.

This all stated, I nonetheless love Wacom merchandise. My 22HD is nearing retirement and the time to interchange it’s looming on the horizon. I’m going take an extended take a look at the Wacom Cintiq 22 that’s an replace to the 22HD I at present use. At $1,199 it’s cheaper than the Professional 24, features a stand that’s vastly extra adjustable, and seems like a greater worth for the cash.

I will must sacrifice 4K decision of the Professional 24 is to the worth gods going with the 22HD. However, given what the Professional 24 prices, and what I lose, that looks like a suitable commerce.

Execs

• Nice show decision and colours
• Massive workspace
• Simple setup
• Nice really feel whereas drawing

Cons

• Contact function is not robust sufficient to warrant an additional $500
• Included stand lacks appreciable consolation options
• Additional stands are costly after-thoughts

Ranking

One in every of our editors spoke in our dialogue boards about how rating project is the hardest (and doubtlessly least beneficial) a part of a overview, however fashionable market forces on the Web successfully require it. As I’ve talked about, a drawing pill has made all of the distinction in my profession, but it surely has additionally made me choosy about what I like about them and what I do not.

These similar components could or could not apply to you. You might be fantastic with the fan noise. You might be fantastic with forking out one other $500 or so on Wacom’s official stand. For those who’re available in the market for a pill, and people issues do not trouble you, then you definately’ll like this large pill very a lot.

Whereas these components aren’t technically full deal-breakers for me, I really feel like there are higher choices for my cash.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

The place to purchase

The Wacom Cintiq Professional 24 Contact is out there from Amazon, priced at $2,499.95.

The Wacom Cintiq Professional 24 with out contact capabilities can be out there from Amazon, at $1,999.95.