I have been craving for one of this for a long time even though I already have 2 other Intuos, a 12X12 Intuos 2 (Blue) and a 6X8 Intuos 2 (Silver).I bought my first Intuos in 2002, the big 12X12, which proved to be too cumbersome after sometime. I exchanged it with my friend who has the 6X8 that I carried with me to US during my graduate studies. Soon afterwards, I seized the opportunity of another similar one at a cost of US80 from a student who was graduating and returning to his home country. I was so lucky. 2 years later after I graduated I landed an internship in Disney as a Visual Designer / Art Intern. They bought me an Intuos 3 12X9 which I loved using. When Intuos 4 came about, I couldn't wait further. Now I am using it for all my digital painting at home since I left my Internship with Disney.

Intuos 4 comes in a nice sleek package, black and shiny. It was like unveiling a sports car when I saw it for the first time as it arrived at my doorstep. There isn't a lot of fuss installing it. Within minutes it is good to go. The thing I am impressed of is the ability to configure the Intuos for right and left handed use. Next the wire to the tablet is detachable so mobility is pretty enhanced. I love the black drawing surface which is matted so my hand will not "stick" to it as I glide my arm across the tablet. An improvement!

The touch wheel is like operating an iPod. It can be configured to different key strokes. I used it more for increasing and decreading my brush sizes on the fly without the need to reach out to my keyboard for the "[ ]" keys.

The improved tablet surface is great for painting. I am no longer "sliding" on the surface as it provides a certain resistance as though you are drawing on paper. Not exactly but still my hand is aching after like half hour of painting. (Not sure whether this is good though). Anyway after a week of testing, I realized that my stylus tip has already worn off quite a bit. Fear not, the package comes with an assortment of stylus tips well hidden in the pen holder. Twist it open to see them. There is a total of about 8-10 tips in there.

One thing that I am not liking the new tablet is, it is catching dust easily. Especially the stylus. You will know what I mean. The black surface also allows dust to be clearly seen under the light.

Overall, 5 stars to the new tablet!!