Thanks! After using the 16 I can really see why you went for the 13. When I'm at my desk I loooove the size, but it's hard to prop it on my lap or take it to another room. It's a little to bulky.
Im so close to buying this now, after watching a million reviews. However this is something that concerns me, I want the 16 inch most expensive model.. but im worried it will be pretty bulky and heavy when im just drawing with it on my lap or in bed... Have you gotten used to propping it up on your lap now? I want a bigger screen cause im used to drawing on my 24hd wacom
This was IMO the best comparison video about these kind of devices. Honest, objective and totally based on EXPERIENCE, and all the important stuff covered. Good work Brad!
Man that price tag on the Mobile Studio Pro is brutal. I hope these things have a long life span. I'm afraid to buy it because I don't want it to die on me.
I hear you, I know people who have used the same Intuos for like 8 years. i used my old Cintiq for 6. I can't imagine using an actual computer for that long.
I own a MobileStudio Pro 16. The first unit I bought had a lot of problems - screen dead pixels, bloated battery. I had to ship it to Germany 2 times for repairs and it was expensive! They finally sent me back a replacement unit that (so far) is working fine. I use it as my daily computer. Since my first experience with the MSP was a bad one, I really am very cautious about Wacom. Update: this is my third replacement MSP 16. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING HAS BEEN EXPENSIVE! I WILL NOT be buying another MobileStudio Pro
Great comparison! I had been planning on buying a Surface Book when the MSP series was first announced, and stats on the MSP16 hit the mark on just about every feature I've ever wanted. 15"+ screen, a 'desktop class' digitizer (engineered with art in mind, not taking notes), the programmable hotkeys, enough processor and RAM to run my animation and video programs effectively and allow fast navigation in 3D programs, have conveniently expandable and swappable storage (via the SD card slot), and a "retina" resolution display (4k, BONUS!). The only thing on my original list that the MSP16 doesn't have is a 3:2 screen, but now I'm finding the 4K resolution to be an exceptionally adequate trade-off. I've been doing this computer art stuff for a very long time, and if you had told me, 25 years ago, that you could buy a computer with all these features for under $3000, I would have sold my car to get the money to buy it (don't tell the me of 25 years ago about the 2 high-resolution video-capable digital cameras or the wireless connectivity to a real-time world-wide knowledge dump where I can WATCH VIDEOS about other people's experiences with the same device). I definitely wouldn't recommend the MSP to everybody (some people love their keyboards), but this is definitely the device I've been waiting a long time for, and I'm absolutely loving it so far! BTW, that's an SD Card slot on the MSP, not MicroSD as mentioned. The standard size is definitely a nice inclusion for professional photographers. I use mine for storage expansion and I work primarily off of the removable drive. Makes it easier to go from computer to computer quickly too.
Hi Brad, new subscriber here. Thanks for the Studio Pro review and this video! I am a 3D animator who's working on a short film submission and tried last year to do my storyboards on Surface Pro 3, with pretty bad results, especially in line quality. So now I am leaning towards a Studio Pro, but still mulling things through. In any case, your review is super well-done ! Will be checking the old ones as well.
Difficult review for sure but you nailed it. I had a Cintiq Companion a while back and a Macbook Pro. Kept MacBook Pro and got the iPad Pro. Still missed the full apps. Got the SP4 and now I rarely use my iPad Pro (or Macbook) and I've been an Apple fanboy for over10 years. Portability is key for me with a device with full apps. Now, I'm looking forward to see if Microsoft rolls out a SP5 and new pen in 2017. Again, great job!
Hi, Nice video :) Just to let you know that if you want to ditch the reliance on keyboard shortcuts on the Surface you can buy a Wacom expresskey remote, it uses up the USB slot and isn't cheap but it's a great help in my experience.
I have had the SP4 for over a year and landed a top of the line Surface Studio two weeks ago. I will say having them both does make for an incredible experience. Especially if you save your files to OneDrive so you can just pick up on the go. I do use Table Pro for on screen expresskeys and never work with a physical keyboard anymore. It took a bit getting use to but now that I have done so for about 12 months it just second nature. On the Studio the screen is so big that you can leave the virtual keyboard on the screen if you want. The Studio is really and incredible piece of hardware. One of my friends got the Wacom Cintiq remote and use it for his studio and love it.
Just got a surface pro 6 and it’s amazing. It’s perfectly sized and I do school work all the time and it is crazy fast! Drawing is also perfect for me, minus the slight glide on the screen when drawing it’s an awesome experience
I was a little surprised by your conclusion. I expected the Wacom to win, based on your last video, and it's been a while since you last mentioned the Surface, so I didn't expect it to fair as well as it did. I've had a few setbacks with my equipment, and out of frustration moved back to natural media, which I'm enjoying quite a bit. It is very much the tools you get used to. My favourite drawing tablet was an ancient Wacom ArtZ II tablet, and I found the Wacom tablets since then to be uncomfortably slick and hard. The closest experience has been the Surface Pro 4 pen on my SP3 (which now has a broken hinge). Should have traded it in for the SP4. C'est la vie. I am looking forward to the Surface Studio Pro and your Dial review (I keep wanting to call it a puck).
brad, great video as always. People agonize over pen tech, but its amazing how quickly you adjust to different devices. I hope in 2017 you will focus a bit on work flows as well as technology. My biggest breakthrough in 2016 was getting an under table keyboard tray thus eliminating the awkward keyboard beside tablet reach. I found I really liked working with reference on a desktop monitor while drawing on a separate tablet. Merry Christmas
some programs get rid of it, like in photoshop and illustrator you can adjust this "wobble" thing some people like those lines, and some people like the line to be smoother, 100% based on software
Good and balanced comparison! One thing I'd like to mention is Tablet Pro. You say you're looking for a quick and elegant way to changing brush size/color/etc, that's all offered by Tablet Pro's Artist Pad, and it's a lot more customizable. Then again, it's sold separately. Also FYI, the Surface Pro does have a MicroSD card slot under its kickstand :)
Thank you so much for this review I'm actually thinking of buying the Wacom mobilestudio pro 16.. I had a Wacom bamboo that I bought like 6 years ago.. I think it's time for an upgrade hahaha you helped me out a lot! Thank you.
The thing about the iPad Pro, it's not a laptop replacement. Which is why I have it, be I already have a laptop. But as soon as my laptop dies I am considering one of these two, thanks for the awesome review!
I traded in my Wacom Cintiq 12WX a year and a half ago for a Surface Pro 3 (your videos were a great help when I was making that decision btw). Man oh man, I haven't looked back. Currently I'm using a Surface pro 4 for all my digital artwork. I can relate to some of your feelings. After working with a Cintiq I reeeeally missed the Express Keys, especially for changing brush sizes. For a while I used a bluetooth keyboard off to the side of my Surface, but I ended up buying a Wacom Express Key Remote, and boy howdy was that a game changer. It's way easer to carry in my bag than an extra bluetooth keyboard, It's got the Wacom touch ring, and mappable buttons...everything I missed from having a Cintiq. Once I got my buttons customized, and a tactile sense of where they were laid out, it just became second nature. It ended up being the perfect solution for me.
+Mr Z that's the same transition I made from the 12wx to the Surface, glad to hear it's working out. And I need to try the remote out sometime. The new cintiqs don't have physical buttons so I was thinking of getting a remote to go with it.
thanks for the insight! i love my ipad pro and have a cintiq 13hd that i hook up to my laptop. ipad for meetings and portability, laptop and cintiq for when i come home to finish, edit, and export (but its also portable if needed for inhouse work). my biggest concern is just the hardware within the mobilestudio pro. at least with a laptop i get much higher performing specs and can replace in 3 to 5 years and keep my cintiq.
I agree with you that the iPad Pro is wholly a different animal and should be left out of this comparison, but I do want to mention it really quickly for a few little points. One place where bringing it up is relevant is the straight edge test you showed. While the Surface and the Mobile Studio Pro produce inconsistent results from using a ruler on their screens, the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil take to it as naturally as paper and pencil. It works just as well. When I still had my iPad Pro (I had to sell it to keep my sister from being evicted from her home, and I miss it fiercely), I had a small, clear plastic pencil that I used occasionally, at least until I mastered Procreate's Quickline. And that brings me to something I want to see in a future Windows tablet: a change to how the pen works. The nTrig and Wacom pens work on an old technology that has pretty much gotten as good as they are going to get. What Apple did in creating the pencil, by making their own implementation based on Bluetooth and some beneath the screen tricks, made for a more natural feel. The Apple Pencil needs no calibration, and just works. If Microsoft could ditch nTrig and develop their own Apple like implementation, that would be my ideal device.
I agree. There are a few things I like about the n-trig and Wacom (ok one thing) I can see my cursor before the pen hits the screen. But in terms of accuracy, I think you're spot on.
The wacom jitter is fine you realy have to zoom in order to see it, the surfae pro jitter is unacceptable. i never seen the same test on an iPad but i wouldn't be supriced if the have a little bit of jitter too. I would like ot buy an iPad Pro if it wasn't ios ^^'
The parallax of the wacom stylus is due to the cheaper models having no tilt sensor, so the tablet thinks the "tip" is actually where the antenna is, while other models (like my Intuos for example) have this tilt sensor, and the tablet can give a precise position of the tip, in every angle the pen is tilted.
I am always amazed how surface pro users didn't realize their surface device has a built in micro sd card reader because microsoft did a great job blending it on the back of the device and if you put a case on your surface pro since day one, probably explains why many never realized it as they ended up covering it up.
the reason why there is a higher pressure level (over 2048) is because of the opacity level range can be much higher than line thickness which are adjusted independently. if you don't have enough opacity level you will get banding effects or noticable strata from black (total opaque) to translucency.
Hey Brad! You told that you like physical hotkeys and I thought give you a tip. You could get a remote which you can simply put on your desk or on your screen. Its called Xp pen remote and you can earn it on amazon. Its more than half of the price of wacoms remote control. Best wishes!
Btw the reason more pressure levels doesn't really make a difference is because of what pressure levels are. Basically, if you have 1024 pressure levels and you're using a 2048 pixel brush and you press down at a level of 968 it will make a circle which is 1936 pixels wide. But if it's 1024 pressure levels and you're using a 256 pixel brush and you push with, say, 437 pressure levels out of 1024, it will calculate to like 109.25 wide, but obviously it can't draw .25 pixels, so it just rounds down to 109.
Nice review! I'm holding out for a Surface clone with a Wacom sensor. The Mobile Studio looks amazing but it's a crime that it doesn't come with a stand, literally no one will use it without one.
Yeah, it would make my year if the New Surfaces coming out this spring came with Wacom tech. I'm not holding my breath on that one but I'm curious to see what comes out of the latest Wacom collaboration.
I've had the surface for about a year now. I bought it so I could work in a shared studio in brussels, which I like a lot more than working at home. But I'm typing this at home because I have deadlines and I have to draw on my 7 year old cintiq, because even after a year I just can't get used to the surface pro. All my line work just looks bad on it. I suppose it's because I'm used to drawing rather big. I'll probably end up selling it. I still don't know if I should buy a 16" mobile studio or try to find a second hand cintiq and cheap PC to leave at the studio. Thanks for these video's, you're one of the few, if not only reviewer looking at the things I want to know about these devices.
I can see a delay with both of them and trying to draw with that gets under my skin. I'll stick to my Intuos 3 and desktop until they iron these mobile units out more. I'd deal with it on a cheaper device but these cost too much to allow something fundamentally to be flawed.
Quick PSA! The stand of the Cintiq Companion is NOT compatible with the Mobile Studio Pro. The new MSP stand uses a new clasp (possibly magnetic? not sure yet) attachment method as opposed to the old (and terrible) tab&hook method. The new stand looks like it will be easier to use than the old one when it is released. I'm just surprised it wasn't ready by launch. Wacom should have included it in the box.
Hey Brad.... Last weekend I picked up a Surface Pro 4 i5 8gb ram and I am LOVING it. Your reviews of the SP 3 and 4 really helped. I purchased a subscription to Autodesk Sketchbook desktop version and it runs perfectly. Coming from an Android tablet, hotkeys are new to me but, wow, they are really convenient. Anyways... keep up the great work! Love your humor btw!
Great review. I have some additional thoughts, the Mobile Studio Pro also has the ability to disable touch. Some of the animation apps I use have sketchy palm rejection issues and being able to quickly disable touch is huge. Also I do have to take issue with the argument that you need a mouse for the Wacom but not the Surface. True the keyboard on the surface has a touch pad but its pretty crappy. A mouse is almost a non-issue. If I need a mouse I would need it on both bc I need accuracy or 3 buttons.
That's a really good point and not something I run into much but a lot of folks will. Yeah, I do tend to plug in a mouse especially if I'm using it for extended periods of time, but I rarely take one with me on the go.
And here I am, on the other side of the world locked at home trying to find the perfect solution for my needs. Been watching dozens of videos and still can't find what it's best for me. Mobile Studio pro is in the 2nd generation, the design it's outdated and does it still got all the problems the 1st gen had? Still expensive but it has Wacom tech that it's the best for professional artists... it's not very portable, battery still sucks... on the other side the "new" options start to look very appealing. For example the Surface Book 2, that I can install Photoshop and Illustrator, the design it's good, it's portable... but the pen-drawing experience I can't tell if it's ok for professional illustration... It's getting harder to find the perfect product these days... sigh.
I don't know.. the "One of them can't fly and the other one can't fly either" seemed to have hit home for me. The difference is right there. but they're also quite similar/different/similar/different.
The Surface Pro allows for on-screen plug-ins that enable hot-key based resizing of brushes with super ease. I never use the physical keys on any of Wacom's tablets anyway. I prefer either keyboard shortcuts or on-screen plug-ins that enable virtual keys on the touchscreen (AutoHotkey is the app I'm using for that). (Edit: by the way, as far as cost goes, don't get a tablet with only 128GB! You'll run out of space waaaaay too quickly. I'd recommend 512Gb or more. It's more important than 16Gb ram for sure.)
Now I'm unsure. For myself the idea I had was that for those occasions when I get illustration ideas "on the fly" I would have the Wacom Mobile Studio, as I often get "out of the blue" ideas when away from home & by the time I've gotten home, I've forgotten them. That way I could start the illos "in the field" & finish them at home on my main machine (I have a Cintiq 22HD touch). But the possibility of carrying so much for it (I do NOT want to carry a ton of crap) is the rub. However the Surface pro appears to have all the "bells & whistles" already included. Also the battery life is much longer (the Wacoms battery, at best, seems to last 4 or so hours according to the vids I've seen. Wacom states that the life is 6). Regardless, thanks for the info, it's given me some food for thought.
thank you. One big difference for me, is the glass screen (surface pro) vs the matte screen (mobile studio pro). I just do not like the glare on glass screens. So definitely the mobile studio wins.
Hey Brad I had a video idea for you. I think it would be neat if you found an app like Astropad for that Samsung tab A and used it with your Mac as a graphics tablet. And maybe compare it to the iPad Pro and Astorpad? Love your videos!
Wacom is worth every penny. I still use the same intuos 3 I've been using for 12 years, through school toting back and forth, through water spills. Still 100% functional and I use it almost daily. The only reason I'm considering an upgrade is because I've never had a drawing tablet that is also a screen and that would be nice, but I really do not need it because my intuos works so well still.
i think the 13 in studio is the sweet spot for the mobile studio. i tested both of versions in person and i found the 4k res on the 16 to be excessive, plus the increase in weight it's just overkill for my uses at least. As for portability im not comfortable carrying a 2k + device with me everywhere. My ideal setup would be a mobilestudio 13 and an ipad pro to carry with me day to day.
Thank you for the great review. when comparing the surface pro 3 to mobile studio 16 does the drawing area feel drastically different in canvas area? I know that aside from size the aspect ratio and resolution can drastically effect the way it feels.
Thank you for another great video! I saw your first review of Surface Pro while back, bought one for drawing and I really enjoy using it. What I like about Surface Pro are that its not so expensive and easy to carry around. Like you mentioned in the video, if you are looking for digital tablet with better experience its gonna be wacom products. One thing I dont like about their products is the pen nibs. I also have intuos tablets but I often noticed that if I use the stylus for 2-3 months I had to replace the nibs. I`ve been using Surface Pro for about 5 month now. And yes I noticed that the tip of the pen is getting flat but not so much comparing to my intuos pen. So since they upgraded their products, did they fix that problem?
Papertoy Pi Oh really? Maybe I pressed too hard on the tablet while I was using it. Although I remember that someone posted a tutorial video how to make replaceable pen nibs on youtube a while ago. And she also said in the video that wacom pen nibs are not good because she had to replace it for few months.
+Pesto its the single thing that bugs the hell out of me about the surface pro devices...no buttons and no accessories...for artists that add these sorts of features... so if this remote thing works its like a fantastic awesome product and will on increase my work flow. 😂
Excellent video! Your conclusion made me wonder, do you think you could cope with just an ipad pro and a desktop PC? How small or great an impact on your own personal work flow would you expect it to have if you could use nothing else? I'm not asking to inform any potential purchase or anything like that, just curious.
Setnakht i sold my laptop and have an ipad pro and a desktop mac. You can make it work, but I still have moments when i go... ooh shit i wish i had my laptop right now.
Jimena Sanchez S I'd never have anticipated buying an Apple product but recently I got an ipad pro myself. As much as I hate to admit it, I've found it to be vastly superior to the Cintiq Companion Hybrid I own. The weight of that thing is egregious! Even the pen and general drawing experience don't compare all that favourably, in my opinion.
Setnakht why do you prefer the IPP? I had an intuos draw and then got the IPad Pro because I thought it would be a good value for money upgrade. While I love drawing on the screen and Procreate, I cannot stand the way the pencil feels on the IPP (even with a matte protector) and I can now see how the lack of the hover brush feature (available on Wacom tech) is sorely missed.
Jennifer K It's mainly the parallax that bothers me, given the prices they charge and being a market leader I think it's a bit of a scandal they've only recently managed to eliminate it. An on-screen cursor is an absolute necessity for a Cintiq due to that inaccuracy, on the iPad Pro it'd be more of a bonus feature. I can't say I notice much of a difference in the feel of the pen on the screen either, I've never used an Intuos but I'm assuming they have a more textured surface than both the Cintiq line and the iPad Pro? Either way, for the screen quality you get with the iPad it's definitely a fair trade-off. Do you ask because you're considering getting a Cintiq? If so, I'd suggest trying the updated 2016 model of the Galaxy Tab A with S pen, provided you live in the US where it's actually been released. I'm from the UK so haven't been able to get one myself but they're essentially an oversized Note 7, which I had and loved before they were recalled by Samsung. You get an on-screen cursor and hover functionality with the S pen and the software for it is excellent, Samsung have had plenty of time to refine it with each iteration of the Note. Screen quality is spectacular also, and again, I expect the difference in feel between it and a Cintiq is fairly negligible.
I'm always looking at something, even if I don't need it immediately ;-) I'm in the UK as well but either way, the Samsung is not ideal as it doesn't run Procreate or Photoshop and it would still have that glossy screen that annoys me on the IPP - nihongogamer described it well, like drawing on glass with a chopstick. It's why Wacom is such a big draw for me. I can sacrifice a bit of screen quality (I already have with the matte protector) for texture and pen control. I find that cursor very useful when changing brush size and characteristics, with the Apple Pencil I have a limited idea of where the edges of the brush stroke will fall. Though I haven't even been able to see a Cintiq in the flesh to compare the surface texture.
Wacom pens, from my intuos days, they fell apart when I used them. And they were a nightmare to replace, because there's so many and some they stopped making. One of the reasons I switched to iPad Pro and pencil. So far, they are both working very nice.
One thing I didn't like about the SP4 was the inability to change the stylus' buttons functions. I don't understand why they did that. A simple remap button feature shouldn't be so difficult to do right? I work with 3D modeling and sculpture software, and we use a lot of right and middle clicks, so not being to port that workflow was a deal breaker. Too bad that I realized that after I bought it though. Another feature I like about the Wacom products (Companion or Mobile Studio) is that you can attach them to a PC and use it just like a cintiq (second or mirror display).
Great video! I feel the same way about most factors, and am also a happy Surface Pro owner :) I went and bought the Wacom Expresskey remote because I really wanted to lose the keyboard when drawing. A bit expensive but works great! (I did a review video on my channel if you really want to know)
Great review, i bought a Matebook by huawei, right now they are super cheap in 400 dollars, is a great alternative to an ipad pro, pen has 2048 levels of pressure by wacom, is really portable and screen is gorgeous, better color quality than a surface pro, but has less battery and processor, but ha sno fan, and is really cool for sketching.
Interesting to know that Surface Pro is doable as a drawing tablet. I might personally get a competitor of the Surface Pro, which is the Eve V. It's a lot cheaper option than the Surface Pro. I'd get the Wacom version, but it's just expensive as well.
How's the battery life compare to each other? That's a selling point for me sometimes I am not able to have a way to charge batteries on the run. Great video by the way.
So I'm doing some research on a few different drawing tablets, I'm leaning more towards wacom's newer models? And I was wondering if the mobile studio pro could still be hooked up to my desktop computer?
So what will your final setup consist of? Mobile studio pro or surace pro 4 or both or will you also be purchasing the surface studio? ? Do tell us whether you will be reviewing the surface studio ?
I have a question, would you need a screen protector for this device? I've only used their own tablets and their drawing surface would ware down and eventually had to be replaced. Do you think the texture of the glass on the Mobilestudio pro will wear out from drawing?
You do realize a ruler's edge is not perfectly straight, especially if you use wooden ones. If you use a ruler to draw a line then of course you're gonna get wavy lines. The pen picks up the micro jitters caused texture of the ruler. A metal one would work better but could scratch your screen. Not sure if rubber ones exist but they would work best if they do.
Hey Brad, I wish to know how you manage to take notes with the surface pro and what app do you use for note taking? I once tried taking notes with my surface book for a very short time but I gave up soon and took to pen and paper. I didn't make any real attempt to adjust myself and just saw if it worked for me at that time. I write fast and I can see a noticeable lag on onenote, and also because I write small (my handwriting is tiny) it gets even harder because of lack of enough friction. There also seems to be a minimum pressure to be applied before the stroke is registered. Is there anything I can do to make it more sensitive? And would I be able to get accustomed to it for note taking if I give it some time? I love it for annotating and random drawing though,as these are cases where I don't care much about speed and unregistered strokes caused by not enough pressure.
If you go into the Surface app on your surface, and click the pen icon on the left, that lets you adjust the pressure for stroke with, both more and less. However, I do not believe that it adjusts the starting pressure at all, so that may not solve your problem, but worth trying out. Also, there are two versions of one note. The full office 2016 version, and the mobile version installed on the surface when you buy it. If that lags, you could try searching the app store for something else, or the wide web. Drawboard PDF, which comes with surfaces, has almost no lag at all. But creating a new document is annoying, and they are charging (via a MONTHLY subscription) for things like lined paper, which sort of makes it useless for notes. However, their code for pen strokes is so fast. You could also try the app Lumbago (it's a Microsoft project), think it's more made for sketching however. Good organization via journals and pages, but not the same way as one note.
the charge isn't for the line paper though since the onenote app is basically a bare bones version of 2016. Onenote 2016 has a variety of stuff that allows for audio/video recordings, ink to text and ink to math which turns hand written notes and math into actual text. Also changing the notes to look like line paper and grid lines can be useful too, depending on the person if they want to look at something familiar instead of an open space or drawing art or graphs on a grid line view
Lonehawk2k4 thanks for the correction. I realized that I typed completely wrong, and I meant to type Drawboard PDF, not OneNote. Don't know how I messed that up.
the mobile studio is like those big gaming pc that has the option of portability when the surface is an ultrabook so you can't compare them at all you choose one for your needs that's it
It would be nice to see your thoughts on the Cintiq pro 16 vs Mobilestudio 13 with lowest specs. They both come with the same price tag. Do you want a 15,6” 4K Cintiq that you only can use with your computer, or a slow 13” Mobilestudio that you can use more freely without being connected to a computer but still use it as a normal Cintiq when connected to a computer? Freedom vs screen size?
Wouldn't it be great when Dell decides to equip the qhd screen of the new Dell Inspiron 7000 with a digitizer like the one they used with the Dell Canvas? I7 8th gen processor, gtx 1060 video card, 16 GB RAM, 520 GB ssd, improved battery life with a 17" qhd screen, for 1/3 of the price of a 16" Wacom MS Pro. I don't mind the weight, just the waiting...
Great video. I'm still torn between the mobile studio and surface book. In the end it may come down to the gpu in the high end models. I've heard the new quadro's (m1000m 4gb in the mobile studio) are less than 5 percent slower than gaming counterparts (965m 2gb for surface book). On one hand you have slightly better art capabilities and probably much better workstation gpu rendering and slightly less gaming capabilities on the mobile studio. Surface book may have slightly better gaming but slightly less artistic and possibly much less 3D rendering capabilities (gaming gpus usually aren't great for 3D software compared to workstation gpus). I may be completely wrong on these things and would like to find out. After all, if I'm going to shell out 3000$ for something of course work would come first, but I damn well better be able to play on it a little as well in my free time.
Can you review the Asus T102? It's basically a cheaper alternative and I'm thinking of buying it .. need your opinion tho lol ur videos are literally the best
Another great, insightful video Brad! People are seriously going to appreciate this since you have experience with both :)
Thanks! After using the 16 I can really see why you went for the 13. When I'm at my desk I loooove the size, but it's hard to prop it on my lap or take it to another room. It's a little to bulky.
NihongoGamer what
Im so close to buying this now, after watching a million reviews. However this is something that concerns me, I want the 16 inch most expensive model.. but im worried it will be pretty bulky and heavy when im just drawing with it on my lap or in bed... Have you gotten used to propping it up on your lap now? I want a bigger screen cause im used to drawing on my 24hd wacom
This was IMO the best comparison video about these kind of devices. Honest, objective and totally based on EXPERIENCE, and all the important stuff covered. Good work Brad!
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words!
Thanks for making the comparison video Brad, been waiting for this.
"Huge jump in prices, between these two devices". You should be a rapper.
Just to make sure you know (based off of your comment at 10:17), the Surface Pro has a micro-SD card slot behind the kickstand.
Yeah, not sure how I missed that one. It is kinda tiny and hidden.
Brad Colbow Haha, yeah. It's nice and out of sight, but the discoverability is low. Great videos by the way, always entertaining.
Well…also mobilestudio pro has one…and full size SD slot bih :)
@@olmocuaron Whats the advantage of a full size sd card? cos phones have em
Man that price tag on the Mobile Studio Pro is brutal. I hope these things have a long life span. I'm afraid to buy it because I don't want it to die on me.
I hear you, I know people who have used the same Intuos for like 8 years. i used my old Cintiq for 6. I can't imagine using an actual computer for that long.
I own a MobileStudio Pro 16. The first unit I bought had a lot of problems - screen dead pixels, bloated battery. I had to ship it to Germany 2 times for repairs and it was expensive! They finally sent me back a replacement unit that (so far) is working fine. I use it as my daily computer. Since my first experience with the MSP was a bad one, I really am very cautious about Wacom.
Update: this is my third replacement MSP 16. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING HAS BEEN EXPENSIVE! I WILL NOT be buying another MobileStudio Pro
@@TheChrisDecember thats sad
@@TheChrisDecember also msp user, battery swelled, repaired now i think itys swelling AGAIN.....
@@abdulmalik2388 I feel you brother. The funny part is (in my case) I never left it overcharged.
Great comparison! I had been planning on buying a Surface Book when the MSP series was first announced, and stats on the MSP16 hit the mark on just about every feature I've ever wanted. 15"+ screen, a 'desktop class' digitizer (engineered with art in mind, not taking notes), the programmable hotkeys, enough processor and RAM to run my animation and video programs effectively and allow fast navigation in 3D programs, have conveniently expandable and swappable storage (via the SD card slot), and a "retina" resolution display (4k, BONUS!). The only thing on my original list that the MSP16 doesn't have is a 3:2 screen, but now I'm finding the 4K resolution to be an exceptionally adequate trade-off. I've been doing this computer art stuff for a very long time, and if you had told me, 25 years ago, that you could buy a computer with all these features for under $3000, I would have sold my car to get the money to buy it (don't tell the me of 25 years ago about the 2 high-resolution video-capable digital cameras or the wireless connectivity to a real-time world-wide knowledge dump where I can WATCH VIDEOS about other people's experiences with the same device). I definitely wouldn't recommend the MSP to everybody (some people love their keyboards), but this is definitely the device I've been waiting a long time for, and I'm absolutely loving it so far!
BTW, that's an SD Card slot on the MSP, not MicroSD as mentioned. The standard size is definitely a nice inclusion for professional photographers. I use mine for storage expansion and I work primarily off of the removable drive. Makes it easier to go from computer to computer quickly too.
Hi Brad, new subscriber here. Thanks for the Studio Pro review and this video! I am a 3D animator who's working on a short film submission and tried last year to do my storyboards on Surface Pro 3, with pretty bad results, especially in line quality. So now I am leaning towards a Studio Pro, but still mulling things through. In any case, your review is super well-done ! Will be checking the old ones as well.
Cool! Thanks for watching Matteo!
I don't really mind the straight line part since that's why we have the line tool in photoshop lol.
That will never not give a feel of free hand though.
man, I really love your reviews,they are very informative and the little humor works well too. keep it up man
Difficult review for sure but you nailed it. I had a Cintiq Companion a while back and a Macbook Pro. Kept MacBook Pro and got the iPad Pro. Still missed the full apps. Got the SP4 and now I rarely use my iPad Pro (or Macbook) and I've been an Apple fanboy for over10 years. Portability is key for me with a device with full apps. Now, I'm looking forward to see if Microsoft rolls out a SP5 and new pen in 2017. Again, great job!
My dream for 2017 is that the SP5 comes with the new Wacom tech. I'm not holding my breath on that, but would be awesome.
Hi, Nice video :) Just to let you know that if you want to ditch the reliance on keyboard shortcuts on the Surface you can buy a Wacom expresskey remote, it uses up the USB slot and isn't cheap but it's a great help in my experience.
I have had the SP4 for over a year and landed a top of the line Surface Studio two weeks ago. I will say having them both does make for an incredible experience. Especially if you save your files to OneDrive so you can just pick up on the go. I do use Table Pro for on screen expresskeys and never work with a physical keyboard anymore. It took a bit getting use to but now that I have done so for about 12 months it just second nature. On the Studio the screen is so big that you can leave the virtual keyboard on the screen if you want. The Studio is really and incredible piece of hardware. One of my friends got the Wacom Cintiq remote and use it for his studio and love it.
Just got a surface pro 6 and it’s amazing. It’s perfectly sized and I do school work all the time and it is crazy fast! Drawing is also perfect for me, minus the slight glide on the screen when drawing it’s an awesome experience
I was a little surprised by your conclusion. I expected the Wacom to win, based on your last video, and it's been a while since you last mentioned the Surface, so I didn't expect it to fair as well as it did. I've had a few setbacks with my equipment, and out of frustration moved back to natural media, which I'm enjoying quite a bit. It is very much the tools you get used to. My favourite drawing tablet was an ancient Wacom ArtZ II tablet, and I found the Wacom tablets since then to be uncomfortably slick and hard. The closest experience has been the Surface Pro 4 pen on my SP3 (which now has a broken hinge). Should have traded it in for the SP4. C'est la vie. I am looking forward to the Surface Studio Pro and your Dial review (I keep wanting to call it a puck).
haha, i think I may have called it a puck in this video. *shrug* it looks like a puck.
I know, right?
brad, great video as always. People agonize over pen tech, but its amazing how quickly you adjust to different devices. I hope in 2017 you will focus a bit on work flows as well as technology. My biggest breakthrough in 2016 was getting an under table keyboard tray thus eliminating the awkward keyboard beside tablet reach. I found I really liked working with reference on a desktop monitor while drawing on a separate tablet. Merry Christmas
fix that damn wobble already, Microsoft !
I'm not noticing any on the SurfacePro 4
it's a software thing, it only does it on certain programs like photoshop
Definitely a Photoshop thing I never draw in it because my pen tablets never work in them properly. I have a cintiq
some programs get rid of it, like in photoshop and illustrator you can adjust this "wobble" thing some people like those lines, and some people like the line to be smoother, 100% based on software
Hi Rabbit, have you try using other softwares? such as paint tool sai ? or sketchbook pro? sorry i need you guys' advice
Thanks for making this video. It helps me think of what would be a good setup for my specific needs.
Really considering picking one of these up. Great video.
Good and balanced comparison!
One thing I'd like to mention is Tablet Pro. You say you're looking for a quick and elegant way to changing brush size/color/etc, that's all offered by Tablet Pro's Artist Pad, and it's a lot more customizable. Then again, it's sold separately.
Also FYI, the Surface Pro does have a MicroSD card slot under its kickstand :)
I really need to play with that again, I know the creator has been working hard to make it better.
Thank you so much for this review I'm actually thinking of buying the Wacom mobilestudio pro 16.. I had a Wacom bamboo that I bought like 6 years ago.. I think it's time for an upgrade hahaha you helped me out a lot! Thank you.
The thing about the iPad Pro, it's not a laptop replacement. Which is why I have it, be I already have a laptop. But as soon as my laptop dies I am considering one of these two, thanks for the awesome review!
I traded in my Wacom Cintiq 12WX a year and a half ago for a Surface Pro 3 (your videos were a great help when I was making that decision btw). Man oh man, I haven't looked back. Currently I'm using a Surface pro 4 for all my digital artwork. I can relate to some of your feelings. After working with a Cintiq I reeeeally missed the Express Keys, especially for changing brush sizes. For a while I used a bluetooth keyboard off to the side of my Surface, but I ended up buying a Wacom Express Key Remote, and boy howdy was that a game changer. It's way easer to carry in my bag than an extra bluetooth keyboard, It's got the Wacom touch ring, and mappable buttons...everything I missed from having a Cintiq. Once I got my buttons customized, and a tactile sense of where they were laid out, it just became second nature. It ended up being the perfect solution for me.
+Mr Z that's the same transition I made from the 12wx to the Surface, glad to hear it's working out. And I need to try the remote out sometime. The new cintiqs don't have physical buttons so I was thinking of getting a remote to go with it.
Best artist technology analysis/comparison channel out there. Thanks, Brad.
I have a ms surface pro 3 i5 8gb and I love it.
thanks for the insight! i love my ipad pro and have a cintiq 13hd that i hook up to my laptop. ipad for meetings and portability, laptop and cintiq for when i come home to finish, edit, and export (but its also portable if needed for inhouse work). my biggest concern is just the hardware within the mobilestudio pro. at least with a laptop i get much higher performing specs and can replace in 3 to 5 years and keep my cintiq.
Thank you so much for the comparison ...! I was totally confused with the options. now I know which to finally buy.
so which one u r gonna buy?
on your brush in Photoshop, Alt+shift+right click+drag is the best brush size solution. Drag left/right for size, and up/down for hardness.
I agree with you that the iPad Pro is wholly a different animal and should be left out of this comparison, but I do want to mention it really quickly for a few little points.
One place where bringing it up is relevant is the straight edge test you showed. While the Surface and the Mobile Studio Pro produce inconsistent results from using a ruler on their screens, the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil take to it as naturally as paper and pencil. It works just as well. When I still had my iPad Pro (I had to sell it to keep my sister from being evicted from her home, and I miss it fiercely), I had a small, clear plastic pencil that I used occasionally, at least until I mastered Procreate's Quickline.
And that brings me to something I want to see in a future Windows tablet: a change to how the pen works. The nTrig and Wacom pens work on an old technology that has pretty much gotten as good as they are going to get. What Apple did in creating the pencil, by making their own implementation based on Bluetooth and some beneath the screen tricks, made for a more natural feel. The Apple Pencil needs no calibration, and just works.
If Microsoft could ditch nTrig and develop their own Apple like implementation, that would be my ideal device.
I agree. There are a few things I like about the n-trig and Wacom (ok one thing) I can see my cursor before the pen hits the screen. But in terms of accuracy, I think you're spot on.
The wacom jitter is fine you realy have to zoom in order to see it, the surfae pro jitter is unacceptable. i never seen the same test on an iPad but i wouldn't be supriced if the have a little bit of jitter too. I would like ot buy an iPad Pro if it wasn't ios ^^'
for changing the brush size on the surface (and wacom actually), use alt on a keyboard+right click (the pen button)
Wanted to say I enjoyed watching your review, I like it a lot how you roll with your mistakes and make them fun.
The parallax of the wacom stylus is due to the cheaper models having no tilt sensor, so the tablet thinks the "tip" is actually where the antenna is, while other models (like my Intuos for example) have this tilt sensor, and the tablet can give a precise position of the tip, in every angle the pen is tilted.
surface also has a micro-SD :)
Clement Kirton yes
Mobile Studio pro has that aswell, allthough it might be a full size SD card
I am always amazed how surface pro users didn't realize their surface device has a built in micro sd card reader because microsoft did a great job blending it on the back of the device and if you put a case on your surface pro since day one, probably explains why many never realized it as they ended up covering it up.
Well…MobileStudio has full-size SD slot bih ;)
the reason why there is a higher pressure level (over 2048) is because of the opacity level range can be much higher than line thickness which are adjusted independently. if you don't have enough opacity level you will get banding effects or noticable strata from black (total opaque) to translucency.
Hey Brad! You told that you like physical hotkeys and I thought give you a tip. You could get a remote which you can simply put on your desk or on your screen. Its called Xp pen remote and you can earn it on amazon. Its more than half of the price of wacoms remote control.
Best wishes!
Excellent review. I am impressed and just subscribed.
Btw the reason more pressure levels doesn't really make a difference is because of what pressure levels are. Basically, if you have 1024 pressure levels and you're using a 2048 pixel brush and you press down at a level of 968 it will make a circle which is 1936 pixels wide. But if it's 1024 pressure levels and you're using a 256 pixel brush and you push with, say, 437 pressure levels out of 1024, it will calculate to like 109.25 wide, but obviously it can't draw .25 pixels, so it just rounds down to 109.
changing pen brush on the surface is easy in Photoshop and illustrator, the keybrinds are "{[" for smaller and "]}" for larger
Nice review! I'm holding out for a Surface clone with a Wacom sensor. The Mobile Studio looks amazing but it's a crime that it doesn't come with a stand, literally no one will use it without one.
Yeah, it would make my year if the New Surfaces coming out this spring came with Wacom tech. I'm not holding my breath on that one but I'm curious to see what comes out of the latest Wacom collaboration.
10:14
The Surface Pro ALSO has an SD slot
I really should have known that but I had no idea. Thanks.
I was just about to write the same thing, but you beat me to it. :) (I actually just got a 64GB Class-10 card as an expansion for my SP4)
Your Welcome
I've had the surface for about a year now. I bought it so I could work in a shared studio in brussels, which I like a lot more than working at home.
But I'm typing this at home because I have deadlines and I have to draw on my 7 year old cintiq, because even after a year I just can't get used to the surface pro.
All my line work just looks bad on it. I suppose it's because I'm used to drawing rather big.
I'll probably end up selling it. I still don't know if I should buy a 16" mobile studio or try to find a second hand cintiq and cheap PC to leave at the studio.
Thanks for these video's, you're one of the few, if not only reviewer looking at the things I want to know about these devices.
I want a son of the two please
I can see a delay with both of them and trying to draw with that gets under my skin. I'll stick to my Intuos 3 and desktop until they iron these mobile units out more. I'd deal with it on a cheaper device but these cost too much to allow something fundamentally to be flawed.
Quick PSA! The stand of the Cintiq Companion is NOT compatible with the Mobile Studio Pro. The new MSP stand uses a new clasp (possibly magnetic? not sure yet) attachment method as opposed to the old (and terrible) tab&hook method. The new stand looks like it will be easier to use than the old one when it is released. I'm just surprised it wasn't ready by launch. Wacom should have included it in the box.
Good to know. The stand looks very similar to the newer one they have a little image of but it does look like the connector is a little different.
Quality Review! You deserve more subs :)
+Demari Draws Thanks man, glad you're enjoying the videos!
@@thebradcolbow Well... you certainly got more subs!
Hey Brad.... Last weekend I picked up a Surface Pro 4 i5 8gb ram and I am LOVING it. Your reviews of the SP 3 and 4 really helped. I purchased a subscription to Autodesk Sketchbook desktop version and it runs perfectly. Coming from an Android tablet, hotkeys are new to me but, wow, they are really convenient. Anyways... keep up the great work! Love your humor btw!
bretking1978 download lazy nezumi for making smooth lines... so sweet
Great review. I have some additional thoughts, the Mobile Studio Pro also has the ability to disable touch. Some of the animation apps I use have sketchy palm rejection issues and being able to quickly disable touch is huge. Also I do have to take issue with the argument that you need a mouse for the Wacom but not the Surface. True the keyboard on the surface has a touch pad but its pretty crappy. A mouse is almost a non-issue. If I need a mouse I would need it on both bc I need accuracy or 3 buttons.
That's a really good point and not something I run into much but a lot of folks will.
Yeah, I do tend to plug in a mouse especially if I'm using it for extended periods of time, but I rarely take one with me on the go.
And here I am, on the other side of the world locked at home trying to find the perfect solution for my needs. Been watching dozens of videos and still can't find what it's best for me. Mobile Studio pro is in the 2nd generation, the design it's outdated and does it still got all the problems the 1st gen had? Still expensive but it has Wacom tech that it's the best for professional artists... it's not very portable, battery still sucks... on the other side the "new" options start to look very appealing. For example the Surface Book 2, that I can install Photoshop and Illustrator, the design it's good, it's portable... but the pen-drawing experience I can't tell if it's ok for professional illustration... It's getting harder to find the perfect product these days... sigh.
I don't know.. the "One of them can't fly and the other one can't fly either" seemed to have hit home for me. The difference is right there. but they're also quite similar/different/similar/different.
greatest frigging channel ever
Yea it is.
The Surface Pro allows for on-screen plug-ins that enable hot-key based resizing of brushes with super ease. I never use the physical keys on any of Wacom's tablets anyway. I prefer either keyboard shortcuts or on-screen plug-ins that enable virtual keys on the touchscreen (AutoHotkey is the app I'm using for that). (Edit: by the way, as far as cost goes, don't get a tablet with only 128GB! You'll run out of space waaaaay too quickly. I'd recommend 512Gb or more. It's more important than 16Gb ram for sure.)
I tried surface pro i5 for 3d modeling, and its totally not worth it, It needs some buttons as wacom mobile studio pro or cintiq companion.
Now I'm unsure. For myself the idea I had was that for those occasions when I get illustration ideas "on the fly" I would have the Wacom Mobile Studio, as I often get "out of the blue" ideas when away from home & by the time I've gotten home, I've forgotten them. That way I could start the illos "in the field" & finish them at home on my main machine (I have a Cintiq 22HD touch). But the possibility of carrying so much for it (I do NOT want to carry a ton of crap) is the rub.
However the Surface pro appears to have all the "bells & whistles" already included. Also the battery life is much longer (the Wacoms battery, at best, seems to last 4 or so hours according to the vids I've seen. Wacom states that the life is 6).
Regardless, thanks for the info, it's given me some food for thought.
I just got the Mobilestudio pro 16” and I’m trying to learn everything about it
Glad I own my Surface Pro 4. When I want to get fully creative anywhere, it is unbeatable.
thank you. One big difference for me, is the glass screen (surface pro) vs the matte screen (mobile studio pro). I just do not like the glare on glass screens. So definitely the mobile studio wins.
Insanely informative! Great video!!!
Hey Brad I had a video idea for you. I think it would be neat if you found an app like Astropad for that Samsung tab A and used it with your Mac as a graphics tablet. And maybe compare it to the iPad Pro and Astorpad? Love your videos!
did you not notice that SP4 has a micro sd slot behind the kickstand?
Thanks man. What I needed.
Wacom is worth every penny. I still use the same intuos 3 I've been using for 12 years, through school toting back and forth, through water spills. Still 100% functional and I use it almost daily. The only reason I'm considering an upgrade is because I've never had a drawing tablet that is also a screen and that would be nice, but I really do not need it because my intuos works so well still.
i think the 13 in studio is the sweet spot for the mobile studio. i tested both of versions in person and i found the 4k res on the 16 to be excessive, plus the increase in weight it's just overkill for my uses at least. As for portability im not comfortable carrying a 2k + device with me everywhere. My ideal setup would be a mobilestudio 13 and an ipad pro to carry with me day to day.
This is a GREAT review!
Thanks!
Thank you for the great review. when comparing the surface pro 3 to mobile studio 16 does the drawing area feel drastically different in canvas area? I know that aside from size the aspect ratio and resolution can drastically effect the way it feels.
Did you know that the Wacom express key remote works on the surface pro? That said I still miss having the keys on the tablet.
I'll have to try it sometime. I think it is USB powered and I currently use the USB port for me mouse.
Surface pro also has a microsd slot
Thank you for another great video!
I saw your first review of Surface Pro while back, bought one for drawing and I really enjoy using it.
What I like about Surface Pro are that its not so expensive and easy to carry around.
Like you mentioned in the video, if you are looking for digital tablet with better experience its gonna be wacom products. One thing I dont like about their products is the pen nibs. I also have intuos tablets but I often noticed that if I use the stylus for 2-3 months I had to replace the nibs. I`ve been using Surface Pro for about 5 month now. And yes I noticed that the tip of the pen is getting flat but not so much comparing to my intuos pen. So since they upgraded their products, did they fix that problem?
Papertoy Pi Oh really? Maybe I pressed too hard on the tablet while I was using it. Although I remember that someone posted a tutorial video how to make replaceable pen nibs on youtube a while ago. And she also said in the video that wacom pen nibs are not good because she had to replace it for few months.
so informative! and you make it fun to watch given that i have a very short attention span! thank you!
Did you work on Broken Age? Your art style is great!
I didn't work on the game but I'm a big fan of its style.
Me too! I'll look up your stuff, I liked what I saw :)
brad, did you know you can use the wacom express remote with both sp and msp
Paul - I was thinking of buying it for my SP4, do you have experience with it? If so, can you share your experience using it?
+Pesto hey Pesto. i have only seen videos on youtube about it. but I'm gonna get one in January for my surface pro 3
😀
+Pesto its the single thing that bugs the hell out of me about the surface pro devices...no buttons and no accessories...for artists that add these sorts of features... so if this remote thing works its like a fantastic awesome product and will on increase my work flow. 😂
Surface Pro, Clip Studio and the Tabmate.... its a wonderful combo.
Excellent video! Your conclusion made me wonder, do you think you could cope with just an ipad pro and a desktop PC? How small or great an impact on your own personal work flow would you expect it to have if you could use nothing else? I'm not asking to inform any potential purchase or anything like that, just curious.
Setnakht i sold my laptop and have an ipad pro and a desktop mac. You can make it work, but I still have moments when i go... ooh shit i wish i had my laptop right now.
Jimena Sanchez S I'd never have anticipated buying an Apple product but recently I got an ipad pro myself. As much as I hate to admit it, I've found it to be vastly superior to the Cintiq Companion Hybrid I own. The weight of that thing is egregious! Even the pen and general drawing experience don't compare all that favourably, in my opinion.
Setnakht why do you prefer the IPP? I had an intuos draw and then got the IPad Pro because I thought it would be a good value for money upgrade. While I love drawing on the screen and Procreate, I cannot stand the way the pencil feels on the IPP (even with a matte protector) and I can now see how the lack of the hover brush feature (available on Wacom tech) is sorely missed.
Jennifer K It's mainly the parallax that bothers me, given the prices they charge and being a market leader I think it's a bit of a scandal they've only recently managed to eliminate it. An on-screen cursor is an absolute necessity for a Cintiq due to that inaccuracy, on the iPad Pro it'd be more of a bonus feature. I can't say I notice much of a difference in the feel of the pen on the screen either, I've never used an Intuos but I'm assuming they have a more textured surface than both the Cintiq line and the iPad Pro? Either way, for the screen quality you get with the iPad it's definitely a fair trade-off.
Do you ask because you're considering getting a Cintiq? If so, I'd suggest trying the updated 2016 model of the Galaxy Tab A with S pen, provided you live in the US where it's actually been released. I'm from the UK so haven't been able to get one myself but they're essentially an oversized Note 7, which I had and loved before they were recalled by Samsung. You get an on-screen cursor and hover functionality with the S pen and the software for it is excellent, Samsung have had plenty of time to refine it with each iteration of the Note. Screen quality is spectacular also, and again, I expect the difference in feel between it and a Cintiq is fairly negligible.
I'm always looking at something, even if I don't need it immediately ;-) I'm in the UK as well but either way, the Samsung is not ideal as it doesn't run Procreate or Photoshop and it would still have that glossy screen that annoys me on the IPP - nihongogamer described it well, like drawing on glass with a chopstick. It's why Wacom is such a big draw for me. I can sacrifice a bit of screen quality (I already have with the matte protector) for texture and pen control. I find that cursor very useful when changing brush size and characteristics, with the Apple Pencil I have a limited idea of where the edges of the brush stroke will fall. Though I haven't even been able to see a Cintiq in the flesh to compare the surface texture.
Wacom pens, from my intuos days, they fell apart when I used them. And they were a nightmare to replace, because there's so many and some they stopped making. One of the reasons I switched to iPad Pro and pencil. So far, they are both working very nice.
I heard that the remote key from wacom can be used on the surface pro to compensate that lack of keys.
+hame I need to try that sometime, a couple folks have mentioned that.
One thing I didn't like about the SP4 was the inability to change the stylus' buttons functions. I don't understand why they did that. A simple remap button feature shouldn't be so difficult to do right?
I work with 3D modeling and sculpture software, and we use a lot of right and middle clicks, so not being to port that workflow was a deal breaker. Too bad that I realized that after I bought it though.
Another feature I like about the Wacom products (Companion or Mobile Studio) is that you can attach them to a PC and use it just like a cintiq (second or mirror display).
10:06 "So yeah were are looking at a huge jump in prices between these two devices" that rhymes
In your opinion what would be the most consistently reliable and specialised painting and lettering application?
Thabks.
Hey Brad, awesome video as usual! Which screen has more tooth, the Companion2 or the MobileStudio Pro?
+Chrissy Le thanks! I've never used the Companion 2 so I don't have an answer for you. But the texture on here isn't super rough.
Great video! I feel the same way about most factors, and am also a happy Surface Pro owner :)
I went and bought the Wacom Expresskey remote because I really wanted to lose the keyboard when drawing. A bit expensive but works great! (I did a review video on my channel if you really want to know)
Great video, thank you. Are both machines relatively quiet?
+Barry Hawkes yeah, you can hear the fans when they kick on but they Aren't loud at all.
THANKS MATE! GREAT VID! KEEP UP THE WORK!
Great review, i bought a Matebook by huawei, right now they are super cheap in 400 dollars, is a great alternative to an ipad pro, pen has 2048 levels of pressure by wacom, is really portable and screen is gorgeous, better color quality than a surface pro, but has less battery and processor, but ha sno fan, and is really cool for sketching.
Interesting to know that Surface Pro is doable as a drawing tablet. I might personally get a competitor of the Surface Pro, which is the Eve V. It's a lot cheaper option than the Surface Pro.
I'd get the Wacom version, but it's just expensive as well.
Great review!
Awesome video man I really really really enjoyed it. It was funny and informative great job!
Are you saying Bebels? It's bezels
Great video man, wait. Isn’t it bezels? Not bevels? Either way, good video
How's the battery life compare to each other? That's a selling point for me sometimes I am not able to have a way to charge batteries on the run.
Great video by the way.
+Rhino Dan thanks, you're going to get at least an extra hour of batterie life out of the Surface, sometimes 2.
Brad Colbow Thank you and that's what I needed to know.
Thanks again for the fast response!
So I'm doing some research on a few different drawing tablets, I'm leaning more towards wacom's newer models? And I was wondering if the mobile studio pro could still be hooked up to my desktop computer?
So what will your final setup consist of? Mobile studio pro or surace pro 4 or both or will you also be purchasing the surface studio? ? Do tell us whether you will be reviewing the surface studio ?
great video, enjoyed it very much!
I have a question, would you need a screen protector for this device? I've only used their own tablets and their drawing surface would ware down and eventually had to be replaced.
Do you think the texture of the glass on the Mobilestudio pro will wear out from drawing?
They say that the etched glass will not wear out like the old coatings. I'm not sure about that, time will tell.
You do realize a ruler's edge is not perfectly straight, especially if you use wooden ones. If you use a ruler to draw a line then of course you're gonna get wavy lines. The pen picks up the micro jitters caused texture of the ruler. A metal one would work better but could scratch your screen. Not sure if rubber ones exist but they would work best if they do.
Hey Brad, I wish to know how you manage to take notes with the surface pro and what app do you use for note taking? I once tried taking notes with my surface book for a very short time but I gave up soon and took to pen and paper. I didn't make any real attempt to adjust myself and just saw if it worked for me at that time. I write fast and I can see a noticeable lag on onenote, and also because I write small (my handwriting is tiny) it gets even harder because of lack of enough friction. There also seems to be a minimum pressure to be applied before the stroke is registered. Is there anything I can do to make it more sensitive? And would I be able to get accustomed to it for note taking if I give it some time? I love it for annotating and random drawing though,as these are cases where I don't care much about speed and unregistered strokes caused by not enough pressure.
If you go into the Surface app on your surface, and click the pen icon on the left, that lets you adjust the pressure for stroke with, both more and less. However, I do not believe that it adjusts the starting pressure at all, so that may not solve your problem, but worth trying out.
Also, there are two versions of one note. The full office 2016 version, and the mobile version installed on the surface when you buy it. If that lags, you could try searching the app store for something else, or the wide web. Drawboard PDF, which comes with surfaces, has almost no lag at all. But creating a new document is annoying, and they are charging (via a MONTHLY subscription) for things like lined paper, which sort of makes it useless for notes. However, their code for pen strokes is so fast.
You could also try the app Lumbago (it's a Microsoft project), think it's more made for sketching however. Good organization via journals and pages, but not the same way as one note.
the charge isn't for the line paper though since the onenote app is basically a bare bones version of 2016. Onenote 2016 has a variety of stuff that allows for audio/video recordings, ink to text and ink to math which turns hand written notes and math into actual text. Also changing the notes to look like line paper and grid lines can be useful too, depending on the person if they want to look at something familiar instead of an open space or drawing art or graphs on a grid line view
Lonehawk2k4 thanks for the correction. I realized that I typed completely wrong, and I meant to type Drawboard PDF, not OneNote. Don't know how I messed that up.
the mobile studio is like those big gaming pc that has the option of portability when the surface is an ultrabook so you can't compare them at all you choose one for your needs that's it
It would be nice to see your thoughts on the Cintiq pro 16 vs Mobilestudio 13 with lowest specs. They both come with the same price tag. Do you want a 15,6” 4K Cintiq that you only can use with your computer, or a slow 13” Mobilestudio that you can use more freely without being connected to a computer but still use it as a normal Cintiq when connected to a computer? Freedom vs screen size?
Wouldn't it be great when Dell decides to equip the qhd screen of the new Dell Inspiron 7000 with a digitizer like the one they used with the Dell Canvas?
I7 8th gen processor, gtx 1060 video card, 16 GB RAM, 520 GB ssd, improved battery life with a 17" qhd screen, for 1/3 of the price of a 16" Wacom MS Pro.
I don't mind the weight, just the waiting...
Great video. I'm still torn between the mobile studio and surface book. In the end it may come down to the gpu in the high end models. I've heard the new quadro's (m1000m 4gb in the mobile studio) are less than 5 percent slower than gaming counterparts (965m 2gb for surface book). On one hand you have slightly better art capabilities and probably much better workstation gpu rendering and slightly less gaming capabilities on the mobile studio. Surface book may have slightly better gaming but slightly less artistic and possibly much less 3D rendering capabilities (gaming gpus usually aren't great for 3D software compared to workstation gpus). I may be completely wrong on these things and would like to find out. After all, if I'm going to shell out 3000$ for something of course work would come first, but I damn well better be able to play on it a little as well in my free time.
Can you review the Asus T102? It's basically a cheaper alternative and I'm thinking of buying it .. need your opinion tho lol ur videos are literally the best
important question. we can use wacom mobile studio pro as screen by connecting to desktop PC just like cintiq. can we use surface like that?
Can you use the Surface like a Cintiq and with a more powerful laptop/desktop?