What are Intuos3 advantages over original Intuos?

[burnhamish]

For those very familiar with the Wacom Intuos line of graphics tablets:

I have had a Wacom Intuos 9x12 tablet (USB) for several years, but never seriously used it until now. I will be using it for everything from photo retouching to digital painting with Photoshop and Painter X on a MBP. I get 1024 levels of sensitivity and pen angle detection now (and a 4D mouse), but I can't use new pens designed for the Intuos3.

Are there specific technology or usability advantages the Intuos3 line has over the original Intuos? I could sell mine on eBay and put the money toward a 6x11 Intuos3 (which might be a little less unwieldy), but is it worth it?

 

[stainlessliquid]

The 3 has buttons on the side so you dont need to have your hand on the keyboard for shortcuts and its widescreen. Other than that they are the same, maybe the 3 has bumped up specs but the original Intuos's specs were already way more than what was needed.

I would get one for the widescreen option only, but I still have an Intuos 1 that works perfectly well and the new drivers allow you to map the active area so it matches your screen's aspect ratio. Wacom made these things last too long.