Wacom’s newest flagship Cintiq 24HD tablet-cum-display was launched on 13 September 2011. The only piece available in Southeast Asia was brought in for yesterday’s launch event for the Bamboo graphics tablet.
Priced at S$4269 (incl 7% GST), it will be available in mid-October.

Wacom Cintiq 24 HD in an "hangover" position.
The Cintiq line of graphics tablet is Wacom’s highest end range for creative professionals. Used with a pen stylus, artists work directly on the surface of an LCD screen for an intuitive and direct feel. The tablet-cum-display is plugged into a computer with the necessary graphics software.

The tablet cum display flush with the table top.
The Cintiq 24HD is the newest flagship product for Wacom, featuring a 24-inch HD widescreen display (1920 x 1200 pixels).
The display has a much improved colour gamut compared to its 21-inch and 12-inch siblings, promising 92% of the Adobe RGB colour space – an improvement almost 50%. Users of the Cintiq 21UX and 12 WX frequently set up a separate colour monitor to check for colour accuracy Wiith the 24HD, this is not necessary anymore because of the improved colour accuracy.

Elevated position, with space for keyboard.
I did find the display not as pin-sharp as expected but my guess is that this particular display unit has been toted around more often than it’s been designed for – it’s not meant to be a portable device after all. Yet, physically, the screen was built to withstand the hard with the pen tip – the person giving the brief punched it many times with his knuckles to illustrate this point.
The touch-and-feel of drawing on the tablet was fantastic, as can be expected from a high-end product targeted at the professional market. I did not detect any lag between physical pen movement and the line on the screen below the pen-tip. It painted exactly where I wanted it to, and the 2048 pressure levels made a indelible difference when painting strokes of varying pressure.

Customisable buttons and control ring on both sides.
The frame around the screen is deliberately designed to be thick to serve as arm rests. Customisable control rings and buttons can be found on both sides of the frame. They can be set to control brush sizes etc.
The cantilever holder behind the screen is a new design. The tablet can be put in a number of positions: vertical or horizontal, or slanted with one edge resting ON the table, JUST ABOVE a keyboard, or HANGING OVER the table’s edge – whatever position the artist is comfortable with.
For stability, the tablet and the base counterweight weighs some 40 kg. But changing between the positions was simple and fast, and did not require a lot of strength.