Art tablet specialist Wacom has announced the launch of the Cintiq Pro Engine, a module which connects to the company's pen displays - starting with its new Cintiq Pro 24 - to turn them into fully-functional PCs.
Designed to make the new Cintiq Pro 24 a self-contained all-in-one workstation - and, hopefully, compatible with future models in the company's range - the Cintiq Pro Engine is a compact PC in Core i5 and Xeon flavours. In all cases, the system comes with PCIe Gen 3.0 solid-state storage; an Nvidia Quadro P3200 graphics processor with 6GB GDDR5 graphics memory; 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.2; and externally-accessible Ethernet, USB Type C, mini-HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, and power connectors as well as an internal USB Type-C port which connects to the Cintiq Pro with which it is docked. Neither models are fully sealed units, either: Wacom boasts that the storage and memory can be accessed for replacement or upgrade by end users without difficulty.
'It is our mission to help professionals create with the least amount of distraction and clutter and to give them the power to tackle the new spaces of creating content for AR, VR and MR,' claims Wacom's Faik Karaoglu of the launch. 'The Wacom Cintiq Pro Engine provides a beautiful, easy to use solution for creatives everywhere.'
The entry-level model includes an Intel Core i5 quad-core processor of unspecified model, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD pre-loaded with Windows 10 Pro; the top-end model switches to an unspecified Intel Xeon processor with 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD pre-loaded with Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. Pricing, as you might expect for such as specialist device, is high: Wacom has set US recommended retail pricing of $2,499 for the Core i5 variant and $3,299 for the Xeon variant, on top of the $1,999 to $2,499 the new Cintiq Pro 24 costs.
Wacom has scheduled a May launch for the Cintiq Pro 24, having delayed the previously-announced 32" variant until later this year, alongside the Cintiq Pro Engine models. At the time of writing neither device family was publicly visible on the company's website.
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Posted by fix-the-spade - Wed Feb 28 2018 16:35
Not sure it's enough to stop the inexorable march of Artisul and XP-Pen into their market share though.
Posted by Yaka - Wed Feb 28 2018 19:58
Posted by RedFlames - Wed Feb 28 2018 20:14
Posted by fix-the-spade - Wed Feb 28 2018 22:20
The Artisul is really good, it comes with a decent stand, the express keys and wheel are laid out very nicely and it's a thousand quid less than the 16 Pro once you factor in that stand and remote. The 1080p screen is better than the old generation of Wacoms like the 13HD and 22HD, but not as good as the 4k etched glass ones in the Cintiq Pros, but then it is a whole grand less. I only have two main complaints, one is that it suffers from the cable spaghetti problems of needing USB, HDMI and power. The other issue is that the screen protector adds a degree of parallax to the pen, it's less than the old Cintiqs but more than the current ones or an Ipad Pro, removing the screen protector would reduce it, but eventually that leaves a scratched up screen.
Compared to the non-Wacom pen displays of three or four years ago the competition has made a huge jump. I can see stuff like this driving Wacom out of the hobbyist market entirely. The bigger screens I can see Wacom still dominating, although Artisul have a 22inch unit coming soon, it looks cool.