Produced by Wacom, creators of drawing-specific digital interfaces, the Cintiq Companion is a portable and powerful Windows 8 tablet. The Cintiq Companion is separated from other pressure sensitive, stylus friendly devices such as the Windows Surface by its focus on artistry over versatility. Rather than being an accessory to your regular desktop or laptop, as other Wacom products are, the Companion is completely self-contained, portable and light-weight. Despite donning a familiar Windows 8 interface, the Companion is deceptively powerful, running on an Intel Core i7 chip, with 8GB of RAM. Its matte 13.3” screen has full HD resolution, and the accompanying stylus is precise in its functionality and aesthetically comfortable, making the drawing experience unprecedentedly natural. Due to its size, the device is less practical as a multi-purpose tablet than the iPad or Surface, however it remains an exceptional tool for artistry and design.
Though the tablet clearly has exceptional capabilities, it is worth noting that the experience of drawing on the device is frequently disrupted by the necessity to navigate application menus, some of which respond exclusively to touch, or to the use of the devices ExpressKeys, rather than to the stylus. Coming in at $2,499 for 8GB, the Cintiq Companion has the look and feel of a professional device with the functionality to match, and all the benefits of an untethered, portable device.
