PROS
- Workflow booster with ExpressKeys, Touch Ring & Multi-Touch capability
- Pro Pen 2 with industry-leading pressure and tilt responsiveness
- Excellent precision and lag-free tracking with cable connection
- Different types of texture sheets for natural drawing feel
- Wireless editing thanks to Bluetooth connectivity
- Long battery life for an entire working day
CONS
- Bluetooth connection introduces some lag
- Felt pen nibs wear down somewhat fast
Is the Wacom Intuos Pro worth it?
Wacom’s build quality has always been the gold standard among graphic tablets, and the Intuos Pro is no exception.
→ Learn More About The Best Hardware For Digital Artists
The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium is the number one tablet for all creators, digital artists, photographers, designers, illustrators, and videographers, alike. You can use the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium for photography, with Lightroom or Illustrator, and digital creations, with Photoshop or ZBrush.
The Intuos Pro is available in three sizes. Besides the medium-size graphics tablet, there’s also the Wacom Intuos Pro Small and the Wacom Intuos Pro Large. The specs of all three models are identical, they only differ in size.
In terms of Wacom Intuos Pro Medium vs Large or Wacom Intuos Pro Medium vs Small, the medium Wacom Intuos Pro is indeed a happy medium (pun intended!) for both professionals and hobbyists. It offers plenty of resolution to connect it to all monitors, including very large screens and 4K or 5K displays.
If you’re an illustrator and your work consists mainly of long brush strokes, you might need a larger drawing area. In this case, the Intuos Pro Large might be the better pick for you.
If you wonder whether to use the Wacom Intuos Pro Small or Medium for photo editing, then the choice depends rather on handiness and portability. Would you like to carry the tablet around and slip it into your bag for some quick editing on the go? Then go for the Wacom Intuos Pro Small, it’s dimensions are ideal for that.
For more on Wacom Intuos Pro Small vs Medium, check out our Wacom Intuos Pro Small Review!
As a bottom line, the medium-sized model will satisfy most artistic needs.
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium with Pro Pen 2 Technology
Not only the Intuos tablet is a pro, it also comes with Wacom’s industry-leading pen technology.
The Pro Pen 2 offers lots of new functionalities as compared to its predecessor, the Pro Pen 1. It comes with increased pressure sensitivity and tilt responsiveness. 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity and ± 60 levels of tilt recognition are a noticeable gain the more you use your tablet. It’s also what distinguishes the Intuos Pro from lower-end tablets on the market.
The pen’s responsive features allow for the most natural pen feel, emulating the qualities of a real pen by making the brush strokes appear thinner or thicker onscreen as pen pressure and tilt change.
With 1.54 lbs or 0.7kg , the Intuos Pro Medium is a lightweight among professional drawing tablets, and it’s battery will provide you with enough juice for a full day’s work.
Sounds pretty good? Let’s dive deeper into this Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Review and see how the Intuos Pro M fares.
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Review
First impressions
Once you’re done unboxing, you’ll be holding a compact and smooth tablet in your hands, which is about 13.2 inches wide, 8.5 inches high, and 0.3 inches thick. Its weight is around one and a half pounds (or about half a kilogram). So it’s still a handy piece of kit for some editing on the go.
With those dimensions, the Intuos Pro is thinner and lighter than its predecessor. While it leaves room for eight customizable Express Keys and a Touch Ring, its active area (8.7 x 5.8 in) is still larger thanks to a slimmer bezel as compared to the previous version.
The tablet’s footprint occupies little space, causing no problems when storing it away or placing it alongside your keyboard when working. The bottom has rubber grips to keep the tablet in place, even on a smooth surface.
The Wacom Intuos Pro makes you feel like working on a real sheet of paper. It comes with the default texture sheet that can be swapped for a variety of other options. The included texture sample card gives you an idea of the other surface options available.
Perfect for both righties and lefties
Wacom offer you the flexibility to adjust the orientation of your tablet and how you want to map it to the computer screen. Depending on your dominant hand and your computer setup, you can choose to have the ExpressKeys either on the left or the right side. That way, there’s also no problem to handle the tablet if you’re left-handed.
On the side of the Express Keys, you’ll find the power button and an on/off toggle for the tablet’s touch function.
The USB port is on the opposite side of the tablet, allowing you to get your tablet up and running by plug-and-play. A quick visit at Wacom.com/start allows you to download the driver for Mac or Windows and set up everything to your personal liking in the Wacom Desktop Center.
Besides adapting the tablet’s orientation, you can customize pressure and tilt sensitivity of the pen, Express Keys, and map your device to one or multiple monitors.
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Review – Pen Technology
The Pro Pen 2 is a bit thinner and smaller than its forerunner, the Pro Pen 1. It has a latex-free silicone rubber grip that makes the it comfortable in your hand, even during long sessions.
It’s light-weight and, like most of Wacom’s pens, battery-free. The pen draws power from the tablet itself thanks to Wacom’s electromagnetic resonance (EMR) technology.
The pen nibs are replaceable and 10 additional nibs are included in the box. Those replacement nibs (6 standard and 4 felt nibs) are stored inside the pen holder. The pen holder includes the nib removal tool, too.
It comes with a whopping 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity (as compared to 2,048 of the Pro Pen 1), and it is tilt-responsive as well. There’s an eraser on the opposite end of the pen and two buttons on the side. The eraser is super-precise and also supports 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, just like the tip.
High pressure and tilt sensitivity are things that every digital artist and photo retoucher will surely appreciate. Drawing and painting becomes just natural with an authentic canvas feel. But also if you use the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium for photography, retouching actions, such as dodging, burning, masking, healing, etc. are intuitive and effortless.
Replacement Pen Options
In case you don’t like to work with the Pro Pen 2, you can get Wacom’s Pro Pen Slim or the Pro Pen Classic. If you’re into 3D modeling, then the Pro Pen 3D might be for you. Other options include the Grip Pen, Art Pen, and Airbrush Pen.
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium: Review of customization options
The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium creative pen tablet comes with altogether eight ExpressKeys (four of them having tactile feedback), and a Touch Ring in the center, which offers four customizable functions.
Depending on your personal preferences, you can set Express Keys and Touch Ring to perform functions like zooming in and out, rotating, increasing and decreasing brush sizes, and so on.
If you aren’t accustomed to these functions, there’ll be a bit of a learning curve going on. But at the end of the day, all these customization options will eventually make your workflow faster and more efficient – which is absolutely fantastic!
A push on the toggle button inside the Touch Ring lets you switch between the functions of the outer ring.
Like everything else on the Intuos Pro M, the Pro Pen 2 itself is customizable down to the last detail as well. Its two side buttons are programmable on a per-app basis, meaning you can assign them to do one thing in Adobe Photoshop and another in ZBrush.
Everything can be customized within the Wacom Desktop Center.
However, that was not yet all you can customize on the Pro Pen 2. You also have the choice between plastic and felt nibs, which you can use according to your taste. The plastic nibs are slightly harder and take longer to wear out. The felt nibs are softer and more intuitive, but they also wear down faster.
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Key Specs
- Active area: 8.7 x 5.8 in (224 x 148 mm)
- Pen technology: 8,192 pen pressure levels, ±60 levels tilt recognition, 5080 lpi resolution
- Buttons & Touch: 8 ExpressKeys, Touch Ring, Multi-touch functionality
- Size: 13.2 x 8.5 x 0.3 in (338 x 219 x 8 mm)
- Weight: 1.54 lb (700 g)
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Review – creative experience
Multi-touch functionality
The one feature that Wacom upped their game with on the Intuos Pro is its multi-touch capability. That means the tablet will react to a touch with your fingertips.
Like everything else, you can program the touch gestures within the Wacom Desktop Center.
Along with the ExpressKeys on one side and the programmable touch functions, you’ll no longer need to lift your fingers off the tablet during an entire editing session!
Nevertheless, if you don’t like multi-touch functionality, there’s a quick fix for that as well. A little button above the power switch allows you to easily toggle touch functionality on and off on the fly, without having to go into the settings.
Drawing area
The Intuos Pro’s surface offers a good amount of resistance to make your drawing experience as natural and smooth as possible. The drawing area is slightly rough, so moving the pen across the active area feels like drawing on a large sheet of paper.
Texture sheets
If you don’t like the default drawing surface, then Wacom has a solution for you as well. There are three types of texture sheets that you can use to draw on: rough, standard, and smooth.
By replacing the surface sheet, you change the feel of your tablet in one sweep. Once a cover sheet is worn down, you can easily remove it and try a different one. The included texture sample card gives you an idea of all three surface textures available.
USB & Bluetooth connectivity
When the tablet is connected to your Windows PC or MacBook via USB, there’s virtually no lag. All motions run smoothly and you can see everything you’re doing in real-time on your monitor.
With a Bluetooth connection, however, there can be a bit of a lag noticeable. But no need to worry: pressure-sensitive brush strokes work with utmost precision just like with a USB cable.
Wireless mode is perfectly ok for simple photo retouches. But if you want to do some complex drawing and painting, you might want to stick with the USB connection.
Fun Feature
The Wacom Intuos Pro comes with four colored rings for your Pro Pen 2. That way, you can add a spot of color to your all black Intuos equipment.
While this is surely a nice touch, it can also be a very useful feature. If you share an office with other Pro Pen users or have multiple pens on your desk, the colored ring is a great way to recognize your pen.
Compatibility
No Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Review without compatibility check… 😉
The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium is compatible with Mac (10.12 and later) and Windows (7 and later). As a wireless-enabled graphics tablet, the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium is also compatible with Bluetooth Classic.
PROS
- Workflow booster with ExpressKeys, Touch Ring & Multi-Touch capability
- Pro Pen 2 with industry-leading pressure and tilt responsiveness
- Excellent precision and lag-free tracking with cable connection
- Different types of texture sheets for natural drawing feel
- Wireless editing thanks to Bluetooth connectivity
- Long battery life for an entire working day
CONS
- Bluetooth connection introduces some lag
- Felt pen nibs wear down somewhat fast
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Wacom Intuos you should get largely depends on the size you need and the money you are willing to spend. 😄
The Intuos Pro Large measures 16.8 in by 11.2 in. The dimensions of the medium-size pen tablet are 13.2 in by 8.5 in, and the small Intuos Pro is 10.6 in by 6.7 in. All models are super-slim, with a height of 0.3 in only.
If you teeter between Wacom Intuos Pro Medium or Large, then your choice depends mainly on your way of editing. Do you create digital artworks where you mostly make long, sweeping brush strokes? Then consider the larger model.
If you can’t decide between Wacom Intuos Pro Medium or Small, then portability is the deciding factor. Do you want to carry your tablet around and be able to slip it easily into your bag? If so, you might want to get the small Intuos.
In terms of pricing, the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium is around US $ $380, the Intuos Pro Small around US $250, and the Large version around US $500.
As a bottom line, the Intuos Pro Medium tablet is indeed the happy medium between size and price, and will be perfect for most creative needs and workspace settings.
On a final note, if you like to start your digital artworks by sketching on paper, then check out the Intuos Pro Paper Edition.
With the Wacom Intuos line of tablets, you look at a monitor while your hand is drawing on the tablet’s surface. The tablet is out of your sight, and the screen is a few inches away from you, while you’re working. This can feel a bit weird at first, and it certainly takes a learning curve to get used to.
However, after a few days max, you’ll grow comfortable with this way of working. It quickly becomes second nature.
The more expensive Wacom display tablets have built-in monitors, so you can draw right on the screen, while also looking down at it.
Check out the cheaper Cintiq 16 or Cintiq 22HD, if you’re interested in onscreen editing.
→ Best Wacom Screen Tablet Picks Below $1000 in 2021
Apropos of Wacom Intuos Pro Medium vs Wacom One: the Wacom One is an excellent entry-level tablet with screen. Its price is about in the same range as the Wacom Intuos Medium. Feel free to check it out before making your final decision!
The Wacom Intuos is a basic pen tablet, mainly for beginners. It’s great for learning, drawing and designing. The Wacom Intuos Pro, as its name suggests, is a more professional graphics tablet for drawing, designing and editing.
→ Ultimate Guide To The Best Wacom Drawing Tablet For Beginners
→ Best Graphics Tablet For Professionals – Top 10 Picks
While both models have multi-touch functionality, they differ in several other aspects:
1. Active Area
The active area of the Wacom Intuos Pro is slightly larger than that of the regular Intuos. The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium’s active area, for example, is 8.7 x 5.8 in, while the Intuos is only 8.5 x 5.3.
2. Pen pressure sensitivity
The Wacom Intuos Pro pen features 8,192 pressure levels and has an eraser at the end with same pressure sensitivity. The Wacom Intuos pen, on the other hand, has only 2,048 pressure levels and no eraser.
3. Number of ExpressKeys
The Wacom Intuos Medium has 4 ExpressKeys. The Intuos Pro M has 8 ExpressKeys, plus Touch Ring and Home Button.
4. Head-Up Display
The Wacom Intuos Pro has Head-Up Display (HUD) functionality, which allows speeding up the drawing process. HUD shows all settings quickly and hides them again after a few seconds, sparing you the need to open the software in order to see the settings.
The regular Intuos does not have head-up display functionality.
5. Bluetooth connectivity
The Wacom Intuos Pro features built-in Bluetooth connectivity. The new Wacom Intuos has wireless capability as well. The Wacom Intuos Medium comes with built-in Bluetooth standardly. As for the Intuos Small, you can choose between a Bluetooth and a non-Bluetooth version. If you have a tablet of the older Intuos line, you’ll need to purchase a separate Bluetooth kit and install it under the device’s lid in order to use the device wireless.
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My name is Angie and I’m a self-taught digital artist. On this blog, I am sharing my knowledge and discussing the best software and hardware for different artistic needs. My desire is to offer options for all creative stages and budgets so that everyone can follow their dream and create art!
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