Mouse Tablet

While we've been discussing mostly pure graphics drawing tablets, technology has progressed to the point that full tablet PCs are now available. An affordable solution for a graphics digitizer has been the Adesso Cybertablet line, the 6400, 8000, and 12000 in variouus sizes. Now Adesso evenn offers the Cybertablet as a full graphical user interface with their M17 line, a full 17" monitor that doubles as a graphics tablet as well, letting you interact directly on the screen!

This is an amazing improvement over the standard graphics tablet as now instead of their being a disconnect between the tip of your stylus and the output on the monitor, you can follow the line directly through your arm to the resulting lines and colors on the screen. The benefit tographic artists of all sorts is pretty obvious, however it comes at a cost. At around $1700, the Adesso Cybertablet M17 is a serious investment. However, their 6400, 8000, and 12000, with dimensions of 4x6, 6x8, and 9x12 respectively, are still being made for the affordable prices of around $50 to $150. These tablets are most comparable to the Genius Pensketch in quality, but both of which are not quite a match for their Wacom counterparts. Some complain about driver compatibility issues with the Adesso models, and their stylus uses a battery to power it which makes it heavier than most and slightly unwieldy.

What is to come of the Cybertablet M17 is yet to be seen. Many tablet PC laptops are now hitting the market, what with the introduction of common screen touch computing that has been seen with the popularity of the iPhone. Adesso has a bit of a head start on the tablet interface front, but the compatibility issues with the old drivers for their other lines of tablets may be an indicator of potential limitations with their new counterparts.

Rumors have been flying around for some time that Apple itself will be introducing a tablet PC, and this bodes to come true some time in the near future. However their tablet is likely to have more of an iPod-like interface and not be aimed toward the graphic artist's market. If drawing's your game, then the Adesso Cybertablet M17 might indeed be a great solution for you as an all-in-one PC and graphics digitizer combination. I am likely to hold out for another year though, just to wait and see what Jobs has in store for us.

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