Tom recently reviewed the Genius G-Pen F610 Drawing Tablet and found it to be a very good product overall, so of course not to be outdone by him I have to review one as well.. hehehe
Anyway, today for review I have the Adesso Cybertablet 6400 6 x 4 Graphics Tablet, which is more than just a graphics tablet, the pen has built in mouse buttons so it can act as a mouse, and Adesso included a small travel mouse to be used with the tablet as well so there’s no need to carry an additional mouse with you. One of the great things about this product is the price, I honestly expected it to cost much more than it does, coming in at around seventy dollars it is well worth that price and could easily sell for more.
I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now and have come to enjoy what it can do for me to make my life a bit more easier and even enjoyable. It’s been a long time since I’ve used a graphics tablet at all, and I had forgotten just how useful they can be…
Adesso Cybertablet 6400 6 x 4 Graphics Tablet Review
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: Adesso
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Name:
6" X 4 " Graphics Tablet
Model: Cybertablet 6400
Connection: USB
Platform: WINDOWS VISTA/XP/2000/ME/98SE Mac OS9/OSX (up to 10.4.9)
Design, write, draw, sketch, all with the sleek and affordable CyberTablet 6400. This ergonomically designed graphics tablet includes a scroll mouse and a 6" x 4" work space, that lets you naturally draw and write freehand graphics and text as comfortably as you would on real paper.
Features:
Enhance Photos
Quickly and easily edit your digital photos using the control of the CyberTablet pen and your free copy of PhotoImpact XL. Take your skills to the next level with this advanced photography software.
Draw and Paint
Create great looking artwork with the natural feel of your CyberTablet pen and the amazing capabilities of the control you need to quickly and easily edit your digital photos. It works great with any software your mouse does and runs on both PCs and Macs.
Mark up, Sign, and More
The included CyberTablet pen makes it easy to sketch and write notes in Microsoft Office XP and Apple word processors. Mark up documents in Microsoft Word, annotate presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint, and even jot a note to friends and family.
Professional Graphics Tablet
* USB connection for quick installation.
* Transparent photo frame for easy personalization with photos and artwork.
* Includes 12 function keys for automated tasks.
* High resolution, supports up to 3048 lines per inch.
* Active tablet space: 6" x 4"
Wireless Drawing Pen
* 512 levels of pressure-sensitivity for natural brush control.
* Precise, light and fast-moving cordless pen.
* Dual mouse buttons on pen for efficiency right at your fingertips.
* A natural digital input solution that can prevent you from injuries to your wrist.
Cordless Mouse
* No ball to gum up, so you always have smooth, accurate tracking
* 3 button ergonomic wireless mouse with scroll wheel for right and left handed users.
Specification:
* 6" x 4" writing area, making it the ideal choice for professional computer artists.
* Wireless 2 button pen with 512 levels of pressure sensitive to provide all the comforts of a normal pencil.
* High accuracy and sensitivity for a highly reactive cursor.
* 512 gradations of pressure sensitivity for highly accurate rendering in painting and writing.
* No need for separate power adapter, completely USB powered.
* 3-button ergonomic wireless mouse with for right and left handed users.
* High resolution, supports up to 3048 lines per inch.
* Easy connection to USB port.
* Dimensions: 9" x 9" x 0.25"
* Tablets Drawing Area Dimensions: 6.25" x 4.75"
Package Contents:
-Professional Tablet
-cordless pressure-sensitive pen
-wireless 3-button mouse
-USB cable
-2 AA and 1AAA batteries
-CD-ROM
Requirements:
-Microsoft Windows Vista/XP/2000/Me/ 98SE
-Mac OS 9x/OS X up to 10.4.9
-Pentium 200 MHz (or equivalent) processor or higher
-32MB of RAM, CD ROM driver, USB port
Price: $69.95 MSRP
Bundled Software:
Bundled with great value presentation software including PhotoImpact XL, Free Notes, Office Ink, Pen Soft and Power Presenter II. (Please note that the bundled software is PC compatible only. Mac users are encouraged to purchase our Cybertablet 8600A or our Cybertablet 12000A which includes Adobe Photoshop Elements)
PhotoImpact XL
Unleash a powerful set of creative tools including hundreds of effects and tools for montages, creative design, Web graphics and more. Take your skills to the next level with this advanced photography tools.
Free Notes
Show off your real handwriting and drawing skills in your e-mails.
This program allows you to create reminder notes for display on your desktop. You can customize and personalize the size and colors of notes.
Power Presenter RE II
Turn your screen into a Whiteboard/Blackboard with Microsoft PowerPoint. Its just like working with a natural pen on paper. Save all handwriting, annotation and notes whenever necessary within a presentation. The Power Presenter Kit provides the best functionality to record your notes and replay your presentation.
Pen Soft Pro
Write a letter or take a note. It converts your handwriting into text. Any handwriting is recognized accurately. Write in cursive or print, or a combination of the two. Supports English, Chinese & Japanese Handwriting recognition
Office Ink
This is special software that creates digital signatures in almost any software application. Allowing you to secure documents faster in the digital age simply by signing your name with this special Office Ink software.
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Works Great With:
-Adobe PhotoShop 5.5 to CS2
-Corel Photo Paint
-Lview Pro V2.85
-MetaCreation Art Dabbler
-Toon Boom Studio
-Abode Illustrator 9 to CS2
-Satori WebFX 2000 V3.02
-MacroMedia Freehand
-MetaCreation Painter
-Animator Studio
-Adobe Photo Deluxe
-Roxio PhotoSuite
-MacroMedia Fireworks
-Cadix Signature
-Corel Art Dabbler
-Corel Draw
-Jasc Paint Shop Pro
-MetaCreation Painter
-MacroMedia Flash
-Creature House Expression
A Better Look at Things
:
The Adesso Cybertablet 6400 comes in a very nice display style box where you can see the tablet, mouse and pen through the window on the front of the box. Of course there are specs, features and other informations listed on the front, back and sides as well.
Opening it up we find another box, a plastic one this time to protect the tablet and accessories.
Once we get everything unpacked we find there’s a lot of stuff in there, the tablet itself, pen, mouse, batteries, warranty card, user manual, driver/software disc, quick start guide and the Photo Impact XL disc.
What’s interesting, and something I haven’t seen before is that the Cybertablet comes with a mouse and a pen, the mouse can only be used with the pad though, but the pad doubles as a mousepad so it works out. If you take the Cybertablet with you then you won’t need to bring a mouse along as you’ve got one included.
The tablet itself feels sturdy and appears to be well made, it should last quite a while if taken care of properly. The working surface area is 6.25 x 4.75, that might not seem like much but after a few minutes of working with it you become accustomed to the spacial limits as you would a mousepad and mouse.
There’s not much special about the bottom of the pad, it does have four rubber feet to keep the pad in one place while you’re using it though..
On the top of the pad is a space to store the pen when not in use, directly below that are 12 function buttons that can be programmed to whatever you wish.
The pen seems rather large at first and takes a bit to get accustomed to using, but after a while you’ll figure out your own comfort zone and by using it fine. The pen features two buttons on it that can act as mouse buttons so you can use the pen in replace of your mouse a cool feature actually. The pen comes apart easily to replace the battery as well.
The included mouse is small as any portable mouse is, but what makes it interesting to use is the felt feet that it has, it just feels very weird using this mouse. Of course though it has to have the soft felt feet so it does not damage the surface of the pad. The mouse has three buttons but no scroll wheel, the middle button can be programmed to be the scroll wheel for you though if you wish, or it can be programmed with another of the options.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Obviously to get full use of this product you’ll need to install everything on the CD, with the optional exception of PhotoImpact XL, it’s just a photography editor included as a bonus. Personally I like it and have used it before quite often, it’s sort of Photoshops competition stuff…
Using the Cybertablet is actually a lot of fun, there’s quite a bit you can do with it that you really can’t do with your mouse. I owned a graphics tablet many years ago called the Koala Pad with my Commodore 64, so that goes back quite a bit since I’ve had any real exposure with one, I had forgotten how useful they are really.
The Adesso Cybertablet is fully configurable through the options menu. Through the menus you can adjust the pen, mouse and function buttons to your own personal settings.
Going through the included software, I’m not going to really go into PhotoImpact XL as I could devote an entire review to just that, but it is a fully featured and powered photo editing suite rivaling that of Photoshop.
I’ve got a couple movies for you to show of Power Presenter and Office Ink, but before that I wanted to touch on the PenSoft Handwriting Recognition Software, all I really have to say about it is that it’s not good at all. It had numerous problems recognizing printing and cursive, I would write the same exact word over and over again and it would give me something different each time, no matter how slow or fast I did it it really didn’t work well. To me this does not matter much as I have no real need for handwriting recognition, but it would have been nice to have available if the need ever arose. The software needs quite a bit of work, and I used it for over 10 hours total trying different techniques and nothing seemed to work.
Power Presenter Software is cool, it can be used in conjunction with Power Point or similar programs or it can be used alone with your desktop as a ‘whiteboard’ to create whatever you need to. You can record what you do on screen and play back at a later time as well, here’s a quick video of it in action following the picture, Power Presenter adds a toolbar a top of the Windows Taskbar.
Office Ink is essentially the same but a bit more of a basic utility, but still rather cool nonetheless, it adds a fat toolbar on your desktop, and there’s another quick movie for you:
Office Ink can also be used to just have some fun as well, it turns your desktop into a drawing pad, you can do pretty much whatever you wish and erase it all with the press of a button… I can see this would be great for a practical joke!
One of the problems I ran into was with Free Notes, you can use this software to handwrite notes to use in email or whatever you wish to add handwriting to, but I found it does not work well with multi-monitor setups. The following picture has some sample writing, I wrote that while the ‘pen point’ was on the first line of the virtual writing pad, but when I switched to using only one monitor everything worked perfectly. The multi-monitor problem isn’t going to effect many people I know but it’s still a problem that needs to be addressed…
The last picture I have for you is just a demo of how the pen works, it works just like a real pen does, the harder you push the thicker the line is.
Using the pen is great actually, I even tried using just the pen as my mouse for a while but it just wasn’t quite the same, though I could see people doing it that use pens and tablets often, having the mouse buttons on the pen makes it easier for sure.
I already mentioned earlier that using the included mouse is a bit odd, but it does come in handy. I hooked it up to my laptop (I hate using the touchpad) and didn’t have to hook up my mouse, makes a nice combination for those that travel a lot. I would have liked to have seen some sort of travel bag with this product though, for not only protection but ease of transport as well.
Overall I found the Cybertabelt ot be very responsive to any movements, actually at times it was a bit too responsive, this is something that the user will have to get accustomed to though. It kept up with all of my movements and never missed a beat…
On a side note my kids love this thing, especially my 2yr old, he loves to draw with it on my screen. He’ll sit on my lap and draw for quite some time with it, he’ll call out colors and I have to change them for him and he goes about drawing, he thinks it’s the coolest thing going…
They could sell this as a kids product, lose the bundled software except for the Office Ink, and paint it bright colors, kids would love it! It’s small and the perfect size for them. My youngest likes the Wheels on the Bus DVD series, and you can download PDF files of pictures from their website to print and color, with Office Ink you can open the PDF and color on it, erase it and color again. Saves paper anyway… Adesso could collaborate with kids companies and create different versions of the pad and bundle pictures with it to be colored.
Summary:
Overall the Adresso Cybertablet is a great product with lots of features and functionality that most people will appreciate, the included suite of software is very useful as well.
The Cybertablet is fun to use and can make things like editing, drawing and creating much easier than with a mouse.
The Cybertablet is very inexpensive and well worth the price when you consider everything that is included with it. Photo Impact alone costs what this entire bundle does, at least the latest version does. (Ulead does offer a 5% discount to upgrade to the new version if you wish.)
DragonSteelMods gives the Adesso Cybertablet 6400 6 x 4 Graphics Tablet a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Awards as well.
Pros:
-Lots of fun
-Works well for drawing, writing notes, editing etc
-Well made
-Includes mouse
-Programmable function keys
-Very sensitive
-Pen works as mouse
-Nice bundled software
-Small and portable
-Low price, very much worth the price
Cons:
-Some apps do not work correctly with multi-monitor setup
-Handwriting recognition could be better
I would like to thank Adesso for the chance to review the Cybertablet 6400 and for their continued support of DSM.
Discuss, Questions for the Author HERE
review# 389