The Intuos Pro small’s dimensions and active drawing see it come in at just under half the size of the largest in the Intuos Pro range. Despite its diminutive frame, the Pro small still boasts six programmable Express Keys, a touch ring and Multi-Touch features. It’s matte black, and somehow, despite weighing less than one pound, it still feels resilient and durable.

The Wacom Intuos Pros allows you to return to your roots of putting a pen to paper to create an image – a tactile experience that many younger digital artists may be out of touch with. If you’ve spent a number of years editing with a mouse or trackpad there will undoubtedly be a a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using the pen, but with a little bit of practice you will likely find this device speeds up your editing process and make tools like dodging, burning and clone-stamping much more precise.

Key features

• 338 x 219 x 8mm / 13.2 x 8.5 x 0.3 in
• 1.54lb / 0.7kg
• Wacom Pro Pen 2 with 2 programmable buttons
• 8192 pen pressure levels (up from 2048)
• 8 Customizable ExpressKeys
• Built-in Bluetooth connectivity and USB connectivity
• Pen stand with 10 replacement nibs (tips)
• Choose between ‘standard’ or ‘felt’ nibs for added friction
• Mac and Windows compatible

Design and Feature

Let’s look at the construction of the tablet. The Intuos Pro looks a lot like the previous model except that it takes up less desk space and is a bit thinner. It feels just as sturdy as before, if not sturdier. Wacom’s build quality has always been stellar and the current Intuos Pro is no exception. One caveat I have is the new USB-C connector wire. It’s a right angle wire that helps keep it flush with the tablet, but it’s always felt a bit out of place in my desk setup. However, the addition of standard Bluetooth helps that quite a bit and it allows me to move the tablet pretty much wherever I want. Plus USB-C allows for faster charging for wireless operation. If there’s any lag between wired and wireless Bluetooth, I didn’t notice it.

As much as I like my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, I’ve never liked writing/drawing on the iPad’s super-slick glass surface. The Intuos’ replaceable Texture Sheet drawing surface has a slightly rough surface that mimics the feel of paper. This is a far better solution. Optional Texture Sheets come in three degrees of roughness. Note that with a Wacom Intuos line of tablets, you look at a monitor while your hand is drawing on a flat surface out of your sight. While this can be weird at first, it quickly becomes second nature as you acclimate to this new way of working. The much more expensive Cintiq tablets have built-in monitors, so you can draw right on the screen while looking at it—think iPad.

For more money, Wacom does offer what they call the Wacom Intuos Pro Paper Edition. This tablet actually uses real paper with real ink pens

This is going to be a bit strange writing about the features of the Intuos tablet. As I said, I’ve been using a form of Wacom tablet for years. When I began, there were no rotary dials or shortcut/function buttons. There was only the tablet and a pen—and that’s how I learned using them. When Wacom introduced the buttons and other extras, I ignored them because I wasn’t comfortable adapting to them, so I disabled all buttons and continued using the Intuos same as before—sans extras.

That was then and … well, it’s still then. To this day, I don’t use any of the extra’s that Wacom includes on the tablet. To back up my point, I talked with many artists I know that use and depend on the Intuos or Wacom Cintiq tablets. I found that the older that the artist is, the less likely they use these extra features. The younger artists tend to utilize the buttons and dial because their first tablet already had these features. Reviewing the latest Intuos Pro tablet has required me to try these features. 

Wacom has included a row of what they call ExpressKeys. There are eight buttons set vertically that can be made to do almost anything you want to program them to do. A Touch Ring with a center Toggle button divides the ExpressKeys into two sets of four each. In paint programs like Photoshop, the ring can be used to rotate, increase/decrease brush sizes and other functions with variable settings. Pressing the center Toggle button switches between the outer ring functions. If you’re right or left handed, the ExpressKeys can be set to be on the right or left side of the tablet. Once you get the settings done, they’re locked in until you decide to change them. All this sounds more complicated than it really is.

After using the ExpressKeys and Ring for this review, did I overcome my stubborn ways and plan to keep using them? Nope. Sorry, Wacom. (Warning, Photoshop nerd talk ahead) Here’s an example: If I want to resize the brush in Photoshop, I can easily use the Intuos’ outer ring. However, as my left finger is using the Ring while still holding the pen, I can’t see the brush size on the screen. It is much easier for me to have my right hand on the keyboard while I am drawing or retouching with my left on the Intuos tablet. Through the years, I have learned and customized keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop. It’s just easier for me to stick to what I know. (Nerd talk done) .

Specification

• Model Number PTH660
• Tablet Size 13.2 x 8.5 x 0.3 in
• Active Area 8.7 x 5.8 in
• Weight 1.54lbs
• Black color
• Multi-Touch
• Pen: Wacom Pro Pen 2
  Pressure-sensitive, cordless, battery-free
  Pressure Levels 8192, both pen tip and eraser
  Tilt Recognition ±60 levels
  2 side switches on pen, Touch on/off switch on tablet
  Replacement Nibs 10 Pro Pen 2 nibs (6 standard and 4 felt nibs in pen stand)
  Latex-free silicone rubber pen grip
• Desktop pen stand
• Tablet resolution 5080 lpi
• 8 customizable, application-specific express keys
• Touch ring with 4 customizable functions
• 6.6 ft cable
• PC And Mac USB or wireless Bluetooth
• System requirements: USB port, Windows 7 or later, Mac OS X 10.10 or later, Bluetooth for wireless connection, internet connection for software downloads