cheaper alternative for Cintiq?

Boomslang · Post by **Boomslang** » 28 Oct 2007, 16:18

Hello there,
I have a Wacom tablet, but it proves quite exhausting to animate with a wacom in Tvpaint for me. The feel you have with paper would fit me better, so I'm considering to save money for a Cintiq. However this will take a lot of time, since I'm a student (=not so rich).
Anyway, I saw this laptop in an advertizement, the HP Pavilion tx1020ea,
which has a screen you can turn around and a pen with it so you can use it as a sketching device.

I was wondering if anyone here has some experience with running TVpaint with this sort of laptop, and if it comes anywhere near the sensitivity Wacom has?
It would be one heck of a lot cheaper than a Cintiq.

D.T. Nethery · Post by **D.T. Nethery** » 28 Oct 2007, 17:50

I don't know about the HP Pavilion tx1020ea, so I'll leave it to our resident tablet PC users to speak up .

I did look up the HP Pavilion tx1020ea tablet PC and found it listed mostly on sites in the UK , so I'm assuming you're in the UK or somewhere in Europe?

The HP Pavilion tx1020ea lists for £799 which is equivalent to about 1,142.39 Euros (or $1,639.78 U.S. dollars)

Price for Cintiq 21UX on the European Wacom web store is
2,979,90 Euros = £ 2,084,1731 UK

BUT ...

The new 12wx Cintiq will list for £ 829.99 which is 1,186.69 Euros (or about $1,703.38 U.S. dollars) , so you might want to consider the new Cintiq. Cintiq 12wx is about the same size screen as the HP Pavilion and will cost you £ 30 or 44 Euros more for the Cintiq 12wx . Of course, it's the tablet only, not a whole computer and operating system, but if you already own a computer capable of running the Cintiq then it might be worth considering:

http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?lang=en& ... =en&pid=96

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/22/waco ... t-display/

Boomslang · Post by **Boomslang** » 28 Oct 2007, 18:41

Ah, I didn't know about a new Cintiqtype being way cheaper. That's good news, I'm glad Wacom now opens the market by making it more affordable.
The Pavillon is also about 1000 Euros (yes, I'm in Europe ), but the lower price makes it a lot more attractive to go for the Cintiq.

Besides, I'm not sure wether the Pavillon can tip at the quality of Wacom, but I'd like to hear about that if someone has experience with it.

I was also wondering, I know you use the Cintiq, do you consider it better/nicer to draw with than with a normal tablet?

Thanks for your info

D.T. Nethery · Post by **D.T. Nethery** » 28 Oct 2007, 19:05

Boomslang wrote: I was also wondering, I know you use the Cintiq, do you consider it better/nicer to draw with than with a normal tablet?

The only tablet PC I've used is the Motion Computing 1600LE which I had for about 2 days as a demonstration . It worked ok, but I like the Cintiq more. (the Motion Computing LE1600 has been replaced by the newer LE1700).

I think it's going to come down to how much sensitivity do you need ? The Cintiq is very sensitive . The ideal thing would be if you could try out the HP tablet you're considering and also try out the Cintiq to compare. Here in the U.S. it's hard to find a retailer who has Cintiqs on display . I was fortunate enough to be at a studio that was considering buying Cintiqs , so Wacom (smelling the money) was good enough to send over a demonstration model for us to use for a few days. (we had the Motion Computing LE1600 at the same time; everyone preferred the Cintiq) .

I hope Chad Essley will chime in here. He's got more experience and info. about tablet PC's .

If you check Chad's blog he has an extensive review of several models of tablet PC's here:

http://www.cartoonmonkey.com/Sahara/shootout.html

CartoonMonkey · Post by **CartoonMonkey** » 29 Oct 2007, 09:09

Hey!

I can absolutely recommend a Tablet PC in place of a cintiq. Although, I would go for a machine that can have 2 gb of ram, and a dual core processor.

The levels of pressure sensitivity are in my opinion, no difference! Perhaps you notice with a regular "unattached" tablet, like an intuos 3, but when drawing directly on the screen the 128 or 256 levels, (I forget) on the tablet pc, is more than enough!

Check out the Lenovo X61, or the Motion LE1700. (Although the motion units get very VERY hot!)

The Sahara slate tablet pc is also excellent, although I would not get the one with wacom and touchscreen, as it has a small plastic overlay.

I would buy a tablet pc any day over the new small cintiq. Either that, or just spend the extra money for a nice 21" Cintiq.

I have both a 21" Cintiq and 2 Motion tablet pc's. The 1400 and 1600.

In many ways, I prefer drawing on the small screen of the Tablet PC..

Hope this helps your decision!
C

Keith Osborn · Post by **Keith Osborn** » 29 Oct 2007, 13:35

I also own a Tablet PC (Toshiba Tecra M4) and thoroughly enjoy drawing on it. Chad's right, the pressure sensitivity is enough. For the latest Tablet PC's, I think it's actually 512 levels if I'm not mistaken. It's the same tech in the early model Cintiqs (15" & 18" modesl). With that in mind, you can actually use pens designed for those early systems on your tablet PC. I needed the extra button the comes with those so I went ahead and purchased one. It's so much nicer than the pen that's typically supplied with Tablet PC's. Oh, another difference - you don't have tilt sensitivity but that's not a deal breaker for me. I kinda look at it as a portable Cintiq.

malcooning · Post by **malcooning** » 31 Oct 2007, 18:12

I'm in the camp too. I have the Gateway c140x. I love it to be honest. Like any machine, it's no perfect (otherwise there would be no reason to keep making new machines), but for what I paid I'm getting a really strong, really versatile convertible PC. I particularly love when I'm doing something really boring, like writing emails just to get things going, and then I take a moment to break off, pull the tablet's pen out and slap a few line there and then. Sweet moments.

Most of the tabletPCs you'll find will come in the 12" screen flavor. This one is a 14" one, which helps not going blind gradually whilst working on projects. Resolution wise, if you can get a hold of a SXGA screen (1400 pixels wide) you have even more desktop property, which is good for drawing, although considering that my external 24" screen native resolution is 1900x1280, having a 1400x1080 pixels on a 12" panel might seem a push.
Sensitivity leaves something to wish for, but so does anything that is not intuos3 in my opinion.

Yojimbo · Post by **Yojimbo** » 01 Nov 2007, 08:08

I also have used the Motion LE1600 and it is an amazing machine. It is great for drawing and I have not noticed a difference in sensitivty compared to standard WACOM tablets. Technically it is less, but I never notice when actually using it.

JohnArtbox · Post by **JohnArtbox** » 05 Nov 2007, 21:42

I've got an LG Tablet and like most others I thinks it's great for TVPaint. Pressure sensitivity is enough, and having a computer that acts like a sketchpad is fantastic...
..but I like the idea of the Cintiq because it uses the CPU / GPU of the machine it's attached to and for some parts of TVPAint, and many other programs I use, attaching the Cintiq to a workstation provides a dramatic speed increase. Tablets just aren't the cutting edge of speed and graphics.
On another note, has anyone used one of the new pen and touch screens? They're not wacoms, and they use a different technology, but they are still pressure sensitive.