The human compulsion to create a visual record of our experiences and emotions can be traced back to earliest man and his crude cave paintings. Evolution has led us from the Dark Age to the Digital Age, yet our need to create is unabated. Our tools for creation have also evolved, and today we will be looking at the digital equivalent of pencil and paper—paint and canvas—the Intuos3 tablet from Wacom.

The Intuos3 is the latest in a long line of high quality tablets from Wacom. It sports a new modern industrial design that includes a gray back-painted transparent surface, matte-finish active area, and built-in palm rest with tapered sides to make it not only elegant, but comfortable as well. The Intuos series has many advantages over the Graphire series such as larger sizes, two times the levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt features, and much more. The Intuos3 also makes some improvements to the former leader, Intuos2, with an increase in coordinate resolution, the addition of touch strips and express keys, and an updated software bundle.

The Intuos3 that we are reviewing today is the middle of the road 6x8 version which is flanked by the 4x5 and 9x12 versions. Each has the same features with the exceptions that the tablet and active area are larger, and on the 4x5 version there is only one set of express keys and a touch strip.

Looking at the specifications, it is clear that the developers at Wacom do not joke around when it comes to packing in the features. The tablet, along with its new design, includes express keys and an innovative touch strip which Wacom is calling their new non-dominant-hand capabilities—fancy words—with a lot of function. This allows you to draw freely with one hand while using the ExpressKeys and Touch Strip to control the application with the other hand.

Continuing with Wacom tradition, neither the pen or mouse need batteries or cords—allowing for a hassle-free work environment. Every inch of the tablet has been designed with comfort and usability in mind. The tablet, pen, and mouse are all ambidextrous—allowing both right and left handed users to take full advantage of their features. The Intuos3 grip pen has a larger grip area for comfort and comes with a conical two-way pen stand to keep the pen from sustaining any undue damage. The mouse that comes with the Intuos3 is a 5-button mouse that doesn’t rely on a ball or optics.

Additionally, the tablet comes with a very nice bundle of software which contains Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, nik Color Efex Pro 2 IE by nik multimedia, Painter Essentials 2 by Corel, and Wacom Brushes 2.