Pencil + iPad Pro vs. Wacom Intuos Pro

[Skylitfly]

Do you guys think that the Apple Pencil will get even close to the precision that my Wacom provides?

Otherwise I'm not tempted at all to get the iPad Pro but if if works really well for drawing and illustration I'm more than happy to get one.

 

[Nausicaa]

Do you guys think that the Apple Pencil will get even close to the precision that my Wacom provides?

Otherwise I'm not tempted at all to get the iPad Pro but if if works really well for drawing and illustration I'm more than happy to get one.

Hard to say, all we have are limited hands-on reports from the post show demos. Early impressions are definitely positive. Wired suggested it was the most responsive and lag free stylus he used. I don't think Apple would release a shoddy stylus and what video I've seen of its performance looks impressive. You'll probably want to wait until we get more impressions before pulling the trigger on this though. Mainstream press reporting on these types of products are usually wanting since it's a niche product category and few people know what to really look out for.

 

[Skylitfly]

Hard to say, all we have are limited hands-on reports from the post show demos. Early impressions are definitely positive. Wired suggested it was the most responsive and lag free stylus he used. I don't think Apple would release a shoddy stylus and what video I've seen of its performance looks impressive. You'll probably want to wait until we get more impressions before pulling the trigger on this though. Mainstream press reporting on these types of products are usually wanting since it's a niche product category and few people know what to really look out for.

Yeah. I guess so.

All I can do is wait and look for reviews by professionals. If Apple Pencil is as impressive as it seems to be I'll be excited.

I've been looking for portable device that works well for sketching and illustration as well as media consumption and fun.
iPad Pro combined with the pencil looks quite promising so far.

 

[robgendreau]

What's the state of support for the Pencil? It can be the greatest dingus in the world, but if it doesn't work in an application you need to use it's not much better than your finger.

 

[Tsepz]

If it works as well as the SPen works on my Note 4 then I'll be going for a iPad Pro later this year or early next year

 

[OttawaGuy]

Does anyone think that the iPad pro technology will trickle into the other iPads in the coming years. I'd like to use the pencil on a smaller form factor iPad mini.

 

[Starfia]

I've used a few Wacom tablets, including Cintiqs, and my impression is that the iPad Pro wins easily. Jony claimed "the precision to touch a single pixel," and that pixel is a Retina-resolution pixel. We'll just see!

But I already thought that Procreate with a Wacom Creative Stylus – though not precise – already won over Cintiqs, so it might be preferential.

 

[Starfia]

Does anyone think that the iPad pro technology will trickle into the other iPads in the coming years. I'd like to use the pencil on a smaller form factor iPad mini.

Possible. Apple has a history of introducing new features to one flavour of device at first as a selling point, then adding it to the other devices if it makes sense.

 

[justit]

Tried the iPP Pencil at the store. It's impressive (possibly the best stylus input ever). However cost is prohibitive. The entry level iPP + Pencil is $900 USD vs Wacom Intuos Pro selling at ~$200 these days. If I needed to sketch full-time 8 hours a day the iPP+Pencil makes sense. I think one really has to think about their own time usage case.

Could I sketch 'better' with the iPP+Pencil vs Intuos? Probably not.

I typically spend 10-15 minutes max on a day to day basis sketching/comping out ideas with the Intuos. If that time starts to increase then I would definitely get the iPP+Pencil, just not today.

 

[dalcorn1]

Intuos is probably a bad comparison, because you're not drawing onto a screen. This thing is essentially a cintiq at a similar price that actually enables you to do a whole hose of other things rather than act as just a display.

Using it in store it is the best stylus I've used for a tablet. I've owned 2 jots (pixelpoint and the first pressure sensative one), pencil by 53 and a couple of other cheap ones. Apple pencil felt so much nicer. The palm rejection is the thing that sets this apart for me, but also it feels like it has resistance which is the killer for the pixelpoint as it slips across the screen too easily.

 

[ara-mia]

I can confirm beyond a shade of doubt that Pencil input is not up to the standard of accuracy of Wacom's Intuos Pro or Cintiq line--if you're accustomed to Wacom's standard, I highly recommend purchasing a Pencil from somewhere that has a generous return policy so you can see how it fits within your own workflow. I have a light touch and work heavily with thin, tapered lines and feathered strokes, and there's a real weak point there, which is only exacerbated by the lack of a cursor when hovering. Notes does the best job of "faking" stroke accuracy, but it's not viable for finished work, of course.

I will agree that it is worlds better than any Bluetooth stylus on non-Pro iPad models, and for people who favor different styles of mark making, it may very well serve as a viable Wacom substitute! I wish it worked better for me because I hate Wacom the company with a passion

 

[nickyD410]

Tried the iPP Pencil at the store. It's impressive (possibly the best stylus input ever). However cost is prohibitive. The entry level iPP + Pencil is $900 USD vs Wacom Intuos Pro selling at ~$200 these days. If I needed to sketch full-time 8 hours a day the iPP+Pencil makes sense. I think one really has to think about their own time usage case.

Could I sketch 'better' with the iPP+Pencil vs Intuos? Probably not.

I typically spend 10-15 minutes max on a day to day basis sketching/comping out ideas with the Intuos. If that time starts to increase then I would definitely get the iPP+Pencil, just not today.

Yeah, you cant compare the pro to an intuos. You would compare the pro to the 13in cintiq which is about $800 so the price is close.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

Linearity isn't quite as good as an Intuos. I'd say it's better then Wacom Penabled (SP1/2, Note series) and SP3/4, but not as linear as Intuos/Cintiq.

Subjectively, it's an excellent drawing experience. I'm busy stirring up trouble with that pressure glitch thread, but meanwhile I'm having an amazing time drawing with this thing.

 

[nickyD410]

Take a look at the videos I posted last night, at least its good for the type of sketching that i do.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/another-pencil-video.1938750/

 

[yalag]

I can confirm beyond a shade of doubt that Pencil input is not up to the standard of accuracy of Wacom's Intuos Pro or Cintiq line--if you're accustomed to Wacom's standard, I highly recommend purchasing a Pencil from somewhere that has a generous return policy so you can see how it fits within your own workflow. I have a light touch and work heavily with thin, tapered lines and feathered strokes, and there's a real weak point there, which is only exacerbated by the lack of a cursor when hovering. Notes does the best job of "faking" stroke accuracy, but it's not viable for finished work, of course.

I will agree that it is worlds better than any Bluetooth stylus on non-Pro iPad models, and for people who favor different styles of mark making, it may very well serve as a viable Wacom substitute! I wish it worked better for me because I hate Wacom the company with a passion

Why do you say that? I've never heard that before. Every user I've seen reviewing it says it's more accurate than Wacom

 

[Rogifan]

Why do you say that? I've never heard that before. Every user I've seen reviewing it says it's more accurate than Wacom

Rene Ritchie says it's better than any Wacom he's used. I've seen some pretty impressive drawings on Instagram but I'm not an artist. Perhaps a real artist would think different.

 

[mi7chy]

Rene Ritchie says it's better than any Wacom he's used. I've seen some pretty impressive drawings on Instagram but I'm not an artist. Perhaps a real artist would think different.

Rene Ritchie is a fanboy and amateur artist. I'd wait for opinions from open minded pro artists like Brad Colbow. He got his iPP but just waiting on the pencil.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thebradcolbow

 

[WilliamG]

Rene Ritchie is a fanboy and amateur artist. I'd wait for opinions from open minded pro artists like Brad Colbow. He got his iPP but just waiting on the pencil.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thebradcolbow

Well the Apple Pencil certainly doesn't have the ridiculous input latency the Surface Pro 4 has. This - for me - looks unusable, but I recognize not everyone will have problems with it...

Go to 2:10 in this video. That is some CRAZY lag.

 

[ara-mia]

Why do you say that? I've never heard that before. Every user I've seen reviewing it says it's more accurate than Wacom

What they're probably talking about in terms of "accuracy" is parallax/offset between the stylus tip and the display, which is one area where the Apple Pencil excels. Wacom's standard product lines (Intuos, Intuos Pro, Cintiq) employ EMR digitizers, and size is a major drawback--the tablets are oversized to extend the edges of the digitizer panels beyond the tablet's active area, which is meant to account for the more exaggerated offsetting that occurs at the edges of the digitizer. Additionally, they're very thick, so there's a considerable gap between the tip and the cursor when you touch the stylus down. Calibration is meant to ameliorate this somewhat, but some degree of offset will always exist.

Active digitizers like N-trig (Surface Pro 3 & 4) and the iPad Pro's tech are a little different; they employ battery-operated pens to transmit input signals, and the panels themselves can be made smaller, leaving software to handle much of the heavy lifting. The relaxing of the size limitation (among other factors) makes them favored in more portable applications like tablets, but it comes with some drawbacks of its own. Apple have clearly gone to great pains to address many of the issues seen in competitors' offerings; the pen tip is extremely accurate, and predictive tech rolled into the pen API is so sophisticated that there's almost no perceptible lag unless you're really trying to outrun your strokes in slow-motion video. It's wanting, however, in the sort of fine-grained control that a Cintiq can offer; with a Cintiq, I can use a 100-pixel brush and easily flick a single stroke all the way from subpixels back up to max width and opacity. With Apple Pencil, it tracks your direction and pressure and will apply smoothing across the width of the stroke, which results in a more even-width line--desirable in certain applications, certainly, but not all.

If accuracy and a clean, average-weight stroke are your main considerations, the Apple Pencil is fantastic in both departments, and I'd recommend it to anyone with those particular needs! It's beautifully crafted and I'm thrilled to see it garnering such a positive response in the creative industry. It's possible that a perfect non-Wacom solution for my preferred uses just doesn't exist yet, sadly.

 

[mi7chy]

Well the Apple Pencil certainly doesn't have the ridiculous input latency the Surface Pro 4 has. This - for me - looks unusable, but I recognize not everyone will have problems with it...

Go to 2:10 in this video. That is some CRAZY lag.

I'm not really interested in opinions from closed minded amateurs. If you watched the video it's a Photoshop issue and will likely to be improved in a future revision. Latency varies per app and brush size like on the iPP too.

 

[Rogifan]

I'm not really interested in opinions from closed minded amateurs. If you watched the video it's a Photoshop issue and will likely to be improved in a future revision. Latency varies per app and brush size like on the iPP too.

What constitutes a "close minded amateur"? Anyone who has something good to say about Apple Pencil?

Rene Ritchie is a fanboy and amateur artist. I'd wait for opinions from open minded pro artists like Brad Colbow. He got his iPP but just waiting on the pencil.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thebradcolbow

I realize he's pro-Apple. But he does have an art degree (I believe he previously was a graphic designer) and said he's been using Wacom tablets for decades. But sure it's possible he has blinders on when it comes to Apple. Anyway, this is one sketch he shared on Twitter.

 

[mi7chy]

I realize he's pro-Apple. But he does have an art degree (I believe he previously was a graphic designer) and said he's been using Wacom tablets for decades. But sure it's possible he has blinders on when it comes to Apple. Anyway, this is one sketch he shared on Twitter.

Have seen much better children's artwork like photo realistic pointillism and more maturity.

 

[temna]

I just can't bite my tongue anymore. You people are being so damn catty. It's a new product. This software isn't out for it yet. You need to be more patient with developers, they are probably still trying to get their hands on a Pencil too.

 

[highdefjunkie]

I just can't bite my tongue anymore. You people are being so damn catty. It's a new product. This software isn't out for it yet. You need to be more patient with developers, they are probably still trying to get their hands on a Pencil too.

Amen!!

 

[Rogifan]

Have seen much better children's artwork like photo realistic pointillism and more maturity.

Let's see your drawings since you seem to be such an expert.

Btw, what I posted from Rene Ritchie was just to illustrate that he can draw (and probably better than 99% of the people posting in this forum).