Let me start by saying I have never owned a Graphics Tablet before and I am a PC user.
I am a graphic designer and wanted something I could use for cartooning and illustrating. This foots the bill perfectly.
The pen input is fantastic and has twice the pressure sensitivity as the Bamboo Pen. I know, I thought they were the same too, but check the specs on wacom's site.
It is responsive and easy to adjust to. I have only been using it for one week and feel like I have gotten the hang of it. The live area is huge and the size of the tablet itself isn't so big you can't travel with it.
The touch input is fine. I have the new drivers so it seems like a lot of the bugs I hear people talk about are fixed. It is a breeze to surf the web with. I don't use the touch function to draw with, just navigate.
The hot keys on the side of the tablet are awesome, them set (with commands in Photoshop) from top to bottom as follows: toggle touch on/off, Undo, zoom in, zoom out. It really has streamlined my production process.
As far as it being refurbished I can't tell in any way, there were no fingerprints, or scuffs, or anything on it.
It came in the same package as a new one and I got the same software as a new one.
Five Stars. Highly recommend for graphic design or digital illustration use. Wacom CTH460 Bamboo Pen & Touch Tablet (Factory Refurbished)
I bought one of these a few weeks ago at a higher price and it was also refurbished. I can't tell that it was refurbished and it works great. Amazed how good it is. No need to spend the extra money on a new one when the refurbished products perform well.
This piece of hardware works precisely as it should for all intensive and casual purposes. As if the Wacom Bamboo's price wasn't cheap enough,(considering how well it works) the refurbished version is even less of an expense and works in a splendid fashion. Even the frugal should not hesitate in this time and money saving decision. Not only are the other tablets that are offered in this price range lacking in the functionality offered here, but they're also lacking in quality, craftsmanship and durability.
First I would like to point out that this tablet can be used both for program and software use, as well as casual navigation such as surfing the web. This is a great time saver, because the touch function works as a mouse, thus you could easily replace your mouse with this product's functionality, though I'm not recommending to do such. In addition to the active area working for touch functionality, there are also four buttons which can be set to do any number of actions: right click, left click, turn touch function on/off etc.
As for the pen, it's use is superb and greatly improves workflow and increases efficiency of tool use, especially in programs like Photoshop. The pen only becomes active when it's within an inch or two of the active area, and is set on the screen as a direct ratio, so if the pen is held above a corner or center the active area, it will appear in a corner or center of the screen. So if you have a rather large monitor I would suggest getting a larger tablet (I have a 21-in and no complaints). Functionality in the pen has also been maximized by adding buttons to it for clicking, so there is no need to use touch function for clicking and dragging. On top of that, an eraser has been added to the back of the pen which is recognized as such in Photoshop, Illustrator, and other graphic programs.
In regards to the active area itself, it's fairly tough and durable, it senses over 2000 points of sensitivity, and can even recognize when multiple fingers are on the surface; this in particular allows the use of panning, zooming, and scrolling through touch function. The surface is made not to scratch and so long as you aren't trying to reach the upper-limit of its sensitivity (2048) it shouldn't.
As far as needs for improvement, they're really minor. I scratched the surface once trying to figure out "how hard is too hard" but the pressure I was applying was most certainly excessive, I haven't found a need to actually press that hard while working on a project. Aside from that the nibs may wear down faster than expected but it's really no problem seeing as how Wacom provides three complimentary nibs as replacements.
All in all I would have to say that this product is well worth the price and a fantastic alternative to an intuos in terms of price, and a great deal compared to competitors tablets in the same price range which I've seen easily scratch. As if tat wasn't enough, the product comes with a complimentary Photoshop elements 7! So what are you waiting for? Add this to your cart, purchase, and unleash the digital artist inside!
I am a fan of Wacom digitizers and I in fact already had one of this model and was happy with it. But this seller sold me a heavily used item with a fraying cord,it quit working after about 2 weeks. I contacted Wacom about service options to find that this item was registered to someone in Asia and had never been reconditioned by anyone authorized to do so. They assured me the would have record of it if it had been... So I am out 30.00 for the repair.
I purchased one of these tablets to try at my work place. I was surprised to see it packaged in the original box with the Photoshop Elements software and other original items. The sticker on the box indicates a one-year warranty. There were no marks -- looked brand new. Set-up was easy.
I use two monitors at work. The touch and pen can be mapped separately. I set touch (mouse mode) to operate across both monitors and mapped the pen to just the primary monitor. If you map the pen to both monitors then the tablet area is halved such that each half is mapped to a monitor. The pen mapping is absolute meaning you don't have to back off, move over, then back to tablet like picking up a mouse several times to move across a wide screen. Touch, however, is more like the mouse function but is actually best that way, in my opinion. Both of my monitors are wide screen format but not the same size. Still, mouse functions work great using touch across both screens. Within Outlook e-mail, Adobe Acrobat Reader, MS Word, Excel and most other programs the two-finger scroll works fine; I can even scroll in web pages or the bookmark window of my Firefox browser. Pinch zoom in and out works in most applications I have tried. I love moving about with one finger then tapping the second finger to bring up a pop-up menu similar to clicking the right mouse button.
In Photoshop, for me the pen sensitivity is fine, but I am relatively new to pen operation. I can't believe I have used Photoshop for over 6 years now without a pen! For a traveling professional this tablet would travel nicely and offer the added bonus of the larger touch pad (larger than laptop) for mouse movement plus gestures.
The four buttons down the side can be set to just about anything you like. I set them to CTRL. ALT, SHIFT, and Left Click. (You will want Left Click, probably on lower button, so you can use your thumb to click in order to drag over text or move a window easily.) Same flexibility goes for the two buttons on the pen. The pad can easily be configured for left- or right-hand operation. I like turning on the click sound to indicate when my pen touches the tablet. The little LED light on the side is nice; it turns a brighter blue as you touch the tablet and red when the pen is sensed.
In the end, I highly recommend this Pen & Touch tablet from Wacom so much that I just received my second refurbished unit in like-new condition and hooked it up to my home computer! - Tablet - Art - Wacom Bamboo - Graphics'
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