N-triq over Wacom kills the Pro 3 for me.

[gibbage]

I have a friend who works at Wacom and I asked the same question. He mentions that Wacom doesn't allow Microsoft to add the "OneNote" button because this will affect their sales of their product. So it seems like this is more of a political issue than a technical issue.

Wacom does not use a battery stylus. It depends 100% in the pen being by the screen in order to register the input at all. MS had this idea to wake up the tablet with the pen being away from the screen. You cant do that without a battery. Hince, you cant do that with a Wacom tablet. MS got this stupid gimic idea that turning on the tablet by clicking a pin will sell $1000 tablets. Its cute, but it wont sell a single one more then if it didnt.

 

[jjmurphy]

I'm still not sure why everyone assumes it's n-trig. Daniel said in his video, not once, but twice that it was Wacom. He even mentioned people complaining it wasn't Wacom, and that they're wrong.

 

[jeres88]

Has anyone said if the Wacom will/won't work with the Surface Pro 3. I imagine you wouldn't get some of the features like "click to turn on", but since it's drivers that really determine whether it works or not, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to make the Wacom pen work. Granted, I'm not saying it will, but it is certainly a possibility if the drivers are there.

 

[gibbage]

I'm still not sure why everyone assumes it's n-trig. Daniel said in his video, not once, but twice that it was Wacom. He even mentioned people complaining it wasn't Wacom, and that they're wrong.

Surface Tablet Pen - Designed to Be More Natural Than a Stylus

"​With over 250 levels of pressure sensitivity and Palm Block technology, write and draw as you’re used to."250 levels of pressure sensitivity and Palm Block technology, write and draw as you’re used to"

 

[Nimdock]

I am a bit confused. I am not an artist and this is not my forte... The important part of the tech is the screen or the pen? Or a combination?

Because if the problem is the pen, who's not to say another pen will not work? Is this an exclusive relationship where only one pen will work?

I understand that one of the points may be that with a different pen you would lose the SP3 integration (if it is the case that other pens would work).

 

[Wall iPhone]

Its a Wacom pen, paid astrosurfers/trolls are just trying to delude people. No one has a valid source, that's been confirmed by Microsoft.

 

[Nimdock]

I'm on the other side... During the presentation it was stated that it was n-triq, by Microsoft, I saw the stream live. So thus far the only Microsoft source has stated that it is n-trig.

Until there is clarification on that by a Microsoft source I tend to believe what they said over what other people are saying now.

 

[Wall iPhone]

I saw the live stream, and they never mentioned N-Trig. The live stream is still available, please find that part and show me.

 

[Nimdock]

I saw the live stream, and they never mentioned N-Trig. The live stream is still available, please find that part and show me.

Hahaha I'll get right to it!!! Pfff.

 

[gibbage]

250lvl of pressure has been CONFIRMED BY MICROSOFT. Thats all I need to know, Wacom or N-trig. Its more likley N-trig since Wacon has no battery powered stylus pen's.

 

[kundua]

I am a bit confused. I am not an artist and this is not my forte... The important part of the tech is the screen or the pen? Or a combination?

Because if the problem is the pen, who's not to say another pen will not work? Is this an exclusive relationship where only one pen will work?

I understand that one of the points may be that with a different pen you would lose the SP3 integration (if it is the case that other pens would work).

Nope. If this is not wacom, any wacom pen would not work. wacom requires extra hardware.

 

[kundua]

Its a Wacom pen, paid astrosurfers/trolls are just trying to delude people. No one has a valid source, that's been confirmed by Microsoft.

I can see every other website, except the hands-on video at wpc reporting it as n-trig. i highly doubt that all other tech-sites are trolls. It has 256 pressure levels and battery, both are signs of n-trig.

I am actually interested to buy this, only the pen is putting me off. I would be happy if this is wrog, but unfortunately it does not look likely.

 

[jhoff80]

Wacom is great. It's just not perfect either. N-trig does have better edge sensitivity as an example. And Wacom uses a powered digitizer layer. By moving the battery to the pen, it helps battery life of the tablet quite a bit. I mean, the Pro 3 has a larger screen with 1.5x the pixels, and it still increases battery by two hours.

N-trig has had a ton of issues in the past (their first generation technology I used in the Dell Latitude XT/XT2 was terrible), but that doesn't mean that this is bad.

As for 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, as long as there's a good smooth pressure curve (not always the case on N-trig either), I doubt it'll be all that noticeable.

Not that I'm upgrading myself, but it's probably worth trying the Pro 3's pen before judging it.

 

[thatotherdude24]

Wouldn't it make sense to test it before ripping it?

N-triq pens may typically have AAA batteries, but does this? The cheaper digitizer you once used may have been horrible, but does that automatically mean this one is also of the cheaper variety? Just to be clear, I know absolutely nothing about artist's requirements insofar as pressure sensitivity is concerned. However, I do know that many people end up associating certain properties to certain technical specs, where there just isn't any real relationship at all.

I won't list all the examples. Instead I'll just ask if it could have been, that your poor experience with the cheap 256 step digitizer was mainly a result of it being cheap, and not a result of the pressure sensitivity itself? I have no idea. I could be way off. I'm just saying it might make sense to objectively test this stuff before jumping to conclusions... particularly if negative reactions are triggered primarily by a brand name and not by experience using the product.

I understand exactly what you're saying but at 799 starting price Microsoft won't have the benefit of people buying to try. Some people will only buy Intel over AMD because they have their own reasons. Same idea here only with digitizers.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1

 

[Reflexx]

Wacom is the lead when it comes to graphic arts. There is no notable competition WORTH using cause nothing is as big as them.

Yiynova as a small company supposedly has better pen pressure, but their drivers are kind of gimmicky. I would feel better if they used a Yiynova pen. N-Trig has ALWAYS been gimmicky. Hopefully this new one makes Wacom look like crap. Wacom needs some big competition for them to lower their insane prices anyhow.

I kind of with they went Yiynova also.

I do want Wacom to have some competition. Their Cintiq tablets are pretty expensive.

But 256 levels of pressure sensitivity really isn't practical for a digital artist. I suppose that maybe 512 could be okay.

​

 

[Reflexx]

250lvl of pressure has been CONFIRMED BY MICROSOFT. Thats all I need to know, Wacom or N-trig. Its more likley N-trig since Wacon has no battery powered stylus pen's.

Yup. And those buttons on the pen weren't very Wacom-ish.

I'm personally totally open to other companies. I just don't like the 256 level of pressure sensitivity... even if it was Wacom.

 

[Siah1214]

It's so bad that the president of Adobe got up to tout its artistic capabilities and Adobe is releasing photo shop optimized to work with the surface pro 3....

 

[Dustin Hodges]

I see a lot of people assuming that, in the case this isn't Wacom, is due to the button. However, did anyone pay attention to the presentation? They made the pen more natural by removing the "parallax" that caused a delay between physical pen input and input display. The SP3 Pen is supposedly more fluid and natural then other Pen Styluses. And if that write to text as demonstrated in crosswords is system wide, a battery operated pen is more likely, since Wacom FeelIT (aka Penabled) devices merely treat the stylus as a mouse in most applications. Perhaps Wacom is incapable of this stuff? Furthermore, if it is Wacom, they could just require a battery for the button and have the components separate inside the pen.

 

[Reflexx]

I see a lot of people assuming that, in the case this isn't Wacom, is due to the button. However, did anyone pay attention to the presentation? They made the pen more natural by removing the "parallax" that caused a delay between physical pen input and input display. The SP3 Pen is supposedly more fluid and natural then other Pen Styluses. And if that write to text as demonstrated in crosswords is system wide, a battery operated pen is more likely, since Wacom FeelIT (aka Penabled) devices merely treat the stylus as a mouse in most applications. Perhaps Wacom is incapable of this stuff? Furthermore, if it is Wacom, they could just require a battery for the button and have the components separate inside the pen.

Wacom uses some sort of hardware layer in the screen I believe.

This new pen might be better in many ways for all we know. I personally don't really care if the brand isn't Wacom. (Well, I do wonder about driver support in some applications, especially if it isn't treated as a mouse)

I think the problem most professional artists have is the sensitivity. It just really isn't enough for pro work.

It looks like a really fun sketch pad though.

BTW... does anyone know if it has tilt sensitivity?

 

[jhoff80]

And if that write to text as demonstrated in crosswords is system wide, a battery operated pen is more likely, since Wacom FeelIT (aka Penabled) devices merely treat the stylus as a mouse in most applications.

That is completely wrong.