So after owning and heavily using (and not abusing) one of these for about seven months, I’m ready to give my review of the Cintiq 21UX. The Cintiq is of course a pen display unit which you can draw on, directly onto the screen unlike a pen tablet.
What it comes with
Straight out of the box – and it’s one massive, heavy box – you get:
WACOM Cintiq 21UX 21.3” display unit (well you’d hope so!)
Adjustable display stand
Pen (this is the same as the Intuos 3 stylus)
Pen Stand
3x normal pen nibs
1x stroke nib (the one with the spring)
1x felt nib (the black graphite looking one)
Universal Power Adapter 100-240V/50-60Hz (Li Shin)
Power Cable
Various plug adapters depending on country
DVI-I – DVD-D monitor adapter
DVI-I – RGB monitor adapter
Drivers/software CD-ROM
Base cover plate (if you want your display to be flat)
4x plate screws
2x rotation lock screws
Manual
Physical dimensions: 561 x 421 x 48.2mm
Weight: 10.4kg
Setup
Setting this beast up took around 30 minutes. It’s pretty straight forward. Stick the stand on a flat surface and place the display unit on it! There are two black metal levers, the left one will lower the screen up to 30˚ if you pull the lever towards you. The right one will raise the screen to a max of 80˚. This is a big unit, so you will need a lot of desk space and a pretty high chair!
A CD-ROM is included with all of the drivers you will need for the Cintiq. I actually went to the Wacom website and downloaded the latest drivers instead which I recommend you do.
I have a dual monitor system at home with the Cintiq as the primary monitor running at 1600×1200 and a smaller 19” PHILIPS LCD at 1280×1024 which I use as a secondary monitor mainly for coding and whatnot. So yes, it does work with different resolutions on different monitors.
If you get the black screen of death while messing with resolutions, I suggest downloading the latest drivers for your video card (in my case the NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT), and setting up your resolutions there (there should be some option for “run native resolution” which is 1600×1200 for the 21UX).
Calibration
Setting up all the buttons, stylus buttons and pen alignment was again fairly straight forward. I disabled most of the buttons on the right of the display unit as I keep knocking into them when drawing. You can set software specific keystrokes to pretty much any button. This is a real time saver. For example you can set the undo function to your stylus so that means no more ctrl+z or ctrl+alt+z to undo anything. You can zoom and pan very quickly with the touchstrip and express keys, and the ability of the Cintiq to be rotated on its stand means you can focus on drawing and nothing else.
Performance
The screen itself is very durable and you won’t need any of those laptop screen protective coverings. The surface is also a lot less slippery than the Intuos 3 so you won’t be drawing nearly as many wonky lines. It also doesn’t pick up tiny scratches like the Intuos 3 tends to do.
I do recommend getting the SmudgeGuard. For about $15 USD, this is the most cost-effective investment you can make for keeping your Cintiq in pristine condition. It’s a spandex glove that covers your pinky and the bottom side of your hand so your hand glides over the display without smearing grease and oil all over the screen. The SmudgeGuard has a tendency to pick up and remove dust from your screen, so you keep the display clean even when you’re drawing! Drawing without one just feels weird now. Order one from Jeannie, she is fantastic to deal with and very friendly.
Ok, some of you will be interested about pen lag. Yes, there is a little pen lag between the pen and the cursor on the screen. Don’t let the fanboys tell you otherwise. However this is very slight and once you get used to it, you won’t even notice it.
Software Compatibility
So far I’ve used Manga Studio EX 3, Manga Studio EX 4, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS4, Flash CS3 and Illustrator CS3, and the Cintiq is compatible with all of them. You may get some weird calibration issue with Manga Studio where a line you draw is offset by about 300 pixels to the left. Reinstalling the driver and/or Manga Studio fixed the problem for me.
Overall Impression
This thing is really great. It is very close to drawing on paper, and it’s well worth the investment if you are going to be using it on a daily basis. It also functions as my primary monitor very nicely. My linework has improved a lot, and I can draw much faster than when I was using an Intuos3. Actually this page of ANTS is where I started using the Cintiq right up to the current page. What else can I say, for those Intuos3 users who are looking to make the step up, don’t hesitate – do it now. You won’t regret it.