Review: Cintiq 13HD is a lovely small-screen addition to your workspace
As an on-again, off-again graphic designer and doodler, I’ve long lusted after Wacom’s Cintiq line. My very first Wacom product, an Intuos, sparked my dreams: How amazing would it be if I could not only draw with pressure sensitivity, but see my digital canvas as I sketched? But Cintiqs in the early 2000s were far too pricy for a day-dreaming high schooler, and I had to make do with my (still perfectly useful) Intuos.
Had the Cintiq 13HD been around when I was learning to do digital inks, however, I would have blown my savings in an instant. Not only is the pressure-sensitive tablet display compact enough that it doesn’t require getting another desk on which to use it, but it’s incredibly inexpensive for a Cintiq—just $999. I realized that at first glance, $1 less than a thousand doesn’t seem particularly price-conscious—until you consider the $2499 and $3699 price tags on the 13HD’s bigger siblings.
Being able to see what you're working on has always been one of the Cintiq's great strengths.
It has many of the same features, benefits, and build quality as those more-expensive tablet displays, including a 178-degree viewing angle, 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, and a 1080p HD screen, but in a smaller package—the screen size is 13.3 inches diagonally compared with the 22HD’s 21.5 inches. Measure it up against another recent Wacom product, the Intuos5, and you’ll find it has almost the same footprint as the medium version of the company’s drawing tablet. Add that to the 13HD’s weight—just 2.65 pounds—and the display is practically portable.
The Cintiq 13HD's cords are much more slimly packaged than its predecessor, but they still keep it from being truly portable.
I say practically because the Cintiq still has one major limitation—unlike Wacom’s display-less tablets, it needs a power outlet to function. The cord that connects the 13HD to both power outlet and computer looks much like Apple’s 30-pin dock connector: It snaps into the Cintiq on one side, with multiple cables trailing from that—one to connect the display via HDMI, one for USB, and one that leads to the (fairly small) power brick. (Gone is the 12WX’s breakout box, thank goodness—these new cords are much sleeker.) Given that no Mac currently offers an HDMI port, you’ll also need an HDMI-to-Thunderbolt cable if you want to hook up the 13HD to your iMac or a non-Retina portable Mac.
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