His & Hers: My Helix Meets the Companion
My husband had been waiting for the Cintiq Companion for quite sometime and today was the day it was delivered. Unfortunately for him, he had a dinner appointment so I got the pleasure of getting it up to date and trying it out for the first time.
The device is pretty solid and well made, even the case for the Wacom Pen felt very premium. I actually have trouble calling it a device because it’s HUGE and HEAVY. But the screen size feels like the perfect size for drawing. Apart from the power adapter, pen and case, it also came with a non-slip stand for the Companion that allows you hold it up at varying angles and keep it from slipping when your drawing on a desk.
One complaint is that the power button is located in the lower right corner of the tablet which is where i normally hold devices when moving about so i kept accidentally putting the pc to sleep.
The tablet comes with Windows 8 out of the box which you’ll need to activate with the product key that is on a sticker on the power adapter (it took a while for me to find where that was). Once it’s activated, you can run all the windows updates first, then you’ll be able to update to Windows 8.1 at the store.
I only had time to try out the new Fresh Paint and One Note before my husband arrived from his dinner and i had to surrender it to him. But both apps performed wonderfully and it was just so nice to write on. I think the matte screen on the tablet really makes a difference, palm rejection is perfect and the dedicated button that allows you to quickly switch touch on and off really helps with not having any extra strokes registered.
Can’t say anything about the battery life but apart from the weight, i think overall it really is a device that’s worth its cost in build quality compared to other feature similar devices in the market.
being in tech 