Matthew DeCarlo
Wacom has unveiled a new entry-level pen display that is not only the company’s most affordable offering to date, but it also lets you connect the device to some Android phones in addition to Windows and macOS machines.
The Wacom One’s 13.3-inch display has a 1080p resolution, it can respond to pressure-sensitive pen input at up to 60-degree angles and a rate of 26 ms, and it can handle 72% of the NTSC color gamut. That’s obviously not the sharpest resolution or widest gamut around. Based on reports from hands-on experience at CES, the display also isn’t super bright, but it does have an anti-glare film that should help in well-lit environments.
Along coming in at a lower cost than Wacom’s other options, the new Wacom One can be paired with select Android devices so you can get some illustration work done straight on your phone without connecting to a fully-fledged computer. The biggest catch here seems to be that getting everything rigged up to go involves a lot of dongles. There’s a dongle that lets you connect the tablet to your phone via HDMI or USB, and then a separate cable for power. Some implementation of USB-C would be nice to see here.
Wacom says there are no plans to bring support for pairing its new tablet with an iOS device, though it would probably make more sense to buy an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil 2 if that’s the platform you prefer. On the bright side, the Wacom One includes a decent stylus with swappable nibs and no battery that needs to be recharged, unlike the Apple Pencil—take that, Apple. It will also work with any EMR-compatible stylus, such as the Samsung S-Pen or those from other companies.
The Wacom One is already available for purchase through the company’s site, and it comes with a six-month subscription to Celsys Clip Studio Paint Pro. At $399.95, we wouldn’t necessarily classify this thing as “cheap,” but it is certainly more affordable than the company’s previous pen-based LCD tablets. It’s also meant to be a lower-end device, so some of the lackluster specifications are forgivable. Last year’s Wacom Cintiq 16, for instance, went for $650, and that’s to say nothing of the high-end $3,300 Wacom Cintiq Pro 32, neither of which connect to Android phones.
